February 8th: Chumphu to Thoen – 83km
Day 118
We gorged ourselves on free bread and butter today and paid the price. Both of us had stomach cramps. After living on the food from local markets for almost 4 months without any health issues, we had the runs from the hotel butter. It didn’t stop us though from covering a good distance over rolling hills. Most of our day went like our digestion – brown, and drab with lots of traffic.
We are starting to realize why they call this time of the year the dry season. We haven’t seen a drop of rain in months and all along the road there are burned bushes and even some active fires. Judging from the multiple signs that depict a fire with animals fleeing, I’m guessing that they are warning about starting forest fires and not instructing you how to flush game out of the woodlands for hunting.
Cher located a hotel right on the road, and after 4 hours and 45 minutes of pedaling we settled in.