I’m not going to lie, that graphic shows a journey of nearly 330km in a day and I don’t really remember much about it. I knew it was going to be mostly main roads and that is probably why I stopped at the first thing of interest. The old town of Ang Thong and its ruins of the temple.
Its kind of refreshing to see signs that say, photography is allowed but be respectful, it then goes on to list things not to be done. No shows of affection was one. I didnt want to kiss the statue anyway. Its not lost on me that my T shirt is Buddhist orange.
Back on the road and an hour or so later it went from two lanes to three as it wound its way up through the mountains. There were signs saying keep left. In the UK, lorries stay left as they climb steep hills, these were steep hills for sure, but lorries didn’t seem to follow any rules. I am guessing that most drivers are used to the surrounding countries that drive on the right. The result was some lorries crawled up the left lane, some in the right and weirdly a few in the middle. It was like playing a computer game dodging between almost stationary lorries billowing black smoke.
Having made one such climb I saw another Buddha at the roadside, it was time for a break so I dived into the car park and into the shade of a tree.
I went to a stall to buy water. I only had a 500baht note and the stall holder had no change. He went to a neighbours stall and the owner came over. We had a talk in English and I explained the situation. He asked about my journey. After this short exchange he paid for my water and thanked me for visiting. I clasped my hands in front of me as if in prayer and did two little bows, thanking him in my best Thai. I waved as I left and both men waved back.
An hour later it was time to stop again for more refreshment. There was a hilltop rest area.
This time I checked they had change before I ordered my coffee. There was a Buddhist monk blessing the stall holder. As I understand it monks give up everything and live on charity. A blessing gets them a coffee, sort of thing. I had seen hundreds of them on my travels, often with little baskets to receive items. I checked with the stall owner, if money was an acceptable offering, he said it was. For the equivalent of £2, I was blessed as was Red and our journey, I think!
I arrived in Mae Sot, safe and watched over, apparently. My hotel was great and there was a huge shopping centre close by. It seemed totally out of place but it had air con, so I didn’t care. I ate there and then took a walk round the shops, finding Supersports on the 1st floor. They had a sale on giant shoes!!
My shoes had grip, I sat outside on a bench and swapped the boxed items for the steaming sweaty and let’s not deny it, stinky old ones. The boxed old ones went in a bin and I was done for the day.
Earth, Wind and Tyres 