And so into Thailand

Day 66 Monday 5th October 265 km (19903 km total)

 

 

The final border crossing, an auspicious day & the start of nostalgia

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10 years ago on 5th October 2005, I was standing on a podium in front of a few hundred people delivering a speech, in Thai!

Next to me stood a well respected Thai gentlemen, who was translating my speech into English, for the largely non-Thai audience. The occasion was the Grand Opening of a factory I had been responsible for building and setting up, for the UK multinational company I worked for at the time.

And so it was when I crossed the border today, my thoughts went back to that time & all the challenges we had getting a new export operation up & running.

It also meant that my little adventure was almost over.

My planned journey would not actually end until I had accomplished two things; visiting the factory on my bike & having lunch with some of my old team & then going to the area I used to live & meeting up with old friends there. Both of those locations were just north of Bangkok, but I had several days more travelling planned before I headed that far south.

Whilst I lived in Thialnd, as one of my hobbies, I used to travel around on a Triumph Bonneville, and, over a 6 year period, clockd up some 50,000km exploring some of what Thailand has to offer. So I had planned a route that took in some of my favourite areas & also allowed me to meet up with some of my old biking buddies.

That is all to come, today was largely about crossing the order and getting onto the Thai side of the Mekong.

 

The border crossing itself was fairly smooth, but once again, whilst waiting inthe various queues I was thinking just how much the process could be streamlined, just like I had at every other border (work habits die hard!)

Once over the river onto the Thai side, I drove straight through NongKhai & turned right on a road I knew hugged the Mekong for a long way & offered some lovely riding.

The nostalgia started to kick in - these were roads I had ridden before, sometimes several times

For the first time in 66 days of riding, I was not seeing something new around every corner. So tye journey morphed into one of pleasant anticipation, rather than the surprise, wonder & sometimes frustration brought on by travelling into the unknown.

Still, I was in Thailand!

I had actually ridden my motorcycle all the way from the UK to Thailand, no mean feat all things considered. So of course this demanded a selfie, with the Mekong behind me & the banks of Laos behind that.

 

My destination tonight was a place I have stayed at before, and is a wonderful spot if you value peace, quiet and a lovely river view.

The Mekong Riverside Resort & Camp Site only has a few chalets in the trees along the river bank, but this is one of the things that makes it special. Another is the lovely couple that run it Mike & his wife Ben.

The view from my room ...

 

 

And from the restaruant

And the lovely Thai meal prepared by Ben.

 

The good food, beer and conversation on the terrace along with a beatutiful sun setting over the mekong, made a fitting end to the day and beginning to the final phase of my journey.