Day #13 (2/7/2020)
Distance travelled: 146.6 km
Waking up in the car somewhere near Pattani
A bright blue sky with a thin layer of scattered white clouds greeted us early this morning, as well as a cow that silently observed us while we got ourselves organised for the day ahead. We struggled for a while finding a coffee place, and in the end, we had to settle for a chain, Café Amazon. I much prefer giving my money to independent businesses, but in this area, they were few and far between. A big day for Dimi as he finished his book here, while I spoke to a friend back at home and washed some knickers in the petrol station’s toilet (very satisfying!).
In Pattani City
Early afternoon, we headed straight to Pattani and found a perfect car speck right in the centre, which was also free of charge. We noticed a busy food place across the road and made our way over to have a look. One male chef stood behind two enormous industrial woks while three girls sorted out the orders for both eat-in and takeaway. There were no menus and no-one spoke English. Instead, we pointed and nodded to several ingredients to be tossed into the wok. Unfortunately for me, I missed the part where they pointed to seafood, so when my dish arrived, the noodles were buried under an impressive pile of calamari, prawn, shrimp, squid and octopus. Dimi was in his element, as the portion was huge and tasty; I, not so much, but it did look very appealing.
We walked a short way over a bridge to stop on some steps for a ciggie and watch many runners go by. As we ventured further into the streets, we came across a few quirky cafes and bars. It would have been nice to spend some time around here but we were short on time. The locals were also very friendly; an old lady happily stood for a picture, and a man asked us the usual questions with much interest. On our way back to the car, we walked through a small, busy food market and grabbed a sweet snack for the road.
There is something quite satisfying about filling up your car with petrol, but in Thailand, like in Greece, you don’t step one foot out of the car to fill up or even pay – they come to you. Each time we fueled up, we would say “full tank”, and most of the time we ended up getting a free 1L bottle of water.
Camping at Tachi Beach on Laem Pho peninsula near Pattani
Not far away, a funky looking peninsula caught our eye on Google Earth, so we headed straight to it, hoping to find a nice spot to camp. We drove past many cute villages, both inland and near the coast, with many goats and the odd sheep just roaming around. The long road along the coast brought us to an end at Tachi Beach. We parked the car on the sand, closer to the water, and were out and about to explore the area on foot, when it began lashing down!
We made a quick dart to find shelter under a mosque’s awning, where many of the present fishermen soon joined. Walking around the mosque, we met hundreds of goats also taking cover from the rain. They kept a watchful eye on us as we moved and were not shy about screaming. There was a lovely brown one, who came very close to us and was interested in our beer bottle, but we lost him once he mixed with the others again. Back in the car, we settled in the back to read the final chapter of Dimi’s book. The rain eventually stopped, so we took the opportunity to set the tent up and have a nice comfortable sleep on flat ground, fully stretched out.
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