Tell people you cycled the countryside of Bangkok and few would believe it possible. The metropolis has built upon most of its farms and waterways. But in Greater Bangkok’s easternmost districts — Minburi, Nongchok and Khlong Samwa — canal-laced paddy fields stretch to the horizon.

Driving the quiet country roads by car would detract from the point of the exercise, and the whole back-to-nature vibe. Walking the lightly populated kilometres is out of the question for most. Motorbikes would mean you brought your own noise. Bicycling provides the best means to take in the quaintness and quietude, and lungs full of fresh air. Yes, the fresh air of Bangkok — now that’s an incentive!

Bicycle Touring
The cycle tour specialists SpiceRoads researched a suitable circuit that forms the core of their ‘Bangkok Countryside’ excursion. The company calculated the optimal amount of pedalling involved for even the most unfit pensioner.

They split the 40-kilometre daytrip into leisurely stretches. Even the final 15-kilometre run home has plenty of water stops and photo ops. The flat delta terrain and mostly metalled roads make for the mildest exertion — but with enough sense of achievement for some bragging rights.

SpiceRoads take participants from their hotels to the start, where a second van unloads bikes assigned according to the size of rider. A guide leads the pack — two guides in a larger group — with the vans dawdling behind stragglers and ready to carry the weary. After a safety debrief, helmet fitting and signing of the disclaimer, you pedal off down a rambling lane.

Almost immediately, paddy fields stretch from roadside to boundary canals and beyond. Much of the route follows water courses, keeping the breezes cool and the panoramas picturesque. Wooden farmhouses cluster around copses, temples and mosques, for this outlying area of the city is mostly Muslim. Migrants of Malay origin have lived here for two centuries, and were originally settled here among Thai Buddhists by King Rama III. Most of the farmers adopt traditional grooming: sarongs, headscarves, beards and prayer caps.

	A City Managerie The largely halal diet explains the absence of pigs and the presence of cattle and goats munching the grass canal verges. Not many other Bangkok roads have signs warning of cattle crossing. But then you really do come across cowherds ushering their livestock down the lane.
	Not all the animals are domesticated. You see genuine Bangkok wildlife: tortoises, snakes and fish, plus thousands of birds, from egrets to Siberian storks. Near the lunch restaurant the big grey storks flock between trees in their Lamlukka nesting site. At another stop you enter a garden where enormous fruit bats mass in squealing flocks when not dangling from the orchard branches.

Rural Trades

Cottage industries provide further local income. The tour takes in a charcoal workshop where kilns bake coconut husks. Elsewhere you ride past homesteads where they make charcoal from small logs in earth-covered pits with smoking flues. Along the way, you meet a man who turned an orchid hobby into a thriving export business. He harvests the flowers from wired rows of towering plants resembling a floral vineyard.

Bamboo fish traps hang everywhere. Along many canals, lofty bamboo contraptions dangle nets over the water waiting to be submerged. Fish lured by lamps at night are then are then scooped up from below and lifted out. Farmers also gather water vegetables such as pak bung from boats.

A Social Way to Travel

There’s plenty of time to socialise with fellow travellers. On these back roads, tractors outnumber cars and riders can often pedal two-abreast, chatting. Riders rest mid-morning at a wat (temple) for eating fruit and feeding pla sawai fish in the clearwater canal. After a lunch of authentic Thai food, you weave through the declining, century-old Lamsai Market, past weathered teak shutters and over one of the trip’s many hump-back canal bridges.

	Temple Sculpture Garden Wat Pued Udom more than lives up to what the guide bills as “the temple of heaven and hell.” Beneath the bot, or main chapel, folk-style murals and dioramas depict tortures inflicted upon sinners in the afterlife. Above the congregation hall, steep narrow stairs lead to landings populated by angels, Hindu gods and Buddha images. The lesson would appear to be that it’s easy to descend to hell, much harder to climb towards heaven. The grounds feature an array of sculptures, from fabulous beasts to alms-seeking monks.
	Canalside Community The cycling ceases at the quaint market town of Nong Chok. From its pier you complete the circuit by boat. Bangkokians know Khlong Saen Saeb as a rather polluted, cement-rimmed commuter canal. But it reaches way out here and into other provinces. This stretch is clean, scenic and has barely changed in decades. The covered wooden boat putters through the late afternoon light. Splicing mirror-like water, you pass old trees, wooden houses, suspended fish nets and old warehouses filled with rice sacks. At journey’s end, you can freshen up at one of many canalside mosques, Masayid Kamalulislam. King Rama V visited this old place of worship, though the current dome and minarets were rebuilt recently. As schoolkids gamboled in headscarves and sarongs, riders can really begin to appreciate the diversity of landscape and livelihood still to be found in Bangkok.

Cycling’s Virtuous Circle
Bicycling emerges as a brilliant way to appreciate the details that motor-powered tours necessarily miss. Healthy, harmonious and sociable, cycle tours have an important role to play in these times of eco-awareness, agrotourism and community-nurturing development. And it busts a few myths about Bangkok along the way: clean canals, timber villages, fragrant air, abundant wildlife and open fields of green.

For visitors wishing to view the rice-planting cycle the ideal time is from May to July — although it can be hot and humid with occasional rain showers. The end of the ‘green season’ and beginning of the cool season is around November, when there are clear blue skies and plenty of sunshine. This is usually the best time to experience the picturesque rural landscape and life along the canals and waterways.

SpiceRoads
SpiceRoads run cycling tours across Thailand. Several take in diverse environments in Bangkok, like Chinatown and the plantation district of Bang Kra Jao. Rides are graded for fitness levels and can last from a half-day excursion to multi-day touring holidays.

Contact information:
14/1-B Soi Promsi 2
Sukhumvit Soi 39
Klongtan Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 10110, Thailand
Tel: +66(0)2712 5305
Mobile: +66(0)89895 5680
Fax: +66(0)2712 5306
Web site: www.spiceroads.com