Samui Style

A bit of an alternative take on Tour de France race tech- here's some Tour de Koh Samui local Thai tech. The juice may be similar.

Drawings: X2 Pool Villa

Maybe I've gone a bit Thai Time in posting this, but what better place to relax after a hot ride around Koh Samui than here?

http://x2resorts.com/resorts/samui/

Zigzagikap

A shot from Bangkok- this pre-cast concrete facade is a nice retro take on the still very contemporary topic of sun shading. The Thai capital contains quite a few nice buildings along these lines, but I doubt they are appreciated too much by the residents!

Porcelainia

Quite a few of my recent posts have been about fairly high brow 'Art'. Time to bring it down a peg or 2, with these very, 'artistic' porcelain water bottles. Such are the delights of racing the Tour of Friendship in Thailand, where the trophies are custom made for each year's event, with a bike part as the theme. Previous years have seen porcelain cranksets and, another one in my kitsch cabinet of fame- a candy blue Selle Italia SLR complete with gold swirly '09 Thai trim. It certainly beats generic golden plastic cups, though the frightening thing is that these are probably hand made...

I rode the 30s this year, and while the race wasn't super successful for me, I did manage one podium with a 5th place on one of the sprint stages behind 'Vincent' Tam (ex Thai champion), earning me one Thai porcelain water bottle. The full race report is up on colossi.cc, but one thing to expand on a little, is the fact that in earning this trophy I reached a new max heart rate of 196bpm. This is 3 beats above my previous maximum- reached about 5/6 years ago. And it's not like I haven't been trying hard inbetween... Evidently conditions played a bit part in reaching this- sprinting in 40 degrees heat certainly makes you work pretty hard, but it really makes a mockery of the 220 minus your age nonsense you read in the gym. Maybe I'll hit 200 when I get to 40???

Thai Time

One blog post this past month can only be explained by one thing- Thai time. Actually, it's a bit more complex than that, in that I've been pretty busy with various things like moving flats, going on holiday (and racing) in Thailand, no internet, no motivation, shelves to put up etc. But it all comes back to one thing- it's ready when it's ready, i.e. it's late- Thai style.

Some things are worth their wait, like this fantastic latte art at the rather excellent Hotel De La Paix in Cha Am, a couple of hours south of Bangkok. I can't aspire to such profound beauty with this post, but I can assure you that after staying in Thai bike race hotels for 5 nights, I felt like a methadone addled smack head when this sweet brown stuff hit my veins!

Of course, a fantastic pool, some quirky angled (sometimes gabion) walls and a luxurious landscape made this a place to relax, recharge, and forget about life for a while. But, in trying not to think too much, I couldn't help but appreciate how much thought had gone into this place by Thai Architect Duangrit Bunnag. Unsung hero might be pushing it a bit far, but it is interesting how guys like this get completely ignored by the Western press, but they're actually building a lot of stuff that is often aspired to, but rarely executed. Somehow, this was humble luxury, if that makes sense? Affordable, friendly, quite raw, but equally comfortable when it matters, and with service just the right side of 'attentive'

So, enough of my holiday pics masqueraded as building review, and a note to say I will be a bit more back on the tinternet rader. Just as soon as I've tried out my new cordless screwdriver!

MASH[ED} PALM

This weekend I was meant to be in Thailand, attempting to ride 750km in 3 days from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. Instead, I'm at home unable to ride, my attempts to fix up a slightly broken body in 5 days failed. Having taken a nasty tumble on the tram tracks last Sunday (speed bump plus unseen piece of wood) on my way to a local race, I've spent the week in and out of bandages, nursing wounds and limping my way around town. Alas, whilst elbows and knees heal fairly quickly and scab up nicely, palms do not. If I could have gripped my handlebars in some shape or form I would have gone, but riding 12hrs a day one handed with a big risk of infection is not a possibility. Down but not out, I'm now considering trying to honour those who have sponsored me with some sort of alternative. Watch this space I guess.

http://www.justgiving.com/Thai750

Retro Bangkok

Sounds like the Thais don't really get this...

http://www.archinect.com/forum/threads.php?id=68506_0_42_0_C

Costa Lanta

Our Xmas destination- the rather nice looking Costa Lanta resort, designed by duangrit_bunnag architects. Not long now!
http://www.costalanta.com/