Day 10 – 9th October 2018
Bang Saphan to Pathieu
The trails, side streets and mud roads along with the hills today provided for some challenges. The toughest day so far with consistent uphill cycling right off the bat…. The first 5 km’s were hell with the sun shining right down on us. The following 5 km’s were even worst, just a rough start overall; both our legs were shot very early with the roads headed up the mountain.
We stopped at the 10 km mark for an ice coffee. The coffee lady was explaining directions to me and when our English / Thai communication didn’t work; she resorted to her phone. The phone was in the Thai alphabet and she was looking at me surprised that, even after using her phone, I still didn’t understand J obviously her English was way better than my Thai!
The coffee lady told us that the coming hill is the only hill till the next town and its all flat from that point. We, wishfully thinking, believed her. She led us on big time; the hill continued on and on and on and on 🙂
Eventually at the 25 km mark we were both dead. Manal had a normal meal while I had two dishes of Pad Thai (one chicken / the other seafood) and was still hungry 🙂
From time to time; there would be a sign indicating a scenic route. We would get a bit excited to see the beach; however we would get another long steep uphill. Manal started seeing mirages of the sea; she would be looking at the far approaching uphill and think it’s the beach J guess that’s nice too.
We hit the road after lunch aiming for Pathieu and finally got to see the sea as we made it to this gorgeous hotel with a swimming pool and a hell of a view.
Was certainly worth the pain after getting into the pool with a drink 🙂
