August 8, 2017
Songkhla to Ao Thai Resort: Cycling past our destination and enjoying tomorrow's breakfast today
Our target today wasn't very far up the coast - a resort called Ao Thai. A little bit more expensive than to what we are accustomed but we felt we deserved a day on the beach at a nice resort.
We got away from the hotel at six o'clock this morning. The owner was on hand to say good bye and direct us to the ferry port. His directions conflicted with the separate ideas that Leigh and I had in our heads so there were a few wrong turns before we boarded the ferry to the north bank of the estuary. The first thing we did on disembarking was get some breakfast from the stalls on the side of the road - some things resembling vetkoek, chicken satays, rice topped with jaggary and coconut, and some pancakes with cinnamon. We certainly weren't going to starve this morning.
The 408 northwards was as flat as a billiard table, busy with four lanes of traffic but there was a wide shoulder reserved for bicycles and motorcycles. The cycling was a little hot but quite undemanding, both physically and mentally, so much so that we didn't even notice the turnoff to Ao Thai Resort. We realized we had passed it when we stopped for our first cold drink break of the morning and the GPS was pointing in the "wrong" direction.
We made our way back southwards using the back roads and arrived at Ao Thai at about nine thirty. The cheaper rooms we were hoping to get were in the main building of the resort and we didn't see the point of paying a lot if we didn't get our own individual bungalow. So we we splashed out for a bungalow next to the beach. Breakfast was included in the price but was only served from seven thirty until eleven o'clock tomorrow. Seeing that it was only ten o'clock, we asked if we could have tomorrow's breakfast today and to our surprise the lady checking us in was happy to go along with this. So three hours after an enormous road side breakfast we enjoyed the Full Monty at the resort.
A series of swims in the pool and in the sea made up the rest of a lazy day.
Today's ride: 44 km (27 miles)
Total: 3,947 km (2,451 miles)
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