Na-non cafe’ (นนน คาเฟ่) Kanchanaburi

This is just a short post to say I am alive and well. I started feeling bad at the buffalo races so returned to my home in Kanchanaburi. I am happy I did go home because it turns out this was the start of coming down with shingles. It took me about a month to get over it but am all better now so rode the bike about 50 kilometer of town to a cafe of the River Kwai Noi. I found it a pretty setting to enjoy a coffee and what ever this pastry was called.

Off to the 2025 Buffalo Races

I am still searching for a route through Bangkok that will be my normal transit through the city. I liked the route I returned on after my attending the boat races. I tried to go this way in reverse but seemed to have messed up and my trip to Chachoengsao where I would spend the night took a bit longer than I thought it would. The following day I stopped at Wat Sanam Chan (วัดสนามจันทร์) on my way to Chonburi City where I had a hotel booked to attend this years Buffalo Races.

I often add stops on Google Maps not because I want to stop at a place but rather I want to take a different route to the destination than google wants to send me. I have also found it is really useful so that I do not get bounced back to the faster route when I have selected an alternate route which maybe a few minutes slower. The problem is I do not hear the phone when riding and if I am not looking at the phone but watching the road I often find myself switched back to the faster route. I used Wat Sanam Chan (วัดสนามจันทร์) as a stop to route myself away from the highway but seemed to enjoy stopping at this temple around the city of Chachoengsao.

The temple sits along the Bang Pakong River and I found it a nice place to sit and watch the water flow by and it had a number of different statues shown in the pictures below.

I attend the Buffalo Races (วิ่งควาย) again this year 2025 and had a good time. Following is the video I put together of the event.



I usually end up going to Pattaya when I am on this side of Bangkok as a sort of holiday where I eat and drink too much but this time I was not feeling very good. I seem to be suffering from a cold or the flu and decided I did not want to go on a holiday where I would not want to leave the hotel so headed back home. I seemed to get the route through Bangkok correct this time but was still too long of a ride when I was not feeling at 100%.

Long Tail Boat Races at Wat Mai Songkrorat (วัดใหม่สงเคราะห์ราษฎร์)

I saw a YouTube video of someone riding on one of these Long Tail Racing Boats a number of years ago and thought that would be fun to watch. The problem in Thailand is finding information about events like this. Someone recently shared a Facebook group which posts information on upcoming events and where I received the following information.

Run the picture through Google Translate to try and understand the information. I had a concert planned for the day the event was in Chachoengsao but once the concert got cancelled it was off to Chachoengsao to watch the races.

It was a fun couple of days with smaller boats and engines on the first day and then bigger boats with larger engines the second.





This is the video I made when I returned home for a few days.



The next video is not my video but one of the guys I bumped into that has his own YouTube channel. If you want to see how good a youtube video can look when someone knows what they are doing. The only thing wrong with the video it does not my ugly face in it at one point.



Another YouTuber that I meet at the races video.

More Flying Foxes at Wat Pho Bang Khla (ค้างคาววัดโพธิ์)

I am off on another trip to go to some events in Thailand. I decided I would stop again at Wat Pho Bang Khla (ค้างคาววัดโพธิ์) to see the Flying Foxes/Fruit Bats on my way to some boat races.

I have visited this temple back in January of 2023 and have since been to two other temples to watch these amazing animals. This is my post from my first time seeing flying foxes.

Following is the 3 minute short I uploaded to YouTube while at the temple.



I am updating this with the full video of all the clips I got while at this temple now that I am back home in Kanchanaburi.



To get to the temple in Chachoengsao I went through another episode of my love hate relationship with Google maps. My phone for some reason stopped having the motorcycle option when selecting direction. I assumed incorrectly that using car direction would not be an issue.

There is a new toll road between Kanchanaburi and Bangkok called the M81. Google maps kept trying to get me to take this new highway. There are a couple of issues with this first motorcycles are not allowed on this highway and second the highway is currently only open on weekends.

I knew about this new toll road but had a avoid toll roads selected on Google maps. I assume that since this toll road is currently free when open it is not seen as a toll road.

When I arrived at the closed entrance to the M81 I just kept going on the alternative route and figured all was good but after riding another 30 minutes I was at another closed entrance to the M81. I am not the smartest person because I did this one more time before stopping at a gas station and selecting stops so I would avoid this closed highway. I think all this fighting with Google maps added an hour and a half to what was supposed to be around a 4 hour ride.

I still arrived in Chachoengsao with time to find a hotel and get to the temple before it was dark. The bats seem to become more active as the sun is setting so it all worked out well.

A few days later I did a bunch of Google searches and found a resolution to the missing motorcycle option by clearing all the Google map data.