Leaving Chumphon I was pleased to see the Highway police were busy giving out coffee and snacks to motorists, lessening my chances of coming unstuck. I've kind of been fast-tracking the Andaman coast, it doesn't really impress me that much - if La Mae is anything to go by - it was uninspring and dingy. I could have been picking my way along the coastal roads, but its easy to get lost and I've already seen the nicest beaches the country has to offer; Krabi and its environs. 
Yesterday I woke up early all set to go and my legs just didn't want to do it, so I decided on a rest day. I didn't have much trouble filling it in, I started with a perusal of the street food. I'm really into the marinated pork skewers cooked over charcoal at the moment, and I had an awesome variation of Thom Yum last night that was absolutely packed with expertly filleted fish (not a single bone - see left), and had the most refreshing ginger-like flavour. They had also sprinkled it with this pork crackling stuff floating on top, it added some nice crunch.
I placed my hopes of riding tomorrow with a Thai masseuse, but she was doing alot of that digging in with the palms and elbows stuff that is agony on aching muscles. I had to get her to stop and tried to tell her to use the more gentle, traditional technique and she eventually caught on. It was hard, Chumphon attracts just a handful of travellers so there isn't a great deal of english spoken here.
Later on I found the city's hostel ( i had opted for a cheaper local hotel). It was really quiet, there was an old white guy sitting there reading. He was on a short break from his work with the Malaysian railways as a construction safety inspector. He said the job was worth a massive 1,000,000US over five years to him, so he was sticking it out despite the fact he didn't like the work. Prior to that he was on another contract in Delhi but threw it in after several workers died. It all sounded kind of diabolical, and he just wanted to get out there; understandable. Everything he said rang true with the book I just read about India's rampant corruption.
The ride today provided little in the way of scenery, it was all fairly bland. I just stare at road and try to get through it on these days. I met a few interesting characters however; an old Thai woman who used to work for the Thai consulate to Spain, and later on when I reached Bang Saphan Noi I ran into a German couple touring Thailand on their tandem. That was a welcome change, so we had a couple of beers and told stories. Stupidly I wasn't prepared to pay 1000 baht to stay at the 'resort' there, which was just kind of average looking bungalows, so I camped and gave them 100 baht to smooth it over. It wasn't such a great idea because the tent was an absolute furnace, even without the fly, and I was sweating buckets in there until 3am when it started raining. At this stage a Thai guy living in a shack just up from where I was camped (i think he might have been running the snorkelling tours) came to check how I was coping with the rain - which was actually fine, the tent is completely waterproof - but I couldn't cope in the heat. He told me I could sleep on a table in the hostels restaurant so I did that and managed to get about 3-4 hours in before the owners arrived and I quickly skulked back to the tent and started packing up. 
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