February 16, 2019
Ban Bang Ben
We got away rather late this morning because I wanted to find some sticky rice and a piece of BBQ meat for breakfast and then stop off at the Lotus Tesco on the way out of town to buy some coffee. The Lotus Tesco was only scheduled to open at eight and was still closed when we got there so we carried on to the Makro a kilometer or so further which was open. If we had know this we might have left earlier. Apart from the coffee, I also picked up some muffins and croissants for breakfast, the search for sticky rice etc being unsuccessful. In the end we were properly on our way before eight o'clock.
Five kilometers out of town we came upon a very nice cycle track which, unfortunately, only lasted for seven kilometers.
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Once the cycle track came to and end we carried on along the very busy highway 4. At Ratchakrut, about twenty five kilometers from Ranong, we stopped at a 7-Eleven for cold drinks and then for the leftover croissants about then kilometers later.
After forty three kilometers we turned off highway 4 to Ban Bang Ben and enjoyed ten kilometers of wonderfully quiet country road until we got the the village. The first thing we did was to stop in at the restaurant next to Wasana Resort for a large plate of Pad Krapao Khai. This Thai standard of fried minced meat with holy basil is usually made with moo (pork) rather than khai (chicken) but there was no point in asking for pork around here because this is a very Muslim area.
Wasana's appears in quite a few cycle touring journals. We were warmly met by Wasana's husband Bodewijk (Bo for short). While it was pleasant to chat to him in our native languages (he in Dutch and me in Afrikaans - if you speak slowly enough it is possible to understand across the languages) the resort itself is a bit of a disappointment. 650 baht for a rather rundown room seemed about 150 baht too much but the we weren't into haggling.
Later in the afternoon we cycled down to the little beach harbour at the edge of the Laem Son National Park hoping to do a bit of birding. The birding wasn';t that great and we ended up back at Wasana's where we enjoyed a refreshing beer.
Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 256 km (159 miles)
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