Today was a full day of riding, traversing ~600km along the narrow part of Thailand to Asia proper, west of Bangkok.

Today’s ride. Long way!

Setting off at 8:30, I bid farewell to the lush rainforest in Ranong - which returned with a downpour to send me off. Moody mountains in the morning

Yummy hotel breakfast

Then from Chumphon onwards, the landscape became gradually more flat, the roads more crowded, and the setting more monotonous (dare i say boring), until it was a basically straight stretch of road filled with large trucks and commercial vehicles from Prachuap Khiri Khan, all the way to Rachaburi (a province nearby to Bangkok). Gas station selfies

I had my earphones in and an audiobook on (three body problem) to kill time and to keep me engaged as i focused on making distance.

Then to finish the day, the last hour of riding was very eventful. I took the back roads up to Kanchanaburi, fanging the bike around country lanes between rice paddies. There was a moment while i was at speed, and i noticed something on the road up ahead. A garbage bag? Turns out it was a great big monitor lizard which was heading in the opposite direction - although i didn’t get the chance to stop!

Last fuel stop for the dayTemple in the countryside

I really had fun for this last section. With the Ducati in sports mode, it had the perfect amount of power. Jazz musicians have a term “in the pocket” for when you feel extremely in the flow/in sync with the music. I felt that way on the bike - anywhere i wanted to be on the road, a twist of the throttle and i was there.

Booking accommodation late in the day, i completely forgot the purpose of me coming here was to sleep on a floating raft boat! Instead i am staying in town in a rather sad hotel although only 800 baht.

Asked the waiter to pick 2 thai dishes and surprise me. This is what he brought out - not bad!

Tomorrow; Thong Pha Phum National park

I will be camping! (Kinda - i will be in accommodation in a national park).

Stats:

• 615 KMs
• 25.5g coffee consumed (the last of the Reformatory bag. Now I will be moving onto Taste Map beans!)
• 38.5L fuel added
• 1 unique interaction