My world walk blog / Thailand / 14

On my last Friday in Thailand, I walked steadily from a village called Ban Bo and finished late in the evening in another village called Ban Tha Yom. I had amassed 48 clicks on the kilometre clock. That evening I pitched my tent under a shelter in the village park but slept little due to so many dogs barking. At 4-am I had, had enough of them and as I wanted to arrive in Udon Thani, some 38 kilometres away I wrapped up my tent and was off walking at 4.30am. This motivated early start may be a record early start for my world walk.

I walked for an hour before stopping for a coffee and chatting with two nice women in a  7-11 convenience store which I was told is 24-hour in Thailand. They asked me where I learned to speak Thai.  It's amazing what you can do with a lot of gestures, some bullshit and in my case, just two words in Thai "Thank You and Delicious " is the extent of my Thai vocabulary!

 A little later I had a stir-fry stop at a roadside stall. Yet another friendly family and when I was leaving the forced water on me despite my protests. I don't think I have bought a single bottle of water in all of Thailand!

Despite my very early start, I  made slow progress as I still had 23 kilometres to walk. But I had a nice time. A  further three kilometres and then I had an irresistible ice cream stop! And then the nice woman offered me a lunch but I was too full. Then for the last ten kilometres, I walked along the dual carriageway and towards the slightly polluted city of Udon Thani with rickshaw drivers trying to hustle me to take a ride and people rushing around hawking for business and food vendors selling all kinds of noodles and strange looking meats which were cooked on skewers. Eventually, just before a heavy downpour, I made it into the city and to the hotel, I had booked.