January 15, 2006
January 15th.
Summary: We awoke early, hit some snakes, saw a good sunrise, lost and found my notebook, made it to Nakhon Si Thammarat and found a hotel without porn.
I like it when a plan works!!! Last night we went to bed early and awoke at 4am. We loaded our bags and had a breakfast of banana and peanut butter sandwiches. We hit the road at 5:30am in the dark and had to use our lights. Something neither one of us thought of was the presence of snakes on the road side to soak up heat from the pavement during the cool morning hours. Riding out of town we would catch a glimpse of a snake enjoying his morning just before being hit by bike tires of some rather alarmed cyclists. As a result of my fear of snakes I suggested we ride further off the shoulder in hopes they did not move to far out into the road. Whenever a car would pass I would use its lights to scan the shoulder for snakes and some were rather big and scary. Fortunately riding further from the shoulder worked and we did not run over anymore.
The sunrise was really pretty and I think Jodi really enjoyed seeing one (she likes to sleep in and seldom arises early enough to enjoy their beauty). She would stop now and then to take pictures and was constantly saying "look now". Something about sunrises along the coast with palm trees and beaches seems magical and I was glad to be a part of it. In addition to the snakes we saw some monks walking down the road and we commented that they were up pretty early and we began to speculate what they were doing and did throughout the day.
At the 60km point, our butts, hands and wrists hurt so we decided to have some lunch. As usual we could not find any stalls after seeing them all morning but kept riding for another 10km (9:30am). The woman running the stall made us a really good soup with rice noodles, beef and pork. We picked around the meat and both enjoyed another really good Thai meal (We like the food here very much). After paying we continued on our bikes and about 5km down the road a woman pulled up along side us holding my notebook. I left it on the table and the woman discovered it and tracked us down to return it. I was glad she found us because it contains my cheat sheets for saying various things in Thai. I tried to pay her but she would not accept, so I tried to thank her in Thai while putting my hands together under my chin and bowing my head. She understood and smiled.
We arrived in Nakhon Si Thammarat at 10:45am. Jodi wanted to find some accommodation immediately to get out of the heat but I couldn’t because I needed to pee so badly that I couldn’t go looking without wetting myself. She noticed a Tourist Authority Thailand (TAT) office down a side road and suggested we go there. I pulled up parked my bike as fast as I could and ran inside to discover they had a great restroom. Meanwhile Jodi talked with a woman inside and received some really good beta on hotels and getting around. Next using the TAT map we found some accommodation at the Thai hotel (no free porn). The room was nice with a king size bed, body pillow and air conditioning. I did some laundry while Jodi checked our finances. We then finished the last of our bananas, bread and peanut butter and lay around a bit enjoying the cool indoors. Tonight we will most likely go to the night market since we both like the food but we might try a restaurant that is pretty popular.
Tomorrow we will check out the Wat Mahathat since our guide book says "Missing out Wat Mahathat would be like going to Rome and not visiting St. Peter’s." I would also like to visit the shadow puppet factory to see a show. I also need to find a bike store early in the day to fix a tweak in my rear wheel.
Summary: We awoke early, hit some snakes, saw a good sunrise, lost and found my notebook, made it to Nakhon Si Thammarat and found a hotel without porn.
I like it when a plan works!!! Last night we went to bed early and awoke at 4am. We loaded our bags and had a breakfast of banana and peanut butter sandwiches. We hit the road at 5:30am in the dark and had to use our lights. Something neither one of us thought of was the presence of snakes on the road side to soak up heat from the pavement during the cool morning hours. Riding out of town we would catch a glimpse of a snake enjoying his morning just before being hit by bike tires of some rather alarmed cyclists. As a result of my fear of snakes I suggested we ride further off the shoulder in hopes they did not move to far out into the road. Whenever a car would pass I would use its lights to scan the shoulder for snakes and some were rather big and scary. Fortunately riding further from the shoulder worked and we did not run over anymore.
The sunrise was really pretty and I think Jodi really enjoyed seeing one (she likes to sleep in and seldom arises early enough to enjoy their beauty). She would stop now and then to take pictures and was constantly saying "look now". Something about sunrises along the coast with palm trees and beaches seems magical and I was glad to be a part of it. In addition to the snakes we saw some monks walking down the road and we commented that they were up pretty early and we began to speculate what they were doing and did throughout the day.
At the 60km point, our butts, hands and wrists hurt so we decided to have some lunch. As usual we could not find any stalls after seeing them all morning but kept riding for another 10km (9:30am). The woman running the stall made us a really good soup with rice noodles, beef and pork. We picked around the meat and both enjoyed another really good Thai meal (We like the food here very much). After paying we continued on our bikes and about 5km down the road a woman pulled up along side us holding my notebook. I left it on the table and the woman discovered it and tracked us down to return it. I was glad she found us because it contains my cheat sheets for saying various things in Thai. I tried to pay her but she would not accept, so I tried to thank her in Thai while putting my hands together under my chin and bowing my head. She understood and smiled.
We arrived in Nakhon Si Thammarat at 10:45am. Jodi wanted to find some accommodation immediately to get out of the heat but I couldn’t because I needed to pee so badly that I couldn’t go looking without wetting myself. She noticed a Tourist Authority Thailand (TAT) office down a side road and suggested we go there. I pulled up parked my bike as fast as I could and ran inside to discover they had a great restroom. Meanwhile Jodi talked with a woman inside and received some really good beta on hotels and getting around. Next using the TAT map we found some accommodation at the Thai hotel (no free porn). The room was nice with a king size bed, body pillow and air conditioning. I did some laundry while Jodi checked our finances. We then finished the last of our bananas, bread and peanut butter and lay around a bit enjoying the cool indoors. Tonight we will most likely go to the night market since we both like the food but we might try a restaurant that is pretty popular.
Tomorrow we will check out the Wat Mahathat since our guide book says "Missing out Wat Mahathat would be like going to Rome and not visiting St. Peter’s." I would also like to visit the shadow puppet factory to see a show. I also need to find a bike store early in the day to fix a tweak in my rear wheel.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 11:59 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home