March 24, 2017

We were up early and said our thanks and farewells to Chay and Mae.

We made the U-turn and headed up the 3310. Normally any road that has 4-digits should be a quieter road, but not in this area of Thailand. We made it past the very large Mahidol university and headed on to quieter roads.

The roads that we followed today were the ones suggested by the guy yesterday. It was a nice rural route.  We had to stop a few times to check the iPad for the route. We did really well and only managed to take two wrong turns. Ralf is really frustrated about his Garmin not working. I must admit when it is working it makes life so much easier. We only have a couple of days left of cycling in Thailand, I think we will have to put up with stopping and checking the iPad.

Although it was a nice quiet route, Ralf only took a few photos.

Now I have to ask a question regarding wind-mill spotting – Do you think this is fair? Ralf is cycling behind me and obviously can see over my head, I am looking at a flower display and he calls a wind-mill. This is what he spotted!! Do you see the windmill, because I certainly didn’t until I saw it from this direction!

It is no wonder he has spotted 36 windmills to my 21. I am catching up with him, but when he sneakily spots wind-mills like this one, I don’t know what I can do!!

We are indoor camping again. The room isn’t too bad, but we are eating noodles and tuna fro dinner as there is nothing else in the area. We bought a tin of tuna that had peppers and basil as a sauce. My god, it was spicy!

An early night tonight, as we are heading on quieter roads again tomorrow to Kanchanaburi. We are taking the scenic route which adds about 10 kms to the trip. We think it will be worth it over riding on the 325 a busy two-lane highway.

March 23, 2017

After a good nights sleep we headed out on another day of cycling. The first 20 kms were in busy rush hour traffic and I lost it. For some unknown reason, I just couldn’t cope with the traffic today. Too many cars travelling at speed, motorbikes all over the place and the “truck” taxis not taking any notice of what was in front of them, along side them or behind them. A truck taxi is a pick-up truck that has bench seats and a tarp cover on top. They stop to pick-up fares from whoever flags them down. They were an absolute nightmare. We made a wrong turn and I had a minor melt-down, at that point I was ready to turn the bikes around and go to the airport and find a plane out of here.

Ralf found us a relatively quiet route around Bangkok which involved crossing a river on a ferry.

At one point we took a trail which lead us along a raised concrete path next to a canal. We decided to walk the 1.5 kms along this path as motorbikes and scooters were also using the path. It was very narrow and no guard rail. It made a change from riding along a highway.

The path finished  at a lovely Wat.

Neither of us enjoyed the ride today. Ralf’s Garmin gave up the ghost and wasn’t any help at all in finding our route or a hotel for the night. We had to keep stopping and checking the IPad and maps.me to ensure that we were on the right route.

Eventually we got to the busy Highway 4 and stopped at a 7Eleven for a cold drink. Our first \”Road Angel\” came over to ask us if we needed any help.  He saw us checking the iPad again for the route.  He was a cyclist who had recently cycled to Kanchanaburi and gave us a route for tomorrow that would keep us off the Highway, it may add a few miles but I think it will be worth it. He wished us luck with our trip.

We found a bicycle shop and asked if they knew where there was a motel/hotel for us to stay. They directed us to the AP Apartments. I checked out two rooms, both of them had dirty bathrooms and although we were both hot and tired I didn’t want to “indoor camp” again. Ralf was ready to suck it up, but I said no, especially when he told me the bikes would be left outside.  We cycled back towards a hotel we had passed. A couple in a car with a baby waved at us, we waved back and continued our search for a hotel.

I checked out another hotel In-Trend Hotel, I think this was a “love” motel. Each of the rooms had a theme to them. It was clean but we had one more to check out. As we left the premises of the hotel, the couple with the baby were standing there.   Although we were both hot and tired I knew they wanted to chat, I stopped and said hello.

These were our second Road Angels – and these were real angels. Mae asked if we were looking for a hotel. We said yes. She offered for us to stay at her house. “My husband owns a bike shop and is the authorized dealer for Arkel panniers in Thailand, we noticed you have Arkel panniers and wanted to talk to you”.

I didn’t give Ralf an option I said we would love to stay. Thank-you. She told her husband to take a motor-bike taxi to show us the way to the house and she would drive the car. Three kilometres of riding down Highway 4 on the wrong side of the road, into traffic!! I thought this is the day I am going to die! The motor-bike taxi was in front “blocking” the traffic.

We arrived at the bike shop, Chay specializes in providing gear for touring cyclists – he has Arkel panniers, Brooks saddles and Keen sandals. A great little shop. We headed to their house where we were welcomed by their little boy Wolf and Mae’s Mom. She showed us the room, turned on the air-conditioning in the room and showed us the shower. She let us do laundry and after we had spent some time finding a hotel for tomorrow night we went out to a famous Pad Thai restaurant in the area. She wouldn’t let us pay, so Ralf bought dessert to bring back to the house.

Mae is a Pharmacist and Chay is an architect. He opened the bike shop as a hobby, but it is taking more time. They have two children a boy (Wolf) 2 years old and a little girl (her name means Moon) 8 months old. The little girl was fascinated by Ralf’s beard.

The little boy was interested in the colour of my hair.  He already knows colours in English, but couldn\’t quite decide what colour my hair was.  If I only knew what colour my hair is I would have told him, but it is very light at the moment and add the grey – it is an interesting colour.

Just when we needed it – the kindness of strangers happens again.

March 21, 2017

We left very early this morning at just after 7:00 a.m. We cycled through downtown Sattahip to the Wat where four dogs barking at Ralf woke up the whole neighbourhood.

We then headed up Highway 3 towards SiRacha and Pattaya. The road wasn’t too busy until we got past Pattaya and then it was a very busy highway. There is a large container ship terminal just before SiRacha, hundreds of transports were heading that way.

We decided to ride through Pattaya to see what all the fuss is about. As we were coming close to the City, we noticed more and more hotels/condos. Almost the whole coast-line is being developed with big condo/hotels. This one is a joint venture with Japan, Russia, Switzerland, China and Thailand.

If the area isn’t being developed with hotels, it has some of the worst tourist attractions to encourage tourists to part with their hard earned money. There is even a Ripley’s Believe it or Not.

There was a man-made floating market, a very large water park, a Dinosaur Park, a Tiger Zoo and an Elephant Ride. In my opinion it is the most horrible thing to do to such a majestic animal. There are various organizations trying to ban the use of Elephants for “joy-rides”. The animals are not well-looked after and are often abused.

There is an organization called Elephant World that is “adopting” old and over-worked elephants and looking after them. The organization does not allow elephant rides, however, you can visit them and prepare their food and wash them in the river if you so wish.

As we were coming along the Highway I spotted elephants. We cycled into the parking area to see three coaches disgorging their tourists for the elephant \”safari\”. Two to an elephant, which is better than some I have read about.

The elephants are controlled with a pick.

This particular Mahout looked very guilty as Ralf got a photo of him, tapping the elephants head with his pick! If you look closely you can see the scars on the elephants head. Awful, absolutely bloody awful.

This elephant looked quite happy as he was being fed with bananas.

We left the parking lot quiet and a little subdued.

We were making good time, the weather was a little cooler and we had a tail-wind. We arrived in Pattaya at 9:45 (half-way to SiRacha) ready for a second breakfast.

Pattaya is a large resort area spreading along a beach for about 10 kms. Hundreds of restaurants, bars and girly bars are located in this area.

We spotted every American fast food chain along the beach including a Hooters.

Even with all the development, their electrical wiring leaves a lot to be desired.

We stopped for a second breakfast “the works” eggs, bacon, sausage, home fries and ham and cheese and dark rye bread, coffee and orange juice for the princely sum of $12.00 for the two, a little expensive but we were hungry and figured it would last us until supper time.

Several people took an interest in our bicycles as we were eating. One French couple came in and chatted to us for a while, wishing us a safe trip.

We walked our bikes along the beachfront sidewalk. We would have cycled but it was a one-way going the wrong way. We were stopped several times by people who were interested in what we were doing, where we had been etc. Most of them were visiting Pattaya from a cruise ship. I was chatting to a Scottish couple who were on the cruise-ship, at the same time Ralf was chatting to a French couple who were also cycle touring. The French couple were spending a week relaxing on an island near Pattaya. They had cycled a similar route as we had done.

As we left Pattaya we spotted a wetland area with a flock of white cranes.  I read somewhere that this area used to be wetlands.

By the time we left Pattaya it was about 11:00 and it was getting hot, the wind had changed directions and we were getting more of a side wind than a tail-wind. For the rest of the ride we had to concentrate on the traffic.

We stopped quite a few times to cool off, but I knew we had to keep going to get out of the heat as soon as possible. We arrived in SiRacha at 1:15. A street vendor showed us where the entrance to the Lemon Tree Residences was and we looked up at the stairs in disbelief.

You have got to be kidding me, was there any other way to the front door. Ralf headed up the stairs to the main entrance of our accommodation for the night! No, the stairs were the only access!! Ralf wondered if we could man-handle the bikes fully loaded up the stairs. Obviously the heat had got to his head, my bags alone weigh 15 kilos then add 17 kilos for the bike, I don’t think so. We unloaded the bikes, I took mine up first and then the bags followed by Ralf and his bags. We have to do this in reverse tomorrow morning. The lady at the apartment was wondering where we had got to, then she saw the loaded bicycles. We were allowed to bring them in to the area behind the lobby, which is good and safe.

Although the place is clean, we are almost indoor camping. The shower does not have hot water, but when you are really hot it is not that important – tomorrow morning it will make a difference. The mattress is on a raised platform and we have a t.v. on some wooden crates. We do have coffee, tea, a toaster and a kettle for our use, but no fridge.

After settling in and washing our stinky cycle gear, we planned our route for tomorrow and then headed out for dinner. There is a large shopping mall within 50 metres of the apartment. The shopping centre had some really interesting food choices, some of them were very expensive. We opted for Pho – noodles in broth like we had in Vietnam. It wasn\’t as good as the Pho in Hanoi but it was nice.

Back to the room for an early night.

March 20, 2017

A lovely ride today. We were up early and away at around 7:30, no-one was around at the hotel so we left without paying!! Not really, they had charged the credit card.

It was a nice hotel/condo, but it did have problems with staff. Apparently, the assistant manager that used to be at the hotel was moved to the other hotel 7 kms away and the only person who had any responsibility was the senior cleaning lady and she was well out of her comfort zone dealing with customers. There was no bar staff, no kitchen staff (that we could see) and only three cleaning staff. Although the pool guy and the gardener did a good job. It is a shame really as I can see this hotel going the way of some of the other hotels in the area.

We took the back route all the way to Rayong and found a nice quiet road that kept us off Hwy 3 for 30 kms.  We really enjoyed the neighbourhoods we cycled through.

There was one street that paralleled Hwy 3, the buildings were traditional Thai buildings with the business on the bottom and the living space on the top.

There is obviously some very wealthy people living in the area.  We have been amazed at the security in some of the areas we have cycled past.  Not only at the hotels, but at these new subdivisions.  We have never felt threatened or been intimidated, we have no idea why there should be so much security.

After about 30 kms we had to join Highway 3, it wasn’t too bad. There were some busy intersections when we came in to a Town or City that were easily managed. There were several army/naval bases along this stretch and an airport. One of the naval bases had a small museum, but we opted not to visit, as it was getting hot – 33 degrees.

We haven’t mentioned the garbage in Thailand because it hasn’t been as bad as Vietnam and Cambodia but it is still there. However, today we noticed this gutter full of trashed shrines. These weren’t shrines that had been vandalized, these were shrines that are no long used and have been dumped in this area. New ones were in place above the ones in the gutter.

We passed a few Wat\’s today, most of them were on the opposite side of the road.  There was one really nice Buddha, but there were too many electrical lines in front of it, Ralf couldn\’t get a good photo.  However, this fat Buddha was on our side of the road and he was very fat.

When we arrived in Sattahip we stopped at a major intersection to see if we could see a hotel on Garmin or the iPad. I spotted one across the road called Green Villas, we made the U-turn and cycled in, it looked rather posh. We asked if they had a room – yep $1,800 Baht – ($70.00), ouch. I asked if she knew of another place that was less expensive and clean. She very kindly directed us to the Saunpai Resort at 500 bht ($19.00). It is clean and not a brothel (jackpot).

We arrived here at about 12:30 and Ralf spent some time on the internet finding us a place tomorrow in SiRacha about 60 kms up the road. It gets so hot now, we only like to ride for about 60 kms before we melt.

I know you are all waiting with baited breath about our windmill count. I cannot believe how many windmills we have spotted – Ralf is at 23 and I have spotted 15. There were a few more, but we had a truce on one day, because of the traffic and Ralf was ahead of me and I couldn’t see in front of him. I think Ralf would have been closer to 30, if not for the truce.

There is a pizza place down the road, I think we might call a pizza for dinner tonight.

We decided to walk to the pizza place. As we got there several street food vendors were setting up in the area. We looked at a few of them, but opted for the pizza. On the way back to our hotel I saw what looked like crepes being made. That was my dessert, very fattening – it wasn’t a crepe batter it was more of a thin dough which she fried on a flattish wok, she added bananas mixed with some egg batter and then folded it and then kept flipping it until it was all cooked. Her sous chef (hubby), added condensed milk and sugar then folded it again and sliced it into squares, popped it in a cardboard container with a fork and I was in heaven.

Ralf decided to have some spring rolls, with hot sauce!

Back to the room with a couple of beers and we are set for the night.

March 15 – 19, 2017

Wednesday March 15, 2017

I wasn’t going to write a daily blog, but I had to write about our wonderful discovery on Wednesday night. We cycled out to find a fish restaurant. I am allergic to shellfish, therefore I am limited at what I can eat at a fish restaurant – fish but no shellfish. We knew there were two or three beach fish restaurants about 2 kms from the hotel/condo.

I spotted a little place that advertised German/Thai food. We stopped and checked out the menu! Jaeger Schnitzel mit spaetzle OMG I have died and gone to heaven. We ordered two beers and the schnitzel it was wonderful. We had to wait about 20 minutes as they were making the spaetzle from scratch. In the meantime we chatted to two older German fellas who live here permanently. They asked if I spoke German, I said I understood most of the conversation – “We can speak English if it is easier for you”. The conversation went from German to English and back again, it was very entertaining.

What a lovely evening – the cost for this wonderful meal and great company $22.00 which included four beer and a German sized meal!

Friday March 17, 2017

Cycle to Rayong for Shopping – 24.71

We cycled into Rayong along a back road and then on to the Hwy 3 which was busy but not too crazy.  The back road was quiet and will be the road we take when we leave this area.  It is an industrial area that is full of chemical plants etc.

We needed to get some groceries and there are two very large supermarkets – Tesco and Big C. We opted for Tesco, as it was closer and easier to find. Although we can find fresh fruit at road side stands, the choice for veges is very limited and I really wanted some veges to make a stir-fry tonight.

What another Wat…. I also knew there was an interesting Wat to see. This Wat – Wat Pradhu houses a reclining Buddha which is over 11 metres long and 3 metres high. It is unique because it reclines on the left side rather than the usual right side. This difference makes this Buddha revered with the local people. There were a lot of people praying in this temple. The interesting thing we noticed was that people were buying small pieces of gold leaf and adding it to the Buddha, after their prayers. The temple area housed several smaller temples and an active kindergarten. This temple is also one of the oldest we have seen – reportedly to have been built in the Ayutthaya Period which was from 1350 to 1767.

There is also a small kindergarten in the temple complex.

We headed back to the resort along the busy Hwy 3. There was a lot of cars double parked, which meant we had to go into the main lanes to get around them.  Why do they do this, can\’t they park properly and walk to where they want to shop. I wished I could have changed into the hulk to get rid of these idiots.

After we got back, I went for a nice swim in the pool.

Saturday March 18, 2017

A relaxing breakfast and lazy start to the day, as it rained shortly after breakfast. A short ride today only 15.38 kms.

We were back by 12:30 had another smoothie and then the power went out. We walked up the seven flights of stairs to our room.I asked when the power would be back on – don’t know. The staff at this place are not very helpful.

I went for a swim and Ralf went for another ride to investigate the area. 

There is a lot of streets and hotels that have been developed and then abandoned.  Apparently the Russians bought into this area and then the Ruble dropped and they moved out.  Other streets have a couple of houses that looked nice and the rest of the houses on the streets have been abandoned.  I am guessing you could pick up a very cheap bungalow in this area (if you had a Thai partner).

Tonight after another lovely German meal we sat in the lobby to check the email and book a place for Monday night. No email – I asked the night porter about the internet. “Tomorrow” he said, “What is the matter?”  I asked, “It’s gone wonky” the best answer ever – it’s gone wonky! You can’t help but laugh. Let’s hope it is back tomorrow as we need to book a place for Monday night or we will be winging it again, and we know what happens when we wing it! Brothels and indoor camping etc!

Sunday March 19, 2017

Sunday Ride to Ban Phe – 36 kms

Up early for a nice relaxing ride to Ban Phe Market and back again. I found it difficult to cycle slowly. Today I managed to reduce my speed to an average of 16 kms per hour, but it was difficult.

We arrived back to the condo/hotel about noon and I made a fried egg sandwich for lunch. We bought some ice-coffee, the coffee shop across the road is closed. We cannot get our lovely smoothies today.

Ralf went to do some final washing and hopefully he can find a coffee shop with internet!

Back on the road tomorrow and heading north towards Bangkok. We are going to outskirt Bangkok as we still have almost two weeks before we fly to Korea.

We are getting a lot of “interesting” news from North Korea, it might be an exciting trip!

March 14, 2017

A relaxing ride around the area. We have a small kitchenette in our room which has a microwave, kettle, toaster, fridge and an electric hot-plate, it also has plates and cutlery. It is nice to be able to cook breakfast for ourselves.

The hotel is located 3 kms from the main road (Highway 3) and 4 kms from a small village/beach resort area with lots of beach restaurants and a 7-11.

There are some nice new condo/hotel blocks and one dilapidated place. We always speculate what has happened to these buildings, did the developer run-out of money?

We had decided to head out to the Town of Ban Phe to get some groceries, a little further down the coast. Ban Phe is a jumping off point to Koh Samet (a small Island), and Ban Phe has a large fish market.

There was a nice Wat in Ban Phe – dedicated to the fishermen of the area, I think. A lot of work is being done to the Wat at the moment with new paint and cleaning.

We stopped on the way back for lunch, rice with a fried egg on top! A butterfly decided I smelled nice! I think it died shortly after landing on my leg, because it stayed there for a while.

On the way back Ralf took a couple of photos of the beach area.  Where the hotels were the beach was nice and clean, a little further down it was dirty.  There were signs indicating fines for littering.  However, a lot of the garbage is washed up on the beach from the sea.

In one area, we heard the thump, thump of a vehicle with loud music playing.  Do you think this guy has enough speakers?  By the time Ralf took this photo, the music had changed to something quite soothing, almost!

After dropping our groceries at our condo/hotel we headed up to Highway 3 to see if there was anything interesting on that road. We found a bike shop, where Ralf was interested in a new kick-stand.

We were going to go for a swim when we got back, but the pool was being cleaned and it was already 4:30. We relaxed for an hour and then had dinner in the room.

Ralf bought a case of beer from the little store next to the condo, it is cheaper than buying it by the bottle and we are here for a week.

I probably will not be updating the blog until we are on the move again, next Monday, unless we take another trip on the bikes or something exciting happens.  I am sure you do not want to read – we relaxed and swam in the pool or Ralf bought the bike stand and did the laundry!

March 13, 2017

We left the hotel/apartment at 7:15 a.m. and headed north-east along with a lot of traffic heading to the various car manufacturing plants in the area. We were amazed at the traffic, all heading to work at these large auto manufacturers including GM, Toyota, Suzuki and all the various support plants that go along with the auto manufacturers.

We found our quiet rural road 3138 which was a busy two-lane divided highway – so much for a nice quiet ride!

Although the road was two-lane, after the first 20 kms of industrial views, we passed into an area that was mainly agriculture. We spotted pineapples and a small rubber plantation.

We saw a couple of nice Wat\’s, but this is the only one on our side of the road. It is only 29 years old.

The road initially was undulating – not hilly but rolling. The last 35 kms was flat and busy as we headed into the suburbs of Rayong and then to the beach area.

Our resort is about 10 kms from the Town of Ben Phe, we will have to go there tomorrow to get some groceries. Our room includes a small kitchenette with a fridge and microwave, we will be able to save some money and have breakfast in the room and buy local for dinner. We bought locally today, so that we can have eggs and toast for breakfast.

The resort has a nice swimming pool, which we will definitely use as the beach area here is a little dirty.

We have a room with a view, we can see the sea (the Gulf of Thailand) and the swimming pool. I am looking forward to a nice week relaxing and maybe attempting to even out the tan! There are a few things to see in the area, which we will investigate over the next few days.

The only unfortunate thing with the room is that there is no wi-fi in the room, only in the lobby!

March 12, 2017

Another boring day on the highway south, not even a Wat to view, that is until we tried to find our accommodation for the night!

However, before we headed to the Thana Apartment Hotel we stopped at Mini C market for lunch. Next door to the mini-C was a coffee place. We stopped in there for a fruit smoothie and Ralf went next door to the mini-C to buy sandwiches. An older Thai man started chatting to us. He asked where we were from and then stumped us by saying “Canada, there are too many foreigners being let in to Canada”. We looked at each other and wondered where he was getting that information from, but Ralf said that we actually need immigrants because people like us are not having many children. The Thai man said he had heard there were too many Chinese and possibly problems with Islamic people. We agreed that there were a lot of Chinese that had created a high real estate market in B.C.   He told us Thailand had problems with Russians and Germans – gangsters he called them, especially in Phuket and Pattaya – the big beach resort areas. He told us that the government finally had a plan in place to stop the corruption – a 20 year plan. He appeared to be quite pleased with the Plan. However, he said he didn’t like all the industry, it was creating bad weather.

He told us to be very careful on our bicycles as the drivers can be a little crazy in Thailand. We have felt quite safe here after the insanity of Vietnam!

We said our farewells and headed back into the heat to find our apartment/hotel for the night. It was getting really hot about 40 degrees.

According to Bookings.com, Maps.Me and Google, the Thana Apartment Hotel was supposed to be 2 kms east of the Tesco in Bo Win. We are at least 8 kms outside of Bo Win in a tiny little village in the middle of nowhere.

We made the turns according to Maps.Me, passed the Tesco Lotus cycled two more kilometres and came across a grubby motel – no it was actually a grubby apartment block. Fortunately not the Thana we were looking for. Ralf asked a guy at a scooter decal place if he knew where the Thana was located – he checked on his phone and couldn’t find it. We cycled a little bit further – we stopped at a ladies hair salon. It would appear that all the people who work in hair salons are really helpful. At first she directed us down the road, but wasn’t 100% sure how far it was before we should make the left turn, but was pointing to the right. I asked her if she could telephone the place for me. The client who was in the middle of getting her hair washed spoke better English and came over to help as well. Eventually, we got better directions and it was going to be another 3 kilometres, she drew me a little map. When you get to the traffic light go straight ahead, then it is on the left, again pointing to the right. She wrote the phone number on the map, just in case we needed to call again and told me if we couldn\’t find it to come back and she would help us.

It was almost 5 kilometres to the traffic light, then we got to a Y shaped intersection. We asked again for someone to call. Make the right turn here and go 3 kilometres it is on your left. Yeah we found it, however, another communication problem. The older lady at the apartment/hotel didn’t speak English, she phoned someone and gave me the phone. The person said wait five minutes and hung up. Apparently, I was speaking to the cleaning staff and they needed five more minutes to clean the room!

It is a nice clean room, with a fridge and air-conditioning. We even managed to get a load of laundry done, 30 baht ($1.15) for the washing machine – cheapest yet.

Sourcing dinner was interesting. We asked if we could get hot water, as we have noodles, at first the older lady said yes then she said no – food was a long way away! I guess they figured we would want western food and a proper restaurant. There are two Thai restaurants near here she said. Two stalls that served food. The first one the lady was fast asleep in her hammock, the second one had pictures of the food offered. We like pictures we can point and say one of those please, with a smile! We ordered the (Som Tum) green papaya salad for two. Straight away they asked how many chilli’s – one we responded quickly and we all laughed. Ralf had eaten this papaya salad at a restaurant a couple of nights a go and it was so spicy – his eyes watered! As we were eating the salad they asked if it was o.k. not too hot. It was spicy, but really good. Unfortunately we were eating outside and there were lots of little flies around, really annoying.

Great idea for a light-shade and Christmas decoration combination, Ralf want\’s to try this for next Christmas! 

We needed more food, I ordered the same again and some fried fish balls on a stick and Ralf ordered a hot noodle dish with mystery meat and pork sausage, we had that to go. We were the VIP’s from Canada. It was very entertaining for everyone. Dinner cost about $7.50 including two beers and a tip.  I guess they don\’t get a tip very often, as they were very pleased.   The custom is to leave the coins as the tip.  The tip would have been 9 Thai baht, I am not telling you the equivalent in Cdn $.

While we were waiting for our second order of food Ralf had a wander around the property and took some photos.

The little dog was not that keen on him taking photos of the sunflowers.

As most of you know we have this game “spotting windmills”. One would think that you wouldn’t spot very many windmills in south-east Asia. Ralf has spotted 13 already in Thailand – I spotted 3 today. That means Ralf is ahead of me by 18 to 5 in South-East Asia! Who would have thought that windmills would be so popular.

The moon was an orange colour tonight.

Tomorrow should be interesting as we are not exactly sure where we are! We are not going to be on the highway that’s for sure.