16/3/25
We left the hotel early as always. Despite being the only people there when we arrived, it was now seemingly full of people. A Thai man next door started rolling up a cigarette with his coffee. We had met one small cockroach in the bathroom in the morning but other than that it was a perfectly pleasant place.
We left on the highway, but we were looking for the gap in the central reservation so we could U-turn and head west to the hills. Once we’d managed to turn off we stumbled upon some coconut pancakes. The sellers were far too frantic. There were no other customers and we just wanted to try and translate what the small cubes of potential filling were. We think they were taro but we weren’t sure. Neither were we sure if we ended up with them or not.
We were heading down a nice small road with a few potholes. Not sure how they form here, there aren’t exactly freeze-thaw cycles. There was also a crap load of dogs who would not stop harassing us. Far too many to shout ‘no’ loudly at. At least one local was trying to assist us from their scooter.
The giant red Sun was quickly rising and becoming a less appealing yellow. The concrete road passed fields of pineapples and coconuts. We even saw a chipmunk. We realised we were cycling through a network of almost perfectly rectangular farm fields. Perhaps like allotments. As we headed away from highway 4 the road was taking gently, but noticeably, uphill.
We stopped to wolf down our delicious coconut pancakes, they had chives, but no taro. We turned onto the 1042, the parallel road that serves as an alternative to highway four. It was a long and dusty straight road. They were digging up both sides of it to install some kind of concrete drainage. There’s a huge amount of road improvement happening in Thailand.
By 8am we’d covered 20km. Though the road undulated, we heading predominantly down. Past fields of mangoes and pineapples. It was a nice easy-going road. Sunday morning was a good time to ride in Thailand too. The fields turned into more and more pineapple plants. We were riding in pineapple country for sure. The road was suddenly brand new. We had had no idea whether to expect a track or a sealed surface as we followed a drainage canal north. On the other side was a track where the occasional 4×4 effortlessly raced along creating plumes of dust.
When we met the 1002 we turned left to head back into the hills. We bought a can of schweppes blood orange. Then started heading gently uphill again, into a sort of dead end. It was an interesting road with many settlements. Plenty of people selling bits and bobs. And a pineapple sorting facility. We’d now covered 50 km and it was only 9:30am. Today was scheduled to be pretty hot and we were hopeful that we could find somewhere to stay early on.
We were coming up to a reservoir, hopefully not one of dogs. The road carried on climbing. An annoying climb, more like a false flat. We were having to work really hard but it didn’t feel steep. We went through some odd looking gates that hadn’t been shut in a very long time.
The hill never seemed to end. When we finally reached the town it was not what we’d expected. The settlements were spread out and it was still uphill. The last 2km was nicely broken by a trip to what we could only describe as a mango sorting facility. Though we attempted to buy them, we were gifted four mangoes of differing ripeness. What a treat. After one last undulation we finally arrived at what we’d identified as the fanciest resort in town.
It went by the name Little Swiss and at first we couldn’t see anything fancy at all. But up the track were several, very new, white cabins. After the woman greeted us she showed us the 1300 baht offering, and we almost said yes, but thought we may as well look at the 1500 baht room. If we were going to spend a little more than usual we’d go all in and take the nice view with the balcony.
We headed out to get some food and we hadn’t got far when we realised we’d left all our rinsed clothes drying on a metal rail in the Sun. Jonathan turned around and went back. After saving the clothes from certain molten stickiness, Jonathan was walking back to find Frankie, who’d bought some little purple cornstarch cakes in a market just off the road, when our host arrived in a pick up truck tooting. She picked him up, the cab was incredibly well air conditioned despite its age, and then drove after Frankie. She took us to an incredible restaurant where she managed to secure us the most delicious vegan pad Thai we’ve ever had. The restaurant wasn’t even on google maps.
Pleasantly satiated by the huge amount of nuts that we’ve been blessed with amongst the sticky noodles. Our host, who’d whiled the time talking to her friends, promptly drove us back. We spent a relaxing hour in our cabin eating some mango and enjoying our balcony avec view. We were due to be picked up at 3:30 to go to the wildlife observatory station in Kui Buri National Park. Once again our host secured us a great deal. Only an extra 100 baht than normal and we would be picked up by a driver, taken to the park, then returned.
Our driver arrived perfectly on time. We’d donned trousers just in case. We didn’t want to be bugged by bugs. He drove fast down the road to the national park. It was an incredibly novel experience. We’d never enjoyed the thrill of being powered into the wind that quickly while the beat down on us. Every time we slowed down, our skin started feeling a bit weird.
Our host had given all our money to the driver to sort out the tickets. It was 200 baht each to enter the park. Then an additional 950 for the driver and truck. Despite the signs, suggesting it was a mere 30 baht, it wasn’t possible to use your own vehicle or bicycle. We already knew from google reviews, but there was a man inside the ticket office arguing about it.
We rented two pairs of binoculars for 100 baht each. We also knew that given the nature of the park we would want them. Our shoes and the tyres of the truck were treated to a protective water bath and then a young woman who would serve as our ‘guide’ also got in. She barely said anything without prompting the whole time. We only learnt there were about 300 elephants in the park.
It quickly became fairly obvious why no one could use their own vehicle. The track was vigorously rutted and rocky. It was also a journey of around 7km deep into the jungle. Thank god we didn’t try to cycle. We passed a couple of other trucks with tourists aboard but saw no wildlife on the way to viewpoint 3. But when we arrived there were hordes of trucks on the hill.
We’d deliberately elected to come as late as possible. Elephants don’t come out in the hot Sun. Fortunately it has also clouded over slightly. Our guide encouraged us off the truck quickly and to our delight we immediately laid eyes on elephants. Fantastic. We were very glad we had rented the binoculars. It would be hard to see anything in detail without. The munching herd was a good kilometre away.
We hung around for as long as we could just staring in the binoculars looking at the elephants. Occasionally the sound of branches being wrenched off the trees by their trunks was audible. What a great sound. There were also some bison on the hillside. If it weren’t for the elephants stealing the show they would be just as a fantastic spectacle too. It was a very enjoyable hour or so before we headed back into the truck.
We were then taken to viewpoint 2 where there were a few bison, even closer this time. We didn’t linger long. Finally, we reached viewpoint one. There was a lone elephant surrounded by bison. The latter appeared to be trying to find water, but there really wasn’t much. It was here we realised that Frankie’s binoculars were broken. She wasn’t seeing double because of a conflict with her glasses! We stayed here as long as we could, enjoying the view, but our guide seemed to be getting impatient. Soon enough we were flying back towards Little Swiss.
We got dumped back off at our little cabin and sat outside on the balcony having a cup of the bean tea. It’s a weird beverage we picked up at the vegetarian restaurant a couple of days ago. Frankie likened it to drinking the water in a can of kidney beans albeit with a little brown sugar. It sounds awful but it wasn’t disgusting. After the Sun had set behind the hills we stayed up a bit later than normal. We ate some fruit and snacks. Watched some television. We wouldn’t be getting up as early the next day. We couldn’t believe it.
Surly They Won't Make It 