Bangkok to Dongha

On the second day , 19-05-08, which is our rest day in Bangkok. When one of our contact in Bangkok, mr Soonket, led us to central Bangkok, we found that the city is really big. It took us more then 45mins to enter the city. The infrastructure in Bangkok is quite modernised. But, the conjestion is not the one Penang should followed in the next 15years.

But, certain Mass Media Transportatation system is good example for Penang.That is the pedestrian above the main road serve by escalators.

In fact, walking in the central city just like walking the concrete jungles.

After parking the car, we had to walked for 15 mins to reach our tourist spot in the city ...the Original Four Faces Budha in Thailand. It was located just right the middle of the city.

The local said that you must visit this place otherwise you had not been in Bangkok.

On 20-05-08, early in the morning at 6am, we had to get out and get out of the city of Bangkok to avoid traffic.We moved all theway to norteast of Thailand for the border town of Thailand , MUKDAHAN.

Mukdahan was about 800km away from Bangkok.It took us four days to cycle there.

We were rushing at the speed of 25-30km per day for a distance of 180-230km per day.

Along the 800km journey we had passed through few majors towns like Sarburi, Nakhon Rachasima, Yasothon , Mukdahan.

Saraburi and Nakhon Rachasima are light and heavy industrial areas. Tourism and agricultural products are the major economy of Yasothon and Mukdahan.

During these four days we were also rushing very hard to avoid the moonson rain, but sometime we were cycling on the heavy down fall of rain but very cooling as compare to hot sunny day. I prefer raining day.

Sometime, we have to travel till 9pm. The most dangerous and scaring to travel at night is to be chased by the "kampong dogs".

One thing not to forget to share with you is that water and food are the most important energy for us at this kind of journey. We need a lot of water to prevent dehydration, we need food for cycling energy.

Sometimes, the local food is not suitable for us, we will take biscuit, hot noodle soup (local style) and fresh fruits like bananas, manggis, rambutan,etc.

Mukdahan is the newly promoted town by the Thai government. It ia because the Japanese and the Laos government had constructed the Route 9 highway to link the central Vietnam to north-east Thailand to bust up the economy activities among these Asean countries.

This Route 9 connecting Mukdahan of Thailand to Savanaket of Laos across the southrn Laos's plain land to the border town ,Lao Bao, of cnetral Vietnam.Along the 285km long of Route 9, there are over hundreds of villages and small towns.They are maiinly farmers and aborigins.They uses motors and small trucks as their main transportation.Mechanics, small gas pump stations are common.

The sceneries along this stretch of route 9 are very natural and beautiful.Some are still untouched origin jungles.

Modern machine had been used for ploughing, whereby the buffalos are only their pets.

It took us two nights to cross the Route 9. During thses three days along this route we faced several problems, mainly tyres punctured. Chai Khim was the unlucky guy who had four punctures and had to push the bivyvle for some distances to get the tires mended.

On 26-05-08, we managed to cross the Laos/Vietnam border and entered into Lao Bao of Vietnam.The terrain at this central Vietnam is beutiful and natural.Lao Bao will leads us to Dongha,one of capital of the provinces in central Vietnam about 88km. apart

It was very excited to report that we had up to Dongha travelled a total distance of about 2475km from Penang.This is about 50% of our projected journey.I hope the donation to this project in our hometown also can reach 50% of the RM500,000. But , I doubt.

Moving on forward, persistancy and consistancy is our motto to promote "GREEN, HEALTH AND LOVE" for Penangites.

"Le Tour De Love"....Teh /written in Dongha (26-05-08 at 11.15pm)