Move into the country eat me lots of pineapple 13/02/2011: Trang to Krabi 140.03km

Waking up today I wasn’t feeling my best, I had a decent night sleep but had a nagging headache which I think is due to too much sun, possibly touch of sunstroke but I’m not a doctor, it stuck with me  most the  day. Setting off I got myself the perfect breakfast, rice and a soup with lots of meat then I was on my way. I had a few problems finding the road I wanted, asking for directions will only give you a general idea or the complete wrong one but eventually I found the road I needed to be on. I started with a headwind but it soon turned into a nice tail wind, the bike gods are kind. After about 30km I decided when I stopped for lunch I wanted some fruit, all I came across was the odd pineapple so I got one for 20 baht then to my joy of joys I discovered tea, it was cold but had condensed milk in it which will do for me (it was my first tea in Thailand). Carrying on maybe another kilometer or two I noticed a waterfall, being too good an opportunity to miss I turned round to check it out. Where the waterfall was coming down there was a perfect pool to go for a swim. I now decided this day was going to be a chilled out one, I’d get to Krabi when I get there. I parked the bike up ate my pineapple and went for a swim, it would have been a perfect place to camp but as I was meeting Russell in Bangkok on the 25^th I had to put in the miles. I did think about skinny dipping but my fears were justified as a few other people showed up, so was glad I put some shorts on.


On my way again I maybe cycled till about mid-day when I noticed somebody else selling iced milk tea, so again I stopped and also took advantage of the free cold water that came with it. A few hundred meters down the road I stopped again to buy some bread, I decided I would have a bit of a picnic for lunch. One thing I needed was fruit which I soon got, oranges and chopped pineapple. Now I decided to get going, between 12 and 4 the sun is so intense my new plan is to keep out of it as much as possible during these hours but today I had ground to cover to get to Krabi. I was beginning to tire and just after I past about a 1km stretch of little stalls selling nothing but pineapples I found a shelter where I had lunch, my bundle of food and a wee sleep. There was a pineapple stall next to where I’d stopped and I got a whole pineapple for 5baht (10p in real money) bargain city.

I still had 50km to Krabi but after my power sleep I felt refreshed and covered the ground in just over 2 hours, I absolutely flew, it’s amazing what a 10 minute sleep can do, I felt like Popeye after a can of spinach. Getting into Krabi it looked a pretty cool place but heavy with tourists, this is the most amount of westerners I’d seen in Thailand, once more menus were written in Thai and English, stall sellers spoke some English and I actually got have a conversation with people. It was nice but I like it more when I’m somewhere where there are less tourists and nothing is in English, it’s much more fun that way, this all seemed too easy, not truly Thai.

I had planned to go to Ko Phi Phi getting there isn’t overly expensive but if you’re going for three days, I was only planning a day or two and accommodation is well over my daily budget before I even buy food, which I have still not kept to so after Krabi i`m going to man up and camp it, so I think I will just rest up in Krabi, the place seems interesting enough. One more thing before signing off, something that I think is going to scar me for the rest of my life, after dinner I was walking back when I heard the desperate cries of a cat coming from a garage door, looking up there was a kitten desperately trying to get down. Not much of a cat person I wasn’t going to grab it down it would probably scratch me apart but it desperately wanted to get down. I fear if the door is opened without the cat being removed it will be flattened but I’m hoping this is not he case.