Chumpon
Our hostess with the mostess in Kra Buri had asked us if we wanted breakfast in the morning. We said sure, and told her we’d be ready at 6am. Unfortunately our alarm malfunctioned and we didn’t wake up until 6:20! We rushed out and found her waiting for us…we felt awful for having her get up so early with us still sleeping. Oops. She served us each a sunny-side up egg, some toast with jam, cheese slices (first time we’ve seen these in Thailand!) yogurt, instant coffee, and tiny green oranges. It was all very good, but cost a bit more than we’d expected. Oh well, she was so friendly and we were happy to give her some extra business.
We started the day a little later than usual – around 7am. We knew we had 65km to cover and had heard from the Thai bike group that it would be mostly flat which was very nice. The morning started out with extremely dense fog. When Jamie was only 15 ft ahead of me I could just barely see him.
We rode through the Isthmus of Kra today, which is the most narrow point of Thailand. We rode right alongside the river that divides Thailand from Burma, which means we were only 100m from Burma! We stopped and took some pictures, of course:
Jamie with Burma in the background:
Burma:
Me with the Kra Isthmus sign in the background:
Myanmar (Burma) only 100 meters away! Who knows what the rest of the sign says:
We stopped for a Pepsi halfway through the day for a short rest in the shade. Another hour later I felt like I was being roasted alive. It was SO hot and whenever the breeze started it didn’t feel refreshing – it felt exactly like I was riding in a convection oven. I’m not exaggerating at all. We stopped at another roadside restaurant for another rest in the shade. My limited Thai came in handy because I was able to understand that two dishes contained fish and the other was pork. We tried one fish dish, one pork, and then Jamie ordered a small whole roasted fish (skin, eyes, everything intact) coated in chills and spices. He loved it, here’s a picture:
We arrived in Champon at 11:30am and started our search for a guesthouse. Then Jamie’s back tire went flat again!!! Ack! Some guys on a moped showed us where the guesthouses in town were – we walked along behind them due to the flat tire that we didn’t feel like fixing. They seemed a little odd, like they were leading us on a long ride to some obscure guesthouse that they’d get paid for, so we thanked them for their help and said goodbye. We checked into our cheapest guesthouse yet – only $4 and change! We’ll spend the rest of the evening exploring Chumpon. Looks like there’s a big night market which promises lots of tasty food.
Fun Fact: I am drinking a beer as I write this and I just took a drink from my glass and felt something weird on my lip. It was a fly, trying to crawl up my lip in order to avoid being swallowed. So gross!