Three Days Later... Trat

The last time I wrote in this I remember I was sitting on Ko Sichang thinking about all the kilometers I had to cycle to get to Cambodia before my visa ran out. And here I am, about 75km from the border. Mission "almost" accomplished. I will try to recount the last three days to the best of my ability. Here is goes...

I wake up... SHIT! Its 530am and my ferry leaves at 6. I look around my cheap room and gear is lying all over the place. Of course I didn't get ready to leave last night. I am up in an instant. Things get picked up and thrown in panniers in no regular order. I am jumping on my cycle as fast as I can in about 10 minutes.  I stop in at 7/11 to grab a quick coffee and little pastry breakfast. I am back on my bike and heading towards the pier. I notice everything is still dead, there are no lights on any of the boats. I see a Thai man loading some stuff onto a boat, that can't be the ferry. I motion that I want to get on a ferry to get me off this island. He motions across the bay to another harbor... Jesus Christ! So off I am again racing with full speed. I look at my watch, 5:50, I race onto the pier and I see a boat. I still doubt that that can be the ferry. There are some Thai men aboard a boat. I say in a rushed tone "Ferry?" The look at me and point to the harbor like 100m away. They say something in Thai as I'm swearing and turning my bike around. I look at my watch, its like 2 minutes until 6. I bike, and bike, until I see the ferry. They blow the whistle and I yell something. I quickly get off my bike and carry it onto the ferry. Success!

The rest of the first day was just a regular ole' day. I cycled 116km until I reached a guesthouse somewhere on the beach. I ended up sleeping on a balcony in a tent because I only wanted to pay 200 baht. I don't even think I took a photo that day.

Then there was yesterday. For some reason, unknown to me, I was super demotivated to move. Maybe it was the fact that I moved 116km yesterday, but I doubt it. But move I must do since my visa expires in three days now. I bike along the coast until I cannot bike any longer. I went 100km exactly that day and decided to call it quits on some secluded beach...parking lot. I was hoping to get to Chanthaburi but it was out of the way plus another 30km away. So I set up my sauna, I mean tent, and watched the sunset over the pacific ocean. Not a bad view!

The bed was pretty hard. But the view was stunning!

The sun then set and it was dark. I lay helpless to the heat, listening to the wind come off the ocean and stop once it hit the walls of my tent. I lay their sleeping in a puddle of my own sweat. I guess I fell asleep eventually because the next thing I remember is feeling rain drops hitting my face. I always find it amazing how quickly I can respond to a situation requiring immediate reaction from the moment I awake. I am up on my knees in a moment. I wait for confirmation of my first thought. Correct. Its raining. Shit. I rip open the zipper and rifle through my panniers. Tarp is located. I throw the tarp on my tent. The wind blows the tarp away. I run and get the tarp. I then realize I have a problem. I am sleeping on an old parking lot. It may be old but the cement remains hard as ... rock. It's raining harder. I grab a ... coconut. It will have to do for the moment. I am running around now look for heavy objects. I am glad no one saw me running around in my boxers searching an old parking lot for heavy objects. I find some rocks and secure the tarp. I jump inside and ... suffer. Now zero wind enters the tent. I sigh, and with some time passing I eventually fall asleep. Waking up to a gentle turn of colors from gray to orange.

And now there is only today. I thankfully found an amazing guesthouse for a good price after an exceptional day of riding my bike for another 116km. That's 332km in 3 days. After a night like last, you would think I would be dead tired. However, I rode my bike a crisp pace all day. I even took a couple side roads that ended up adding 30km to the expected trip.

The trip total now is 1901km.

Getting close to that yellow line of Cambodia. The think yellow shows what I did today.

Tomorrow the plan is to get to the town closest to the Cambodian border called Hak Lek. I will spend the night and depart for Cambodia in the morning. I will let you know what happens.

And now for random photos of the last couple days...enjoy.

I see that ocean quite a lot now. To me it signifies heavy head winds.

Cross the rivers mouth that feeds into the sea.

Sometimes you need to watch out. The road can just gobble you up.

Classic shot of the surly crossing yet another bridge.