March 11, 2017

Another day on the highway south. The first 20 kms we were on the busy 304 at the split to the 331 there was less traffic, but it was still a busy road. We can’t seem to find any quieter rural roads. There must be some, but they don’t seem to be going north-south!

Often as we cycle along Ralf will shout photo, something I may have missed but he has spotted. He spotted this large airplane parked at the side of the highway. There were other pieces of aircraft around and a small fighter jet on a roof. No idea what they were doing there.

There is a lot of industry in this area and large factories. This is the Kubota Factory and across the road, I think is the workers housing. A little bit better than the workers housing we saw in Cambodia.

As we cross into each Province, there is a large road sign crossing the road, that indicates what there is to see in the Province. There is usually a Wat or two and maybe some kind of historic monument.

We spotted another giant Buddha and I made a drastic left turn into the property. The property was very large and once again had an active temple.

There were some steps leading up the hill. I asked if it was o.k. for me to go up the steps in my shorts, not wanting to be disrespectful. I do have a wrap handy if they want me to cover my legs. It was no problem, so off we went – 682 steps we climbed up to the very top.

There were two or three shrines at the top with one gigantic sleeping Buddha.

We spent almost an hour wandering around Wat Uan Khiri. It was very peaceful, even though we could still hear the highway.

There was one large Buddha that was in a glass enclosed room.  I think that maybe there was a little bit of real gold on this Buddha.

As I said yesterday, we were winging it for accommodation tonight! “Indoor camping” at its worse!! I think it is a brothel as there are green and red lights outside of the room!

We could have tried going a little bit further, possibly another 10 kms, but at 1:15 it was already close to 41.6 degrees. This place is very grubby, but it does have air-conditioning and a fan, and very good internet and of course cheap.

Tomorrow nights accommodation is booked! It is about 50 kms away, so an easy ride tomorrow. Then we will be at the beach for the next week and those nights are booked as well.