Ko Samet to Pluak Daeng

I had an early swim and it was fantastic. The water here is quite clean and the beaches have white sand so it’s an ideal spot. A lot of the beach bars and restaurants have issues at high tide though. A few of them have to move and stack their tables and chairs to avoid the waves. Luckily, that’s been during the first half of the day while I’ve been here. I’d hate to see how they go with serving dinner and drinks when the waves get so close. Someone else’s problem.

This sculpture just screams – photograph me !

I had another rice porridge with pork for breakfast while chatting to Mark and Brigit, a German couple on holiday. They came here to escape the rain in Phuket and absolutely love Thailand. I’m sorry I had to leave to catch the ferry because they’re interesting people to talk to.

When I’d packed, I came downstairs and asked the hotel guy to arrange some transport to the Pier which is 1.3 kms away. He looked at my gear and said, ‘you don’t have much, you should walk’. Haha. I like his attitude.

So, I walked and made it in plenty of time. When I arrived on the island, I walked from the pier to the hotel, but it felt like a much longer time then.

Just made it

Of course, I waited at the pier with the wrong group of people. They were taking the slow ferry, whereas I’d paid a little extra for the fast boat. When I realised I was in the wrong place, I hurried and made it with a minute to spare.

I’d prepaid for my return ticket in an attempt to curry favour with the ticket office people, as my bike was stored in the office and I wanted them to look after it. It worked. I don’t think it had been moved a centimetre in the last 3 days. Very nice of them to do this for me.

I was off and riding by 10am after picking up some water and snacks across the road. Today’s ride was mainly through farmland, and Komoot plotted a great route through villages and along beside canals with some larger roads interspersed. The route wasn’t without issues though.

I found myself on a road with hundreds of 100-200mm holes drilled randomly, so it was hard to avoid them. I assume they are going to replace or fix it, because it looked very hollow underneath the concrete. I then had to detour around roadwork which prevented me from getting to a bridge across a canal. On the way, I rode past the biggest dog I’ve seen in Thailand and it looked at me but didn’t do anything. Phew. Others were barking though.

This was really strange

No problem, there’s another road. But it turned out to be a goat track with construction vehicles and equipment blocking it off. I’d have to go back past those dogs… and luckily they’d gone. Big sigh of relief.

Later, Komoot took me down a dead end past quite a few large dogs, all confined by their front fences. A lady told me that I had to go back as there was no way through. So I rode back past the same crazy dogs giving me a guard of honour but also wanting to tear me to shreds. Lots of noise, but it was fine until two escaped thier fence and came after me. I heard them coming, jumped off the bike and ran at them. And they both ran away. Again, another sigh of relief. It seems the bigger dogs are no braver than the smaller ones.

At that point, the smaller roads were finished for the day, which means that there were no more dog chases. As well, as it warms up, dog enthusiasm wanes – as does mine. I just love the way that in the middle of the day, some dogs will voice their disapproval by growling but can’t be bothered lifting their heads off the ground.

I stopped for lunch and had an excellent Kao Pad Moo Kai Dao, my daily staple. For some reason, it was one of the best I’ve had, and I’ve had a few. It looked the same, the ingredients would have been similar but everything about it was so tasty. I’ll only have a few more before this trip is over, so it was great to have such a nice meal.

mmmmm

And those were the highlights. As I neared Pluak Daeng, I booked the highly rated Platinum Hotel which is very nice. However, my green machine needs to stay outside but undercover. Even with 24 hour security, I’m not happy, but it all worked out.

Oh yeah, the hotel has a pool. It was cool and refreshing, just what I needed to recover.

I ventured out to the main road to find a restaurant but there was an amazing amount of dust generated by the traffic going through the roadwork outside. The result was a thick layer of grey dust throughout the first two eateries I saw. It was like being back in Laos. So I went back to 7-11, grabbed a meal, and then a papaya salad from the stall outside. All simple and dust free.

In Summary, today was much better than expected though I’m not expecting great scenery as I get closer to Bangkok.

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