I know it's a Sunday which is most folks' day of rest but we've spent most of today (and yesterday) at the coalface. We'll be back on the road again tomorrow, inland to Ban Thap Thong so we can miss Pattaya, a hell-hole by all accounts, and avoid the main roads.

We took a break at lunchtime to join the throngs (none of them in thongs - the Thais swim in their clothes) on the beach where we enjoyed a simple lunch of fruit, braai'd chicken wings and sticky rice washed down with a cold Beer Chang and a Red Spy.