Day 68, To Thailand!

Back on the bikes. It was just 9km to the border from Koh Kong but I still wasn't feeling too good and my bike felt twice as heavy as normal. The last piece of Cambodia was beautiful nevertheless, a huge bridge over a river and more deserted landscapes. 

The border was smooth and painless, no hassle apart from one guy who offered to help us skip a non-existent queue to speed up our exit from Cambodia. Not the best money-making idea in the world but I hope for his sake some people fall for it now and again. Thailand is free! We didn't need a visa, however they did only give us 15 days to spend in the country, which may require our plans to be rethought slightly.

Pain

The sun was beating down ominously as we started to pedal again and there were plenty of hills. I didn't know if I was capable of pedalling far under those conditions and spent a while trying to make a decision under a tree in the shade. Finally I decided I didn't want to take the risk, I had been ill and was still feeling weak. We decided to go back to the border and try and get a bus to Trat, the next major city.

However, at the border, although there were plenty of buses parked they didn't appear to be going anywhere and the people we tried to ask didn't speak any English. One guy offered to take us in his pickup for 1000 baht ($30), and someone else offered us a taxi for 1200 ($40). Hmm. Thailand's not so free after all it seems. We took stock in a restaurant whilst I forced a plate of rice down myself and decided to stop being a wimp and carry on. It's all in the mind...

A convenient hamock

Anyway, there were lots of ascents and descents but also some nice clouds to shield us from the sun. Parts of the road were also right next to the sea, which provided us with a refreshing breeze and some beautiful views. We turned off the main road after about 35km as we had heard there was some accommodation by the beach. After about 20 minutes cycling along a small road (that we could only hope was leading us in the right direction) it started to rain. Hard. Luckily, we found some bungalows. Unluckily, the owners were unwilling to show them to us in the rain and instead provided us with 2 chairs under the shelter of their porch. Kind as this thought was, the rain showed no signs of stopping and we sat there in our wet clothes, starting to get a bit cold, for an hour and a half before we decided we could tolerate this no more!

I asked the woman if we could just go and look at the bungalows ourselves in order to decide whether we wanted to stay there. "Yes" she replied, "but there's no restaurant here." This was a small problem. "You need to go 2km, there is restaurant and bungalows."  This was very useful information, and I wondered why she had preferred to let two strange wet strangers sit on her porch for nearly 2 hours instead of just telling us and getting rid of us straight away. But, it was not the moment to question, I just needed a hot shower.

Wow

We braved the 2km in the rain and found at the end of the road a resort, well, some bungalows and a restaurant. It was expensive (800 baht), but we were past caring. The shower worked, a nap was taken and eventually the rain stopped and allowed us to appreciate the extremely beautiful beach. We made it!