Surat Thani > Wat Suwan Thararam (78km)

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Today we managed to stay off the highway during the whole day, thanks to google maps. Since we got to Thailand we have seen lots of cyclist on the road. The funny thing is that lots of them have a mountain bike, very clean, very new because they seem to ride only on the road. At least they look more sporty than Indonesian or Malaysian. At a certain time, we ended cycling on tiny roads, passing through small villages with cute little train station and other large forest of rubber and palm oil trees. BIG news today, my hammock got fixed! I hope it will last!

Map.

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Like every morning, we see monks walking barefoot along the road. They go out early from their respective temple and grab some food on the way. Everyone who give them some food received a prayer from the monk they give food to. Most of them seem concentrated and don’t smile or noticed us (They must be to hungry maybe ;-). Sometimes some other are very happy and a bit more curious about what we do.

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Thai people love rough heavy furniture that last a very long time. If someone wants to robe this, good luck. You must eat lots of leaves and bananas to be strong enough haha.

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Lots of different things along the road like those fish or prawns farms.

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Here we are riding on one of those tiny and peaceful road.

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There is few house along the way, certainly the family who manage this palm oil farm.

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Rubber tree! I’ve got the last picture of the serie I started last time. When these bowls are full, a team pick up what they contain and move to the next step which I did not see yet.

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That’s a tiny train station.

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Same train station from another angle.

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A village on the opposite side.

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We continue cycling on this nice road, looking at the landscape.

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Funny looking shape palm tree.

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When we reached a bigger road for a little while I saw another tailor shop along the way. Straight away I stopped, entered and explained my problem again. One of the young woman who spoke a bit english told me she did not have the right sawing machine to do this. She kindly showed me on the map of my phone where I could find one. Few kilometres away I should find more tailor shops that could help me. Ok let’s go!

When I got there, I visited a first shop. The guy who did not speak english explained that he could not help me. He walked front of his door and pointed his finger towards another one. I thanked him and walked with my hammock to the next one. Is it going to work this time? A young woman was sawing in a small shop. At least she doesn’t sleep like the one yesterday! I explained my stuff one more time, laid down my broken bed on the floor tile, showed her the bag she could use. She kind of repeated in Thai what I said to make sure she understood what I wanted. For the first time, this women thinks my solution can work. Straight away she cut the bag in pieces and started working. Wow! Finally :-)

I went out of the shop, met Stephane and we went to eat something just next door. About an hour later, I came back to the shop. She was working on something else. My hammock was apparently fixed! I checked everything closely, realised that she missed some holes. Fortunately, she still had some material from the bag. I left the place again and came back a moment later. Done!

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She has done a very good job and used the whole compressed bag I gave to her. Wait, wait, wait, I reached my wallet and asked for the price. I’ve got no idea how much a repair like this could cost. She refused! I said, “no, no, no” and give her all I had but she did not want anything. We got out of the shop very surprised. I felt a shame that she spent more than an hour fixing it and for free. I came in again and offered a drink or some food. I understood she was going to leave soon to eat. What could I do… THANK YOU! Kapunkaaap very much! Wow!

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I was happy again. Well, I will be even more happy if I survive this night coming.We kept cycling for a little while and finally found another temple we saw on maps. I asked if we could sleep somewhere around. The owner of a shop inside the huge temple told us to stay under this shelter. Perfect!

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We are protected by a certain Buddha tonight :-)

Later on, too guys came to us and offered us to taste the Thai whisky. That was tasty but very strong. They left the place very quickly. Some other kids came around with their bicycles, looking at what we were doing. They consulted themselves to find the right english questions.  Then decided who would speak first. That was funny.

That’s it for today. The curve of happiness is rising again :-)

2 thoughts on “Surat Thani > Wat Suwan Thararam (78km)

  1. Ouf, une bonne chose de faite ! Je peux comprendre que ça te gâchait la vie ce hamac inutilisable. Enfin la vie peut-être pas, mais les nuits c’est sûr !

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