For my long bike ride this weekend, I decided to try a route recommended by someone on The Klong Cyclist website. The site said that there was a good walkway along the Saen Sap Canal that would take me to a few lakes in the Seri Thai area. Then, on the way home I could take some back roads behind Ramkamhaeng and avoid the busy roads in this area.
I decided to do an afternoon ride this time, and unfortunately that meant that I didn't get to explore as much as I would have liked to, as I ran out of daylight. But on the other hand, I didn't have to get out of bed at the crack of dawn!
The pathway along the Saen Sap canal turned out to be a great one. It's about 2 meters wide and goes for about 4 kilometers on both sides of the canal, from Ramkamhaeng Soi 29 to Soi 107. And other than a few stray dogs and small children, it was mostly obstacle-free. It also gave me a chance to see some interesting life along the canal, including lots of temples, including an Islamic mosque and a Buddhist temple almost next door to each other. Not to mention, it is much more peaceful than riding on Ramkamhaeng!
Eventually I made my way over to Seri Thai road (which runs parallel to Ramkamhaeng and the Saen Sap Canal) and to an area called Buengkum. There are a few small lakes that are all linked together, and a very nice city park around some of them called Seri Thai Park. Here is what the information sign said about the park:
The park was open for public use in 1987. It was the flood prevention project initiated by His Majesty the King Rama IX. Once known as Bueng Kum or Beung Tathong, the vast public reservoir was renamed to Seri Thai Park in honor for the Seri Thai or Free Thai movement on the occasion of the 52nd anniversary of the end of World War II. The park covers an area of 350 rai (about 140 acres). One part of which is allocated for the Creation of Bangkok Forest Park as a commemoration to His Majesty the King Rama IX's 50th reigning anniversary. The forest park consist of 3 parts, namely Thaimisuk, Rom Sai, and Charoenkan, all of which are partly planted with perennial plants and partially allocated for flower and fruit tree gardens, with both Thai and foreign species, as well as an island pavilion.
I then headed over to find the back roads off of Ramkamhaeng Soi 118. But before I did, I stopped for some dinner. The first thing on the recommended menu at the restaurant where I stopped was grapaow blaa, which I read as gapraow blah, or basil fish, and which sounded delicious! But instead, the grapow blaa came -- a bowl of fish stomachs!
So let's review the Thai language lesson of the day: gRa-paow = basil, ga-pRaow = bag or stomach.
The full name of the dish was gapraow blah nam daeng. The nam daeng part means "red liquid/sauce", and since I wasn't familiar with this term, I really had no idea what I was getting. But it turned out to be pretty good. The fish stomachs actually don't have much taste, and the "red liquid" is really a thick brown gravy with mushrooms. A handful of shredded crab and some green onion was thrown on top. Not bad at all!
But after that mistake, it didn't get much better. The sun was going down, and I proceeded to get myself lost down the labyrinth of Ramkamhaeng Soi 118. I ended up having to backtrack out to the main road and head home. (And busy Ramkamhaeng is not a very fun road to bike on!) But I'll definitely try this route again and see if I can figure out how to take the back roads next time.
Some pictures from the ride can be viewed here, and here is a map of my 48-kilometer route:
View Larger Map
Will have to check out that route.
Chris: I hope you can join me next time. I think you'll like this one.