Der alte Jan und die Khmer

Day 1: Pattaya to Kloeng

The guest house I stayed in in Pattaya turned out to be suffering heavily from the low tourist season…as a consequence, I had the 8 bed dorm room all to myself. Pattaya itself was as

I didn’t start quite as early today as I had originally planned – instead of 6am, I didn’t get on the road again until almost 8am. It had been raining for a few hours already, and when I finally left, it was still pouring lightly. This turned out to be a very comforting situation, as the rain provided a welcome cooling during the first half of the trip.

Here’s a first picture of Samnang in full gear, taken on the way to Klaeng:

I had lunch on a market in Rayong. An elderly man came by to eat at the same table, and struck up a conversation which was only slightly hindered by the fact that our shared vocabulary consisted of only a handful of words. I always find it fascinating how much can be said without any words – he recommended me to wear a long-sleeve shirt to avoid getting burnt by the sun, and I explained that I was instead using sun screen…all by just using hands and feet.

There was a very clear difference between how people reacted to me in Rayung as opposed to Bangkok and Pattaya – while most people where very friendly and helpful in all places, the people in Rayung where much more curious about what I was doing here.

Shortly before Klaeng, a tree blocked the road – with the joint forces of the people arriving at the blockage, most of the tree was taken from the street in minutes: