Trang-Krabi

Total Distance:188.52
Total Time:10h53m11s
Average Speed:17.3km/h
Maximum Speed:50.5km/h
Total Distance So Far:796.19km

Before I begin, I keep meaning to tell you, I haven't been including any distance not travelled by bike nor the distance spent travelling around places on bike in a leisurely fashion. I feel this would "fudge" the numbers, so to speak.
Let me start by saying today was a far less successful day than those past. I still love Thailand and, just to clarify, do not hold anything that happened upon Thailand or the people who reside here. The first 75km of today's ride was non-stop rain. We're not talking a little mist either. It was a full on down pore. That alone wasn't actually that bad. It was sort of a nice break from the blistering heat. It was rather rainy though, which is my least favorite of conditions to ride in. It makes it like you are constantly going uphill. I was, once again chased by many dogs today. I think I'm going to invest in a water pistol and fill it with bleach or something to spray in their eyes. I know it sounds cruel, but some of them are honestly going in for the kill. The worst thing that happened today, and I do feel really bad about it despite my recently acquired distaste for the Canine kind, I ran over a dog. If all dogs go to heaven, I'm surely going to hell. He was just a little guy too. I didn't kill him, at least I don't think I did. He did get up and stagger off yelping after. I was trying to read a road sign, which can be difficult as the majority of them are in Thai, and I didn't even see him there. The last bad thing that happened was that I got lost. Perhaps it was my punishment for running down Benji. The ride from Trang to Krabi should really have only been about 139km. I didn't actually want to stay in the town, but in one of the places down by the beach. I searched high and low and could find no such places. I know they exist. I have a friend staying in one as we speak. I guess I'm just dense. It added at least an extra 2 hours to today's ride. Eventually I gave up and stayed in town, which turned out to be pretty cool. At least now I know I can do a 190km day.
Last night I stayed in Trang, where my problems with the language barrier continued. It was a pretty boring place. Sometimes the worst part of a bike tour can be where you end up stopping. Everyone there goes to bed at 8pm. Not very fun when you don't arrive until mid-afternoon. Krabi is much better. There's more tourists who come here, so it's a little easier finding people who speak English. I'm going to try to learn some Thai while I here. At least the basics, like how to order food and ask where a hotel is.
I think I will be here a couple of days. I can't linger too long though, as you only receive a 30 day visa upon entering Thailand. I'm going to do Thailand in two shots. One now (the South) and one after leaving Laos (the North). Still it's a long way to the Cambodian border, so I can't dilly-dally.