Day 2:

We took a rest day and hung out on Koh Jum, working on MarcyMoji and gorging ourselves on curries. Of course Marcy found a litter of puppies and adopted them for the day.

Day 3:

We departed late in the day to head up to Krabi, where we stayed at the “Pro Chill” guesthouse. Krabi had some decent food options but otherwise there wasn't much to do.

Day 4:

Our bikes were hurting a bit from being on so many ferries and rainy islands and needed some love so we took a day off and brought them to a local bike shop. The owners were so kind to us and gave the bikes a seriously thorough tune up.

Day 5:

Day 5 was one of our best rides in Thailand - we spent most of the day riding beside huge limestone cliffs as we made our way through a national park to a tiny town called Phang Nga.

Day 6-8:

We left Phang Nga at dawn and rode north towards the coast. Getting near Khao Lak, our destination for the day, we had trouble finding a place to stay - the first 3 places we stopped at were all booked up! At last we found a place to stay, and ended up hanging out in Khao Lak for the next two days. It’s a touristy town, but it has a nice beach and some good western food - including burritos which we hadn’t had in months. As much as we love eating Thai food at tiny roadside stands, it’s nice to have a burrito every once in a while.

Day 9:

We finally left Khao Lak and hadn’t been on the road more than 10 minutes when some asshole on a motorbike pulled out without looking and ran right into Andrew. Luckily the damage was minor as the asshole didn’t have time to pick up too much speed before running into him. We bought some bandages at a nearby store and got back on the road, arriving in Khura Buri to spend the night before heading to our next island - Koh Phra Thong.

Days 10-11:

We left the bikes and most of our gear at our motel and took a taxi to the pier where we caught a ferry to Koh Phra Thong. The owner of the guesthouse we were staying at - Mr. Chuoi, had just finished his grocery shopping for the week and was on the ferry back with us. After the ferry we hopped into a truck with the rest of his groceries - including a giant barracuda - for the 30 minute ride to the guesthouse. On arrival we were shown our bungalow - a super simple hut with just a mattress, mosquito net, cold shower and a toilet. Everything you need, and nothing more. We spent the next day lazily exploring the island and eating delicious curries at Mr. Chuoi’s restaurant.

Day 12:

Not much to say here - we left Mr. Chuois early in the morning and biked until we were tired, staying in a bizarre guesthouse that was in the middle of nowhere, and went to bed hungry - a first in Thailand.

*Day 13:*

Day 13 was our hardest day in Thailand - we’ve been lucky and most of our rides have been along the flat coast, but we needed to cross over to the East coast and the only way to get there was through a mountain range. As usual, it was boiling hot (95 degrees with a ‘feels like’ of 105) and we had a headwind on top of that. Our saving grace was our favorite coffee chain in Thailand - Cafe Amazon. They have iced coffees, wifi, and a/c, and we’ll often spend hours there in the middle of the day waiting for the heat to die down. Hanging out at a gas station coffee shop for hours probably isn’t how most people describe their dream Thai vacation, but for us these coffee shops are life savers. We got on the road again after several hours and biked until we found a guesthouse at sunset.