…The Great Northern Road Trip 2020 : Day 4
The story starts HERE.
The journey so far has been flat. There were mountains visible left and right in Chumphon Province, a few hours north of home, and the Burmese mountains were visible to the left, further north, in the Hua Hin/Cha Am area. But the roads have been largely devoid of inclines.
That’s about to change. Tak is on a flat piece of land surrounded by mountains, so for the next several days the scenery will be spectacular and the roads challenging.
That’s partly why, in my trip planning, I’d designated Day 4 as a TIE Day. A Take It Easy Day. Perhaps it should have been a Tak It Easy Day.
The town is dominated by the Mae Ping, the river that runs north to south right through the middle, with only two road bridges linking the halves. This is the river view from my hotel…
Nice. But not something I wanted to look at for the whole day. So, I set off across one of the bridges for a different part of town, with different view, and for much needed walk. First stop was Wat Sitalaram. An elegant building, but it was locked…
So, it was back to the river…
I think that’s my hotel in the center of the above photo.
For some reason, it seems river views have to be sponsored by local supermarkets…
On my tootlings I found this…
…the Rattanakosin 200 Year Anniversary Bridge. It looked like no one had used it for 200 years! And on the opposite side of the road was the Tall Pointy Thing, visible from all over town. Purpose unknown…
But while I was there it was being used for dance practice…
And close-by was the Mysterious Metal Thing. Also purpose unknown…
And if all of that wasn’t exciting enough, the highlight of my walk was a novice firemen practice session, accompanied by blaring sirens from half a dozen ambulances and fire trucks…
It took them a good fifteen minutes to extinguish the one flame, which left me hoping my hotel didn’t catch fire. Oh well, I could always jump in the river.
So then I set off for Trok Ban Chin, or Ban Chin Alley. Story in next article.