Total distance: 7194 km
Pang Nam Ron - Chanthaburi - Laem Sadet
Our first days in Thailand were full of little surprises. After the border we arrived in the first bigger town, Pong Nam Ron. Since we have entered Thailand, we are again in a country whose language we don't know. We are back to the lingua franca, English. The first thing we did in Pong Nam Ron was to have lunch. Ordering food was already difficult. People didn't speak English although the menu was in English. Helpless as we were, we tried Khmer and, hey, the people were Cambodian! The waiter was actually from Battambang region. Second surprise was 7-Eleven. Thailand is full of them and they always pop up when you need water, snacks or a great ice coffee. 7-Eleven makes cycling in the heat definitely more pleasant.
From
Rose's and Marcin's blog - we met both in Samarkand in Uzbekistan - we knew that there was a resort with bungalows in Pong Nam Ron so we could stay one night at this rather boring place. When we arrived at the resort a road with a 24% gradient led to the bungalows that sit on top of a hill. It was nearly impossible to push our bicycles up the hill. Sarah went to the reception to check the price. Nobody spoke English but Sarah noticed that these people were not Thai but Cambodian too. When we talked to the manager of the resort, a former world champion in wind surfing, it turned out that he spoke some German and to our surprise he had even lived in the city where we studied.
For New Year's Eve we planned to stay somewhere at the beach. From Chanthaburi we cycled to Laem Sadet. We didn't expect it but there was a camp ground! We hadn't camped since Kazakhstan and were very surprised that we could actually camp here in Thailand. Nobody in Cambodia would ever think of camping but the Thais seem to love it. We pitched our tent and went straight to the beach. The beach was full of Thai families and we were the only foreigners at this beach. There was a striking difference between us and the Thais. We went swimming but many Thai adults preferred to stay dry. Those Thais, who went swimming, went into the water in their complete dress - jeans and T-shirt. So we felt strange to strip down to swim shorts and bikini and went swimming in our cycling shorts and shirts instead. Very strange! A popular dish in Thailand is papaya salad and the Thais also want it at the beach. So what do they do? They take all the ingredients and the heavy mortars to the beach and prepare fresh papaya salad. Very cool!
One thing that we notice again and again since we have entered China is the Asian's love for loud music. Chinese, Laotian, Cambodian and Thai likewise believe that their songs are the best. So all people around them have the honour to 'listen' to their music. At the beach in Laem Sadet young Thais and their rolling discotheques in form of huge speakers in their pick-ups appeared. Their cars looked like those ones in MTV's show 'pimp my ride'. One more indicator for Thailand's wealth compared to Cambodia.
Midnight! Fire works! But even more beautiful were the many lanterns that flew up to the sky. Happy New Year!
One thing that we notice again and again since we have entered China is the Asian's love for loud music. Chinese, Laotian, Cambodian and Thai likewise believe that their songs are the best. So all people around them have the honour to 'listen' to their music. At the beach in Laem Sadet young Thais and their rolling discotheques in form of huge speakers in their pick-ups appeared. Their cars looked like those ones in MTV's show 'pimp my ride'. One more indicator for Thailand's wealth compared to Cambodia.
