Day 81: Trang - Phattalung - Frankie goes to.....Indochina

April 21, 2018

Day 81: Trang - Phattalung

Routing: #4

Entirely different cycling experience in a group! In 2008 I did a trip to Laos in company but this unfortunately went wrong due to an injury my friend Schorsch sustained in the mountains of Northern Laos. Apart from that I have done all my cycling by myself and was a bit worried I wouldn´t be group-compatible anymore. Absolutely needless concerns as the four with me are ideal company, even on a difficult day (heat-, headwind-, topographywise) when different levels of health condition or previously ridden kilometers might well put the group under stress. I absolutely loved it and the rather non-descript route straight along Hway 4 only participated as a background actor.

What I do entirely different when I am by myself is the number and length of stops on the way. Once I sit in the saddle it´s: Go. I really only do relax and rest when I reach my destination. I knew from the very start this morning I would learn a whole new approach. We rode back into town which is in exactly the opposite direction to where we were headed for as Chris knew a nice Thai breakfast place. The conversation with like-minded is what I enjoy most after all that time on my own. So logically that first stop lasted almost an hour instead of the 10 minutes it would normally take me to gulp down my rice porridge.

And that same time frame counted for the following coffee and lunch breaks as well. The only downside of these extended stops: once you found a hotel, showered and brought the body temperature back down under 50 degrees C it will be dark - even on a 55 km day like today -and the destination is just good enough to get some food. This is by no means a complaint but the simple explanation why I do it differently when I am by myself.

Great Group-Day 1, could get used to it...

Breakfast was much better than the gloomy faces might indicate

Reaching the top which is the divide between Andaman Sea and Gulf of Thailand

View from our balconies in the Grand PL Hotel, Phattalung

Trang - Phattalung. I always count the km from hotel to hotel while we realistically did 8 km more to have breakfast

Today's ride: 59 km (37 miles)
Total: 5,968 km (3,706 miles)

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