Ayutthaya by Kayak : 2

Large clumps of water hyacinth.

The owner of the homestay comes to watch me inflate the kayak, he says he might buy one, and why not.  Apparently I am not the first guest with one here.  He also gives me some water, which is nice, though I still don't want the noodles he went to buy for me last night, in a bit of a misunderstanding - I was in fact capable of walking to a restaurant.  Anyway, a shorter day today, only 27km, but still hard work.  My suntan lotion is not working, my ankles are badly burnt, and I have blisters on my hands from the relentless paddling, but still I keep going.  It's pretty at least, there are hills to either side, and many birds, a small one hovers over the water and then dives to catch a fish, most cool.  There are many guys fishing with nets too.  My destination today is another resort in the middle of nowhere, and when I arrive they tell me to go away, won't listen to my Thai, and can't even read the name of the resort, in Thai, on my phone.  Well, I work it out... There's nothing here of course, so I walk 5km to Uthaithani, it's worth it for beer and tasty fish curry.

Now this is getting ridiculous.

Ugh, last night I was thinking about when I needed to start, and misread my plan, it's not 28km today but 33km - 28 was the date.   There's no current at all, such hard work to keep moving, and I'm still not going fast enough.  There's really a lot of water hyacinth floating on the river, I worry the way will be blocked.  Well, I keep going, but this is so hard, it's breaking my brain, I forget my hat twice when I stop to rest and have to go back for it.  I paddle as the sun sets, into dusk and then darkness.  At least, I'm into Chai Nat now, a proper city so there's plenty of light, enough to avoid the water hyacinths, and also thumping music from an evening Zumba session - popular in Thailand - spurs me on.  I reach my hotel at 7:30, a nice riverside place, where the staff marvel at my insanity.  I then find a bar, on the river of course, although I'm too tired to drink much.

That damn dam.

The hotel staff watch me put up the kayak, and off I go, 35km today, oh dear, and there are other problems too.  Such as, 5km into the day, water hyacinth does indeed completely block the river.  Well, I had to get out at this point anyway, more or less, there is a dam coming up soon, the only one of the trip at least.  But, now I have a km or so to walk, boat in the bag it is then.  Turns out the blockage is less than 100m, the plants are pushed up against a floating bamboo barrier, I guess this stops them reaching the dam.  Well, I reach it, then on the other side is some kind of secure area?  OK, it looks like I can reach the river on the other side, so I cross  the dam, and then walk through a temple / golf course, a path leads down, but... there's a tributary before the place I thought I could get to the water.  I can't even get to tributary, between me and the water there is head high grass, argh.  OK, back over the dam, I walk through the security checkpoint, it seems unmanned, a bit further and there are stairs down to the water, yay.  But, it's 3 hours since I set off, and only 6km done, well, no choice but to keep slogging on.  The river is different now, much narrower, but sadly still has no current, though at least there is no water hyacinth!  A lot of the banks seem strangely high, embankments tower many meters above the river, separated from it by sandbanks, and indeed I pass beach play areas.  New embankments are under construction, maybe they are planning a new dam?  Ah, but this day is so long, I am broken.  I paddle into the dark again, and leave the water at 7:30.  It's a mile walk to my hotel, delightfully situated in a motorway service station, I buy beer on the way as I'm not confident anywhere will sell me alcohol there.  Well, it does have a shop at least, where I buy a 'tasty' microwaved burger...