(written by Dave)

Wow, what a day… Today was one of those days that we’ll remember for a long time, and a good reason for having a daily blog. Had it not been for having to write it all down now, I would surely have forgotten some of the things that happened.

We were up at 6AM hoping to get an early start. In fact, after oatmeal and hauling the bikes back down the stairs (did I mention that we had to haul our bikes up the steepest steps in hotel history yesterday – and back down today – thankfully Nancy passed on the penthouse special deal – on the forth floor! We were on the 1st floor.). Anyway, we were pulling away from the lobby by 7:20, just about the earliest we’ve left on the trip, or at least earliest in quite some time. And you guessed it, just as we left, it started to sprinkle. I again memorised the route out of town but we stopped less than 1.5ks from the hotel to check the map and let the downpour, which our sprinkle had now become, blow over. Almost everyone on morning “scooter net” had stopped as well, except those with the giant plastic ponchos. We saw one scooter with a Mom and two kids under the same poncho – sorry no photo.

Rain delay number one lasted about 15 minutes. All the scooters started up, so we followed suit. It rained on and off for the next 30 minutes, not so much rain as to get you really wet, however, no need for the rain to drench you when the road itself is soaked – before we’d ridden an hour, our legs, bikes and bags were filthy.

We took a back road for the first 50k and really enjoyed some great scenery. We stopped and peeked through the trees at a waterfall and had some great (wet) views of some more of those Jurassic, Dr Seuss mountains. We stopped for our first morning tea in Sikoa (PB&J sandwiches). From here the road started to almost dry out, just in time for another downpour and rain delay number two. The second delay came about when we needed another break as 4046 joined back up with main highway 4, so our delay time was usefully spent at a servo getting water and a snack.

Back on highway 4 we had a lot more traffic and got to see Thai drivers at their best (or worst). The road was wide with a good shoulder. The biggest traffic hazard was the “smart guys” in newer cars. They seem to think that they should barrel down the highway at great speed without touching the brakes. This means overtake when a slower car is approached, without regard for what’s coming the other way. We didn’t see too many close calls but we were glad that there was a metre wide shoulder for us to hide on. Being the slowest moving thing on the road has it’s advantages – we get to stay all the way to the left and not enter the traffic chaos.

We passed on area where they were harvesting pineapples. There were heaps of stands set-up or just getting set-up on the side of the road. All the traffic around the stands gives the aforementioned smart guy drivers a reason to slow down, though they didn’t seem to notice. We also saw a bunch of dried fish stalls on the side of the road. They all looked pretty much the same and though we’d be passing on the fish, I had to stop for a photo. It turned out to be a great stop. The owner lady was thrilled to see us. No, I mean really thrilled. She spoke broken English but came running out as we pulled in. When I got my camera out she was more than happy to pose, by herself, with Nancy, with her fish, and even with her slightly embarrassed daughter. She sent her daughter back to get us each a bottle of water, with straws. She gave us both hearty handshakes and big smiles as we rode off, refreshed and glad that we took a photo stop. Ah, Thailand, the land of smiles…

The day was starting to get hot now and the road more or less drying out. We stopped for lunch at another servo and had another PB&J sandwich. There is plenty of food to eat on this road but we were not sure yet of what we would find so Nancy made a stack of sandwiches this morning. After lunch it started to get even warmer and it was hard to get enough water down. Our bottles were cooking and not very tasty. The highway was a little lumpy and the up hills were slogs. At the top of one hill Nancy was a little behind but close enough for me to hear her yell out “Stop!” I thought something was wrong and pulled over quickly only to discover that I’d ridden right by two elephants on the side of the road. Turns out that they were staying at an elephant hospital at the top of the hill (we found a sign that we could read). How anyone can ride slowly up a hill and miss two elephants standing right on the side of the road is a complete mystery to me. I blame the heat.

We were only about 20k from town but we had to make another stop for cold drinks. Nancy was not feeling overly flash at this point – probably a little heat stroke and a few too many k’s on a hot steamy day. We forced some cold drinks down and finished off the last of the PB&J – finally. Revived, we got back on our bikes for the ride into town.

There was not going to be any “easy” in today, I should have known it from the rainy start and subsequent rain delays. Just after we left the servo and our cold drinks we came across road destruction Thai style. This meant basically cover the entire road with gravel and when necessary spray water to keep the dust down. No water required today – remember, it rained earlier. By now, however, all that rain had long evaporated and every car, truck or scooter kicked up a mountains of dust. Nancy was behind me and a couple of times I thought I lost her as she went in and out of clouds. Our speed dropped considerably as we negotiated the rough surface. Best of all, the sweat and suntan lotion on our arms became fantastic dust magnets. This mess went on for about 10k, boy were we glad to see smooth pavement for the last few k’s into town.

We spent a bit of time wandering before we finally located the Orange Tree Hotel – our first choice hotel. As luck would have it, they had one room left. I was just glad that they didn’t take one look at us and our very dirty bikes and tell us “no room at the inn”. I cleaned the bikes while Nancy got the room sorted and showered. The bikes are stored in the kitchen on the ground floor, I was more than happy not carry them up the stairs.

Though clean, we were both completely exhausted but knew we had to get something to eat besides PB&J sandwiches. The hotel staff gave us directions to a night market where they had “menus in English” ( a noted highlight). It was only 5 minutes from the hotel and it was fantastic. I think we would have eaten pretty much anything at that point. We ended up eating one starter and three mains between us. I don’t think the stall we ate at minded the extra business…

We are planning on taking tomorrow off. The hotel is nice. Krabi has a fair amount to see. And more than anything, we both have sore, tired muscles after an epic day riding in the Thai sun, rain, dust and special road conditions, a day we’ll remember for quite some time.

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