Day 16 – Trang to Krabi over 129kms and 481m ascent
Started out early after a good night’s sleep. I’ve had a little bit of a head cold and have been taking a couple of night time cold tablets to make sure I sleep, they seem to be working their charm. Anyway, got up at 5:30am and headed off by 6:00am. Dawn is at 5:40am so we’re missing 20-30 minutes of prime riding time and we’re paying for it when we arrive at the end of the day. We have vowed to wake up at 5:00am from now on. I’m wondering whether getting up an extra 30 minutes early is really going to make a difference.
The first 40kms were lovely, cool, and quiet. By the time we left the main road traffic was still none existent. It was all good until we hit Highway 4, which workers were in the process of widening. This meant 2 things: The lovely trees had been mowed down, removing all shade from the road, and dirt, dust, and grim were now in abundance along our route. The road was not very busy, not many trucks on this particular morning, but the road itself was VERY up and down, up and down.
It didn’t look like it was going to be our biggest ascent day at all, actually it was looking rather mild until we reached the 90km mark, that’s where the big rolling hills started, and continued for the next 30kms, in the heat of the day. It still didn’t look like it was going to top our biggest day until we made it to Krabi town, where Natt and I agreed that Krabi town hills were equivalent to the hills in Sydney. We rode the hills around town under the scorching sun, visiting the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Andaman Cycle (which is a nice bicycle shop), and finally looking for a place to sleep. We ended up at Hello KR Mansion, a guest house kind of place for 500B per night. It seems lovely at the moment. We’ll see how quiet it is later tonight.
Tomorrow we will get a ferry to Ko Phi Phi and then transfer to Ko Phuket. We have decided this will be our day off from cycling (maybe 15kms to be done) and we’ll save 80kms of the total riding distance. Not much, but we think since we’re trying to be in Hua Hin by June 26th it might be a good idea. My guess is that Ranong is 300kms and 4 days away, making Chumphon, where we will meet our friend John from BicycleThailand.com who will ride with us up to Hua Hin, 5 days away . John has informed us (since he rode down from Hua Hin to Chumphon) that he had strong headwinds most the way heading south. We HOPE that these will be our strong TAILWINDS blowing us up the flat and hill-less coastline.
Natt thinks she’s getting more black every day, it might be true but all I can see is her bottom and breasts getting more white 😛 After getting the jersey with extra long ‘Thai style’ sleeves I have not received any sunburn on my arms, even after 8 hours in the sun. The best invention of the trip has been our hat rims, they’re a wide brim hat which goes all the way around our cycling helmets. We cut the tops of the hats off and then fastened the brims to our bicycle helmets. I’m sure everyone has noticed us wearing them in our photos.
These ‘hats’ are GOLD, I have not gotten any sunburn on my face, neck or ears. The hat also stops sweat from running down my face as the hat brim is made of cloth. It’s so simple, we copied it from an Aussie we met cycling who was traveling from Tasmania to Spain. As I cycle along I find myself thinking about how someone could make a washable one (that does not lose it’s shape) that would fit into pretty much any standard helmet. I’m not sure if anyone else would want it, but it is awesome when spending all day cycling in the sun.
Krabi seems nice, it has a lot more atmosphere than Satun and a little less ‘town’ than Trang. Sad because this whole section of Thailand has so many things to do, which we will not get to do this time around, but we have marked it as an area to spend more time in on future trips. Perhaps we’ll spend several months in the area, checking out the islands and seeing the sights.
8. Satun (สตูล) – 6
—————–
a) Khuan Kalong
b) Khuan Don
c) Mueang Satun
d) Tha Phae
e) La-ngu
f) Thung Wa
9. Trang (ตรัง) – 4
a) Palian
b) Yan Ta Khao
c) Mueang Trang
d) Wang Wiset
10. Krabi (กระบี่) – 3
a) Khlong Thom
b) Nuea Khlong
c) Mueang Krabi
10 Provinces and 47 Districts
