Sunday

Today was our last big day of biking. Tomorrow we’ll complete the 45km into Krabi and then just use the bikes around the islands that we’re going to visit next. We left the riverside bungalow at Khao Sok around 6:30am and rode for about 20km before finding a roadside place for breakfast of pineapple and some sweet, milk-like drink. In another 20km, we found waffles again! Corn and raisin this time. I also bought this sandwich-looking item that turned out to be crunched up peanuts with lots of sugar between thick spongy bread/cake slices. Quite tasty.

The morning was cool, misty, and generally overcast. The karst mountains that we passed rose up through the mists and were quite picturesque. Our pictures probably won’t do them justice, but you’ll get the idea. We rode back roads (or is it Backroads?) today. The shoulders were narrower and the roads were a bit bumpy at times, but nothing too painful. The traffic was sparse except for a brief section out of Thap Put, where we were on Route 4 again. Unlike out of Chumphon, down here, Route 4 is a major highway – still with very wide shoulders.

To break up the pleasant, peaceful biking a bit, the dogs had arranged various greetings for us. Usually there was just the curious stare. Sometimes barking would follow. A few dogs had obviously had their Wheaties for breakfast and were looking for more fun. They usually chased us when there were two of them. One chase involved a pair of barkless dogs, which was interesting for a change of pace. As the statistics show below, the most aggressive chase was from a dog we’ll call Sprinter, who achieved a speed of about 40kph. He was moving. His partner didn’t have nearly the energy for that pursuit. I had read that they tend to chase the last person, but in this case, they chose Caroline, who was in the lead. Perhaps all of the stuff on my bike made it look too overwhelming.

Tonight we are at Ao Luek at a bungalow place next to a small creek and surrounded by several karst outcroppings.

Caroline’s stats:

Time spent riding: 5hr 22min
Distance: 112.6km
Average speed: 20.9km/h
Max. speed: 49.0km/h
Bike shoe tan line rating: 6 (out of 10)
Sore butt index: 1.5 (out of 10)
Snake sightings: 1 very long, very quick snake
Monkeys hitching a ride in the back of a truck: 2
Dog chases: 4 (1 of which reached speeds of over 40km/h)
Pad thais consumed thus far: 6