(written by Nancy)

We left the resort this morning before 7 with three possible destinations for the day.  But first we stopped at 7-11 for brekkie and a nice shot of espresso from the Cafe Amazon located right next door.  Many of the petrol stations here have both 7-11s and these cafes – it’s always a bonus to find them along our route.

It was foggy when we started out, which is the first time we’ve had that in Thailand.  It wasn’t too thick though and kept the temperature relatively cool, which felt nice for a change.  We had a slow climb for about the first 15k or so with a couple of pinches that had us in our granny gear.  We headed into farmland right after leaving town and the scenery was quite nice – quite a few mountains in the distance and alternating crops of rice, corn and bananas.  We also saw some plants that we think are tapioca – we have read about foreigners confusing these with marijuana and trying to stash a few leaves away.  We’ve seen small crops of these plants in many places beside the road or next to houses.  Not quit sure how you get tapioca from them though.

We moved from Suphan Buri province today into Uthai Thani province and actually saw a border sign – the first border sign we’ve seen in Thailand.  The first possible overnight stop for today was in a little town called Huai Khot, where we believed there was a hotel.  Our map showed several backroads that would take us through to the town though none were numbered and Google maps also did not identify the roads by number or name.  The turn-off to the first backroad looked to be in a little town called Hu Chang, really just a blip on the road.  We stopped to get something to eat before we headed off the main road – always better to get lost with a full stomach.  Dave found a little cart run by an Indian lady and her Burmese husband who made us a nice egg roti, which made a good snack.  The sweetened condensed milk she poured on it was probably not necessary but that’s what you do in Thailand!

It was very hard to find the backroad out of town to Huai Khot – we wandered back and forth a bit, checking Google maps until we rode past a little road that appeared to unpaved.  We rode down it just to check it out and came across a little store where some people were hanging out.  We stopped to see if we could get some confirmation that we were on the right road.  Through a bit of pointing at the map and the road one man confirmed that this was the way to Huai Khot and best of all, it was sealed all the entire way there.  So off we went, into the wilderness!  Actually it was a very nice backroad, quiet but with enough traffic that we didn’t feel like we could disappear without a trace.  The road was indeed paved most of the way, with only a few spots that were dirt or gravel – appeared to be what was left after a bit of flooding.

We stopped about 5k from Huak Khot at a little store to check our location and get something cold to drink.  A stall out front was selling fried bananas – Dave’s new favourite treat.  So of course we had to buy some, though the lady selling them ran back to the place where they were being cooked to get us some extra fresh ones.  We talked a bit with the ladies sitting at the stall – well as much as we could with our non-existent Thai and their broken English.  They did confirm there was a hotel in town and tried to give us some directions.  We rolled into town and after getting some more instructions from another helpful Thai guy we found the Dream Hotel, which unfortunately was not much of a dream.

We debated a bit about the hotel and decided to move on to our second possible destination, a guesthouse we had found on the web that we thought was about 20k further north.  The Kanchanaburi Tourist Office had called the guesthouse for us a few days ago so we knew it did exist and that it was open but it was very hard to tell exactly where it was.  We also knew that they did not serve lunch or dinner there though, so first we stopped at a stall in town and had some good noodle soup while we tried to get some directions to where we thought the guesthouse was.

Fortunately we had a flyer from the Tourism Office that listed the guesthouse name.  Unfortunately the flyer was all in Thai so we couldn’t understand it but the Tourism Office had highlighted the name of the guesthouse so that flyer became like gold as we kept showing it to people along the way to make sure we were on the right route.  We checked Google maps a couple of times to see if we were heading in what we thought was the right direction and then of course we lost mobile signal so we were on our own.

We continued along what was marked as Road 4010 (not on our map, of course, just on the road signs), hoping it was the right direction.  We knew we had to make a right turn and came to a junction where some folks were hanging out in their hammocks in front of a store.  We stopped and asked again and the fellow pointed up the road so off we went.  We ended up stopping for directions three more times as we made our way up the road – thankfully everyone we asked seemed to recognise the name of the guesthouse.  And the scenery was pretty stunning – large mountains surrounded us, most with steep rock faces.  We knew the guesthouse was near some mountains so it seemed like we were heading in the right direction.

Finally, after making another turn and winding our way past a temple we came upon the Hup Pad Tad guesthouse (they call it a homestay).  It turned out to be a lovely place – very quiet and a picturesque setting up against the mountains.  We are the only guests here and have a nice little bungalow all to ourselves.  Roomy with a nice comfy bed and a little porch with a bench.  While we unloaded our things the proprietor brought us some coffee and ice tea, and then returned with a big plate of freshly cut papaya.  Not bad!  She speaks a little bit of English so we figured out that she is a nurse in a nearby hospital and works the afternoon shift.  She said that we could cook the food we brought for dinner in their kitchen, and she will serve us breakfast in the morning.

This is a lovely spot with what looks like good hiking around the area.  It was a pretty hot afternoon and with all the stops it was about 2:30 before we arrived here so we weren’t feeling too ambitious about hiking up into the very steep hills!  I am sure we will sleep well tonight.

Very weak mobile signal here, not surprising given that we are surrounded by mountains, so we will save this to post tomorrow.

Dave’s update: Cooking dinner was great.  We had the entire crew helping and watching.  They were very kind, providing a nice burner, cooking gear, bowls, silverware and a tray to carry it all back to our room.  And to just top off their hospitality, they also gave us another plate of fresh papaya.  We’d come back here in a second, it really is a great little resort.

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