ToST II - Part 7

Savouring Surat Thani

We've spent nearly the entire day on the road, covering more than 110km in total distance.
My cyclocomputer showed 295km from where we began in Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Compared to the ToST I, this is by far, the longest ride ever.
At the motel, I took a walk to a grocery shop.
Bought three bottles of Chang Beer to celebrate at our room.
The Isan resort is a new place and while channel surfing the cable TV, Michelle found a porn channel. Amazing!
On the cheap, motels are the best places to stay if you want to stretch your dollar.
I told the guys to meet up around 5:30pm so that we could ride out towards the town area in search of food..

Isan motel

We rode out towards the city area and found a makan place by the roadside.
It serves decent food and we had a good fill with the dishes.
Sin ordered some Thai favourites while I sank my teeth at a bowl of braised chicken feet.
The rest of the night, we chat and recapped about the experience..

The makan place..

Deep-fried mullet

After dinner, we cycled towards a night market complex nearby.
There, we checked out the hawker food offered and ended up buying a packet of stewed pig's head.
This is delicacy and what's missing was the beers!
We rode towards a PTT station near the where we turned off at the bus station and found a place to get some mini sausages which became the flavour of the day.

The power of mobile internet...

Through a few touring experience, I found that the way to convey messages through images have changed.
Free WiFi is a game-changer.
You can get such services at public places and the upload speeds are fast.
And if you have a smartphone with a good camera, its almost like giving a "live feed" to your friends who are following your journey.
I use a Canon powershot G1X as my primary image capture tool. Along with the gear, I carry my HTC One X+ smartphone. The camera on this phone is pretty decent and after polishing the lens cover with liquid abrasive, I found some new use for the camera.
On the average, I can upload some 30 images into Facebook with ease. And without a roaming data plan, I get free WiFi and in the case of Thailand, the services are pretty decent.
At the PTT station, I wasted no time uploading the photos. But this place sells no beer, so, we had to cycle to another grocery shop near the motel to get our fill.

Uploading photos taken with the smartphone at a cafe in Surat Thani..

Cold beers and a good company...

Back in the room, we had our beers and some snacks.
We also worked out the expenses and so far, so good.
With the limited time that we had, we didn't really check out Surat Thani. 
Our energy was reserved for the long ride back to Hat Yai from Surat Thani.
This is roughly about 400km along the Kra Isthmus.
Whatever that needs to be done, has been done.
The laundry's dry, bikes are in good condition and our budget remained intact.
We drank our beers, called it a night and looked forward to the journey home.