(written by Dave)

We survived the night in our rough hotel.  I slept completely through the night.  Nancy was up on ant/bag patrol several times.  We didn’t linger this morning, it was pretty much close the three open bags, get them downstairs and move out.  There were several guys heading home from the karaoke/snooker joint next door as we loaded the bikes.  Plus one guy passed out on a couch in the lobby.  I don’t know how his room rate compared to ours.  Most readers will probably squirm but we had brekkie at 7/11.  It’s not as bad as you might think as they have yoghurt, juice and even a form of croissants.  I ran across the street to the market and bought some sticky rice things as a supplement.

We had about a quarter of the ride today on quiet back roads before we connected up with highway 4, the major north-south highway in this area.  There was very little traffic on the back road and it had a nice shoulder.  Once we reached the highway, traffic picked up but there was a nice shoulder.  And really traffic was not too heavy, mainly a few more trucks kicking up dust and making noise, plus generating a slight tailwind when they pass us.  So the big difference is that the highway is less conducive to riding and chatting, more conducive to just putting your head down and making time.  The latter is not really the purpose of this trip but when it’s the only road from A to B, it is nice to get some ks done at a good speed.

Almost as soon as we joined the highway we spotted one of those oasis petrol stations.  Of course we stopped and took advantage of all the services.  We soon realised that there is one of these servos almost every 5k on the highway, so there is no need to stop at all of them, much different from the quiet roads.  Soon after leaving the first station we started seeing signs for “Coffee – Go” figuring that it was another servo.  The first sign was at 15k and from there were no less than 1 sign every k.  And once under 3k, there were “Coffee – Go” signs every 500 meters or less.  We didn’t get coffee at our fist break so we decided to give “Go” a go.  We were quite surprised to discover that Coffee Go was a very fancy coffee restaurant, right in front of an equally fancy private home surrounded by a lovely garden.  We had to stop and were glad that we did.

We were the only customers at the coffee shop in the 30 minutes we were there and got to meet the owner.  He spoke very good English and talked quite a bit with us.  He has been open for 5 years and really has a great little spot.  He has a great garden full of many plants and flowers.  All of the buildings were made of brick/stone and marble.  The most stunning being the toilets where not only were the facilities clean and beautifully polished,  they even had toilet paper – a real luxury here in Thailand.  I am not sure we have had toilets that nice in any of the hotels we have stayed in!  The owner has a niece and nephew who live in Perth, Australia and he spoke quite fondly of Australia.  Maybe he’ll move there once “Go” takes over for Starbucks – in a few years time perhaps.

While at “Go” we had a small rain shower.  It came as were about to leave.  We waited 10 minutes and it passed over.  Other than that, we had almost no rain today.  It was cloudy but that worked well to keep the heat down – not cool, but not boiling.

We passed the narrowest part of Thailand today on Highway 4.  From the Gulf of Thailand to Myanmar it is only 10k.  One of the “rights of passage” of any cycle tourist is to ride cross-country.  For those on a limited schedule all you have to do is fly to Bangkok, catch the bus to Prachuap Khiri Khan and start riding.  You can probably tick cross county off your bucket list several times in one day.  I suggested we detour and ride the full 10k.  Nancy reminded me that we rode cross country only two days ago, just at a slightly wider spot so I dropped the idea.

There are a number of accommodation options in Prachuap Khiri Khan.  As we arrived just after noon, we were going to look over a couple and pick the best.  As per normal, however, the first one we checked turned out good so we just took it.  We are in the Prachuap Beach Hotel with an ocean view top floor room for all of 750 baht ($21).  After cleaning up we asked the hotel staff where to eat and ended up just across the road at a local dinner where we had a fantastic Pad Thai with chicken, plus iced coffees for less than $4 total.  If nothing else, travelling in Thailand is good for the budget.

One of the things to do in Prachaup Khiri Khan is to walk up Chongkrachok Mountain, which is 245 meters at its top.  There are 396 steps to the top and from there you can see the three bays along the coastline.  There is a shrine/pagoda on the mountain and the setting is very nice.  There are many monkeys that surround the area.  We waited until the late afternoon when it cooled down to climb it.  The views were spectacular but the monkeys were downright scary.  Walking up and down we had to step over monkeys several times, with our feet only inches from them.  They seemed pretty calm but some were fighting amongst each other.  And if you slowed down or stopped to take a look at something they started toward you, anticipating food.  I was a bit silly in that I wore my sandals with exposed toes and feet.  A group of people at the top took one look at me and burst out laughing – whoops.  And back on the street after I bought some fruit from a stall at the bottom, they asked me if I had gone up in thongs – here again, nervous laughter – double whoops.  Anyway, we survived.  And our feet are fine.

We stopped at one of the two night markets for dinner.  We had fried chicken rice and fried pork rice.  Both were absolutely fantastic, so good we split a third order.  And all up the full meal cost 90 baht, or about $3.  Like I said above, Thailand is great for our budget.

Tomorrow we head to Hua Hin.  One of my former work colleagues (Chris Taylor) has a condo there.  Unfortunately, Chris and his family will be in the UK so we’ll miss them but they have graciously offered to let us use the condo all the same – thanks guys!  We’ll be taking a few days off in Hua Hin to figure out where we go next.  Before heading north we need to figure out the situation with the flooding north of Bangkok.  So, a bit of work ahead but hopefully also a bit of good relaxation.

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