Day 15: Sick.......or just tired?

We've managed to get back to Saraburi albeit 24 hours behind schedule and feeling a lot less energetic than when we left here last Saturday afternoon for the joys of Korat. We couldn't get a signal with the CAT mobile connector yesterday which meant that I couldn't post the blog when we pitched up at Muak Lek Plaza for the night yesterday and it's not working now so here's a review of the last two days;

Thursday, 18 September; Despite the new blisters, it was a good day's walking only interupted for an hour or so in the afternoon though it was yet another heavy downpour that left a fair bit of local flooding for me to pick my way through once I got going again. The road took me past Chokchai Farm amongst other things and, if we'd have had the time, I wouldn't have minded going in and doing a tour. It looks like it covers a fair old area of land and the restaurants and other attractions looked like it would be worth spending a couple of hours at. Unfortunately, time wasn't on our side but it's a place I've marked down for a visit in the future. A few more steep climbs to negotiate but there's usually a downhill section afterwards to compensate for them. Our destination was a place called Muak Lek and Ros spotted a place called Muak Lek Plaza that looked like it could have been a night market or similar. I think it was intended to be something like a market but it's become like so many other things we've seen in Thailand; somebody's dream that never became a reality. Some of the facilities on the big billboard outside it are in place though and we were able to clear nearly a week's worth of laundry in the toilets area and get cleaned up ourselves. Pitched the tent up for just the third time to date on the journey after a couple of locals said that it was a safe place to stay. Should have been with a police patrol car parked out there as well! Not much choice when it came to an evening meal though; just the one small place on the corner of a row of fruit vendors that the local boys in brown from the police box on the opposite corner seemed to have commandeered and were working their way through a bottle of whisky. They didn't seem too interested in us though and we headed back to the tent for an early night after another 33 km clocked up earlier in the day.

Friday, 19 September; Whist I appreciated the extra room that using the tent afforded us both, I didn't appreciate the noise from the highway or the fact the someone switched on the security lights above the tent not long after we went to bed. Although we were at least 100 meters from the main road, it felt like I was lying right next to it and those trucks just kept coming right through the night. Throw in some dogs barking at someone or something at regular intervals and a couple of people shouting at each other late on from either side of the tent, then I didn't get much sleep last night and I wasn't in the best of moods this morning. Oh, and the local old bill must have run out of whisky as their car had been moved during the night as well! Then we discovered that almost all our washing had been blown onto the floor during the night and, subsequently, it was still wet. Not much sun out early doors so we had to put it all on hangers in the car again so that we could get on our way without wasting time waiting for it to dry. I stopped at a couple of places on route for half an hour or so once the sun was out and we managed to get most of it dried out during the course of the day. The highway was busy and Ros got concerned a couple of times stopping on the hard shoulder for me with large trucks creeping up behind her and then seemingly pulling out and overtaking her at the last second. It's been mainly dry today with just a few drizzly showers but not heavy enough to drive us off the road and looking for cover. We looked at the map first thing this morning and discussed going around Saraburi and taking another highway to Lopburi, our next major destination. This appealed to me at 7 in the morning but by the time we reached the turn-off after another nearly 30 km day, I decided to keep going till we reached Saraburi city limits and then Ros found a temple with a large parking area to pitch up for the evening at just before 5pm. At least we've been here before and know what's available to us rather than taking a chance on us not finding what we wanted on a stretch of road neither of us know. I wanted to get the blog updated and also find someone who would have a look at our portable DVD player that's not been working properly since we brought it down from Lamphun. Ros reckons it's my fault that it doesn't work as I haven't been using it regularly since I bought it last year. I personally don't see how you can cause something not to work if you don't use it regularly but there you go. Thai logic? Maybe. At the time of writing it's in a shop here in Saraburi and I'm hopeful that it'll be ready for collection early doors. Having nothing to do other than having a chilled Chang or two in the evening has become a problem for me. The walking has been tiring for sure but once we've decided to call it quits for the day, cleaned up and had dinner, what then? Nearly all of the places we've stayed at have had TV sets blaring away for the people working there and Ros has been welcome to pull up a chair and watch. That doesn't do anything for me though as that's not what I call entertainment and that's why I packed the DVD player. I didn't have internet access via the laptop for the first nine days so I had to dig out internet shops wherever I could find them and since then I've needed somewhere to plug it into once the battery has died and that's not always been easy to find. Hopefully, if we get the DVD player sorted, I'll at least be able to listen to the CDs we brought down and I'll get some movies as and where I can find them in English. Tomorrow, it's onwards and northbound to Lopburi once we get the DVD player back. Looks like another early night tonight though.