Wednesday 2nd March, 2011
Distance: 68km (Total: 10.740)
After last nights storm it was really misty this morning. We had breakfast at the market in Kraburi of coffee, tea, fried eggs and some deep-fried doughnut things. It was delicious and with so much other great food being cooked up in the market we were tempted to just stay there all day and eat.
A misty start to the morning.
We set off on the number 4 which was a great, winding road through the jungle with a few hills. We turned off to go take a look at a cave and after being chased by 4 dogs found ourselves on a quiet country lane with nobody around. Suddenly we heard the shouts of monkeys and just ahead of us they began to cross the road, stopping to stare at us. More and more appeared and there must have been 60 of them, some with babies clinging to their stomachs, making loads of noise and running across the road. They disappeared into the trees where they sat watching us nervously. We were both pretty excited to be seeing our first wild monkeys and sat watching them for ages but they wouldn’t come down and say hi.
One of the monkeys.
The cave turned out to be pretty impressive too. Inside we could just make out thousands of huge bats flying about and both of us emerged with shoes covered in bat poo.
The bat cave
Stick insect.
It was so humid today and we were both soaked in sweat after just a few minutes cycling. Thankfully there are plenty of places selling chilled watermelon and pineapple to cool down with. We’ve also rediscovered ice creams as they just haven’t been available in Vietnam and Cambodia.
One of many rest stops today.
Just outside Ranong we stopped for an amazing lunch at a stall run by a lovely lady. The people in Thailand are just so friendly it's great. We arrived in Ranong at 2PM after another relaxed day of cycling. This is the way to do things here - there's so much to see (and eat!), and it's so humid that there's no point rushing.
Arriving in Ranong.
After finding a bungalow we took a motorcycle taxi to the night market. Loads of amazing food and the whole town seems to go there to buy takeaway dinner. We tried a little of everything from papaya salad, dried crispy fish, curried fish eggs, grilled fish and meat kebabs and sweet coconut rice with fresh mango – delicious!
