The weather in the south of Thailand is still very wet and gray... A quote from the Thai meteorological department: "The strong northeast monsoon still prevails over the Gulf of Thailand and the South, and the low pressure over the lower Andaman Sea. Outbreaks of heavy to torrential rains are forecast persistent for following provinces: Phetchaburi, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Chumphon, Surat Thani, Nakhon Si, Thammarat, Phatthalung, Ranong and Phangnga. "
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| Shelter for the first rain shower in the morning, good timing for a break |
Well, we have been witnessing the rains over the past few days, including today - although all in all it was not too bad today. Some rain in the morning, mostly dry in the afternoon. Our ride was still mostly on national road no 4, the scenery still similar. 12km before Ranong we stopped at a national park (yes, again!): the Ngao Waterfall National Park. You might have guessed, there is a waterfall there indeed. When we arrived it was raining quite heavily, so we were happy to find shelter first, and then the rain stopped. Time to go to the waterfall! Because of all the rain we expected a thundering waterfall, and although there was certainly water it was not as brutal as we expected.
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| The Ngao waterfall, very nice but not as impressive as expected with all this rain over the last few days |
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| Just for you to enjoy the beauty of nature... |
The bonus of this park was, that once you had paid your park entrance fee, you could also use it to go to the hot springs a few km down the road. So, while the waterfall was nice, going to the hot springs on a rainy day was heaven! The hot springs are set in a natural environment, with pools of different temperatures (we had lukewarm, warm and hot) and a refreshing river just besides those pools, to cool yourself down when needed. Wow, absolutely wonderful! The water from the hot springs, strangely enough, was also very clean and clear, and did not have any sulphur smell; I guess it's the first hot springs where we experience that.
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| Soaking in the Porn Rang (sorry, I did not invent that name) hot springs |
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| Another pool |
Mid afternoon we arrived in Ranong then, and found ourselves a guest house just outside of town at the edge of a river (and very near to the Ranong hot springs, but we have not been). We're just really no city people... We cycled through Ranong however, a not so interesting town, and tried to find a solution (which we did not find) for my half-broken glasses, had a drink and returned to our hotel. No need for more city, tomorrow morning we're off for the first part of the journey to the east coast of Thailand, destination Chumphon. It's raining a lot there as well currently, so hopefully we can keep a little bit dry tomorrow...
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| Boiled egg, anyone? |