e passed the town of Loei and started riding up the mountains of Phu Rua. About 5km after passing the winery “Chateau de Loei” we took a left turn off main HW 203 on to a small lane, which leads to Hui’s house. Driving toward the house I was amazed by all the vegetation and natural beauty. I couldn’t understand why Hui and all his siblings had decided to move into Bangkok. The obvious guess was they were bored with the slow pace of life in Phu Rua and wanted the excitement of a big city.
The following morning I woke up and felt terrible; I’m sure it’s from the noodles I had in Sri Chiangmai the day before, the bowl was swarming with flies. Ironic most of the crew got sick traveling abroad; I, on the other hand, got sick once crossed into Thailand. I spent the morning walking around Hui’s house, which was built high on wooden stilt, with luscious gardens surrounding the outer rims. There was a nice veranda below where everyone would gather for each meal. Hui’s sister is a painter and her paintings can be seen everywhere through out the house. The only thing keeping the house from being quiet and tranquil was Hui’s two nieces; they were among the most energetic Thai kids I had ever met, one of them kept calling me the “Black Ape,” probably because I was extremely sunburned from all the riding.
Hui's Dad and Niece
That afternoon Hui took us for a ride around Phu Rua. Still feeling sick it was hard for me to enjoy the ride; however, I can’t help but envy Hui. Back home in Bangkok to find these kinds of roads and surrounding I would have to ride an hour to Kao Yai; for Hui it’s just a hop around the corner from his house. We stopped in a natural park and I was feeling very sick by now. I told Hui we should start heading back, asking him to take the easiest and quickest way home. I had no idea what he was thinking but he decided to take us on a dirt road with no end in sight. After 30 minutes I told him to stop and to head for the closes tarmac road that leads to his home. I was on the verge of vomiting and was swearing at him the whole way back. I felt bad later and figured Hui had never had the opportunity to ride a proper bike around his own neighborhood; he grew up riding his homemade bike and for once he just wanted to enjoy his backyard on a proper bike. He dropped me of at his home and went riding some more. Back at Hui’s house I had a little to eat, took a quick shower and went straight for bed.
Got up the next day and felt a lot better – today we were to spend the morning at Hui family’s farm. Hui mentioned if he weren’t doing Dreamchaser he would most likely be at the farm everyday helping his dad. I once asked Hui if his dad had any hobbies and Hui told me his dad enjoyed driving his tractor up and down the fields mowing the grass - I couldn’t understand what was so fun about it and wanted to give it a try myself. I got on the tractor, familiarized myself with all the controllers/buttons and started mowing. I drove up and down making sure I cut all the grasses and to my surprise it was quite enjoyable. The first thing that came to my mind was the movie “Forrest Gump” and how Forrest enjoyed mowing the lawn. There was something very systematic and meditative about it; furthermore, there was a sense of empowerment – whatever gets in your way you just mow right over it. It took his dad the entire morning to mow the fields; before purchasing the tractor it used to take him two weeks!
In the afternoon we went to the neighborhood’s garage where Hui used to hang out and work on his bike. It was there where I met his friends and realized for the first time how much he is really into biking; I mean this kid can take a bike apart and put it back together. Having to be in Khon Kaen by nightfall we didn’t have much time to hang out - we quickly changed the engine oil on our bikes and headed back to Hui’s house. We packed our bags, loaded up the bikes, Hui said bye to his family and we were ready to leave for Khon Kaen. Right when we were leaving, Hui’s friends showed up and wanted to ride with us to the edge of town, all on their homemade bikes. To me it was a very touching moment – they were all proud of him and wanted to give him a proper send-off.
Leaving Phu Rua, we headed southwest on highway 203 turning east onto highway 12 at Lom Sak. Highway 12 takes you through Nam Nao NP on the way to Khon Kaen and this was one of the routes I was looking forward to ride. I was up here this pass winter and remembered the twisties on this route was just amazing, one of the best for biking. However, it started to rain very hard and we were unable to enjoy the 200 km ride to Khon Kaen – we arrived in Khon Kaen around eight pm soaking wet.
Khon Kaen was just a stop over for us. The following day we rode south on HW 2 – turning east for Roi Et at HW 208 - from Roi Et it was straight on HW 23 to Ubon: total distant was about 300 km. From Ubon it was another 80 km or so on HW 217, 2222 & 2112 to Pha Taem NP. About 10-20 minutes north of Pha Taem NP was our final destination for the day, Pak Bong. We were to be the first travelers ever to set up camp by the Mekong River at Pak Bong and it was one of the most amazing places I had ever been to in Thailand.
Pak Bong is where the Mekong River is the narrowest between Thailand and Laos. However, what made this place special to me was that the scenery was straight out of a prehistoric movie; it looked like the movie “10,000 Million Years BC.” A dinosaur would not had look out of place walking around Pak Bong, Rachel Welch even better in her caveman bikinis! It was a unique combination of river, sand, rocks, dessert and open blue skies – absolutely stunning. Being the only group of people there just made things even better. On top of all this, there was a constant breeze - like being by the ocean - a final icing on the cake.
We set camp by the river and started cooking dinner. Some of the crew went swimming in the river. Hui and I had a great time riding around on the desert sand – knowing this was the closest we would ever get to the Dakar Rally. It was fun messing around, knowing if you crash you’re not going to damage the bike since its sand below. After falling numerous time, I wash myself in the river and sat by the Mekong watching the sun go down. We had dinner; chit chatted by the campfire and stayed up all night looking at the stars above. It was a great way to end this leg of our journey before roughing it some more in wild Cambodia.
Next week we cross into the Khmer Rouge stronghold town of Anlong Veng in northern Cambodia. We then continue our journey south, on one of Cambodia’s worst roads, to the Prasat of Siem Reap.
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