While yesterday was all about enjoying the ride and trying to find some sort of acceptable accommodation at the end, today was more about the destination itself. I really do like Surat Thani. Because it has:
- one of Thailand´s best nightmarkets with 9 out of ten stalls offering food and no "I love Surat Thani" (or whatever else) T-shirts
-a really nice, inexpensive hotel right in the middle of it all, the My Place @ Surat Thani
-that almost extinct traveller atmosphere at the nightboat pier after dark
- and more food, food, food.....
When I took off at Tha Chana this morning I knew getting to Surat would be nowhere as exciting as yesterday´s ride as the palmoil plantations and shrimp farms do dominate the scenery. No Gulf of Thailand to be seen at all while rolling down the #4112. I don´t want to come across too negative though, I still enjoyed my day as there was hardly any traffic and plenty of friendly people along the route. And the last 10 km into Surat helped my overall assessment as that section down the #2007 is far more attractive than the whole rest beforehand.
I have to confess on one silly routine I have developped over the years when approaching Surat Thai though. I do hardly eat all day long as I want to get myself close to starvation so I can dive into the culinary delights awaiting me there. And so I did!
Different size of wooden houses along the lovely side road between Tha Chana and the #4112
Breakfast time! The noodle soup in these roadside shacks is reliably good. This one was so good I would like to share the precise location: At the 46 km marker along the #4112, 17 km south of Tha Chana
Staple food no. 1: kwoi tiau. Which is the general expression for what we call noodle soup but they are actually only the wide rice noodles. What you see here are "sen lek" and if the rice noodles get even thinner they are called "sen mee". If you want egg noddles you will start your order with "ba mee", the transparent vermicellis are called "wan sen". After the type of noodles you will add pork (moo), chicken (gai) or seafood (talay). And if you want it spicy you would extend to "tom yum". A science on its own....Back to what you see: If you want what you see in the photo you would order "sen lek moo". Sprouts and herbs and the drinking water (nahm plao, with ice nahm kaeng plao) comes for free in a real Thai stall... I really wonder how they can earn money at 40 Baht (1€ 30) for a portion
...nor the rubber tree sections. This is how the trees get milked. With special tools they cut a thin strip of the bark which will cause the tree to "bleed"
I have been recommended the Suan Mokkh International Dharma Heritage just north of Chaiya for meditation retreats in English language and decided to do the sidekick over to their compound along the #41 to have a first look and get a brochure. Very appealing!
Some things fortunately never change! The old wooden overnight ferries that leave Surat Thani at 10 pm. The second one goes to Samui, the third one to Koh Tao. There are several food stalls to the right and I can only recommend to sit there after 8 pm when the passengers start boarding. Wonderful buzz!
My 399 Baht fan room at the My Place Hotel. No need for aircon as the big fly sheets allow for plenty of air. And if you point the fan at the wooden racks even freshly washed cycle pants will dry overnight
Tha Chana - Surat Thani. Koh Samui is the large island on the right and it is the first time I am not going there while in Surat Thani but my close Kiwi friend Geoff is currently up in the Isaan
