(written by Dave)

We survived the night in the not-too-flash Numsin hotel.  It was pretty quiet and we slept well.  Not much was open on Sunday morning so we were off to 7-11 for brekkie again.  And what luck, today there was Thai doughnut cart just in front.  Thai doughnuts are fresh cut dough crosses cooked to order in a big wok full of oil.  I’m pretty sure that they are just as bad as western doughnuts but they are tasty when dipped in yoghurt.

We had two choices for routes today.  One via main highway 4 that looked to be about 110k and a second one that involved lots of back roads that was 20ks shorter.  The shorter, scenic road would seem the obvious choice but this also involved lots of map checking and some unnamed roads.  Plus, many of the named roads were only noted in Thai.  Being up for an adventure, I talked Nancy into taking the back roads.  Again we had no back tracking so it was a navigational success.  The best of the road was a 20k section on the top of a river dike, unnamed and not on Nancy’s map.  We could see some of the recent flood damage and there was very little traffic.

The scenery today was nice as well.  We had a cloud cover and on/off rain for much of the day.  This made the persistent rice fields seem even more verdant green.  I can’t seem to capture how green they look in a photo but I’ll keep trying.  We also saw lots of wats today.  Some of them are noted on our map with names.  Many are just town wats and not listed.  Wat Tham Suea and Wat Ban Tham were particularly beautiful.  Though the nice workout course in front of one of the unnamed wats was equally entertaining.

We only stopped once today for water and food.  Being back roads, we had fewer big servos.  So today we settled for fresh fried bananas from one of the many roadside stands.  The women  cooking spoke no English but more than made up for it with their enthusiasm.  In fact, it was their eager shouts of hello that lead us to pick their stand.

We had to cross the River Kwai on the way into town.  It is very full, though seems to have a ways to go before flooding (don’t take my word on it, I’m certainly no expert!).  The canal sides on the dike road had quite a bit of damage but water was not near the top.  From the news it seems as though the major concern is now in areas south of where we will be riding next.

Once in town we stopped at a cafe for lunch.  Having a little shorter ride and getting lunch before 1-o’clock makes everyone a lot happier.  I think 80-90k would be our ideal daily distance on a trip of this length.  There are many guesthouses here in Kanchanaburi so we had to pick one.  We always say that we are going to have a look at a couple them pick the best, yet we end up taking the first one we stop at.  Well, today was no exception.  We have ended up at Ploy Guesthouse – it is quite nice and right in the middle of town.  It has an “outdoor” bathroom but best of all it has a separate shower and toilet area.

We are taking non-riding day here tomorrow to check out the tourist sites.  There are a couple museums, the River Kwai bridge and the war cemetery.  I’m sure that we won’t cover everything but we’ll do what we can.  I’m looking forward to the bridge, even though it is not completely real.  We can see it from the roof-top deck at our guesthouse.  It is kind of weird to think that only 65 years ago so much suffering took place in the area.  I’m sure tomorrow we’ll get that feeling a lot.

For dinner we hit the hawker stalls just in front of the guesthouse.  We had a red and green curry, plus a hand-full of hot-off-the-grill satays.  Nancy wanted to eat in a restaurant but the smoke coming off the BBQ was to much to overcome.  Say what you will about street food, it is great to be able to watch them prepare it for you on the spot.  We would probably never considered it prior to this trip, now it seems to be our (well mine at least) favourite.

Check back tomorrow for report on the WWII sights.

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