Thomas | Chaos roaming the world

We had obviously needed a day to simply crash so we extended our stay in Thap Sakae for another night to see at least a bit of the surrounding attractions. After a yummy breakfast (Flo had bought me Nutella and Thomas bakes his own bread!), we slowly got into our motorcycle gear. Despite it being 10.30am, you could feel that it would be a scorcher of a day.

Iconic, isn’t it?

The Ban Krut temple is only about 25km away but the ride was long enough to get quite hot. The first thing to notice on the temple hill is a giant buddha statue. It looks out over the land in the calm fashion of all buddhas. Around it, there are smaller statues to which you can apply leaf gold and thus do your bit for the temple (and for improving you standing regarding this life and the next). This practise results in a very patchy look of the statues though.

Walking up the hill, we first passed two big warriors or guardians, one of each side of the road. A big, well frequented staircase, then, leads up to the top of the hill with the temple on it.

Dragon stairway

As always, removing your shoes is expected but apart from this fact, Flo and I are lacking the knowledge of rules for proper behaviour in a Thai temple. For example, I wasn’t sure if it’s okay to take photos at all. Though I asked a staff member, I was sure I wasn’t understood when I got a “yes” answer…so really I wasn’t any wiser afterwards. So I quietly took some picture, not disturbing any people who were there for prayer and not zooming in on the devotional statues too much.

Soon, we were too hot again and went back our “flat” with just a short lunch stop on the road. The pool beckoned so we jumped in to cool down before using the afternoon for some administration and reading up on the next countries. Apparently, landmines are still an issue in Cambodia so no going off the roads at all…

Sweet concoction – but yummy.

Dui and Thomas invited us to a home-cooked dinner. Dui makes this vegetable dish out of Thai zucchini with some scrambled eggs with a sauce and it is so y.u.m.m.y! NOM! In capital letters! Then, we actually drove into town again to have the rich tea one last time. Unfortunately, we didn’t take a single picture of Thomas and Dui… 🙁

: Iconic, isn’t it?

: I think that is some important monk guy here in Thailand

: These guys are a thing here – Ogre I think.

: Not many people, but always in the way 😛

: Dragon stairway

: At the gates

: this seems to be the cheese – we unfortunately have no idea.

: Nope, your eye does not deceive you, the doors are … crooked.

: More gold … we need more gold!

: One of two beaches in Ban Krut. This is the northern one.

: Interesting to see stained glass in a non-christian context

: I think they are having an argument …

: Detail of the roofs

: white flowers in bloom at the temple stairs

: They were made from glazed porcelain. Pretty cool.

: So good – and veggie!

: Sweet concoction – but yummy.

Last night was a bit later than usual. First, because my kangaroo skewers took forever to get served, but more importantly because we had a beer and travel talk with Thomas from Berlin. He is the first motorcycle traveller that we met since starting this trip, at least for a longer chat.

Human added for scale (top of the ridge)

That, plus a couple of urgent emails requiring my attention in the morning meant that our plans for the day started with a delay right out of the gate. Not that one item makes for a very long list, but we also wanted to get some good distance in afterwards back to the Stuart Highway and north if possible.

That one item? The King’s Canyon rim walk, a 6 km walk (plus some detours along the way) was marked with a whopping 3.5 hrs. We got there around 10 with the bike fully loaded. That always makes for a bit of an awkward change from biking to hiking mode, but nowhere nearly as hard or annoying as in our early travel days.

Nina was ok with most of the walk, only my brief explorations of the edge off the 50m sheer cliffs was met with little enthusiasm.

This is called Garden of Eden

Although we took every detour, had lunch at the Garden of Eden and took way too many photos, we were back at quarter past one. Are we actually getting fitter? Either way, we were changed and back on the road by 2 pm.

I was keen on some bush camping, but from 4 pm onwards, the roadside was all fences, or desert plain without a single tree. So we pushed on a bit longer, on to the Stuart Highway and made camp at the Desert Oak rest area (Overnight camping is allowed here). I even found some good fire wood nearby. Thus, the day ended with a cup of tea next to a campfire on red sand.

Not too bad for a day to end.