Early the next morning we start towards the south. The morning sun conjures up a wonderful light on the fishermen’s huts and river mouths and makes the numerous “Wat” temples glitter. From now on we follow the sea, which we hardly see, because the road and the sea are separated by wide salt fields. The landscape is still largely a disc world, the road is mostly straight and incredibly wide and the ride is somewhat… uneventful. Bushes and single coconut trees, a rooster for a change and now and then a car. Clearly a stretch of road to indulge us once again the headphones and some music. The rather monotonous ride is interrupted by fried bananas and tarot roots at another punky temple in a fishing village and a long afternoon at our first Thai beach. At a small pub we order a papaya salad-no spicy-and after the first few bites have to reject it somewhat sheepishly as our noses run, mouths burn and eyes drip. Here, the coast is still largely untouched by international tourism. The numerous resorts and restaurants probably primarily lure the weekend bangkokers out of their homes. We cool off a bit in the lukewarm sea, keep an eye out for a place to spend the night, and finally settle down near the pub by the few trees. Our second attempt with the hammocks starts. While Louie is slightly frustrated experimenting with the different tension levels, I soon decide to sleep on one of the low beach tables. We don’t have any more mats, but with our clothes bags we can cushion the hard ground a bit. Finally a breeze has come up and cools us down a bit. Louie tests out, curses, hangs up again, tests out, curses again and finally he packs the hammock into a bag and lies down next to me on the table. We doze off and the wind gets stronger. Finally the bicycles have to serve as wind protection, but the sleep remains restless. We wrap scarves around our heads to avoid catching cold in the gusts, turn our faces away from the wind and keep trying to sleep. A few hours later we are awakened by a new problem. The wind has died down and with it the natural insect protection. My feet, legs and arms are already itching and so I pick myself up and rummage out our mosquito net, string and clamps. Eventually the construction holds and a few more hours of sleep become possible.
We are rewarded for the nightly efforts by a refreshing morning swim in the sea and a funny encounter with the local racing cyclists. Today, the route is uneventful and we are quite happy that we only have a little over 40 kilometers to ride. Today we aim for Paul, an Australian-born Warmshower host who lives near Cha-am. He and his Thai wife have built a great home out of shipping containers, train dogs professionally, run a touring guide business and are keen cyclists. Finally we can ask someone questions about this sometimes somewhat inaccessible country, about the unpronounceable language, politics, route ideas, food and and and.
Towards evening we drive back in the car to Cha-am, where Paul invites us to his favorite restaurant. Oh- we feel like kings: The menu in English and a food selection we haven’t seen in a long time. There’s wood-fired pizza for Louie and a potato gratin with salad for me. Paul also urges us to have a dessert and so we spoon a crème brûlée and a chocolate mousse into ourselves afterwards with much relish. Yummy! Actually, we don’t miss the “western” food at all. The different foods and especially preparation methods in the various cultures are among the highlights of our trip. However, since we are traveling in Thailand without a stove, our diet and thus a large part of our well-being is in foreign hands. We also look for sacks largely in vain: in the countless 7/11 outlets there is little that we would seriously call food. The only useful things are the half-liter soy milk packets that we enjoy every now and then as a cold refreshment. Somewhat unexpectedly, it has proven very difficult to eat a (majority) vegetarian diet in Thailand. The omnipresent meat (-like) and also the Thai “spicy” often exceeds our limits of tolerability. So it happens quite often that we walk hungry from stall to stall, only to end up eating a fried rice with vegetables and egg or a bowl of noodle soup with three green leaves in it. If we are lucky, we meet the famous Thai food markets and there is always something delicious to be found.
We decide to shorten the next 300 kilometers south along the coasts with a night train. So we have another relaxing day in Cha-am with Paul, with office, route planning, trip to the beach and great food market, before we say goodbye late in the evening and head to the train station.
Most trains here have a baggage car and so transporting our bikes is no problem at all. Traveling in third class means a night spent sitting up with rickety ceiling fans bringing some movement to the sticky tropical air.
At dawn, we finally pull into Champhon, a town just where Thailand widens again a bit on the map to the south. At a small stand next to the train station we are greeted by friendly faces and immediately invited to coffee, tea and fried dough lumps. A wonderful start to a somewhat overtired day. The obligatory layer of sunscreen is applied and we are already pedaling towards the west coast of Thailand. From now on we drive on an unbelievably wide main road, which eats its way in big waves into the hilly border area to Burma.
This single main road seems like a lifeline connecting the small settlements in the dense forest to the rest of the world. The hills and the road are lined again and again by palm oil and rubber forests. Already today we reach the wide border river, which forms a natural border between Thailand and Burma. The country on the other side of the river seems incredibly distant despite the short distance. Behind the settlement, dense, wild forest covers the hills. No roads, no plantations or other human interventions can be seen. I wonder how they are doing, the Burmese over there? We drive into the night and, after the bumpy train ride and the long day, treat ourselves to a chilled accommodation, which gives us a welcome break from the humidity.
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