Adventure Weekend

Last Sunday I went with my friend, Golf (his nickname, and he doesn’t even like the sport), on a little excursion through the Thai countryside. He’s invited me to visit home 2 or 3 times before, but I’d always been busy with other stuff.

His invitation went something like, “Matt, come ride  bicycle with me at my home.” So, with that incredibly detailed idea of what we were going to do in mind, I said, “Sure!”

At 6am Sunday morning we hop a van to a city called “Lumnarai” to go ride bikes. When we arrive, however, we find this:

Then Golf asked me, “You want 60, 40, or 20 kilometers?” Still trying to be a team-player, I responded, “…20?” He said that’s what he wanted to do since we were just here ‘for fun’. So we registered in the 20 kilometer/age 13 and under division, and he gave me a bike and a pair of man-dex tights. Here’s us at the starting line:

Now, I have…issues with bikes. The first time I ever rode I bike I hurtled down a hill, slammed into a wall, and wracked myself beyond all reason. Most of my scars are also from bike crashes. So I’d rather walk 20 kilometers any day of the week, but they had already gotten me to the starting line and into the tightest clothes I’d ever worn, so what’s a little race, right? And it’s against 13 yr-old girls, so I’m sure to win.

Here’s us after we got owned by nearly all (I beat one! Muahahaha) of the 13 (and under) yr-old girls:

So we survived, and, despite the fact that I had played basketball for 3 hours the day before and lifted my legs the day before that, it was pretty easy.

We still had to wait for Golf’s brother to finish the 60 kilometer set, so I went wandering and discovered that the race fee included all-you-can-eat Thai food. Nothing like a little flaming chili soup to recover a tired body, right? I ate about half a gallon of the lava and then fell asleep under a tree.

Golf woke me up and we drove to his home in Ang Tong where I met his family. We went swimming in the Chao Phraya River, ate an incredible dinner, and then drove back to Bangkok. Here’s a shot from his front porch: