Peddaling through the heat

Distance: 96km

Today we left Rune and Arun's' fantastic hotel (M Inn) in Korat, Nakhon Ratchasima. We said our fond good-byes to our new friends and promised to meet up with them in Norway so that we can sail with them to Scotland.

We got off to a little bit of a late start and by the time we were on our way the heat was oppressive. Another 40 degree day and soon we were covered in sweat from head to toe. Despite this we enjoyed being on the road again and feeling our legs working.

Because of the recent setbacks we have had we are in a little bit of a hurry to get to China before our visas run out, so we'll aim to cycle a little further than usual over the next two weeks. Laos will be a big 'getting ready for mounatinous Southern China and the Himialayas' challenge as the terrain there is also very mountainous, quite different to Thailand.

If you get the chance have go to google maps and type in Laos. From here click on the icon on the right hand side for topography and you'll see what I mean.

Anyway, that night we finally found with some difficulty a small motel style place to sleep. It was located down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere so we were a little lucky to find it. Settling in for the night and the mosquitoes started biting. Within a matter of minutes I had already accumulated four bites so we turned on the lights and set about finding and exterminating the mozzies in the room.

This is a fairly common occurance in cheap (and sometimes not so cheap) accomodation in South East Asia (particularly bad in Indonesia). Around an hour later we had killed 8 and decided it was now safe to go to bed - (Shanna has become and expert mozzie killer!).

We lay in bed, exhausted but happy to finally be crashing and decided that we were already missing Rune and Arun and  M Inn, the hotel we have decided was the best value of our entire trip after almost three months of cycling through South East Asia!!