Post 289: Ubon Province

The roads here are strange. As a bike, I have to keep to the very left of the road, the area that in Blighty we’d call the ’Hard Shoulder’. That’s fine, but in parts the lane is littered with debris and more often than not, you meet something coming directly towards you. Then, the road just vanishes. No warning, just tarmac turning to sand. You have no idea how long the sand will last and in parts, it reminds me of the Amur Highway … just a little shorter and with more palm trees. Other traffic is variable. Kid’s on scooters as young as six or seven, buffalo walking along, a ten year old boy on his biycycle hitching a ride by holding onto the buffalo’s tail and the ever present tak-tak.

Then, you come upon something quite unexpected. Like this, it’s not Giverny, but with Monet’s eyesight, he could well have painted this.

www.justgiving.com/geoffgthomas