(written by Dave)

(note from last night – the thumping music stopped completely just on 10PM, as the hotel owner said it would – that was a relief…)

Some days you ride your bike and the route reminds you of rides from your past. Today was one of those days. We are on the wettest part of Thailand and it is very much like parts of Oregon. Everything is very green and lush and it felt quite rural. And the riding was gentle rolling terrain, just like in northern Tillamook County, Oregon, where our cabin is in the US. Today we even got a little rain to round out the impressions – twice getting wet roads after arriving just after the rain came down and once getting a proper soaking that required pulling over and hiding under a fruit stand while the shower passed.

There were a couple non-Oregon things about the ride however. For starters, you don’t see too many palm plantations in Oregon and today we saw quite a bit of that. We also saw lots of bamboo today, which is also not something you see too much in Oregon, at least in the massive growths that you see here. So, I guess the Oregon feeling took a little imagination, blur your eyes and green is green.

There was one hardish climb today and like most SE Asia climbs, there was no summit sign (unlike those you typically find in the US and Aus). While there is generally no sign, most significant hills here have shrines or temples of some sort at the summit. The fancy summit temples have bigger, more formal buildings. The lesser summit temples have a more home-made looking and smaller shrines. People stop at these temples and leave offerings, mostly food and drink bottles of some sort, and most cars seem to honk as they go past.

As we approached the temple on our big climb today, we saw a monkey run across the road towards the temple . We stopped about 50 metres away to get a photo and not scare off the monkey. We then progressively moved forward 10 meters at a time until we were right next to our new friend. Until today, I always wondered what happened to the food offerings left at these temples. Now we know – we watched the monkey make a feast of a pile bananas left by one of the faithful. We’ve searched the Internet but could not figure out what kind of monkey it was. I’ve attached some photos below if any wannabe primatologist out there wants to have a go. It did not have a tail and looked a bit more like a chimpanzee than the other monkeys we have seen. It was also very fat – it clearly knew where to get food.

We stopped for morning tea today near the junction of highways 401 and 4. There were very few services throughout the day, adding to that rural Oregon feeling. While at tea, we watched a bunch of guys loading logs on a logging truck – it looked like trees from a rubber plantation. The loading was nearly all done by hand. The lucky workers had rubber boots. The not so lucky had what looked liked little rubber slip on shoes. I’ve attached a couple photos for to show how hard these guys are. Some of the logs were huge and they were carrying them by themselves – pretty amazing. There is definitely no OSHA at work in the Thailand logging industry.

We had thought about stopping for the day about 12 ks before Khura Buri at a resort that made out to be some sort of eco-resort. We popped in to have a look but discovered it to be very quiet, almost empty. It looked nice but we hate being the only guests at a resort. Without a car, we are forced to eat their food and you never know how fresh stuff is. So we ploughed on into Khura Buri and found a nice little chalet at Boon Piya Resort (it is right in town and is a collection of chalets, not a resort as those in the US or AUS would normally think). We had researched a guesthouse here in town but on riding by it looked a little rough. Our chalet is brand new and very clean. And a pretty good value as well.

Our decision to ride here was validated further by the lunch that we found at the local Sunday market. It was hard to choose but we eventually settled on BBQ chicken (being BBQ’d on the spot) and a fantastic fresh made papaya salad, also made to order, on the spot. And of course, some fresh fried bananas for dessert. I got a photo (before eating this time, Dale) but it unfortunately the photo does not do justice to the flavours – everything was very tasty. For dinner, we are heading back to the market again, though it is raining now (5PM), and we hope that the folks at the market don’t pack it in – many were just setting up in the early afternoon.

Tomorrow we are heading for Bang Ben Beach (near the Lam Soen National Park) where there is supposed to be a small resort managed by a Dutch/Thai couple. It’s a place noted in many on-line bicycle journals so stopping there should be fun and hopefully informational.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.