Don't Follow My Lead

If you are my friend on Facebook, I posted these 2 pictures on there months ago.  I was on my way to somewhere, all happy and singing, and then on my way back, miserable, and not feeling well.

On the left happy, and singing. On the right, hot, tired and miserable. And yes, that's my singing face...I think.

A friend asked me at the time, where I was going TO.  But I never answered, since I thought that it should have been its own blog post.  It took me 7 months, but finally here I am.  Since I know my friends back home are dealing with snow, why not tell them about one of my hottest day of my trip.  Warm them up by proxy.

After my successful bike ride with Emma and Cass the previous day, I decided to try my luck a second day in a row on 2 wheels.  Em and Cass had other plans so I was flying solo and set my eyes towards a natural hot spring.

I looked online and the hot springs were about 30km away from my hostel.  Now, while I love biking, I do it for leisure, never really for distances.  But all I thought was, well, 30km turns to be around 20 miles.  I have done 30 miles, dying by the end, but 20 miles is right in my wheelhouse.  Never accounting for the fact that I have to bike BACK to my hostel.  Idiot.  Add to this, that the I’m doing this in 40 C (95 F) humid weather and is really a miracle that I haven’t killed myself in any of my trips.  Since obviously planning is not my strength.

Head out of my hostel early to try to beat some of the heat of the day.  I eat breakfast along the way.  The person asked me where I’m going to, and I tell them.  I still remember them telling me “Oh, far.”

Again, driving/biking in Thailand is fairly safe.  In fact is probably the Asian country where is the safest, in my opinion, to drive.   The only problem I have with biking is the fumes from the car and motorbikes can get to you pretty quickly.  About half of my ride was in highway so it wasn’t the most pleasant part of my experience.  But the next half of your ride is taken in this small roads.  You can see some of it in the first picture.  There might be some motorcycles on them, and maybe even a few farmer’s pickups, but not much else. You go through alleyways looking at houses, churches, temples, fields and farms.  It’s a pleasant ride, and it’s worth it once you make it this far.

Once you reach the area of the hot springs there’s different resorts you can choose from.  I settled for this one.  The Royal Sankampaeng Hot Spring.

There’s a stream of hot spring that visitors can dip their feet in. 

Families dipping their feet in. One woman caught me taking the pic.

Dipping my feet in.

You can also buy and boil your own eggs, Asian people love boil eggs, not an opinion, a fact. 

Eggs in net being boiled in the hot spring. Different area than where you dip your feet in, if you are wondering that.

There’s also a spring pool that you can buy time in.

Also private hot spring tubs for couples, and hot springs tub for males or females separately.  I chose the latter one.

I took pictures of me in the tub, but none came out PG, so, use your imagination.

I love this picture, I asked them if they could take my picture in front of the sign, instead they understood that I wanted to take a picture of them.  I never took a picture in front of the sign.  I couldn’t top that moment.

Random Thai family posing instead of me.

Since I wasn’t hungry I drank a pineapple frosty juice before leaving and realizing that now I have to bike back in the middle of the afternoon with the sun beating down on me. I would sleep very well this night.

Fruit juices of Asia are awesome. Highly recommend it.

P.S.  What is this?  Two post in two days?  Am I getting better at this blogging thing?  No, don’t delusion yourself.  But I will try to update more often.  Unfortunately tomorrow I’ll be traveling to another city, so I doubt I’ll get to the website, but I plan to write at least one more post this week.