53 km, 3h 10 min, max temp 41 deg
We left early expecting more Songkram chaos today, but only saw a few groups of kids with water and they did not even try to get us wet (well one of them missed Becky and got Scott quite nicely).
Today was either going to be a long day or a short one, as there is a large gap in places to stay between Khura Buri and Kapoe. As you can see by our mileage, we opted for the shorter day. Becky bonked just before we approached the Khuraburi Green View Resort, so we stopped for a couple of cold drinks, a snack, and a rest. We decided not to stay though, since their least expensive bungalow was 1800 Baht (about $60 CAD), quite a bit above our current budget, and their (slow) Internet was an 100 baht/hour.
After an hour and half rest, we got back on the road to Khuri Buri. We saw signs for the Khuriburi-on-see Resort, so when we approach it, we stopped. They had spacious, clean rooms for 500 Baht with AC and hot water although we aren’t sure why it is a “resort” or what we should “see”. Scott bonked shortly before we arrived, so rather than venturing further into town (we are about 2 km from town) we decided to stop here for the night. It turns out this is the same place the Michelle and Dave stayed at during the grand opening last year.
Not two minutes after we were into the room, the heavens opened up and the rain came pouring down. Maybe our bodies were telling us they didn’t want to be wet today?
After the rain, we went looking for food, and found that we were in a small village. We walked down one of the two streets and discovered a large open-air restaurant. The food was excellent and our server helped us with our Thai pronunciations, which was very nice. As has often been the case, the food was quite bland in comparison to Thai food back in Canada. We guess they prepare it specially for Western palates. We certainly see more peppers appearing in the dishes made for locals, but we’re not complaining!
Walking through the village, we noticed that the houses all appeared very new, and many had a small shop or restaurant on the main floor, with more rooms above. The entire front of each house was open, with a rolling door to close it off when necessary. We have seen this construction elsewhere, but this was the first time we noticed both a living room (with couch and TV) and bunch of restaurant tables in the same house. It seems like an efficient design to us, but would likely be impossible in Canada due to zoning regulations. We also noticed a World Vision Community Development Project banner over one of the shops, and we wondered if the houses were built as part of the tsunami reconstruction work? Unfortunately our Thai isn’t up to the task of asking, and no-one we met spoke English well enough to understand the question.
The Khuraburi-on-see Resort is one of the best value places we’ve stayed all trip. Large, clean rooms and good food nearby, the only thing we missed was Internet access.
We have noticed a pattern in our energy levels over the past few days. When we sleep in rooms without AC, we tire much quicker the next day. We aren’t sure if it is that we are heating up sooner, or if we are just tired from not getting quality sleep. Either way, we’ll try to ensure we have AC at least every other night from here on.
