30/3/25
We woke up at the usual 5:45am. We had started to notice that sunrise seemed to be getting earlier. We ate some rice with a red fleshed dragonfruit we’d forgotten about for a couple of days. We weren’t interested in the free, greasy, breakfast. We soon said goodbye to the friendly German, who was whimsically flying all over Thailand, and set off into the muggy sky.
We rode past the usual market stalls that always lined smaller city roads. The route mapy.cz had produced had us taking smaller winding roads but we soon crossed over to a busy causeway. We were heading east in a perfectly straight line, the wind blowing directly in our faces both for better and for worse.
When we could see the surface improving across the canal, we crossed onto the quieter parallel track. It was still noisy because we could see and hear the traffic but it was less intense. Soon we took some tiny back roads and glid through little villages observing the many goings on.
Once we hit the 3043 there was more traffic again. A coach went past with its engine door engine open. Another went past on the far side of the road, black smoke pouring out of the back. They were probably trying to do us a favour. The road had a lot of foliage, beautiful trees and flowers, for a change. Our route was taking us away from the busy roads whenever possible. Ban Phran Nok was a tiny place with a huge monument to king Taksin.
We were on one of the nicest roads we’d cycled on. Easy rolling tarmac, farm fields all around us and not a single one on fire. There were barely any cars. We did end up on some roads that at home would give us calls for concern. But they don’t drive at 60 miles an hour here. No one does. A rare motorbike maybe and the odd pickup truck being a dick. But nine times out of ten they’re travelling at 40 miles an hour and even when they have right of way they always let us go. It’s hard to understand why people think that riding in Thailand is unsafe.
The rice paddies actually looked beautiful. Lots of lovely birds pecking around. It was hard to accept that they’re actually bad for the environment. After passing a place called ‘industrial land’, the busy road led us to a town. We stopped for some fried tofu, banana, pineapple and taro. We managed to cross the road and then the river, and ate our treats in a weird concrete shelter.
When we headed south out of the town, we stayed on the quieter side of the canal, to avoid the traffic, before we returned to heading east again. As it was Sunday there were lots of locals either fishing or sitting by the river having a picnic. If there heard us, they gave us a hearty hello.
We crossed a bridge onto yet another deathly straight road. It went on forever, there were shops and a random meat smoker saluted us. We tried to break up the monotony. We stopped at a temple. It was playing very loud music. We don’t quite understand how their religiousness works. We managed to book a hotel and then swiftly escaped the thumping beats. It was too much for Jonathan.
We turned right onto the 3007. Briefly concrete, it turned into what was just a gravelly dirt track. There were plenty of cars still going up and down but no surfacing. It was like that for a few kilometres. We then turned left onto the 2024. A wide dual carriageway with zero traffic and a big shoulder.
We stopped for some water. Then we turned off towards the main highway on yet another endlessly straight road. A truck went past sporting the Union Jack on the back, surrounding the number plate. It was the second time we’d seen that today.
At the end of the road was a 7-eleven. We bought some ice cold water and tipped in a sachet of electrolytes. A market was being set up outside, next to the busy 33. We bought a mango with some gelatinous rice and some sweet red banana. We’d already bought coconut milk but they gave us bags of goopy liquid to accompany the sticky rice too.
Next door was a lotus supermarket. We popped in to find some tofu, successfully, and bought some kimchi and palm dates. These looked to be local dates at last. Riding against the traffic for a few hundred metres we found a hole in the reservation for u-turning, cautiously but bravely crossed, and carried on a further 3km to Peeranon resort.
A young woman checked us in. We’d booked ahead, taken in by the ‘discount’ agoda offered. But on arrival we found it was cheaper just to turn up. Only by £3 though. The room was spacious and comfortable. Fridge, kettle and big tv. On top of the necessities like the bed and air conditioning. We had a shower after we’d unpacked the bikes. Then we heard some pattering on the tin roof.
It had started raining. Jonathan pulled the bikes up the stairs onto the porch. The rain was strangely heavy. Not hard, but huge drops of water. It was coming in sideways so the porch didn’t help at all. We covered them with the tarp again. A really helpful piece of kit.
We went out for some food, but the restaurant opposite was now closed. We walked to the end of the road, all the while listening to continuous rumbles of thunder, where there was a supermarket. Just for the excursion really. A bag of nuts, a tin of rambutans in syrup and some pineapple jam biscuits. When we got back we ate the ‘tofu’ with kimchi. It’s not actually tofu we realised. Soy protein and soy bean oil. We thought it was a little too rubbery.
We ate our food while watching the apprentice. Some red banana sticky rice, then mango sticky rice while we watched years and years. Planning our route for the next day was trickier than we’d like. Coming north to Ayutthaya had thrown all our plans to follow the coast out of whack.
Surly They Won't Make It 