Nakhon Sawan to Khampaeng Phet - 124km

Expecting a brutally long day I started as early as I could be bothered, which was about eight in the morning. The hotel I'd chosen was kind of a bit gross, and I didn't get much rest as for most of the night I was feeling itchy and putting up with noise from the adjoining highway. I had stayed in the highway district of Nakhon Sawan, mainly as it would put me directly on the road to Khampaeng Phet, the so called Asia Highway, or highway 1 through Thailand. Practical for the purposes of riding, but lacking it both atmosphere and charm. A fight broke out near seven eleven as I made my way back to the hotel after dinner. It was really noisy all night, with trucks and other large vehicles rattling past.

I passed the time watching Al Jazeera news, which for some reason I had always believed was the media arm of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Tuns out its presented by a British anchor, and the news stories are well balanced and  for the most part interesting. The crisis in Haiti dominated, but they were running some other stories too.   

I was riding quite fast for the whole day, around 23km/h average speed. It was rice growing country with an acceptable mixture of scenic rice fields and sprawling urbanisation. The highway looked brand new in parts, and it was decent biking except for the wind which really picked up at times. I made it to Khampaeng Phet in about 5 hours and although it was draining, I wasn't as wasted as I expected to be. Found the famous egg bananas for sale along the way, they were also selling the immature plants, arranged in neat rows.  Other highlights included the discovery of a new and delicious ice-cream; coco hawaii - pineapple sorbet with coconut ice cream. If you ever go to Khampaeng Phet, J&J guest house is a fine example of thai hospitality. The rooms comfortable and sparkling clean, the hosts only too happy to hack up a coconut free of charge if your in need of refreshments. They allow self sevice on the drinks, everything was really reasonable, and when it was time to pay there was no quibbling about price, they actually undercharged me. Dinner was memorable if not for the painful chilli aftermath, but I've come to expect that now, I don't really care as long as the meal tasted good its kind of worth it. Theres a koreana BBQ type place across from J&J, the food is thai, and really nice, you cook it yourself on a hotplate and then slather with a selection of ten different sauces. Half the neighbourhood was eating there so I figured it must be ok, and wasn't dissapointed.