Today we have only 40 km planned with accommodation already booked in Thai Mueang, which means an unhurried start.

The only people on Thai Mueang beach

After all the rain last night, which formed huge pools of water with streams flowing everywhere, everything was just like it never rained. Obviously not dry, we are in a rain forest after all, but not soggy.

The lake view from lake view bungalows

There was a very short section of side road before we turned on to Route 4, we stopped on this the rest of the day as there are no other roads we could use. Traffic was not too bad and you range from having a proper cycle lane to a fairly narrow shoulder to a huge shoulder. The bad news was it is sunshine all the way with no shade to speak of.

A cycle lane for a little while

Most of the Route 4 we cycled on was a set of roadworks, it is being made in to a dual carriageway, this does mean that the traffic is very slow moving for long periods.

A serious amount of road widening was going on

As the road snaked closer to the coast we were treated to our first sea view on the West Coast of Thailand, here the sea is blue and it looked lovely.

First view of the sea

We moved from a Western shop area, only restaurants, diving shops, massage parlours, scooter hire, smoothie bars and tattoo studios to a Thai shop area supermarkets, street food and drink sellers and “normal” shops (whatever they are).

There is not very much else to say about the journey but by midday we were tracking down the homestay we had booked tonight. Yes it was 450 baht including breakfast so inexpensive but it was rated 8.1 Superb on booking.com so we were shocked that the shower was a bucket and cup, the toilet flushed with a bucket etc. It was not that the bathroom was like that it was that nowhere on booking.com does it mention this.

The bathroom

Anyway we assumed the just get on with it stance and just got on with it. It was only a short cycle to Thai Mueang beach where we ate a late lunch. A beach as far as you could see, blue sea yes blue sea, and it was empty.

Thai Mueang beach

Trying to look cool and fails

A quick shop and we returned to our room for the night.

The Strava route today.