There were some uphills today. Nothing spectacular, but I doubt that I’ve been up any hills since getting to Song Cau in Vietnam.
I headed into Aranyaprathet for a coffee and a very early second breakfast (after this morning’s muesli). So nice, that I didn’t want to leave but realised that there were more than 90kms to get to Soi Dao.
Leaving Aranyaprathet was simple and I was soon into farmland on some very quiet flat roads. Throughout the day, there were plenty of food options along the way – which avoided the main road until I reached Soi Dao.
I stopped for a coffee and a snack at a roadside place. It looked so nice and relaxing, I simply couldn’t ride past. It had a large slab table and bench seats under a shady tree. When I left, I got some barbecued banana from the stall in front. Lovely people. They wanted to know about my trip, where I was heading etc. I couldn’t help but think how polite and softly spoken they were compared to the last six weeks.
The rest of the ride took me through farmland with lots of fruit trees etc. I made a couple of stops for some food – had to have my first Pad Kapao Moo back in Thailand – and a bag of Paw Paw which was quickly demolished.
I arrived in Soi Dao and was quietly surprised at how developed the place was. I’d expected a very small town, but here, there were supermarkets and restaurants etc. The hotel was a couple of blocks back and it’s great. The lady running it is a scream. She speaks no English but managed to explain about a 100THB deposit through sign language. I want her on my Charades team. She also didn’t stop giggling the whole time.
Dinner was around the corner at a quiet restaurant. Most of the time it was just me and twenty mosquitoes there, but it filled up towards the end.