December 24, 2012

Today was one of those days were everything was just great.  The alarm went off at 6am and we both jumped out of bed no problem. We were on the road before 7, which is a great start. We had 10 miles under our belts before we stopped for breakfast. Even though there is a lot of activity in the morning, we have had a difficult time finding restaurants open before 8am or so. There are usually some grilled chicken stalls open, and places selling fried dough twists, but usually that’s about it.

Heading out of town

After we stopped we found put the roadside restaurant only made one dish, raw egg and mystery meat porridge with tons of ginger which we late found out is called “jok”. I tired to explain that we only wanted one dish, but the cook interpreted that to mean we only wanted one of the dishes to have an egg. So, Chandler got two breakfasts. A few miles up the road, we came upon a small store which also had a little restaurant attached. My vegetarian sign was used and I got rice, veggies and egg for breakfast. Very spicy but perfect fuel for a long bike ride.

We had 40 miles to cover to get to Chao Lao, which is a beach town near Chanthaburi. It was like we had jet packs on, we covered the miles in under 3.5 hours. It did help that the road was flat. We did have a major headwind for the last few miles, but it didn’t seem to affect us too much. Our route took us along the highway mostly which had a wide shoulder specifically for bikers. The most exciting part of the ride was when the GPS took us through a maze of roads amidst a bunch of shrimp farm lagoons outside of town. We got a little lost, but a friendly farmer gave us arm wavy directions that worked out perfectly.

Bike Lane

Shrimp farm

We found a really nice bungalow and spent the rest of the day relaxing. The first thing needed to relax were some iced coffees. We noticed we don’t really need coffee in the morning, but after riding for a few hours and with the heat, a coffee is in order around noon. Then lunch: stir fried morning glory and fried crab with garlic.

Lunch

We were also able to Skype with my step sister in France and Chandler’s family in Vermont! It was nice to talk to our family instead of just exchange emails.