After ride review

It had been a good action packed holiday. 8/10 We had great trip with good buddies. 10/10 The bicycles worked great and had been a joy to ride. 8/10 Grateful to everyone and everything that happened. 11/10 It's time to close this chapter and plan for the next trip. Will I bring the folding bicycle along again? Your guess is as good as mine. Till next time. May the force be with you!

Day 11 - Don Mueng town and return to Singapore

During the night on the train, I managed to smash my own pair of spectacles while sleeping. Probable too tired and fell asleep with my specs on. WTF! I'm gonna be short-sighted for the rest of the day. At 5am, the train arrived at Don Mueng train station which is just across the road from Don Mueng Internation airport. Being visually handicap, I requested Ben to take the lead for the short ride into town which is just a short ride away. After just 10 minutes, we managed to locate a cheap 'hotel' made out of shipping containers. It cost us 500b to use it from 6am to 1.30pm. OK as it is very convenient for us to get to the airport to catch our 3.40 pm flight. We just need a place to rest, bath and store our bicycles. There's a local market nearby where we had our breakfast and also some shopping for some fresh mangoes and flowers to bring back to Singapore. At planned, we checked out of the hotel and rode our bicycles to the airport. There is a ramp up to the overhead bridge leading to the airport; nicely done. Once in the airport, we pushed our bicycles all the way to the Lion Air check-in counter, folded and packed them away in their bags. The bags are tagged 'FRAGILE' and stored away separately from the regular luggage. It was a smooth and uneventful flight back to Singapore. Except for a rather rough landing. I would recommend Thai Lion Air for their good and professional service.

Day 9 & 10 - Funeral matters and return to Bangkok

The cycling trip is now declared aborted due to the unforeseen family tragedy. I have nothing much to share except that Thai Buddhist funeral traditions are very similar to Chinese funeral traditions. The cremation ceremony was completed on 24/04/2016 at 4pm and we took the 7pm train from Nongkhai to back to Bangkok to catch our flight back to Singapore. We managed to get a friendly neighbor to fetch us to the train station on her new Mitsubishi pick-up for free. As we were tight on time, we decided to skip Bangkok city (Hua Lampong) and go straight to Don Mueng train station which is located just beside Don Mueng International Airport.

Day 8 - Ride along the Mekong river

I was awoken by Keaw to have breakfast. She had already went to the market to do her marketing and done her cooking.

She told me she didn't sleep well last night as she was very worried about her sister. I can see that she is very tired. While she went back to Nongkai hospital to take care of her sister, I went cycling along the Mekong river with Ben. It's a hot day but we wanted to go riding as we had been too slack for the past few days. We went to the Indochine market where we bought some interesting stuff from the army surplus store. I bought 2 packs of US MRE, a t-shirt and some paracord.

After some much need ice coffee, we went for a good thai massage. Along the way back, we met Kaew who was riding her scooter out. She told us her sister has passed away and that she is rushing back to the hospital to settle the documentation. Life is so fragile. Looks like I will be stuck in Nongkhai for a few more days.

Day 7 - Day trip to Beung Khan (Wat Phu Tok)

Today we are doing a day trip to Wat Phu Tok in Bueng khan province. I've always wanted to visit this place but didn't have a chance to visit as it is really out of the way. 170 km East of Nongkai. We enlist the help of Ah Dai's husband and his mighty big Hilux pick-up truck again. The deal is that he would bring his family along and that we would pay for petrol and food. No problem at all for us.

We first made a trip to Nongkai Hospital to visit Sister Lei who is very ill. I was told that she had lukemia and tubercolosis.

The sun is immensely hot as we set out toward Bueng khan on our mighty pick-up. I lost my cap as it was blown away in the wind. Oh well what the heck.

After 80km, we stopped to have a picnic under some shady trees. Another round of nice local delicacies prepared by the ladies.

After a total of nearly 3 hours under the sun, we finally reached Wat Phutok. We were told that there were 7 levels in total to reach the top of the mountain. The initial climb up the 1st 3 levels of the mountain consists of rather steep stairs made of wood. The older folks initially had some trouble climbing up but managed to after some encouragement and self-determination. The 4th and 5th level were rather tame with corridors that winded along the waist of the mountain. The 6th & 7th level were risky as it was a wooden structure built along the cliff's edge and one wrong move or strong gust of wind may send us over the edge to very painful sure death. Nontheless, we perserved and made it to the top. And there was NOTHING! LOL!