Muddy, wet and tired. That's how to describe the group at the end of the activity today. We went out the furthest yet with them today. The tracks were all rutted by the water that must have been gushing down over the weekend. It was fun to go on new tracks even though we had to rush back for one of the boys to catch his bus.

Then dad and I went out along highway 36 to train with the traffic. It was so noisy. I hope we don't get as many as all those lorries that passed us today. Then we followed the railway which was quieter until we got to the water bottling factory. This road was busy and full of huge puddles and potholes. we had to be really careful. The last part was on the road next to the motorway which is uphill but less busy than the other road. This was 23km altogether and enough for today as I have homework. I'm looking forward to a rest tomorrow!

Wettest ride!

Wow! Today was the wettest day ever! We did 46km so in total we have done 100km this weekend which is alot!

We have decided not to take trucks with us, so we got some paniers for dad's bike. He will carry our stuff. We also got wing mirrors and I got a little cross bar bag for my phone and stuff.

It was a good test with the paniers today. Dad loaded them up with towels. When we set off it was hardly raining but then it started to chuck it down especially when we went across the dam, it was really windy too and the bad things were that we were heading into the wind which meant the rain was facing our way and we got completely soaked. At first it wasn't fun because I got really cold but then I started to ride through all of the puddles and got even wetter because I was getting wet anyway so I didn't see a point in trying to avoid the puddles anymore. 

When we stopped at Khun Jon's for lunch with my mum and my two sisters we had rice, pork satay, moo tod, fried kashew nuts with salt and we had watermelon shakes for the beverages. That's where I really got cold.

We soon warmed up when we started again. We stopped at Bira circuit for a biscuit and a rest from the rain and saw some girls dancing whilst they were presenting the winners of the race. Then we watched the motorcyclists taking super bike driving lessons.

 We saw some brand new cars and I stood next to an Audi TT and my dad took a picture.

 We couldn't go the way we normally go because the road was still blocked by the big hole in the road so instead we went the way we usually come back home on.

 The paniers did very well under all that rain. Only some of the stuff in the very back pockets got wet. Everything else was dry so we'll need to make sure it is all in plastic bags too.

Phew! I'm tired now.



Hardest ride yet!

OMG! Uhhh! Motivation was hard this morning, I was so tired because our cat came in through the window at 4:00am to shelter from the storm and I couldn't get back to sleep. My dad and I were planning to do a long ride today to Silverlake and back, about 60km! It is was all rainy and grey outside so I knew it would be a long wet ride and I wasn't looking forward to it. Then my dad told me to remember why I'm doing it. He didn't really want to go out in the wet either but it may be raining on the way to Cambodia as it will still be rainy season. I thought about Yok. I can't imagine not being able to hear anything. So off we went.   

 The rain had just slowed for a minute. It was just spotting but there was a thick low cloud all around us. The storm must have been really bad because we passed 2 fallen trees and one of our roads was closed because the drain had collapsed and taken half the road away. The workers let us go through walking with our bikes though. It rained a little bit but we were lucky and reached Silverlake without getting too wet.

We had planned to have a long rest at Wat Yansanwararam and something to eat.

The only thing that we found was a fruit vendor. He was a happy man and liked my dad taking his photo. The watermelon was delicious but we couldn't sit anywhere. My dad thought there were lots of little resteraunts next to the lake but they were selling loads of different fish that you can set free in the 'sacred' lake. I think it is crazy because they probably catch the fish out of the lake and then sell them again. 

So we left Silverlake in search of real food. We found a little shop with a BBQ. It was great to sit on a bench after 37km on the bike! The sausages were yummy, just what I needed. There was cabbage and something like watercress but bigger! That tasted a little bit spicey, so my dad ate all that. There was a cute little baby girl there who stopped crying when she saw us. We must look strange to her with all our cycling kit on.  

 We stopped for half an hour but then had to move on. The weather cleared a little but there were huge puddles and even streams running along some of the roads. There are no drains on most of these country roads. Sometimes there are just ditches on the sides but if they are blocked the water runs along the road. So we get wet from the water coming up off our wheels.

This is a vew over a reservoir that I've never been to before. It was lovely but I was really tired after riding uphill to get to this point. We still had about 10km to go. I felt like I wouldn't be able to get home but then I started to recognise the roads and knew how far we had to go. 

It felt so good to get home! We had pesto pasta, salami, ham, cucumber and sweetcorn. So good! 

We did 54km in 4 hours. About 50 minutes of this was resting. On the trip I will have to do another 20km in a day. It is going to be so tiring!

Check out my ride and map: 53.79 km Bike Ride with MapMyRide
Duration: 3:03:15
Pace: 3.4 min/km
http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/401317297

Famous again!

This week I'm in the Primary Newsletter. Remember I had an interview with Year 6 students? Well this is their article. http://bit.ly/15LUMxP

Wahoo! 500km milestone!

 Today I went up to the roundabout near Bira circuit and then I went across the damn and I made it home in 1 hour 6 minutes and it was 21.15 km long.

This photo looks a little dangerous but I'm celebrating... I started my training 2 weeks before school started on 16th August and since then, all of my bike rides added together add up to 500km!! This is only just further than I will actually be cycling when I cycle to Cambodia! But this has taken me 6 weeks to complete and I have to complete 418 km in 6 days which is such little time compared to 6 weeks.

At one point today I was cycling at 49 kmph, I looked behind at my dad to smile and I nearly fell off my bike! It was down a huge hill. I saw four disgusting dead snakes today on the road, one of them was lime green. :( They really grossed me out. Yuck! There were loads of other bikes too, they always nod or wave.

Over 2,000 views!

Wow!

Thanks everyone.

I'm on Radio!

Fabulous 103FM! Today during school, I went to the radio station and talked about the event I'm going to do. I was really nervous at first because I have never been on radio before and I thought it was going to be really serious.

It was actually quite fun because Tommy Dee, the presenter, kept making funny jokes and mistakes. Then I made one too when I said I had 3 sisters but I only have 2. We all laughed. It was the Breakfast Show, so he kept eating his cheese toastie whilst the music was on.

I recommended 2 of the songs which he played whilst I was there. It was really cool that everyone was listening to my favourites. My friends all said "Where were you?" because I missed the assembly, my history lesson and my break but I didn't mind because I had my lesson on the radio during thai time! It was funny when it was thai time because ZaZa was the thai teacher and she taught me how to say two phrases: the first one was something along the lines of, 'I really have done my homework' and the second one was something along the lines of 'But the dog ate my homework!' She said I was really good. Then my dad had a go and he wasn't that good to be honest with you but he was better than Tommy Dee!

 

 I started to get used to being on the radio in the end and it felt like I was talking to my friend. I think I will go on the radio again after I have done the ride and I will be even more confident.

 Fabulous 103FM http://www.pattaya103.com/  sponsors Pattaya City Football Club who will give me a Puma club T-Shirt and they also gave me the dog training at the weekend. The station will give B3,000 from the station and another B3,000 from their listeners so far. Thanks Tommy!