| Cycling Ayutthaya - Kanchanaburi |
| Bangkok - Ayutthaya(86km) Caught a train from Don Muang (Airport Railway Station) to Ayutthaya. Train tickets cost 10B(RM1) each but tandem cost 70B(RM7) |
| Road Condition Very wide and good condition road for cyclist. Drivers are courteous than those in Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur. |
| Accommodation Stayed at Passaporn Guest House for 180B(RM18) a night. Clean, sparsely furnished, common toilet. Nice dining area. The GH is located at a busy stretch. Woken up by cars zooming pass and dogs' barking. |
| Food Walk down to Beng Lean Road, near junction of Sikhum Road. There are approx 400meters of food stalls. Try their sizzling omelet mussels for 15B(RM1.50) Steamed bread cut in cubes dunking with fragrance "kaya" and evaporated milk is the highlight of this trip. Cost 10B(RM1) |
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| Sightseeing in Ayutthaya Ayutthaya is famous for old Burmese influenced Wats (temples). Worth spending some time for photograph session. Each Wat cost 30B(RM3) for entrance fees. We like the Wat Mahathat the best. At night, the Wats are flooded with spotlights. If you have nothing else to do, it is worth riding round Ayutthaya "island" for night sightseeing. |
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| Ayutthaya - Suphanburi (60km) Road condition: Very flat with side lane for cyclist. Winds from all different direction. Managed to cycle at 30km/hr with tail wind but averaged out to 25-28km/hr on a tandem with 4 panniers and knobbies. |
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| Accomodation Suphanburi is not a tourist town and it was just a stepping stone for us. We had problem sighting a Guest House or Hotel as everything was in Thai. We tried looking for a place recommended by LP but no luck. Ended up staying in a place we don't know the name. The receptionist can't speak a word of English. Cost us 200B(RM20) with attached bathroom and fan. |
| Suphanburi - Kanchanaburi(100 km) Road condition Very scenic, dead flat with bike lanes. This stretch is covered with sugar cane plantation and you be able to see lorries after lorries with mountain top sugar cane. Average speed at 33km/hrs. But took us nearly 6 hours due to 2 mishaps. About 20-30km to Kanchanaburi, one of the foot of the pannier rack came off from the modified eyelet. Itwas rubbing against the cogset . To repair the back rack we use spare screws, zip ties, bungee cords and bra straps. About 10km to Kanchanburi, we have a puncture. Didn't even notice it until we stopped at a set of traffic light. A Thai boy got really excited and kept pointing to our tandem. It was a slow leak. |
| Accommodation Stayed at Prophosuk Hotel for one night, aircon with attached bathroom for 300B(RM30). Big area and quiet spot. Thought we should reward ourselves after all the hard work. Stayed at SugarCane the second night. The rooms are actually built on floating barrels, 400B(RM40) a night. Very clean attached bathroom, fan and room. In fact, the overall place is well manicured. |
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| There are "mobile disco" or the "Disco Duck" which operates along the River Kwae. It can be a real nuisance. They are actually floating disco being towed by a long tail boat. There was only one boat operating when we stayed at Sugar Cane on Sunday night. I figured it should have been more on Friday and Saturday nights. There were atleast 30 odd "disco ducks" procession along the river during the day time. It is very noisy and basically, it destroyed the whole serenity of River Kwae. |
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| above : Mobile disco being towed by long tail boat |
| Food Cycle or take a "motorbike cab" to VIP bus station. Streets are covered with food stalls. Just at the entrance of SugarCane or Prophosuk, there are food stalls everywhere |
| Sightseeing in Kanchanaburi Chungkai War Memorial- 2km from the town. It is better to bike than walk. Very peaceful and sad to see tomb stone with average of 24 years old young men buried there. Wat Tham Sua and Wat Tham Kao Noi - approximately 12km away. Very scenic ride to these two Wats. Road condition is bad at certain stretch due to heavy lorry going in and out of quarry. The the Wats sit on a slope. Cycle up the 100meters slope and you shall be rewarded with beautiful view of river and ricefields. JEATH(Japanese/England/Australia/Thailand/Holland) Museum- nothing much here. Not like as if we don'tknow how the Japanese treated their captives, it is a museum with paintings, newspaper cuttings and photographs of soldiers working on the River Kwae bridge. |
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| Kanchanaburi - Bangkok Took a VIP bus. Cost 79B(RM7.90) per pack, tandem free. When we arrived in Thanburi Bus Station in Bangkok, we decided to take a tuk tuk to White Ochid Hotel in China town. Cost approx 700B(RM70) clean with attached bathroom, comes with complimentatry breakfast. Bangkok - Airport by train. Our tandem was subjected to security X-ray at the airport!!! We didn't have to go through such treatment before the Sept 11. |
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