Blog 119 Prachuap Khiri Khan to Bangsaphan

24th January

This blog has to be in note form. So little time to compose a limerick let alone something that might have some meaning. It is raining hard, bouncing off the currugated roof of my veranda, latent big last drips as the rain suddenly goes away. First rain of the trip. Taken me by surprise. Unprepared. Set off at 8am, later than planned. Breakfast was a good idea seated in the cafe overlooking the busiest road in Thailand. Most transport travelling south from Bangkok will use this road and as I push myself off from breakfast, I engage my motor and wait for a gap in the traffic, there is, then great speed and into the nearside lane gathering pace but quickly and I'm immediately into traffic surrounded; trucks, animal transport horning on the outside lane pushing everyone up, compressing the space and it all slows behind. Push forward create a bottleneck, nice. Anything that slows. We’re all aquiver when animal transport passes and "am I sure I've been seen," sure I have as I settle down for two hours without stopping. The rain is calming.

Round the bend first sight of sea, trawlers in the bay ghosts of mountains, colour of the sea is pea green but it’s the grey of everything else that makes colour fade away, red for anger or love but for me it’s where grey meets green. They look cut out of a very compliant sky. the mountains look like they are not connected to the seabed maybe anchored to stop them drifting away but they rise almost in defiance. A car passes, a bike, sound fades to just the sea, the bird, it’s raining. Welcome to my to route in Thailand. 

But first, a coffee that looks like a Mille Fueille

Mile 12 - Shrines and gold Buddha

On my tour of Thailands back roads I came across this amazing sight of shrines as if guarding or in honour of something, someone inside the grounds and suddenly I saw the Gold Buddha, the red steps, slightly veiled vivid blue sky.

It was near Thaosaeka.

I liked the Buddha and Bike image better, it gave more clarity to why I was there; by accident but also to offer up the image of an electric bicycle on an amazing journey, this is what I gave to the Buddha as my gift.  

Pic: Buddha Bike image. Chilled theme respect to Thailand 

Contrary to usual belief I’m not here to find myself, I’m here to get lost. I'm back on the main highway, neat smooth well lined asphalt. Reservation barriers, blocks and armco and nicely without any road furniture or signs, no advertising, not a single billboard presence for anything I would know. There were simply no distractions just trees.

11.06 - suddenly. I could see a build up of vehicles passing me;  I started to count, 11 cars per min plus two trucks equals 780 an hour. 2 trucks becomes 120. The spray is so high way above my head, torrid and dangerous, wide standing water growing and I see puddled water forced out of tyres, high up I see it close up. The spray explodes at force and harder with big tread storing so much water hits me hard in my face.

Am I chilled or am I controlled.

Bran Thap Sakai - good slip road break from the expressway, make a note - 'not going back.' The Chinese cyclist will do it, it's his first run.. I caught up with him and had a brief chat over a coffee. The second cyclist from China I've met cycling on a quest, both camping.

He's called 'Ding Ding' in this life but back home he's a trained lawyer can't stand the stress, doesn't want to work all of his life for someone else's gain. So with very little money he's riding from middle China to New Zealand. he has an interesting way of packing his bike. I thought he was a cleaner at first, nipping up the road maybe to help a relative.

For a while I tailed a cycling tour group and reckoned if they were out here I was on a good route. It started to rain heavily at first then lessened but i was wet to the skin but warm then it stopped and I dried. All day - every single minute of my 8 hours riding soaked in wet rain.

Map of the Day