Today I got out of the hotel at a reasonable time, but really should have headed out earlier. I should do that every day, really. 10:30 a.m. wasn’t too bad for me though. My problem is that I like to get a coffee and write in the morning. I need to get in bed earlier so I can get up earlier to do that and still leave early. Working on it!
I decided to head back to the Coffee Hills Cafe for breakfast, and more coffee. It was excellent again, and I had the American breakfast this time. I didn’t have to order scrambled eggs because this one included an omelette.
In most towns I have stayed in I have managed to find a couple reliable restaurants that serve a good breakfast, coffee, lunch, and supper. At least staying in a Hop Inn I have reliable, good coffee, so that is less of a worry. I haven’t gotten to the point of packing portable espresso gear. I don’t want to!
I started making arrangements for getting my drone insured. I figure that is probably a good plan. They say you can’t be too careful!
I was back on the road, and it was a nice day. The weather was decent, with patchy rain. They are twinning a lot of the road I was on, and I understand why. Some of the drivers in this area tend to be seriously impatient assh*les who think nothing of passing on blind corners. Had at least a half dozen incidents of dangerous passes on my trip. No wonder Thailand has dozens of road deaths a day. I am not kidding. Obviously I survived, because you’re reading this!
I made a pit stop and decided to eat lunch. Five Star didn’t have chicken ham, so I decided to eat at Tummour (sp?). Have I ever mentioned chicken ham? Five Stars are little food huts often found near a 7-11 at a PTT gas station. They serve chicken. That’s pretty much it. I discovered chicken ham, which is an agglomeration of white meat chicken that is trussed up and wrapped in chicken skin and baked, or deep fried. Yeah, probably deep fried. Anyway, it is tasty and, hopefully, relatively healthy. It’s not as fatty as some other options and is fairly lean. They chop it up, put it in a bag, put a stick in there and you’re good to go. Keto endorsed!
So I went to this new place. I have seen them all over, and never gone. I ordered deep fried pork, and deep fried Vietnamese sausage. I also ordered a thick soup with chicken and mixed vegetables.
The pork was good. The Vietnamese sausage is similar to a lot of mystery meat you’ll find in Thailand, normally shaped in balls and grilled. A touch spongy, but the taste was okay
Normally I don’t order soups, especially in Thailand. I have not had good experiences with them. I tend to find them finicky, and way too much work to enjoy. Today was no different. The photo had lean chicken so I thought I would try. What a mistake.
Why do I hate chicken in soup here? Normally it’s all the parts I would throw away that seem to get chopped up and thrown in a soup, little bone shards and all. It’s okay if you’re doing it for broth, but not in the final product. This soup was chopped up chicken skeleton and, to make it worse, what little lean chicken was attached was like hard rubber. What the f*ck? I tried, but even removing the chicken from the bones was next to impossible. I’ve torn apart countless baked chickens and have never had that issue. It was inedible even when you could get it off the bone. I gave up on it.
I thought I could at least have the vegetables and broth. That was not happening either. The broth was the saltiest broth I have ever had. It was also inedible. I don’t mind salty, but this was ridiculous. It was a bit spicy, and that was okay. The vegetables had potential, but I would have had to rinse the broth off to even have a hope of eating them.
Tom Yum soup is popular here but I never order it, whether it is pork or chicken. I have never had the rubber meat issue the couple times I have ordered it, at least. The other issue with Tom Yum is that the chunks of the various items to make the broth are left in. You generally don’t eat them, but I have to figure out what I can eat and what I can’t. The flavour is okay, but I just want to eat, not have to do surgery to pick out minuscule bits of meat, or fish around for a few vegetables. I can make better soup at home
Anyway, that turned into a bit of a rant. Not that I have thought about this before!
I went to the nearby 7-11. I didn’t touch the soup after attempting to eat it. I still needed something else, so I picked up some almonds and raisins. I was on my way!
It wasn’t too long before I was at my destination. It was getting to late afternoon when I arrived at Wat Khao Angkhan, also referred to as Khao Phra Angkhan, located on top of a hopefully long dormant volcano. Fortunately it wasn’t a huge temple complex. There was a very large reclining Buddha, and I made a loop around it. The main building is apparently in a Khmer style, somewhat reminiscent of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. You’re not far from Cambodia here!
The views are not too bad from here, and the temple complex is interesting. There were people here but not too many. I would have flown my drone but I hadn’t completely readied it for flight with firmware updates and everything.
There was a sign that explained a bit about the temple and everything here. From the sign:
“Khao Phra Angkhan is an extinct volcano mentioned in the legend of That Phanom that in 535 BC, Buddha’s ashes were placed here. In 1977, Phra Achan Panyawutthitho came to build a temple on the hilltop and moved the Buddha’s ashes to store in the stupas on the top of ubosoth which built in a unique style combining Thai arts of various periods. Surrounding the ubosoth are ancient sema stepes (boundary stones) from Dvaravati period made of basalt which found nowhere else in Thailand. On these semas are bas-reliefs of person, stupa, lotus and wheel of Dharma dated back to the 8th – 9th Century, or about 1,300 years ago. They prove that Buddhism has been settled here since the ancient time.”
“Khao Phra Angkhan is a wide-base hill formed by volcano eruption in Quaternary Period, approximately 700,000 years ago. From top view, is shape looks like a garuda spreading wings with its head points to the south. The main vent is at Khao Kraduk (Khao Pa Cha), a summit formed by fast-cooling lava that vertically accumulated into a form of plug cone. Around Khao Kraduk Is a caldera or depression formed by collapse at the vent. This is the clearest evidence of caldera in Thailand. Khao Phra Angkhan Temple is situated on the edge of this caldera.”
It was less than an hour to get to the Hop Inn in Buriram. I lazed around the hotel for a while before deciding to go eat. I saw there was a mall across the road and decided to go have a look. There wasn’t a lot there, and as it was getting a bit late, food options were limited. My final option was KFC, unfortunately. It was okay, but I should have gone to a different restaurant that I had been looking at.
I walked back to the hotel and, instead of going in, I walked down the street by the hotel. There’s a long string of restaurants and bars here. I should have looked for a place to eat here. Next time. There were even restaurants on the railroad tracks. I’m guessing these tracks aren’t used much, if at all. It all looked interesting. I could have stopped for a beer, but I didn’t feel compelled to stop. One day soon, I’m sure.
Back at the hotel I updated the firmware on my drone, and that was about it. I was even in bed early. I was also up early to write this! Slept okay.
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