We had an early start at 7:30 and made our way out of Saraburi. It’s nice being the only tourists wandering around town, and we enjoyed our stay – partly because the hotel had a pool. But partly because people here are so helpful. Gee, the pool was nice …
After making it to the outskirts, we realised how industrial this area is. We were soon on an ugly busy road but at least it was flat. We turned off it for a few kms but alas, we rejoined, committing to look closer at our route planning in future .Surely there was a nicer route.
The ridiculous thing was that the really busy road wasn’t the main one. That one was parallel, just a kilometre away. Next we took on the climb of the day with old trucks lumbering past us. It was hot, the dogs became interested in chasing, and the traffic increased, so we were relieved to turn off and enter the far more tranquil world of rural Thailand.
We had Nescafe in a small village, blissfully unaware that much nicer coffee shops were only a kilometre away. However, the guy running the shop was great. Sign language carried the day, and we left with bellies full of caffeine and peanut biscuits.
Next stop was Muak Lek which has a waterfall and a Cowboy market – more research required. We cooled of with a swim near the waterfall. TBH, it’s unimpressive as a waterfall. The water hardly falls more than a couple of metres, but it’s a great shady place to relax and it broke the day up nicely.
The second half of the trip was far more pleasant and we went through small villages, stopped for bananas, rerouted a little, stopped for a great lunch of noodle soup in a fantastic little local place that I didn’t even see. Luckily Miles spotted it and called out.
The last part was on a fairly major road with very little traffic, so we arrived just before 3:30pm after a pretty enjoyable 82kms.
