We are slowly getting used to cycling again. The first days we didn’t know how to sit comfortably on the saddle. But the worst saddle pain is over, the abrasions have healed and won’t come back, the headache of the sun on our faces all day won’t come back either. 

We found our new ways in Thailand again. In the morning we make our oatmeal with fruit, nuts and seeds and make coffee. We cycle a bit until we feel the need for food again. Then we see what we can find along the way, sometimes it is fried banana, sometimes a noodle soup or (fried) rice and sometimes just a snack that we have in our bag. 

We cycle on again and when the water bottles need to be filled, we look for a machine where we throw in 1, 2 or sometimes 5 baht and then water comes out that is drinkable. 

For dinner we look for plastic bags filled with food. Often they have a few choices and you can buy rice or noodles with it. Usually we don’t pay much more than two euro for the two of us. We have cooked exactly once so far, but it will be more expensive and the Thai cuisine is so delicious that we do not want to waste our time. Although I have to say that I have always enjoyed cooking. 

Then we look for a temple to ask if we can set up our tent. That has always worked so far.  The advantage is that we can shower and charge our electronics. A shower is not a superfluous luxury because we sweat here all day long. It is already completely dark at 6 pm and the mosquitoes are active then. So around that time we want to be in the tent. In the beginning we sometimes made the mistake of not eating until then, but then you are not relaxed and can’t enjoy the food. At the most we take a shower around that time and then go into the tent. We write something or put photos online and go to sleep early so that we wake up early in the morning.

Online you often only see the smiles in the photos, but sometimes we come across situations that are less pleasant. Like being woken up with deafening music at 5.20 am at a temple. The time wasn’t even that bad, but especially how painfully loud the music was and how violently you get ripped out of your sleep. So tear down the tent with pain in the ears and leave as soon as possible. 

Then cycling with the most beautiful sunrise was a nice fairing. We had already discussed that we wanted to cycle again at sunrise and that day came faster than expected. It was breathtakingly beautiful and in the perfect spot surrounded by rice fields. The whole atmosphere is different so early in the morning, it always gives us a lot of energy. You see everyone starting up in the villages and the first tasty smells of the food are already passing by. After cycling for a while, we wanted to have breakfast, we found a beautiful place between the rice fields in an open hut. While I was preparing breakfast the farmers started working and not much later it started to smell and my skin started to burn. POISON!! They were busy spraying the land, we saw them walking with their rucksacks, spray in their hands and face covered with a thin fabric in a cloud of the pesticides. So halfway through cooking breakfast we closed everything because you don’t want to eat your breakfast here. 

So keep cycling.. a little later we arrive at a temple and ask if we can eat our breakfast there. The monk thought it was fun and tried the little English he knows on us. He finally showed up with a bunch of bananas and a piece of cake. For you!! Souvenir!!

In general, we always get the smile back from how the less pleasant situations are turned around into beautiful moments. And we notice that we can deal very well with the inconveniences that come our way. It’s not always fun and that’s okay. We get so much in return.