Life Behind The Thunderdome: 04/21/13

Superman is dead!!!
One of Thailand very crude accidents preventions advertising found along the roads,
at least in this one there is no blood or badly amputated bodies.

central market in Chiang Mai.

Religious statues sold at the market, could spend hours looking at your perfect idol.

After waisting some days in Chiang Mai, doing basically nothing except eating and being on the Internet in our big room at a dodgy hotel, outside the city wall, we where seriously in need to hit the road again.
From here on we didn't really have a plan, facing the hills of the northern loop wasn't an option (though i would have loved it), so we decided to take the first road east of the mountains going south, still trying to avoid the highway as much as possible. The planning came pretty easy, we just lay the map out and pointed at it "this one!", it's also the only one there is!

Giant laying down Buddha on the hills.

The road to Hot being renovated since a year now...

I passed by last year and it was the same dusty busy hell.

Leaving Chiang Mai felt right and certainly very comfortable, we woke up, panniers ready and just ("just" in bicycle touring vocabulary means walking down at least two floors of steps, with all your gear hanging from you, more loaded than a camel, just not to face the stairs again.) walked out the door in the direction of our favourite vegetarian spot for a noodle soup. Cycling out of town is always the same thrill in big cities, it always takes some hours before the endless houses stops and you get the feeling of being in the countryside again.

Boiling room at the hotel in Hot.

The market in Hot.

Having breakfast before departure.

The destination for the day was a town called "Hot", the most appropriate spot to ride to, since a heat wave from the south was approaching and the temperatures where gonna rise up to 45 degrees. It made the next days and especially the next nights a steaming bath to go through. During the day we tried to start earlier than usual (never happened), and made our lunch breaks longer to avoid the unbearable sun, dripping sweat while trying to take a nap at the bus stop after our meal. During the nights, sleeping in the tent was close to impossible, no oxygen came through the mosquito net and at the police station where we stayed, the cops even insisted we stayed inside under the roof. The building was releasing heat!

Air con room tonight!!!!
In your face global warming!!!

"Yok", rice soup for breakfast.

And this is how you eat it, lift it with the spoon
and put it in your mouth, easy!

Temple gate on the way to Li

A great 15 km downhill!!!!

Our daily banana shot.

Camping under a boiling roof at the police station,
some cops even brought us cakes for breakfast

The highlight of this days a 15 km downhill, very pleasant and unexpected from Hot to Li.
When we made it to the city of Tak, the wave was suppose to be ending, but it didn't, it stayed with us all the way through to Kamphaeng Phet, where we took a day off to visit the ruins of an old city of the Siamese empire. We basically didn't go out during the day, tried to do most of the things early in the morning and hiding during the sun hours. Not being on the bike made the heat even harder to stand, at least cycling through the whole day gives the body a reason to stand the high temperature and you experience it growing for the whole day, but sitting in a air con room, which we don't normally do, but in this heat was a must, and walking back out into the open, is a serious slap in the face!