January 8th: Wat Noi Pho Thai Ngam to Uttaradit – 90km
Day 87
Back on it! Maybe it was because of the good night of rest or our proximity to our climbing destination Chiang Mai, despite the heat and the distance there was a certain excitement in the air.
Upon reaching the planned destination for the day at the 60km mark, we could only toil on, passing many inviting hotels along the way under the torturing afternoon sun. Why? Because we made the made a stupid mistake of not taking out cash at the seemingly ubiquitous ATMs. And we spent our last Baht on some snacks. It turned out that the ATM we passed was the one and only before Uttaradit 30km away. With zero Baht in our pockets, we pressed on in 34°c heat till we reached Uttaradit.
Soon we found we made another mistake – we hadn’t planned on arriving in , nor stopping at Uttaradit. Without the help of the almighty Google Maps, we didn’t know where to go, as we’ve learned many Thai Hotels are tucked away on the outskirts without any signs in English. We ended up spending a lot of time looking for buildings that appear to be hotels. Multiple air-conditioners in the widows, signs that read squiggly, squiggle, squiggle (in Thai) Wi-Fi, squiggle 24. We discussed memorizing the characters for hotel but there are hotels, motels, guest houses, home stays, resorts all buried in a lot of other complicated script advertising various amenities. Our winning trick is looking out for keywords, such as “24” (24-hour check-in/room service), “Wi-Fi” (almost all Thai hotels offer free WiFi) and very often a red arrow, have led us to our lodging.
However, this was not the case in Uttaradit. After spending an hour wandering around, we found nothing. Eventually we had to resort to the old-fashioned human-to-human interaction by asking locals. Of course, we were directed to the most swanky hotel in town – Friday Hotel.
Many fancy hotels quote a price that includes an overpriced breakfast. At Friday Hotel, we were quoted 800 Baht with “complimentary” buffet breakfast and 450 without. For 350 we could have 3 large meals. Venturing just outside the hotel we found a local market where 20 Baht gets you a bag of prepared food. With several bags and 150 Baht later we had a feast.
These markets are everywhere and perfect if you can’t speak Thai. All you need to do is just to point and pick and you are guaranteed authentic local fair. Remember the word “phet” for spicy, with some body language the venders will know what you’re getting at and point out the ones that are spicy and non-spicy. I like spicy food, but even mildly spicy by Thai standards is at my upper threshold.