I start walking down the street going from guesthouse to guest house looking at rooms, asking prices and trying to communicate “do you have drunk people stay here that make noise all night?” No one can really understand me so I work out the best thing to do is cover my ears and say “I need quiet”. It doesn’t matter anyway they all just nod and say yes.
I eventually find a place to stay, the lady behind the counter is quite scary and doesn’t look like she will put up with any rubbish so hopefully no yobbos. I collect my bags, check out of the “resort” and drop them in my new room.
It is a huge room with a single and king size bed, air-conditioning, a fan, TV, actual HOT water for the shower and a thirty second walk to the river, all for less than fourteen dollars. The only problems are the TV remote doesn’t work and the wifi is not strong enough to reach the room but it is a twenty metre walk across to the restaurant area where it is quite strong.
The guesthouse is hidden down behind the main street shops. I walk up and there is a massage place right there so I get an hour massage from an old Thai lady and explain my back and hands need work, she does pretty well but it is going to take a couple of sessions to clear up my back pain and normal use of my hands. My back was ok for the first couple of days riding but started to hurt halfway through the third day, now it is giving me hell.
I walk down the street looking for a burger, chips and a beer. The main street is fairly quiet, I guess the yobbos are still sleeping. I find a restaurant that looks ok, I sit down and nearly have tears when the owner says yes to my order for a burger – at last! Not long after this ten young talkative English yobbos arrive and sit at the table next to me, thankfully I have my MP3.
After lunch I go back to my room and shower off the massage oil and go to the hotel restaurant to upload the previous blog and have some food. Then I grab a beer and go down to the river to watch the sun go down.
A shower moves in from the north and slowly hides the mountain range while the sun dips below the clouds in the west, a stunning scene.
As the rain drops begin I head back to my room for a couple of hours sleep to the sound of rain on the roof, the first rain in a week, thankfully it held off on the bike trip. I get up at eight and go across to the guesthouse restaurant for dinner and a beer, I’m too sore and tired to go any further then retire to bed.
