26th January
Accommodated in a fabulously eccentric tree lined resort right next to the highway. Fella at the desk with his long hair and thick spectacles almost jumped in the air with glee with asked for a room. This was a proper hire for the whole night and not just 3 hours as is what happens in these places. I was in as I am every night. I get into my room just in time. I cannot ride any further.
It rained all the next morning until 1pm but I left my room at 7am and within a minute I was soaked to the skin in rain as thick as the jungle. Then later it was drier, my long sleeved tee shirt is drying, yellow raincoat off to get moving air to everything, I have no other clothes than what I’m wearing. It’s a lifestyle thing. It's a lightweight thing. It's lazy. It's not needing.
I wait patiently at a wide slow junction. A bike goes past me, straight through no looking no helmet. Then I rode across gingerly, not quite clipped in but I'm heavin'. The next junction I stop and look to my side to see a stall selling bags of snakes.
Snakes in a Bag
Cafe Amazon is my slightly grubby roadside shrine, always hidden at the back next to the public conveniences. The forecourt is busy, cars coming in to fuel. A perimeter to of Coconut trees because the jungle has closed in again and I am closer to real Thailand. I took the split off 4191 and eventually the 4117 running south but a short way from the main highway. I watched a temple monk in orange robes and glasses rake the lawn. It's about small things then suddenly you ride around a corner and red cliffs stand up above the jungle in the way you might see a small kingdom.
Red Cliffs in the Jungle
Bike Still Going Strong - just having a little rest
Don’t know any other way to say but so much of what I see from the road is repetitive. I've seen it before several times a day. More than that. The roadside is starting to look very similar to all the others roadsides.
5.20pm sun setting, calm, greyed out black top, last years asphalt. Shadows but no sheen.
Got in before it got dark, hotel on right, bike in lobby, market round the corner by the river. Done.
Map of the Day
Postcard from Home
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