Be grateful for whoever comes

January 15, 2023

Thung Wua Laen to Chumphon

Dear little friends,

Another beach sunrise, our last one of the trip. Even at that early hour there were a couple of boys swimming in the surf, as well as fishermen stalking the small creatures near the shore. Bruce immediately ran down on the sand like the former Florida child he is. I hung back and watched the scene.

The crowds of the evening before were gone, did they all go home or did they stay in guesthouses like ours? I didn’t know. But there were definitely people coming down to the beach to take selfies in the sunrise so I went down there too. I mean, why not?

I think I should point out that these family beaches do not have grownups in scanty swim costumes unless they are foreigners. Bruce had not brought swim trunks on this trip so he was obliged to swim in some black underwear but at least he wore them under his shorts and dropped trous once we were ready to get in the water. Most Thais do not want their skin in the sun if possible, and there just seems to be a modesty culture on the beach so I wrap up in a towel until I’m ready to jump in.

Not so the children, they cavort in whatever they’re wearing or swim trunks or those sunproof “rash guard” swimsuits that my granddaughters wear in Oregon.

After we had repaired to our porch with our bowls of bananas and muesli we had a great view of the beach goings-on and were intrigued by a young couple walking along the beach together. There are lots of Muslims in Thailand and they increase the closer south you get to Malaysia. Headscarves and modest dress are nothing worth remarking on, but this young woman was in full niqab face covering as well, just her eyes, feet and hands showing. Nonetheless, she larked around like it was her first time ever at the ocean, taking selfies, letting the waves lap over her feet as she carried her shoes, discovering the tiny ball-making crabs and showing her guy these wonders.

I’m from a small town in Montana and it seemed like a tenth of the girls in my high school sophomore class got pregnant and married off the summer of 1975. I even had a 13-year-old classmate pulled from school and married in the 8th grade. So seeing this very childlike behavior in what by all appearances was a very recently married and very young woman who was all wrapped up against the prying eyes of the world, I don’t know. There was a familiar sting in my eyes. She squeaked with excitement as she captured one of the tiny crabs before he could escape down his hole and showed it to her husband.

It was our last day of riding, just a few miles to Chumphon and we could take our time getting off, but it is getting hotter again and I would prefer not riding after noon so we loaded up and set to. It was a quiet, beautiful morning on a quiet, beautiful road. We had agreed that we both wanted to take a slightly longer way around the peninsula in order to stay next to the beach as long as possible.

Every inlet holds its fleet of colorful fishing boats.

On the last day of riding, there are a lot of thoughts that go through your mind. Logistical thoughts of the next few days of shopping in Chumphon for the things we didn’t have time to find in Chiang Mai before our rushed departure. Getting on another night train to Bangkok, retrieving our boxes and packing up the bikes and getting that early morning taxi to the airport and then arriving home and and and…

But the road was quiet and beautiful and put a hush over those intrusive planny thoughts and I was able to look at the water, to listen to the koels and counting birds, to spy a dok fai tree and stop to choose one of the squishy yellow ball flowers to adorn my handlebars and give my bike a blessing.

We came upon a large group of cyclists on road bikes wearing matching jerseys, part of a Spice Roads tour. They had stopped to look at the view and reconnoiter and were just about ready to start again when we rode by. I trash talked them and said, “We’re going to leave you in the dust” and so on but instead of leaving them in the dust they laughed and passed us with their sag wagon bringing up the rear. They were a genial bunch, mostly in their elder years and I was groaning inside because now we’d have to try to pass this huge group, but as it happens they were much faster than we are and we were left in the dust.

We don't have a still photo of the cyclists, but they were stopped looking out at this bay.

This trip has been shorter than our usual trips for many reasons and to be honest I was more than ready to be back home with my family again. But on the last day of riding, the sun was bright, the sky was blue, we were as free as the hidden birds that have serenaded us the entire trip. We were feeling so free that we completely passed the road we should have taken and so tacked on another mile or so but in the end we had to get on the busy road into Chumphon.

Farewell, Gulf of Thailand. See you next time.

An obnoxious bike lane on the road we had to take because we were daydreaming past the road we should have taken. Grills and bumpy bike signage = no bueno. We rode in the car lane.

Chumphon is no beauty of a town but I was kind of excited. We had a nice hotel we were going to stay at that had been recommended by the folks we met in Prachuap Kiri Khan, it had a pool, and a buffet breakfast, we were splashing out, which is a great thing to do at the end of a trip.

After dumping our stuff in our lovely room we marched straight over to the market, which was literally right across the street. The goal was an iced coffee bolan and find one we did, although the guy making it seemed to misunderstand our desire for sweet milk or thought we wanted less than usual because maybe foreigners in the past had dissed the sweet milk, it’s hard to say. That coffee was high-test. We also had a tray food lunch because you never know, we might not see tray food again!

Thailand has taken the pandemic quite seriously, and the masks are still mostly in place. This market was loaded with beautiful, beautiful produce. Save Chumphon indeed.

"If you feel uncomfortable, please dial 0 for a new delivery." This was information I could have used a few times on this trip.

Possibly my favorite bathroom of the trip.

Back in our room after a refreshing shower we lounged around and then made our way to the pool and then it was time to seek out dinner. In 2015 we had eaten on a night market street and we remembered a woman who had 36 different tray foods, so we were determined to find her. But we stepped across the street again to the market and lo and behold it was a madhouse of evening food vendors, at least 15 of them, all selling, yes, tray food.

I kind of thought our hotel reception folks would raise eyebrows at us bringing in bags of food to eat in our room but they just smiled and said something about how glad they were that we found some dinner. It was a good way to end a good day, our last day of riding but not of eating wonderful Thai food. There’s more where that came from.

Today's ride: 17 miles (27 km)
Total: 1,019 miles (1,640 km)

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