Leaving our bungalow in Pranburi, C\u00e9dric and I had something other than cycling and food occupying our mind: the night before: we discovered that our laptop would no longer turn on. At that point, we had big goals in mind for continuing with our blog posts, but alas, life wouldn\u2019t let us have it. Cycling northward that morning, we stopped at various locations in Hua Hin to try to figure out what was acting up. Around noon, after a visit to an IT-repair guy who barely seemed to know how the inside of a laptop looks like, we gave up and decided that Bangkok, a mega-city of 14 million people, would be the better bet for fixing the laptop.<\/p>\n

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No luck repairing the laptop<\/p><\/div>\n

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Lunch on the side of the busy road<\/p><\/div>\n

The rest of the day consisted of riding alongside the busy highway 4 until we could finally turn off. In Hua Hin and Cha-am, we could once again feel that Thailand is indeed a heavily touristed place. Where Krabi and Ao Nang had a laidback beachy vibe (at least in the low season), these northern cities touted multiple-story 5-star hotels, visited by the wealthiest people from Bangkok (only a few hours\u2019 drive away, and thus a good weekend getaway) and a surprising number of northern Europeans. Hua-Hin and Cha-am are not particularly appealing, especially after the long stretch of empty beaches just a few hundred kilometers south, but I guess some tourists cannot imagine being abroad without safe 5-stars large resorts with a romantically modelled version of exotic Thailand \u2013 but still within walking distance of Starbucks, KFC and H&M.<\/p>\n

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A newly discovered fruit: toddy palm! It’s supposed to be a good laxative, not necessarily what we are looking for in Thailand…<\/p><\/div>\n

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We found these stands along the road, so naturally we had to see what they were selling. The juice is from the sap. Thanks to high-tech cleverphones technology (yay), we managed to ask the world in Thai, then look for what it could be in English and discovered the toddy palms.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Leaving our tree house north of Cha-am<\/p><\/div>\n

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Salt flats<\/p><\/div>\n

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More salt<\/p><\/div>\n

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We found a nice, shaded lunch spot (without dogs, they had invaded the other side of the street)<\/p><\/div>\n

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On the bridge over Ban Laem<\/p><\/div>\n

We cruised across that part of Thailand, helped by good tailwinds, flat roads, smooth asphalt, being fit, used to the climate, and not much interest to stop anyway and managed to cycle some parts at almost 30km\/h (a bullet speed while cyclo-touring). Arriving in Samut Songkhram, the 2×4 lane-highway clearly indicated that we were entering the metropolitan area of Bangkok. The traffic also becoming less and less enjoyable (although we felt that the massive highways are a lot safer for cycling than smaller roads thanks to a 3m wide shoulder), we decided to stop there our way to Bangkok that evening and continue with a van the next day.<\/p>\n

Samut Songkhram is mostly known for its train line that goes right into a market (it\u2019s actually more a market that goes right into the train), looking at the map, that train runs only a few times a day from kinda nowhere south of Bangkok to that town 30km away (train are not quite optimal in Thailand as train rely on an outdated infrastructure and lines are not physically linked to each other), but this train has become a popular touristic destination around Bangkok. In short, hordes of people come with a train in the morning, then empty their wallets buying elephant-pants and other souvenirs that will end up in a drawer while waiting for the next train, take a picture of the next train and go back to Bangkok. The market thus lives with sudden waves of hundreds of visitors, with the city returning to quietness in the evening.<\/p>\n

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The railway market in the evening<\/p><\/div>\n

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Samut Songkhram<\/p><\/div>\n

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Inside a market<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/iframe><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1986\" style=\"width: 1009px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05465.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1986\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1986 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05465-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1986\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The railway market the next morning, with heaps of tourists waiting for the train<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_1987\" style=\"width: 1009px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05474.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1987\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1987 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05474-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1987\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The train coming in and all of the awnings pulled out of the way<\/p><\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9T_jwsPYFzs\" width=\"999\" height=\"400\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1988\" style=\"width: 1009px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05479.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1988\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1988 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05479-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1988\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">How close it gets to us<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_1989\" style=\"width: 1009px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05487.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1989\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1989 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05487-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1989\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Immediately after, the awnings come back out and the tourists are pushed back onto the rails so the people can start selling their goods again<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Even though we had explained the number of luggage, the size of the bike and so on the day before to get a van to Bangkok, things obviously did not work out the next day with the van company telling us that it\u2019s not possible to put a bike in their van (a 12-seater minibus). We eventually had to double the fare and an hour later another minivan from the same company (same model, same story that the seats cannot flip, etc.) took us to a station in Bangkok that we had not agreed on, but \u201csame same, still Bangkok, you can take your bicycle to your original place\u201d. Of course, they understand English whenever they feel like it. We went into Bangkok to visit Cassie\u2019s friend Pete, against all odds telling us to ride around it, and observing its lights from far far away. We eventually got welcomed into Bangkok with 20km of traffic jams, a lot of concrete and smog, and our nightmarish 10km ride to Pete\u2019s place.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1990\" style=\"width: 1009px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05518.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1990\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1990 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05518-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1990\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">After much negotiating, our bike got into a van<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Bangkok has had its population multiplied by 30 in the last century, seemingly growing without any sort of planning or urban thought. Public transportation is just completely inadequate to that size of city: my hometown Toulouse (far from being any sort of public transportation model) has a longer commuter train network despite being the size of Bangkok in the 1930s, buses all seem to have had their odometer fully loop a few times. Add the fact that the Bangkok area is a lot richer than the rest of Thailand (the GDP is about 7 times higher), and that cars are a symbol of wealth and success, and you get the second most jammed city in the world! Its drivers apparently enjoy wasting on average 1h15 of their lives every single day of the year in traffic jams (it\u2019s about 18min in LA or 25min in Paris for comparison), its pedestrians enjoy noisy engines and their unregulated scent of exhausts and other particles \u2013 literally 24\/7. The only way to get around: add on to the traffic and get a long nap in a taxi, luckily unbelievably cheap (count about 3 euros for 10km in an hour).<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1991\" style=\"width: 1009px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05541.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1991\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1991 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05541-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1991\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bangkok!<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>Being in Bangkok, our main first goals became to service our bike in one of the rare reliable shop around as we don\u2019t want to mess up our precious iron-horse (read the Malaysia post) at \u201cBokBokBike\u201d and find a solution to keep on updating the website (among other useful things a laptop can do). For the bike, that unfortunately meant twice 8km dealing with the traffic, with Cassie refusing to steer a single meter and pedaling while closing her eyes\/nose\/ears \u2013 just the mouth and the lungs must remain open to try to supply a bit of remaining oxygen that hasn\u2019t been burnt by combustion engines around!<\/p>\n<p>The bike got its maintenance done without much problem, things got a little more complicated for the laptop: the manufacturer telling us that it will take several weeks and probably will have to get some parts from Germany because it comes from there (I have never heard of a Chinese laptop manufacturer having its production outsourced to low-cost western Europe\u2026), then a few places refusing having to deal with those small compact devices, and finally a Dutch owned shop explaining us after running a few tests that we should cry a little and prepare the credit-card for a new one\u2026 Shipping a laptop to some place in Europe for a repair until our return appeared to be impossible (thanks Li-Ion batteries), but we yet managed to sell the dead carcass at a market for a tenth of the price of the brand-new one (knowing that the motherboard and screen were broken)! So we are now writing our posts on a Thai-keyboard (you thought the French keyboards were weird? Check the Thai script!).<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2009\" style=\"width: 1009px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06140.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2009\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2009 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06140-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2009\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Inside one of MANY malls – the MBK center – aka. Most Biggest Krapcenter<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_2010\" style=\"width: 1009px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06158.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2010\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2010 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06158-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2010\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Late-night laptop buying – Lenovo: BANNED!<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_2011\" style=\"width: 693px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06162-e1532510220816.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2011\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2011 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06162-e1532510220816-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2011\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Another mall – the lighthouse probably to remind that Bangkok is basically build on a swamp, and those 14M people will soon need to build some lighthouses with rising water levels.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>While waiting for the Hase Pino and computer to be serviced, we also managed to see a few of the touristic parts in the heart of old Bangkok: the Wat Pho complex, the Emerald Buddha temple complex (an overrated temple with a ridiculous entry fee \u2013 that we reluctantly paid because there is not much more in Bangkok otherwise, where we were turned away twice for not wearing the correct clothes \u2013 <em>both<\/em> long pants and long sleeves are required despite the heat) and Chinatown. We also explored the myriad of shopping malls along the Rama I and Sukhumvit roads (very exciting: you can see the new models from Zara, H&M or Gap\u2026) to look for a few items and a new laptop. Besides exploring the seedier side of Bangkok (think: white-creepy-gramps with their new Thai-love-too-young-to-be-their-daughters and happy endings), the other thing tourists can turn to is a shopping extravaganza for everything you can think of. Having spent the past 6 months carrying around just our necessities, it was mind-blowing to see the sheer abundance of goods in these shopping malls. Besides \u2018luxury\u2019 shopping malls with a lot of western brands, Bangkok has also other types of malls with literally thousands of stalls selling cheap no-quality useless (often Chinese) crap \u2013 and a lot of tourists apparently enjoy wasting their time and money filling suitcases of stuff that will never be used and will eventually be trashed across the world. A bit too much for us!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1993\" style=\"width: 1009px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05563.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1993\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1993 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05563-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1993\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bang for Bangkok! Three for happiness.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_1994\" style=\"width: 1009px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05590.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1994\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1994 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05590-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1994\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The reclining Buddha<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_1995\" style=\"width: 693px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05642-e1532510091472.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1995\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1995 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05642-e1532510091472-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1995\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A chedi monster<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1996\" style=\"width: 1009px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05656.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1996\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1996 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05656-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1996\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">More chedis<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05681.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1997 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05681-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1998\" style=\"width: 1009px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05767.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1998\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1998 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05767-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1998\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Outside the Grand Palace<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_2000\" style=\"width: 1009px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05815.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2000\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2000 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05815-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2000\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">C\u00e9dric, thrilled that he had to buy pants to be able to pay a ridiculously expensive entrance fee, to enjoy hundreds of guided tour buses – the Grand-Beardy-Chedi-Guru declares from now on: pants strike!<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_1999\" style=\"width: 1009px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05790.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1999\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1999 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05790-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1999\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Note the photographer’s effort to avoid the thousands of narcissic selfie-sticks owners<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2001\" style=\"width: 693px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05821-e1532510117953.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2001\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2001 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05821-e1532510117953-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2001\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cassie also with a new shirt – apparently scarves around the shoulders weren’t enough this time (this place is not even a temple being used. But the greatest royal way to make a pyramid of cash (more about the Thai government as soon as we are out of the country…Big Bro is watching you here).<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_2002\" style=\"width: 693px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05937-e1532510156740.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2002\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2002 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05937-e1532510156740-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2002\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Exploring the city<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06002.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2004 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06002-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2006\" style=\"width: 1009px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06053.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2006\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2006 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06053-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2006\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Inside the National Museum<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_2007\" style=\"width: 693px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06076-e1532510192930.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2007\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2007 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06076-e1532510192930-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2007\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The chedi monster appears again!<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06125.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2008 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06125-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2003\" style=\"width: 1009px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05952.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2003\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2003 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC05952-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2003\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chinatown<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06033.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2005 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06033-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>Once the bike was ready to go and we set up the new computer (a few hours were dedicated to trying to remember just <em>how<\/em> we managed to get a free version of Microsoft Office on the old laptop), we packed our things to get out of the city. Being in Bangkok, we had a few more transportation options than a van ride so we bought tickets to Ayutthaya, the capital city of Siam before Bangkok, less than 100 km north of the city. Just as we were leaving, Cedric picked up a nice respiratory virus as a bonus gift to carry with us for the next few weeks\u2026souvenir from Bangkok!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2012\" style=\"width: 693px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06172-e1532510263661.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2012\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2012 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06172-e1532510263661-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2012\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Saying goodbye to Bangkok and Pete’s family<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_2013\" style=\"width: 1009px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06181.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2013\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2013 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06181-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2013\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The train station<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_2014\" style=\"width: 1009px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06185.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2014\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2014 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC06185-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2014\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Watching the rice paddies<\/p><\/div>\n<p>So in short, we really enjoyed hospitality of Pete\u2019s family, and Bangkok is the place in Thailand to find literally anything you may be looking for (including a branch of Cedric\u2019s company \ud83d\ude0a), however don\u2019t expect much for sights and enjoyable places to hangout. If you really need a Thai-script-tattoo, some elephant-pants, or a Singha\/Chang beer-T-shirt, the Khaosan district will have everything to provide to look like a western clown, if you are into the weird obscure brothel stuff, well you can surely find that too, but we really cannot give any advice on that (unless recommending taking a flight back home).<\/p>\n<p>If any cyclist is reading that post, seriously don\u2019t consider cycling into Bangkok (apart for suicidal riders), and unless you need a bike shop (BokBok) or spare parts, just ride around the city (to get to Laos, Myanmar and northern Thailand) or get another mean of transportation across (for example if heading towards Cambodia). Also read the previous post about dogs: 10% of dogs in Bangkok have rabies \u2013 very exciting!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leaving our bungalow in Pranburi, C\u00e9dric and I had something other than cycling and food occupying our mind: the night before: we discovered that our laptop would no longer turn on. At that point, we had big goals in mind for continuing with our blog posts, but alas, life wouldn\u2019t let us have it. Cycling northward that morning, we stopped …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[167,59,183,196,3,1,2],"tags":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2015"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2015"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2019,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2015\/revisions\/2019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}