7/27
Today we rode our last 40 km in Malaysia stopping to see Hindu and Buddhist temples (joyful places) on our exit ride. We had gotten our visa from the Thai Embassy yesterday so we could stay longer than 30 days.
Only hours within Thailand, we see differences from Malaysia: dogs, many and some that chase bikes; friendly people but less open; less English spoken; much more jungle greenery along the roads; wide shoulders on the roads; different food and drinks choices; and prices are less (tonight’s B & B accommodation on the river at Narathiwat with a/c and hot water, TV and sitting room is about $17US). We saw a military presence due to insurrection by militant Muslim groups against the Buddhists and Thai government. We’ve been told we are safe as long as we stick to the main roads until north of Sogkhia. We have two more days of 100+km until our anxieties can be put to rest.
7/28
This morning we left the guest house after two cups of coffee and two pieces of toast. Not quite enough for a 100km day. We followed a small road out of town looking for the village of boat builders. What a treat to see the gorgeous fishing vessels. We saw models of these Kia boats in Narathiwat. On the small roads, we were stopped and warned how dangerous the area was. We were offered a ride, but declined and headed out to the main highway we had been told was secure.
Kai fishing boats |
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There is less population on the main roads, but we managed to find a delightful little spot to stop for lunch. We took out our guide book with foods listed and managed to order bananas and yams deep fried with coconut coating and a terrific soup with veggies and goat meat and ???. Each bite had sweet, savory, spicy tastes in the mouth!
When we arrived in Pattani and found a new hotel ($20) recommended by our guest house owner last night, we showered and stood in our seventh floor window watching the afternoon/evening storm approach. After a bit of rest we went downstairs to the huge dinning room and with the aid of our guidebook ordered another amazing meal of green curry chicken. Many of the vegetables are unfamiliar but the meats are very good (no bones or knuckles like in Malaysia) and the spices are incredible. We think we have finally found the country with our favorite foods! Yeah! But little English is spoken and the alphabet is indistinguishable to us. So we will probably continue with mystery meals – delicious mystery meals!
After dinner, we explored some cabins next door to the hotel, appearing as part of the complex. Much to Judee’s chagrin, the prostitutes use the area. Many of the hotels we house the prostitution downstairs, regular guests upstairs. Strange in an area so strongly Muslim. Drinking and nightclubbing is also prevalent. Tomorrow we’ve been told we will have a police escort to Songkhla as it is too dangerous due to the Islamic insurgents. We’ll see tomorrow what happens.
The time changed as we came over the Thai border. The sun comes up an hour earlier which gives us more morning daylight, but we are ready to go before any restaurants are open, and we lost one hour in the evening. We seem to have some long days of riding ahead of us. There is so much to see in Thailand. It is difficult to plan a route, as we will inevitably miss sight. We just can’t see it all.
The scenery is lovely pastoral scenes of cattle or goats lounging in green low land fields bordered by jungles of vines, flowering bushes and many varieties of trees, including coconut palms - the result of this hot, wet climate. Thailand is called the “land of Smiles” and we are certainly experiencing those welcoming smiles from passing scooter, autos, trucks and giggling children.
7/29 Armed police escorted us for 20-30km out of Pattani. The day was hot, humid and both Art and I struggled with sore bottoms; Judee with a cold and sore throat. We saw prawn/shrimp arms and scenery water-logged by last night’s storm .
We have to get use to the Thai roadway systems. Often a turn is marked but blocked by the divided highway. Instead of placing a break and turn, the traffic is directed to several U turns in order to allow those wishing to take the road a place to turn around and access it. Motorcycles and even a few cars anticipate the turn and will change to the other side of the divided highway, driving against traffic to make the turn. We didn’t understand the concept when we missed one turn and ended up going on a bypass around the city we were trying to get to. Asking for directions using our map is worthless. As we learned, it is because our map is written with English characters. Main roads and tourist attractions are signed both in Thai with English characters below, but the Thai’s don’t read English. I try to read the Thai letters by matching them to my map, but I can’t seem to make out the words. Could the Thai letters be like English letters, where there are different type styles, like Times Roman, Courier, or Old English? If so, I will never be able to read Thai letters. We are reminded of our friends, the Bockmans, who arrived in Greece. Joann climbed behind the driver’s wheel and Carl opened the map. “Great! It is in English!” Until they drove out of the airport and were confronted with road signs all in Greek Characters.
By the time (101km) we got to Sangkhla, we were both ready to shower and nap! We checked into a five star resort hotel with every amenity possible for $43US including breakfast. We are going to stay a day or two, enjoy the pool and rest a bit before pushing on. The sea views are superb from our 6th floor room: decadence at such a decent price. East, drink swim, read and stroll the beach. A slow day in the Thai sun and fun. Hotel resort kick back!
8/5
We have been slowly working our way up the Sea of Thailand coast as per usual: hot and sunny temps in the nineties; we pray for clouds and overcast to cool our parched and poached bones. Eating at road side stands is always a special treat since we usually really don’t know what will arrive at the table. Almost without exception the food is spicy and delicious, a wonderful mixture of flavors and colors. The highway is rather flat with a good shoulder, lots of smiles and waves. The cities and large towns are very lively but easy to ride through, The most distracting things on the way are the Buddhist temples. We find ourselves pulled off the pavement into these brightly decorated temples in park-like setting; monks in saffron robes tending the grounds and teaching the young monks (most young men will spend three months or more in training). In the mornings the monks go out and get their day’s food donations and return to the temple grounds.
Judee has been struggling with her cold, now in her chest with much coughing. We are taking it easy: ride for a couple of days, rest one then ride two; cities to the beach, back to town; also alternating eating off the street then into a KFC the next evening.
After several days of coastal Thailand and traditional Thai accommodations, a ferry whisks us to the resort island of Samui. This island is large – has a paved road with a 50km perimeter. So we have Bici with us. Accommodations are 1st rate, aimed at foreign trade and expensive in comparison to mainland Thailand. Art calls it Gucci Island.
8/10
After a day in paradise in a 4 star accommodation, we rode the bike around Samui, stopping for an elephant ride and a look at a waterfall, both very touristy, but fun. We stopped in Hat Chaweng, the main tourist area with a 7km beach providing tourists with every type of water sport (jet skis, water ski, fishing, etc.) imaginable plus rows of message beds under palm-roofed shade where sun burned bodies were tended by gentle hands. The area reminded us of the hustle bustle of Kuta Beach in Bali, complete with all the services and vendors. It is a bit more upscale, a bit cleaner and the vendors actually understand “No”.
Samui Island
1. Our little paradise.
2. "Want a drink"
3.Another elephant ride |
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Glad to have seen the place, anxious to move on, a ferry spirited us north past a couple more islands, famous for diving and diving instruction,/certification at very reasonable costs. We chose to disembark back on mainland Thailand near Chumphon, on the narrow neck of land shared with Myanmar. The seas were rough, the wind strong, so we arrived after dark and 7kms from the closest hotel. The ferry operator rode a motorcycle in front of us to direct us to the main road and we proceeded under a red blinker light attached to Judee’s Camelback and Art put his reading headlight on the front pack. Much of the road was lit, to our amazement, most vehicles saw us since they are on the constant lookout for scooters, still beeping and smiling at us in the dark!
1. Falls on Samui
2.Samui hustle and bustle
3. A little quiet time. |
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After stopping and asking directions, we finally found the hotel down a small dirt road. It was pleasant and about $17. Across the way on the dock side we ate a pretty good meal. The hotel owner helped us choose a route that would keep us off the main road which we have most often had to ride without better detailed or correct maps. We have trouble finding through side roads: so many canals, clogged with fishing boats; river mouths; mangrove swamp areas don’t have bridges except by the main road. Our route around Champhon was no exception. We rode a curvy cement road past lovely houses then got lost at a canal crossing, weaving our way east, west, north, sometimes even a little south. Finally, we seemed to have found a through road, which was confirmed by a Dutch couple we met going south.
We have met several Dutch riders in various countries, always with a tick sheet, detailed map of the area they are riding and listings of all appropriate accommodations and eateries. They can buy these itineraries for most areas of Asia, even have tourist agencies set up their air, transfer and hotel bookings in advance! Our travel guides barely cover the areas we are traveling, let alone finding us maps with any accuracy. Oh well, we just stop a lot, fret, ask questions in English, Thai’s answer in Thai. We show them our map with English characters, they read Thai characters. We struggle to pronounce things, they laugh. Sometimes it is funny, sometimes extremely frustrating, but in the end, the bicycle gods find us a good place to stay.
The Dutch couple gave us advice about accommodation and road conditions ahead, recommending stopping short of our destination. There has been a lot of rain during the nights and lasting into the mornings, so we often have late starts. Bici needed maintenance today after some rough handling by the ferry operators who broke one of his couplers leaving us without a rear brake. It was after 10:30 by the time we rode out and the rain began again about 2pm. It was great to be told of a spot or two up the road. So we stopped at Coral Bay Resort. The room was typical Thai, complete with fan and hole-in-the-floor toilet with a bucket flush. It wasn’t too clean, but the bugs didn’t seem to mind. To get to the room one stepped away from the restaurant/ pool area down a two foot drop into a littered shrub border. After looking at a model of the Resort, we realized it had never been completed. All that was here were the main building, pool and five servants’ shacks – one of which was rented to us for the same price as last night’s a/c white-sheeted, soft pillowed room! This facility commanded the seashore of one of the prettiest, cleanest, bays we’ve ever encountered. On each side, huge volcanic formations plunged down to the sea, creating protective hills and caves and small island-like outcroppings were set in the center of the pretty white sand bay. The water was refreshing, unlike the hot sea we’ve been experiencing and we could see our feet deep in the clear water. We rescued colored shells from the sand bar as we walked and watched fishermen.
We woke to rain, again. Breakfasted on plain white bread, thick coffee and a fried egg included in the over-priced accommodation, and rode down our side road in the rain. We gaily waved at another Dutch couple as all of us, wet, yet warm, peddled past each other. We settled into another beachside bungalow and ducked out of the rain to read and write.
8/11 Beat the heat – Ride in the Rain! Seems to work. And we don’t have much choice. The bays along the east coast of Thailand along the Thai Sea are different one from another. The clean, clean sandy beach of Coral Bay was replaced by a shallow wide mud flat, brown and broiling at Bahn Saphon. Last night our stop in Prachaup Khiri Khan was at a wide bay full of boats, smooth as glass and protected by a temple perched high on one of the many limestone outcropping. This town appears to have an ex-pat community and many locals speak some English with many services available. This would be a great town to return to for an extended stay.
The terrain undulates. The south west winds are light but at our backs. We pass rubber, cocoanut and palm oil plantations, many fishing, shrimp and squid operations and farms. The foliage is lush and flowers, exotic. The people are lovely! Thailand truly is the Land of Smiles.
Through our efforts to find side roads we found an aquarium – sort of out in no where - a lovely facility with interesting exhibits and some English explanations. We pass many signs for caves and waterfalls, but we don’t want to ride the extra kilometers to leave our bike unattended as we hike back into these attractions. We have to be content with what we see along the roads.
We decided to take a side route through a Thailand National Park: Khao Sam Roi Yot. The guide book waxed poetic about the caves and general beauty of the place. So we paid $400Baht each ($14) and rode on in. It was after we had passed a miserable fishing village and 10 kilometers of prawn and squid farms that we realized this was a public road. To get to any of the caves or attractions, one had to go many kilometers off onto side, sometimes dirt roads, park then walk many meters or kilometers to view the caves. We didn’t want to leave an unattended Bici with all our gear to tromp up a hillside to peer into caves with our tiny reading lights. We were told by ex-pats that all the parks are like that. Populated, developed and with fees for foreigners. We will try to avoid them in the future!
We are heading north toward Bangkok hoping to take a bus/train into the city to pay for our Los Angeles plane tickets (the Thai travel agent who made the arrangements would not take payment by phone or email and the bank could not help us either – go figure). Then we plan to bus back out to where we leave Bici and ride north to Chaing Mai for a couple more weeks.
8/12
Today our distance was short: 43k/22m to Hua Hin, a very developed, resort place, filled with ex-pats and vacationing Bangkok residents. Costs are high, but we plopped down our $50 for a beautiful, large a/c room by the pool with breakfast included. Good day to have laundry done and rest a bit.8/16 We left Bici and most of our gear at a hotel in Petchaburi, taking a bus into Bangkok to pay for our flight tickets and to see the dentist. Mike and Karen offered the use of their spare bedroom so we met up with them that evening after we had done our errand and the dentist had shot Art with novicane, taking impressions for a new bridge to be ready when we return. The Och’s digs were great, so we made ourselves at home, enjoying a bottle of California Chardonnay with Karen. When Mike got home, we all went to dinner at Cabbages and Condoms, a restaurant with a helping agenda. The décor (clothing, lampshades, etc) all make of condoms was ingenious and the food excellent. Next morning, instead of hopping the bus back to Pratchuburi, we spent the day sight seeing; riding the sky train, the river ferries, visiting the grand palace. Everything costs more than rural Thailand, but the cosmopolitan city has everything from Rolex copies to real steaks! We wolfed down a lot of western food figuring we wouldn’t have another opportunity in the next few weeks. Language can prove to be difficult, at times. Today, our tourist boat had a Karaoke guide who spent a great deal of time explaining we had all day tickets: we could get on and off as often as we liked until 7pm. He failed to tell us that certain piers closed earlier, (like the one we waited on for ½ and hour before being told to walk to the next one five minutes down river); and that there were actually 30 piers – not the 13 on our tour map. And that our ticket did not permit us to go beyond pier 13. When we decided to take the north bound ferry, it took us several piers before we realized the ferry wasn’t turning back south – for a long time. We disembarked, caught a south bound ferry and finally returned to the pier near the sky train, a good 1 ½ hours later.
After we bused back to Phetchaburi, retrieved Bici from our hotel (who had not saved us a room), we went around the corner to another, secured a room and took a cable car up to the top of a small hill, spending the afternoon tromping around Rama IV’s palace, built in the 1850”s.
8/18
We began our day riding to another small hill of limestone with caves of stalactites and stalagmites and with many Buddha’s, Khao Luang sanctuary. The sun pours through the open hole in the ceiling of the cave and lights the Buddha’s. Of course, the place is also home to hordes of monkeys.
We stayed on small roads, passing miles of salt settling ponds. We had to stop and check the huge barns, not sure what was in them, : salt crystals! As we approached our destination, Damneon Suduak, the floating market area, we began to see more and more traditional wooden Thai houses with their steep pitched roofs decorated with flame finials. We hustled into a little hotel before the afternoon down pour, a daily occurrence.
We were told by a young couple of diving instructors living on one of the islands that we had No Worries about getting lost, that all the road signs had English sub-titles. It has become painfully obvious that tourist areas and tourist routes cater to the farang (rhymes with meringue pie) but only a kilometer off the tourist trail, all signs come only in Thai. We are learning to negotiate the smaller roads and finding the language to be an inconvenience we are willing to struggle with to stay off the major highways and to see the ‘real Thailand.’
8/20
The floating market has long ago become a tourist attraction, shedding its traditional flavor of selling necessities to the Thai’s and today selling souvenirs to the hordes of tourists being pled, paddled and motored along the few working canals lined with sellers and food vendors.
After our1 ½ hour tour, we mounted Bici and began our 100+km ride to Kachananburi, the town near the Bridge over the River Kwai. We stopped for a bit at a wood carving center and also took photographs at a voting place as the country was voting on a new referendum for the new government since the coup took place last year. The road signs were all in Thai on the small back roads awe attempted to ride, so of course, we go lost and wove our way through gorgeous agricultural areas, almost devoid of trash and lightly populated. This is probably the prettiest cycling we have encountered in Thailand. Despite the beauty, it was still a very hard bicycling day with high temps and us sweating buckets, suffering sore bottoms, feet and hands.
Two hours in the ER. Judee’s left eye is filling with blood, slowly turning red and today she started feeling pressure. Uh Oh! We better get this looked at. So off to the local hospital 5km from our guest house. We park Bici at the entrance to the open air ER entrance and enter the crowded waiting area and wander up to the guard. He takes us to a nurse who walks us straight into the ER treatment area; takes J’s info. The place is quiet, a couple of nurses and lots of empty treatment areas. The nurse looks at J’s eye and walks off, very little English is understood here or spoken. As we wait, gurneys and emergencies start to roll in: trauma victims with head wounds, drunks; old man intubated to assist breathing; a mother carrying a new born crying; doctors and assistants quickly appear; we are feeling very out of place. The nurse returns as takes J out of the ER and around the corner to an out-patient office, a large examation room with three other patients waiting to see the doctor who’s discussing another patients issue in front of the other patients. Privacy: none. J, to her surprise, is seen before the locals who have been waiting. I was asked to wait in the large public area. J was finished in less than 15 minutes, declared the eye was Not Dangerous, prescribed eye drops and asked to come back in three days to be seen by the eye doctor. We were escorted to a window, issued a hospital card and sent to another window for the prescription and a patch. All took only a few minutes and cost less that $3US. Then back to ER, now in full swing and full view where life and death take place gurney next to gurney. The baby leaves in his mothers arms, the sheet is pulled up over the old man and the wounded drunk can barely sit up and feels no pain. The nurse administers J’s drops and patches her eye. We say our thank you’s and leave. How different this is from the medical care we are use to in the States. We were well treated and treated first, to our chagrin.
