I have ridden up the left or west side of the Srinagarindra Reservoir but had not done the right or east side so decided to start with a ride up the east side of the the reservoir.
This is the route that I traveled from home up to the Samphao Thong Chedi Viewpoint via the longer route that was close to the reservoir. I always think I am going to have great views of the water from a lot of my travels along rivers or lake in Thailand but this was another case where I didn't often see the reservoir.
My route took me by the Ferry to Si Sawat District over a bit of the Srinagarindra Reservoir. Following are a few pictures of the ferry crossing as well as a short video.
This is a couple of pictures at the Samphao Thong Chedi Viewpoint which was the end of the first part of my ride.
My plan for the day was to go to another view point and then onto Lan Sak in Uthai Thani and spend the night. The following is a screen shot of what should have been my route and I think I may have followed it but am not sure. My issue was that there was no internet on my phone at the Samphao Thong Chedi so could not use google maps for planning my route when leaving the viewpoint.
I have dealt with no internet before and thought I had a work around but for some reason I could not get my work around working on this day. I later played around with the phone and think I have figured out what my issue was but never will be sure until I hit the no internet issue when on a trip.
I had an idea of how I was supposed to go so just kept going that way and stopping frequently to see if I had internet and after about 30K was able to use google maps again for finding my route.
I have made the ride down past Phu Toei National Park in the past and it is a really pretty ride but didn't stop and take any pictures until the viewpoint a bit north of the national park.
I had gotten drizzled on while riding to the 2nd viewpoint but shortly after leaving the viewpoint the sky started pelting it down and I was drenched within a minute. It was raining so hard that it hurt to ride and I wondered if it was hail but don't think so. I saw and stopped at a coffee shop to let the worst of the storm pass and left a puddle under the place I sat.
The rest of the way into Lan Sak the rode was littered with branches leaves and what I think were nuts. I am really glad I stopped when I did and didn't get hit with all this stuff in the middle of the rode.
I stopped and took one picture just outside of Lan Sak.
I have stayed in Lan Sak a number of times and have stayed at the same hotel each time and have never booked it in advance so was surprised when they told me they were full. I stopped at 2 other hotels on the same rode and they were full as well. The 4th hotel I asked did have a room but the price was a bit higher than I expected it to be but was happy to find a room.
I don't like booking rooms unless it is somewhere I know I will have problems finding a room like for some of the festivals. I like to have an idea of where I will stay but being able to walk in and get a room without having booked one. I like to have the flexibility of stopping when I am tired, hit bad weather or have any type of problem on the road. Having to ask a number of hotels for rooms in Lan Sak and also my last trip to Sangkhlaburi where I found rooms but could not stay as long as I wanted to had me scared.
I sat in my hotel looking at the places I thought I would be going in the following days and seeing what rooms were available and didn't like what I was seeing. It seemed that rooms within the towns were not available but I could stay around 15 kilometers outside of the town. Even the places outside of town seemed a bit expensive.
I didn't find any rooms online to book at the one town I was really looking forward to going. The hotel app I use was suggesting places over 3 hours ride away from where I wanted to stay. This distance would make going there and back in one day difficult.
Not sure why rooms seemed to be unavailable but think it may have to do with Makha Bucha day. Makha Bucha day is a Thailand holiday that is on the 3rd of March this year. My guess is that a lot of people are using this holiday to take a long weekend and the reason I was having problems finding rooms. I left home without even knowing this holiday was next week.
The lack or rooms made me decide to abort this trip and try it again sometime later. I decided to take the long way home the following day and stop by some of the temples I had marked on google maps but that I had not yet visited. I will post about my stops on the way home in the next blog entry.
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