When we looked at the weather charts and forecasts yesterday, it looked as if the area north of where we were, was going to see massive amounts of rain today. 2 days later, by Wednesday, the worst of the rains would be over in the region, and therefore it seemed best to just stay put and wait for 1 or 2 days. We also considered another option, taking the train to a bit further north, but then it looked like the bad weather was going to move north so we would get caught in it again. The best decision was, to stay.
 |
| The view of the Thai east coast in Thungwualaen, with beautiful weather and perfect sunbathing conditions |
 |
| Fishing boats, somewhere on our way. Fishing boats seem not to go out to sea because of the rough conditions currently. |
So this morning we did not get up at 6am (in fact, these days with all that rain, it's cool the whole day anyway, so leaving early is not really needed now), we slept much longer and enjoyed a long breakfast. It had indeed been raining a lot during the night, but this morning was okay. Around 10am we decided to take a look again at the forecasts, and it seemed things would be not too bad for the area which we could cycle through today... So, why not just leave, and if things turned out worse than expected, we could still stop for the day.
 |
| Cycling path, unbelievable! We had this for many kms, sometimes it disappeared for a little while but then returned, sometimes in great condition like this one and even better, sometimes overgrown and with rubbish. But in any case, impressive to find this here. |
 |
| A viewpoint from a small pier, clearly showing today's nice weather and the rough sea... |
 |
| We had a really nice cycling day today, despite the weather outlook, and it makes you happy! |
We did exactly that, and were really lucky today. Although it was very cloudy and sometimes the clouds looked threatening, and we also saw heavy downpours in the distance, we only had a short period of rain over the entire day. We cycled 83km again, and are now in a fantastic place called Sananwan Beach B&B. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere, and that is an indication of our day as well. It was marvellous cycling today, small rural roads with hardly any traffic at all, we had the road all to ourselves for many kms in many cases. There were also long parts of road with a cycling path next to it! Yes, incredible! It was fantastic cycling again, the way you have in mind when you go tour biking; road no 4 which we followed so long in the previous days was also nice but much busier, and it makes you almost forget how fantastic it is to cycle along these rural, deserted roads. The bonus for today was: it was mostly flat and we often had tailwind as well! So lucky we did not stay for a day!
 |
| All that rain causes floods, like here in a palm plantation. We saw a lot of these plantations flooded, also had to ride a few times through water flowing over the road. Nothing problematic for us, unfortunately it might be different for these plantation owners. We also saw some flooded houses, usually not deep but certainly very troubling for those people |
Now, we're sitting outside (but in a dry, covered place) at this very nice guest house, it's raining now (yoohoo, thank you for waiting), we have a cold beer in front of us - thought we had deserved it for once - and are waiting for our food. Because yes, cycling makes you HUNGRY!
 |
| The beach house, belonging to the guest house, at dusk. When we stepped outside to go take a look, the rain started again and it did not stop until now... we've been lucky today! |