Waking up before the heat

Our first actual day of biking in Thailand started early the next morning, 5 in the AM, to beat the heat to our next destination. The ride treated us to flat roads with a few small rolling hills, all while hugging the Mekong. It was a little disconcerting that after we had ridden 25k that morning we were probably about 3k from where we had started the day before in Lao, just on the opposite of the river.

An hour or two later we rolled into the lazy little town of Siangkhan, and enjoyed an afternoon of leisure out of the brain boiling heat, and my first full submersion in the cool flowing waters of the Mekong. The calm surface of the river belies its power. After jumping in the river I quickly realized the current was significantly stronger than I had anticipated, it didn't take long for the river to take me farther down the bank than I wanted to go.

Riding along the river all day it has become apparent how low the water level is on the Mekong. Large sandbars overgrown with scrub brush bifurcate the river into a series of smaller channels, some stagnating in pools among the exposed rock outcrops. I can only imagine how the Mekong must appear to those who have spent a lifetime along its banks witnessing the years of higher flow. Conversely this may not be the worst that they have seen, which may actually provide a small comfort. Or perhaps I'm talking out of my ass, I'll let you choose.

Evening approached accompanied by a dark, ominous cloud bank creeping in on the town. The clouds released their moisture slowly at first, in fat, scattered drops of rain. Once the outer fringes of the storm passed we were treated to the full strength of the storm, sheet after sheet of rain blown sideways by the warm gusts of wind. We sat in a gazebo overlooking the river amidst the cascade of water, taking in the full strength of the storm, beautiful to watch.