Ayutthaya by Kayak : 3

Embankment construction.

The service station hotel has pad Thai for breakfast, this is good.  I'm not loving the walk back to the river, but only 20km to paddle today, yay.  There is even some current!  Still lots of embankment construction, and in typical Thai style, an army of people are installing reinforcing bars for concrete, though there are plenty of big machines moving earth and rocks too.  I make good time to Singburi ('Lion Town'), and reach my rather nice hotel for 4pm.  Two vouchers for welcome cocktails you say?  It has a bar too, and there is yummy crab curry.

Another day, I am still broken, I buy some SPF 50 sunblock, better late than never I guess.  Well, I have to keep going, 27km today, not so bad.  The river still has a bit of current, and still new embankments are going up.  My legs are a mess of blisters and wounds, every time I leave the water there can be sharp sticks, and my skin tears like wet paper.  It won't kill me, I'm sure.  I make good pace at least, I think I am building muscle, and today I reach my resort before 5, and can actually get some rest.  Google thinks there are a couple of bars, 1 and 2 miles away respectively, well it's nice to walk after sitting in the boat all day.  The route is along the embankment, interesting, I can see that if the water ever got this high, it would be well above the surrounding land.  There are also many barking dogs, I remember one of the good points of kayaking, namely that the wretched creatures can't get to me on the water.  Of course the bars turn out not to exist, back to the resort with beer and food from a shop it is then.

Floating cabins.

Day number 7, only 18km, not really easy, but at least reasonable, but there is not much current and once more my pace is slow.  I see many houseboats at the riverside - well, not houses, I think most are the rooms at various resorts - good if a fishing holiday is your thing.  I keep going, to Aang Torng ('golden basin'), then have a km or so of walking to my hotel, then oops, one end of the road is blocked by a six foot gate.  I pull myself over it with no trouble whatsoever, I think I have indeed built muscles.  I am maybe trespassing on the property of the Thai tax office, but security guard seems relaxed about it.  The hotel room has subdued, multicoloured lighting, a very bouncy bed, and can be booked for a three hour stay, hmm.

Looking quite tanned here.