Wake up with the sound of the head monk investigating our tent, which to his surprise is mesh rather then the conventional cover (thankfully Kate has her sarong on!). We spend the next hour packing the tent away before being taken back to the head monk to say our farewells and off we go.
Still tired from yesterdays cycling we take the ride slow only to come against the worst hills of our fledgling cycling career; 10km of steep inclines that seem to last forever.
At one stage Kate dismounts the bike and declares that she has had enough and I swear she nearly hurled the bike into the forest. After a short rest, we go on, both feeling the strain now and need to eat, sleep and rest. We see a sign declaring that there is a cafe in 1km but when we reach it, it's closed for refurbishments. Kate is nearly in tears, but Mrs Yuppdee and her husband Mr Sait Dugsara (the owners) are on site to oversee the work, and save our bacon. Very generously, they bring us rice and egg, stir fried cabbage and water, which is devoured in seconds, and we are able to sleep for a while. We wake up 30 mins later, very refreshed.
We are told that the mountain range only goes on for another kilometre, and they are impressed that we have cycled the hills (we later find out that the tallest is 1350m). On our bikes again, but this time it's great – there is only one more hill and then we get our reward – 1.5km of descent and we reach speeds of 47km per hour. Not all good news though – Kate is unable to dodge a large bit of wood halfway down, but the puncture doesn't make itself known until the bottom. We finally reach Trang; it is nearly nightfall and our map is worse than awful. We seek out the police station (again) and are directed to the hostel of our choice. We will rest here for two nights.
Kilometres: 65
Total Kilometres: 970
Day 32: Trang
Day of rest. Laundry and food is all we seek. We are successful.
Kilometres: 0
Total Kilometres: 970
Day 33: Trang to Sikao
Short bike ride today over to Sikao, started off being stranded at the guest house due to rain until midday. The boy at the front desk was so concerned that we had not eaten breakfast he went out and bought us some fried banana fritters for us to eat. Rain stopped and we're off. We see our first waterfall,
and five miles south of Sikao, we reach the 1000km mark – Yippee – a tenth of the way completed!!!
When we arrive at Sikao we track down the local police station to inquire about board and lodgings for the night, however it appears there is no guest house or hotel to stay at, apart from one 7 miles south (the way we just came). We ask for a campsite and the police offer their grounds to camp on. After much discussion and a dash to get a local who speaks English the police declare that camping would be too dangerous if it rains as the ground is prone to floods so they clear out a room on the ground floor and state that we are welcome to camp in that.
Enjoyable evening spent with Bhu (Thai) and Rick (Canadian) and they supply us with sticks and doggy treats to stave off any aggressive hounds we may come across in the future!
Kilometres: 35
Total Kilometres: 1005
Day 34: Sikao to Krabi
Extremely long day for us – the 97km was tough, and the heat was beating down on us. We stopped every 15km for a break so we didn't reach Krabi until nearly dusk. In hindsight, we should have camped at a wat in Khlong Thom. The Malaysian Cycle Team however, who passed us just out of Sikao, probably got to Krabi in just 2hrs. We tried to get a photo but they were too fast for us, although they said they'd take it down a notch to 25-30km per hour if we were willing to cycle with them!!! Digs in Krabi found for 200Baht per night, best room for the price to date, and we stumble upon a travellers cafe that makes the best homemade burgers ever ever ever!
Kilometres: 97
Total Kilometres: 1102
Day 35: Krabi
We decided to spend another night in Krabi – the accommodation is cheap, clean and spacious and Kate wants another burger. We arrange to visit the island of Koh Lanta, so we'll be getting a minibus to take us there tomorrow. The bikes are left with the guest house we arranged the transport with (this was the police's idea) and we hope they'll be safe.
Kilometres: 0
Total Kilometres: 1102
Wow you two are busy bee's!! Well impressed with 1000km - that's amazing - my butt hurts thinking about it - lol.
ReplyDeleteJosie-May x x