Day #12 (1/7/2020)
Distance travelled: 154.2 km
Waking up on the shore of Bang Lang Lake
The noise from several scooter engines pulling up close by the car roused us early in the morning. We watched a dad and son climb onboard one of the boats. With them, they carried a vibrant orange liquid in a plastic 1L bottle. I thought it was the kid’s energy drink. It turned out to be petrol. They plugged this into the boat engine and off they set amid the glorious beauty of Sadao Lake, briefly interrupting the quietude until they were out of sight. We were in no rush to leave. We spent a chill morning marvelling at the views, drinking coffee, taking pictures, and reading.
A short hike to stare at some nice views of the lake
The time had come to reverse-drive the car back up that narrow, steep track we took last night to reach the lakeshore. I was more than eager to be the one to do it! Once we had a bit more space, I managed to pull off a 10-point turn on an upward incline, with the help of Dimi. Due to the lake’s size being rather large, and us having little time, the furthest point we planned to visit was a viewpoint not very far from our position. This would also be the southernmost point of our entire trip. We stopped at two points of interest along the way: a tall, mightily-flowing waterfall right beside the road; and a clearing with a nice view of the lake. On the latter spot, we met a local man who happily spoke with us and kindly cut a durian into pieces for us to taste. This was the first durian of our Asian trip so far, and it cost us nothing. The first time I tried durian was again in Thailand, in 2016, and I wasn’t blown away by its stinkiness. This time, however, I very much enjoyed its unusual texture and flavour. FYI: because of its pungency, many Thai hotels ban guests from bringing this fruit inside their premises, and in Singapore, it’s banned on all public transport!
The road stretched on, at times bringing us into a complete solitude with nature, and at others, through bustling villages. The start of the trail to our viewpoint was hidden in dense growth… so much so we drove past it. We abandoned the car on the side of the main road and retraced our steps on foot, in search of the trail’s opening. A rope was hanging from a tree to aid in pulling yourself up onto higher, jungly ground. Eventually, we made it to the top! Not going to lie, parts were tough and I had to often pause for catching my breath. But, of course, it was completely worth it! The view of the slender lake patches of blue intercepting the immensity of the jungle’s green was nondescriptly splendid. It was much quicker to journey back down to the car.
On the way to Narathiwat – stopping by at Si Sakhon
With the A/C on full blast to cool us down, we left the lake and got on our long way towards Narathiwat. We first reached a busy village called Si Sakhon, where we searched for coffee. We had that in a quiet coffee place right next to a lady selling fresh noodles. That’s where we ended up enjoying our breakfast, sitting and people-watching on the busy market’s roadside. Various things were happening: several people were setting up food stalls, and many more were stopping by to buy their goods. As always, our presence did delight the locals.
In Narathiwat City
After coffee, we drove straight to Narathiwat. We got to drive a bit up and down the city, glancing out for a place to lunch. We crossed a bridge and drove along a busy residential street, occupied by a mixture of tin, wooden, and concrete shacks. I spotted an otter in a small crate at the side of the road. He was frantically climbing the bars while a small boy stood by looking at it… poor creature. A friendly lady served us a delicious egg-and-noodle soup, garnished with coriander. We enjoyed our food uncover outside. How lovely it is to eat outside in comfortable temperatures; being from the North of the UK, this rarely happens to me.
We parked by a lake and went for a walk to explore the area a bit more thoroughly. There was much to see. I spotted a vendor selling one of my new favourite fruits, rose apple – a bell-shaped fruit with a texture similar to an apple but slightly sweeter. We bought a bag of them. Dark clouds loomed overhead as we paused on the bridge to look at the view around us. A community of stilt houses and many brightly-coloured wooden fishing boats were docked on the river Bang Nara. As we walked around the edge of Muang Narathiwat Park, a group of men, who we presumed were fishermen, beckoned us over to speak to us. They were quick to point out a freshly painted, wooden boat part, and encouraged Dimi to take a picture of two of them in front of it. Then I was forced to pose. We answered their many questions about where, how, and why. Then we carried on on our way.
Shortly after, another local driving past on a scooter shouts “Hello, where are you going?”, but he was gone before we had time to open our mouths to reply. Further around the park, we came across two small goats feeding on a patch of grass. They were not one bit bothered by our presence and asked no questions. Before heading to the sea, we grabbed an interesting, served-in-a-small-plastic-cup dessert from a vendor. It was made up of vanilla ice-cream, rice, sweetcorn, bread, and condensed milk. We headed down to the rocks, by the river mouth, to make ourselves comfy, but this was a short-lived comfiness… as it suddenly started to piss down. Like many other locals, we sought shelter in one of the park’s kiosks. The rain gradually got heavier and heavier, so after five minutes of waiting, we decided to brave it and run back to the car… Poor Dimi had to stop for an emergency piss!
With steamy windows and soggy pants, we drove to a 7/11 for tea and beer. Then we made our way a little outside of the city, to a small, quiet pier with more docked boats. Mosques blared out the call to prayer on loudspeakers just after sunset. We settled in the car, listening to music, and reading. Once again, we bedded down for the night in the car, with the windows ajar for the odd mozzie to come in for a feast.
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