Ride #10: khuribauri to Khao Lak

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Really hard mattress so not a great nights sleep. I was told that the reason they have such hard mattresses is because most thai people are poor farmers and sleep on the floor with just a blanket beneath them and as such can't sleep on a soft bed. Well, that was in cambodia but I am guessing the same is true for thailand.
The start of todays ride was really good. Flattish roads through jungle scenery. My pace was up about 5km/h from when I started riding. I was a little worried that I was going to pay for the extra speed by hitting the wall at the half way point. My worries where sort of justified and at the 53km mark I got a stabbing pain in my back where my injury is. Uh oh, was I about to be stranded on the side of the road in agony. I slowed down and pulled into a service station. Hopefully a rest and some stretching would fix things up. The place I stopped at didn't have any food so I just had some water and stretched and headed across the road to the noodle place the lady had suggested. And so arrives the crazy german guy. He seemed loopy, all over the place. I couldn't quite figure out what was wrong with him. He would ask me a question and then walk away mumbling before I had a chance to answer him. His wife came over a minute later and the penny dropped. He was in a mess from the heat and being on a scooter. pfffhhh, how soft is he. I complain about the heat but I am on a bike for 6 hours, he has probably been on the scooter for 30 minutes. They are asking for directions to the same place that I am heading and tell them its about 40km away. The guy isn't happy about that at all. No way he is going to sit on a scooter for another 40km. ppfffhhh soft.
The rest of the day was spent cycling very slowly taking every precaution not to stress my back. There was a little town at Khao Lak but I was looking for the beach area so I continued through the town and along the coast. The beach was about 3kms away over a hill. Always nice to have a hill at the end of the day!!! When I got to the beach there was only fancy hotels with a room rate of 5,000 baht (about $175) so I headed back towards the town and over the hill again. Always nice to have two hills at the end of a day. I had read that there as an area called Bang Niang that was supposed to be nice and from the "you are here" map it didn't look very far. However it turned out to be about 5kms away. Always nice to have an extra 5 kms to ride at the end of the day. Searching for a hotel had added about 10kms to my ride, I should have probably researched that a little better.
however, it was worth it. the beach area was lovely. perfect sunset postcard scenery (see facebook photos). I had a massage and a hair cut, 3rd hair cut I've had to pay for in 14 years, and went to bed early. next day turned into an unexpected rest day, felt a bit tired and slept till 11am. Woke with a craving for pancakes and after walking around the town for 30 minutest trying to find an open restaurant I realised pancakes where not going to happen today. Instead it was a german pub and pork chops with mashed potato for breakfast, also a coffee, a coke and a banana shake. About an hour later I was back in another restaurant for lunch. This time it was rice, stir fried vegetables and chicken curry and a beer. How could I eat so much and still not feel full? and still lose weight. I reckon I lost about 8kgs on the ride. I put most of that back on in patong with a weeks worth of drinking.
Ride #10 done.

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