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INTO THE MIST: Cycling from Ranot to Thale Noi
Another awesome day on the road..
We took advantage of the early daybreak to cycle as far as we could.
The route from Ranot to Patthalung is roughly around 64km and the weather is expected to be scorching hot.
This will be a trans-province ride on Route 4048 and even as early as 05:00am in the morning, the scene was breath-taking.
We cycled along the paddy fields and practically around the Thale Noi lake system.
It was a sheer delight to cycle around Southern Thailand's countryside.
Virtually no pollution and traffic.
We enjoyed the first 20km ride out of Ranot to connect with some rural villages along the way. On this route, we
had no fear about running out of water as most of the areas were populated.
After covering nearly 15km, we decided to pull over at a roadside stall to have a coffee break.
A lady who runs the stall had fried us some koay teow.
Roger and I had a cup of coffee each while the rest drank plain water. Our bill came up to 80 baht and after chatting with the lady, we headed off to the raised road on the lake system.
Before we left, the stall owner offered us deep-fried salted fish and rice. It was her generous gesture, but we felt it as way too much eating rice in the morning, especially with salted fish.
So, we declined and left the stall..
We worked our way to the raised road leading to Patthalung.
This is basically a 5km stretch where the road is elevated.
The scene is breath-taking as the lake's eco-system can be seen from both sides of the raised road.
Traffic was light and the weather was good.
We saw some fishermen doing their job to earn the day's catch.
And the one thing I must say here is the fact that the entire route was so clean, there's hardly any rubbish strewn on the roadside.
You don't see this in Malaysia because irresponsible road users would litter everywhere.
With such a beautiful road, there's no private owner charging toll. That's amazing!
Thale Noi bird sanctuary
One of Songkhla's main attraction is the Thale Noi lake and its bird sanctuary.
This is roughly about 2km away from the junction to Ban Lam Pam and Patthalung.
We rode to this area to do some sight-seeing as well as find a decent place for breakfast.
Along the way, we witnessed a wedding procession and stopped to take some photographs.
Later, we rode to the end of the bird sanctuary and back to the Ranger's headquarters where Michelle took a toilet
break.