It was only 1 forced rest day. Things were mostly back to normal by this morning, so we left our nice guesthouse in Sukhothai and hit the road again. Even though it was actually a nice rest day, and only 1 day, it felt good to be riding again!
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| Our road for today: road 12, 4 lanes but not too much traffic and a good shoulder to ride on. |
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| Along road 12 it was full of stylish coffee shops with fresh coffee, and sometimes an unexpected nice restaurant. Like this one, where we stopped for lunch. |
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| I still don't know what it was called, this was our lunch and it was yummy! |
Between Sukhothai and Phitsanulok there is little choice in terms of road: you either follow main road 12 (the 4 lane highway) or make a big detour. Considering we wanted to make this a not too heavy day today, we just went for the easy solution and followed road number 12. It was not too bad, easy riding, the traffic was not too bad (although, when cycling, you realise how much noise traffic makes! You can't really talk while cars or motorcycles are passing by). It was also entirely flat today, and very little wind - maybe even a slight tailwind from time to time. So we made very good progress, and despite leaving a bit later, a coffee and a lunch stop, we arrived in Phitsanulok around 2pm.
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| Funny market at the temple grounds, special experience |
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| 3 of the major, important temples in Phitsanulok between the tree tops |
We took our time to look for a nice place to stay and ended up in P1 House. After a quick shower we strolled into town, to find temple after temple, and market after market. Phitsanulok is yet another nice surprise on our trip through Thailand. A somewhat bigger city, but still manageable, great riverside, and lots of old, historic temples. Combine that with really friendly people - all along our ride today, really, people were smiling at us and greeting, wonderful - and this seems like yet another surprise nice Thai city. We also saw many nice restaurants and bars around town; it looks very liveable here!
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| One of the incredible Buddha statues we saw today; in this same temple there is a Buddha statue which is said to be one of the most beautiful in all of Thailand (but a bit inappropriate to photograph) |
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| Strange views at the temple, no idea what this meant |
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| Another such strange view |
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| Temple roof; sorry, I just love this photo so wanted to include it |
At the P1 House, downstairs, there is a cozy bar, and guess what: we're sitting in the bar, doing our thing, with BELGIAN beer. And not just any Belgian beer: I am enjoying a Duvel (a Duvel!!!), Ellen a Hoegaarden Rosé. Yes, stomachs are all ok again, and it still fit in our budget today 😄 Cheers!
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| Phitsanulok riverside, late afternoon, with people enjoying the beautiful time of the day together |
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| Thai massage at the riverside |
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| Dinner time, simple but soooo nice restaurant at the riverside in the sunset, and finally 2 really hungry stomachs again. Life is good! (PS: find Ellen on this picture) |