I slept in just a bit on day 22 of this roadtrip. I had another long drive ahead of me to get back home to Bangkok, but I needed some extra sleep. This Hop Inn in Mae Sot is unusual because they serve breakfast, and there are two buildings A & B. Of all the Hop Inns I’ve stayed in, this is the only one I’ve seen serving breakfast. Admittedly, I didn’t go down to breakfast with high expectations, given my experiences with breakfast in Thailand.
Breakfast was about as expected: fried eggs that were cold, warm hotdogs (aka sausage), and shredded cabbage and carrot. There was also white bread with butter and jam, as well as congee (pork boiled rice). Coffee it is! I’m obviously not the target demographic with these breakfast options and, considering the budget, it’s not surprising.
I took my coffee back to my room, where I finished up my writing about the previous day, and processed my photos. I wasn’t particularly fond of the Internet here, and it was impossible for my phone to connect. Thought it might be my phone, but the iPad connected no problem, fortunately!
By 10 a.m. I was on the road, a short stop to fuel up and get the windows cleaned, and I was on my way. I tipped the girl who filled up the car and cleaned the windows 20 Baht ($0.75 Cdn). She seemed quite pleased with that. I have mentioned in the past about tipping like this. It’s not much, but I think it’s usually appreciated, and probably unexpected.
I only stopped twice on the way back to Bangkok. Once to go to the bathroom, and once to stop at ยุพิน กระยาสารท (Yubin Krayasart) candy shop in Kamphaeng Phet to buy a sort of Rice Krispie type cake that we like. We’d seen a video on YouTube about this place and I’ve stopped there three times now. Five of the flat packs were 150 Baht, and two bags were 50 Baht each. Total 250 Baht or $9.45 Cdn. I got regular, black sesame, and the greenish bags are pandan.
According to AllTrails, I traveled 508 km in 5 hours 46 minutes, and the total trip time was 6 hours and 3 minutes. I only stopped for 18 minutes! Not bad! I made good time on this trip! My foot may have been a bit heavy, but the traffic was pretty good overall. This is definitely a good route to take heading north/south, but it depends on where you’re going. I found the traffic from Nakhon Ratchasima (on different trips) to be ridiculously heavy, whereas the traffic between Nakhon Sawan and Bangkok to be much lighter.
I made it back to Bangkok just after 4 p.m. It was nice to be back home, ahead of rush hour. I unpacked my things, and headed to the grocery store for milk, yogurt, and something for supper. I ended up pan-grilling chicken breasts, and made up a green salad with green onion, and a vinaigrette made up of dijon mustard, pineapple vinegar, salt, pepper, and Australian olive oil (bet you didn’t know they grew olives!). It was so nice to have a home-cooked meal.
As is often the case, I saw lots of places along the way that I’d like to stop at, but I was just going to be happy being back at home to relax. It’s been a long three weeks! I enjoyed the trip, and will be posting more observations and statistics in the coming days.
Just after 11 p.m. I went to pick up Crystal from the airport. She was in Canada visiting family for the last couple weeks while I toured northern Thailand. I was really tired by this point in the day, so I’m glad traffic was super light. I got to the airport and back in under two hours!
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