Day 88 - A whole new biome!
We were rolling early today up to the caves, planning to have breakfast there. On arrival we were greeted by a jobsworth parking attendant who first instructed us exactly where to put the bikes in a massive empty moped parking; "forward, forward" and then tried to charge us for parking the bicycles with his numberplate recognition gadget - he was clearly intending to pocket the change. We argued on principle and he eventually gave in, but then we decided to pay him before leaving our bikes in an empty carpark with him and his 7am beer for a couple of hours - a few euros is cheaper than vandalised bikes after all!
The ride up to the caves was stunning!
The prices for entry to the caves and at the restaurant we'd earmarked for breakfast were insane - as much as a night in a 5 star hotel here! Buy a cave and print money, then spend that money on hundreds of staff seems to be the tactic. Without jobsworth we could have cycled to the cave from the carpark no problem, but to save time we lumped for the electric taxi upcharge and were whizzing along shortly after breakfast.
Once we finally got there the cave was pretty cool in the end, and we by virtue of being there early had it to ourselves, which we used to test the echo (it sounds a lot like a church).
Plants grew exactly where the lights pointed which was pretty cool! The sign in the last picture reads "Please stay clean"
On leaving the cave it started to rain. Rain! Breaking our streak - the cheek! Setting off into the rain, knowing we'd finish in the dark was tough, but as soon as we got going it was clear the rain wasn't set in and we were on small country roads up through the hills, the temperature still high. In fact it added to what became a stunning, stunning ride through a new (for me at least) biome - tropical rainforest! And it really looked and sounded the part!
Including massive bugs!
There was a sign documenting the local wildlife including gibbons and tigers, looking up at the vine draped trees I'd believe it! We'd seen noone for hours and reflected it was the fewest people we'd had since Kazakhstan. The flip side of this meant we got caught in our snack complacency. "Shall we get something for tomorrow" "Nah we'll pick up something when we're hungry" knowing we were never more than a few miles from a snack stand or restaurant! Well today, after our fried rice/noodles for breakfast at 8, we got nothing at all until 16:00 when we finally arrived into a town. We also had nothing with us except a handful of sweets for 7 hours riding 😵💫 and so were both feeling very light-headed by the time we finally got some food. Sadly it was just rubbishy snacks, but it gave us enough energy to get to the nearby city where we'd decided to stay tonight.
I actually saw these in the wild! I remember them from the botanical gardens in London 20 years ago and thought I saw them earlier in the trip but now actually have!
Lacking food meant we went a lot slower than usual and so got a lot less far than planned which will make the next 7 days until our flight a mad rush - fingers crossed we make it 😬, but it was worth the scenery today.
The supermarket we stopped at for snacks tomorrow turned out to be a hyper expensive import supermarket, so we paid more for a handful of items than our entire dinner and lunch order or the entire house we rented tonight, bit annoying. But that's right, house! We have three ensuite bedrooms (perhaps I'll change in the night) a full kitchen and two sofas...for 21 euros! Not to mention the washing machine - there will be no washing clothes in the shower tonight thank you very much! Oh, and there's Grab delivery here which we enjoyed on the balcony 😏.
Food spend today: 52.26 euros
Tea consumption: 6