Cycling trip Nong Kai to Mukdahan with K Varut , 5 to 11 February 2021

Day 1 Bus to Nong Kai, 9 hour journey, we stay in Mut Mee hotel just next to the river,  very good . Very little water in the river.

Day 2 late start and we look around Nong Kai and we still tired from the journey.  On the way out of Nong Kai we cycle through a market 1 kilometre long , this is for Laos people to buy goods from Thailand but now the borders are closed the market is very quiet.  We cycle 50k to Phon Phisai with strong head wind. We stay in Rimfangkhong hotel near the river and eat local street food.

Day 3 97 km to Bueng Kan, stay at the Century hotel,  on the way we stopped for coffee in Pak Khat by the river, again little water in the river. Hot and dusty in the afternoon,  they are rebuilding the road and there is dust everywhere for the last 30 kilometres.  When we arrive we drink a lot of beer to slake the dust. We eat by the river,  many people out for exercise in the evening as the sun goes down.

Day 4 91 km to Ban Phaeng,stopped for lunch at Bung Khla. Stay at Hugphaeng Garden Resort, has live music, food and beer, we were too tired to look around so we listened to the singing and drink beer.

Day 5 100 km to Nakon Phanom. Heavy rail all day so we take a bus. We are lucky, the rain stops when we arrive in the city. We stay at the IOI Hotel,  a new hotel near the centre. Has a cycle way for several kilometers along the river, we find a nice coffee shop looking out over the River about 2k to the North .

Day 6 105 km to Mukdahan.
We stop half way at That Phanom with the famous stupa which has a relic of Buddha. After That Phanom we can use a local road next to the river which takes us past the Thai Laos Friendship bridge into Mukdahan.  We pass a Wat that I visited with Jaz 11 years ago.  We cycle to the bus station to sort out the bus for the next day.  The bus is at 6am so we stay at the hotel next to the bus station so we can get up early and catch the bus without cycling.
All the hotels we stay in are about 500 baht.
We eat in a nice restaurant with local fish , we have a little money to spare so we take a taxi there and back for 45 baht each way

Day 7, 3 buses and 14 hours to Phitsanulok, via Kong Khan and Lom Sak, passengers 100 baht, bikes 100 baht.

The total trip about 6000 baht each (150 pounds)

Bus station Phitsanulok

Looking across the Mekong River when we arrive in Nong Kai

Early morning in Nong Kai with the Mekong River behind

Big Serpent in Nong Kai

Evening in Pon Phisai

Stop along the way

No water in the river between Nong Kai and Bueng Kan

Another photo showing that the boats cannot go because of low water

We meet local guys in Bueng Kan

Another streatch of the river with no water between Bueng Kan and Nakon Phanom

Rain on day 5

We arrive in Nakon Phanom

Looking across the river in Nakon Phanom

Early morning in Nakon Phanom

Nakon Phanom has a good cycling lane for many kilometers

Stop for hot tea and croissonts

We arrive at That Phanom, this Stupa has a relic of Buddah

Goodby That Phanom

We arrive at the Thai Laos Friendship bridge

Looking across the Mekong at Mukdahan

We finish the trip in Mukdahan

Catch the bus to Kong Khan and then back to Phitsanulok

 

 

Memories of 1976

After the amazing floods I remember 1976 as a long hot summer and serious drought , also this :-

I designed 3 distillation columns at ICI huddersfield in 1976 using a Sinclair Scientific calculator as in the photo. This was supplied as a kit from New Scientist. The kit consisted of a Texas Instruments chip , a keyboard , a red LED display and a plastic case. You soldered the parts together , fitted the batteries in the case and hey presto it worked.

Here is a description of the calculator

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Scientific

I had not realised the amazing maths in this calculator devised by Nigel Searle,  I just read this and its amazing. http://files.righto.com/calculator/sinclair_scientific_simulator.html

And there is a story to tell about Diquat as well. Invented by ICI in the 60's it has just been banned by the EU 60 years later in 2019.
Diquat is an agricultural chemical used to dry the green part of the potato plant to allow the machines to dig up the potatoes .
They used to use sulphuric acid but that was banned because of the effect on the potatoes. Diquat has the advantage that it is destroyed by the soil so it does not affect the potatoes but it is a well known and widely available poison and sadly people use it to commit suicide. When Korea stopped using it the number of suicide cases dropped by 50% . The EU have banned it because of the risk of spray blowing on to housing next to fields.
In UK the National Farmers Union have said that not using Diquat will affect the potato crop because they have to wait some weeks longer for the plants to wither and the potatoes will be subject to blight.
In terms of toxicity it is not that dangerous, it is classed as a moderate toxin, warfarin (rat poison) is more deadly and is not banned. 

 Photo of Diquat Plant in Huddersfield taken from the cycle track by Leeds Road
The plant in Huddersfield is still working,  I cycled past it in May this year, see photo, you can see the distillation columns on the side of the plant. The plant makes Diquat which is a close relative of Paraqat.

Phitsanulock

I am staying in Phitsanulok, a city half way between Bangkok and Chiang Mai. It is much safer here . There are only 3 cases of Covid virus in the city. We can travel around in the city so I cycle every day. We cannot travel outside the city . Travel in Bangkok is completely banned and almost all flights are grounded.

I have been in Phitsanulok for 1 week now. It is very hot at this time of year. 38 degrees yesterday. We went out cycling at 5pm and the temperature still 36 degrees. We stopped at 6.30 after 35 kilometres, very dehydrated. Two bottles of beer later felt better.

I am still doing some work, I spent the weekend writing standard operating procedures ( SOPs ) for a distribution company in Bangkok. 

Cycling group last night practicing social distance and below on quiet roads in the evening