"Transplanting Dragon Fruit Trees" or "My first 3 days of riding"

I'm in Kampaeng Phet a place that took me 3 days and about 360km of riding to get to. What I had read before was true--the road is super flat. In fact, I can remember all 4 times I had to shift into the small gear to get up and over a bridge or something. The ride up here was really quite nice (except for overloaded trucks hauling fly-away sugar cane for the last 100km). Cruising though rice paddies, stopping to drink cokes from plastic bags, examining strange fruits being sold on the roadside, etc. I was struck by how few people I actually saw in the countryside (I guess I keep using India as a pt. of comparison), but there really seemed to be nobody in the country; on the sides of the road or working in the fields. Fortunately, their were cute old ladies selling bbq bananas or fresh coconuts every few kilometers.

Day 1: (Ayuthaya to Uthai Thani)

This is about 50km into the first day. The road followed a nice canal.......

...where everyone's house had a dock-like "driveway"

Lunch: Coconut milk infused rice cooked via bbq in bamboo shoot. I had to cross my hands over my chest to indicate "no" followed by a chicken dance to indicate I wanted the veggie variety. 20 baht for 4.

Day 2: (Uthai Thani to Kao Liao (15km north of Nakon Sawan)

I decided to camp this particular day because the weather seemed nice. About an hour before sunset I found a good spot off the road and headed into the brush to find a good spot to set up my hammock. Just as I started to unpack my stuff I farmer on a tractor putted by on a small road I hadn't noticed until now. I didn't want to toss and turn all night thinking about a crazy farmer (yet he'd probably be doing the same but over a crazy foreigner). Turns out it was a good decision. More on that later.

40 minutes up the road I saw a smallish wat (temple) off the road and wanted to ask the monks if I could hang my hammock in their courtyard. Luckily they had a sort of hammock area, where I guess people take a hammock nap in the summer when its really hot.

Ah, some type of computer problem. I'll have to finish this story and update the pics later.