We found some hills in Thailand! Which is a bit of a shame as we were really enjoying the flat land obviously! Nah they're not so bad, I think we (Kim) must be getting lazy. The last two days have been really hard, and it has been a relief to be doing only 50 or 60km. The scenery is just breathtaking though, I thought that as we got north Thailand just got lovelier, but we think that each new day brings new things, not better necessarily, just different. We are staying in a place that is a bit above our budget, but it is really nice.
Today we are off to Myanmar (Burma) to get our visas renewed, it is pretty painless and just involves leaving Thailand, going across the estuary on a boat, getting logged into Myanmar and zipping back again to re-enter Thailand, fairly pointless, but much cheaper than a visa renew.
Mickey has been pointing at every waterfall signpost since Trang (about 450km ago), and we always say 'later or there'll be mor'e. Yesterday we were battling into head winds along one of those roads that just climb and you don't even know, but it just feels hard. Mick must have been really feeling it cos the waterfall sign came up. 'Waterfall, waterfall' Says Mick. 'jeez we have heaps of those at home' mutters Jake - who studiously avoids any unnecessary excursions. But we took the decision, it said 2km on the sign, so obviously several hills and 5km later we get to a farm track - no waterfall, we go up the track - which is getting steeper, 'it'll be just around the corner' we think. Then this huge hill appears before us (Jake from the back 'NO, we're not going up that'). We have a saying on this trip that whenever we make a bumsteer we say that Jake would be disappointed as one day (just on lunchtime, never a good time) Kim decided we should follow a road because it looked nice and there might be something interesting down there Well the only thing down there was a shrimp farm and they aren't actually that interesting. Jake gave her her pedigree including saying that he was pretty 'disappointed'. In Kim more than the shrimp farm! He hasn't been allowed to forget it, since then.
Anyway we get to this walking track. Dave goes, 'oops, 'I think Jake will be disappointed'. Jake handled it very well, but chose to guard the bikes instead of walking even further on a wild goose chase. Wild Goose chase it was too, 20mins of straight up to the end of the track to see the waterfall - which was pretty spectacular, unfortunately it was about 4/500m away across a valley. Jake chose best on that one and we have told Mick that the next time he sees a waterfall sign to just close his eyes and keep pedalling.
Nice ride back though, except that all the dogs thought they would come out and tell us what idiots we were for even going up the road and getting their big teeth out in the process.
Tempers were getting a bit frayed though by the time we got to Ranong (about 6hours to go 60km) and we were all relieved to get checked into the hotel and off for some food. If we are getting ratty with each other that is usually the best fix.
Lots of love to you all.
The Tired Thomas'
xxx
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