» Chumpon to Pak Nam Luan Suang
Yes, we've been busy travelling. So what has happened those days after leaving Chumpon?
Two nights at Suda Guest house at Chumpon proved to be very nice to shake some of the kilometres cycled out of our bones. Chumphon is one of those underestimated towns, aparently, that people just spend a couple of hours in on the way to their visa run or one of the islands in the Gulf of Thailand, but it's actually a very nice and relaxed town, just big enough to offer most conveniences (like Slurpees at 7/11), but not too big noisy to lose the charm of the country.
Because Suda's was booked out for the upcoming night, we then moved to the place next door which was not just as spanky clean and neat, but still a good night's sleep and more of a meeting place, with the odd Australian-used-to-be-Pom hanging out there with the owner, who is also a professional coffee grinder - of all things!
The next leg of our journey took us along ASIA 41, the main route connecting Bangkok to the south. Traffic was fast, but the road wide enough to give us space for our road trains. With the clouds that come out of some of the local trucks, we also decided to wear facemasks, which are extremely popular among the people here. By the end of the day, when their colour had changed to a slight grey, we found that that was a good decision. An impressive sight is the giant Buddha that overlooks the land south of Chumphon. This gives You some impression of what a different country You're travelling.
At the Buddha's feet, a local girl came running up, asking us to help with her homework: She was to interview 25 farangs (which is what we are here - foreigners) about their travels and their liking of the Thai people, food and weather. An honorable quest indeed and we were eager to help.
Just as we were considering where to have the next meal - literally in that minute - we were beckoned to join what looked like a lively group in a busy eatery. So we parked our bikes to everyone's 'woohoo' and 'vely good!', sat down at the only free table and were instantly served with a variety of pots and pans with chicken soup, some veg, a beautiful red curry and some other things I don't remember and/or didn't recognize. With that came a big pot of rice and we were told to eat. - Something like "This is great! - I wonder how much all of tis food must be" must have been my first thought then, so we dug in, trying to chat to one guy who spoke some English on what looked like the men's table with some booze being passed around and also offered to us.
At some point I looked around and a couple of things struck me as odd. For a start there were the men drinking - not a common sight in these parts. Then there didn't seem to be a restaurant's infrastructure, like counter and staff, in place. Also, all the women were wearing dark or black dress. - And then there was of course the casket that was on display a couple of metres off with a picture of a middle-aged man and offerings of incense in front of it. Well, it turned out we had crashed the wake of a man who had just recently died in a motorcycle accident. It is very interesting to watch Yourself suddenly becoming very aware of all the hullaballoo and smiling and joking that was about in the last twenty minutes.... But this is how these people do this kind of stuff apparently. They were on their wake/feast thing, two farangs cycled by and they were invited for some food. Simple enough. - In the end we paid our respects to the deceased and left with new things to think about how different people in some places are.
By the end of the day then we found out that there was a beach near, where it is possible to camp out, so we headed there, finding a somewhat dead strip of beach that has been equipped with showers and things, but hardly any life around it. A quiet enough - if You don't count the karaoke bar - first night in a tent on the beach. And Sarah got to see the sunrise. :-)
The night wasn't as restful as it might have been in a hotel bed, but I really enjoyed having that night out even if we weren't caming in a very remote place.
The next leg of the journey was a bit shorter and we checked into a beach resort type thing early. Expensive, but the night before hadn't cost us any, so that's okay...
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