Another late start but it’s a shortish 50+kms to Paksan. I also had a massive fried rice and egg for breakfast and food like this takes time. I’d hate to rush it 😁.
The restaurant a couple of doors down the dusty main road has really looked after me. I doubt I’ve eaten two meals this big in Asia. Do I look hungry and skinny ?
The roadwork here is interesting (stay with me). They are putting in some big drainage channels – they’ve got 40 guys standing around and one cement mixer, so they all watch as the concrete is poured, then two guys get to work shovelling, and the rest wait for the next batch and watch it being poured. It’ll take weeks.
The T&M guesthouse was quite nice, even though they never managed to find the key to my room. Lucky I’m the trusting type and nobody tried to open my door while I was out.
The aircon unit was massive and sounded like a truck, but the controls for it, were fixed to the wall about 2.5m up. I had to stand on a table to change the temp !
So, to the ride – the roadwork stopped immediately I left Thabok and I had a nice 10kms of cycling but then it all started again. I had my now daily gravel ride, navigating the roadworks and side paths. I rode on the side when I could because of the truck traffic. Trouble was that they were working on it as I was riding, so I had to dodge graders and steam rollers and at one point the surveyors were yelling at me to get back on the main road.
I passed a touring cyclist going the other way and slowed down to talk, but he just kept going and waived. I felt rejected 😁 but a couple of kms later another appeared, and it was Kob from Thailand. We stopped and talked about each other’s trips. He’s a great guy just out and about on a tour for a few weeks. It’s always great to meet fellow tourers or bikepackers.
That was about as exciting as it got until I saw a large Buddha statue between trees. As I was taking the photo a lady rode past on a bike and turned a boring picture into something more interesting. It’s the photo at the top of this post. So, please don’t think I waited 20 mins for her to turn up 😁
I rolled into Paksan to the recommended hotel and it’s very nice. Not one word of English makes checking in fun. It’ll be really boring the next time I check into a hotel in Australia.
Paksan itself was another dusty place. I shouldn’t complain as it’s better than the mud that others have ridden through. It’s only my lungs that disagree.
I went to the bakery down the road (JJ Bakery), and each time I got up to order something else, they gave me the bill. No, No, I want a smoothie this time. They couldn’t believe that I would consume a large coffee, fried rice, a smoothie and cake, but any touring cyclist will tell you that it’s normal 😁. By the way, JJ’s was very nice, and after seeing the rest of the main town, it’s a standout.
