Life At The Bottom: January 2006

I guess my jersey doesn't block out all the sun. The tan lines are from my Camelback.

The local boat repair guy.

Bird Bang Beach Boat Builder (say that three times fast)

More Bird Bang Beach

Bird Bang Beach

Room with a view (Bird Bang Beach)

On the way to Nong Ai Kaeo

January 29, 2006

Ban Krut: Ban Krut was a blast. It seems the beach is very flat near the shore but further out if falls off rather quickly. When the waves come in from the deep ocean they build quickly and topple on the beach. The waves were not big but perfect for body surfing. Catching the waves took little effort and we could ride them all the way up onto the sand. We surfed for several hours all the time giggling and racing around in the shallow water to the next incoming wave. Once while walking out from a surf I stepped on something that felt like stepping on a mini tramp and I thought jelly fish but kept quiet since I knew it would send Jodi flying out of the ocean. About five minutes later a huge jelly fish (24" diameter) washed up and I had to tell Jodi about my encounter. She quit surfing for awhile but returned a little later when she saw how much fun I was having. It was nice to see her having fun and laughing so much. After a couple hours a Thai girl approached tell us that the hotel had told her to tell us that the beach was very dangerous. We both laughed and surfed a little while longer.
That night we had our usual peanuts and beer while watching the sunset. A roti vendor stopped and I purchased 4 roti sy khai (fried bread with egg) and we called that dinner. In the morning neither one of us wanted to move because the bed was so comfortable and we were both so tired from all the riding. We laid about and later I went outside to watch the sunrise in a hammock on the beach. I had a great time and the sunrise was the best I have seen (I took some pictures but I was too late to get it at its’ best).
As we ate our breakfast we talked about laying over and how it affected our schedule. We read the guide book and it said the next town had two really great night markets and with it being Sunday (usually the best night for the markets) we both decided to move on. It was our latest start of our Thailand trip...8:30am. We both thought the heat was going to kill us but ever since a cold front moved through late last week it hasn’t been as hot. After looking at the map and I estimated it to be 50km to our destination and Jodi guessed 60km. The ride went well, it was a short ride to highway 41 and a fast ride with the smooth wide shoulder. The ride was about 71km overall and we both commented on how that distance feels like a short jaunt now that we are both in shape.

Prachuap Khiri Khan: I am really excited to be here. We are staying at AO Noi Beach in a new guesthouse. The beach is across the street, the night market 100m away, a great restaurant next door, internet two doors down and a convenience store three. While riding to the beach we encountered two other cycle tourists going the other direction and tried to stop to chat them up but they just rode on past and waved. (Cycle touring needs an infusion of friendly people, it seems everyone we encounter just looks at us and rides by or if we do chat they find out we are American and they shut down and take their leave. So if anyone reading this is friendly and wants adventure please cycle, I would love to meet some smiling faces in my travels.) We ate lunch on the beach and a whole herd of cycle tourists road by and again I tried to chat but they just kept on going, I think they and the first couple were German.
Tonight we plan on going to the night market, I can’t wait since they have become my favorite hobby on the trip. It is so much fun tasting all the new treats and trying to speak Thai. Sometimes they have Kar-e-oke and I enjoy following along with the words trying to pronounce them. It is a rapid language class, I have no idea what the words say but I find it helps with the phonics of the language (hooked on phonics). Most Thais seem to like my enthusiasm and my efforts....I sometimes get the thumbs up and they all enjoy watching the goofy farang.

January 28, 2006

Arunothai Beach: We didn’t really stay at Arunothai, we were a little south at Pak Nam Lang Suan at a beach "resort" called www.99bayresort.com. We stayed two days and nothing much happened but we did manage to get some rest from our 153km ride getting there. We had a nice waiter who spoke English but much too fast for Jodi and I to understand him at times. Much to my irritation he would tell the cooks in the restaurant to tone the food down so it would not be spicy. I told him repeatedly that I wanted it exactly the way the Thais eat it, but he just couldn’t believe a farang could handle the heat. He did give us a package of seashells that he collected on the beach that evening and against my better judgement I will try to get them home (even though I don’t want the added weight).

Chumphon: We left Lang Suan at 5:00am and rode through some desolate country on our way to highway 41 (the main interstate). As we were riding away from our quick stop at the convenience store, we noticed several people with brooms who had spent the night sweeping the streets and commented how clean the streets looked. We rode on and quickly the street lights ended and we were in the pitch black darkness with only our little bike lights to help us see. We were both a little nervous which turned to fear quickly. It seemed every house on this rural road had a dog that we would startle from its slumber and suddenly it was menacingly barking and chasing us at our heels down the road while we frantically pedaling in high gear to escape. We were wishing we had some of those little exploding pop jacks they sell on the 4th of July so we could throw them in their direction to scare them off. At one point I had one about to bite my shoe when Jodi loudly yelled "NO!" and it backed off...thank goodness!
Once we were on the 41 (the main highway to Bangkok) the traffic picked up and the riding became rather uninteresting. As I was thinking "This sucks", I remembered how every Sunday morning at Pole I would sneak down early on Sunday morning to ride Dr. Von Hitlers spin cycle (his real name is Otto and we did not like each other one bit) and I would imagine myself riding down roads. That is when I realized how spoiled I have become with all of our back road riding on this trip. We stopped for breakfast at the Chumphon tourist rest stop thinking we might get a "western breakfast" but we arrived an hour earlier than their opening time of 8:30am. So we pulled out some peanut butter, bananas and cereal bars from our road stash instead. About 20km outside Chumphon I saw a sign that read "Short Cut to Chumphon". In my haste, I misinterpreted what it said and turned about 1km early. Luckily a guy on a scooter was nice enough to lead us through some dirt back roads to the road we needed. We were surprised when the distance to Chumphon shrunk by 10km by just turning right off the main highway.
Chumphon was a town that we found to be rather uninteresting. The central part of the city where the hotels and guesthouses are located was made up of mostly businesses and restaurants that catered to farangs. Only when we ventured into the "local" areas did we find things that interested us. In the evening we went to the night market and found it to be the best yet. We found some new foods including fresh squeezed carrot juice, whole stuffed squid on skewers, coconut pancakes and mussel omelettes. All the new eats were great and we tend to like the desserts best of all, something I never knew about Thai food.
Nong Ai Kaeo(Bang Bird Beach): We didn’t awake at 4:00am as usual because we knew we would be riding some rural roads and we were afraid we would encounter the dog problem of the day before. There is nothing like riding in the dark with a snarling dog chasing behind and we wanted nothing of it (No one needs that much adrenaline that early in the morning!). We stopped at the American Cultural Center (otherwise known as 7Eleven) for breakfast since they are the only thing open at that time in the morning. We ate yogurt and cereal and talked about how the night before the street was crowded with vendors for the night market and now no signs of them remained. No tables, no carts and the streets had been swept clean of the previous nights activities. We were amazed.
We really hoped that we would encounter some accommodation at the 50km point, but unfortunately none could be found. I began to understand how cowboys must have felt crossing the plains on their horses looking for the next town (I was singing cowboy songs as I was riding). The road was quieter than anything I have ever seen and we seldom saw cars, scooters or houses. We did see some of the most beautiful landscapes and coast line with islands dotting the horizon. I could not believe all the white sand beaches and every time we rounded a bend the views would just get better and better. At one point we were on a coastal road that had pine needles piled six inches deep on the shoulder and I began to understand how far "into the sticks" we were. On a stunning stretch of lonely beach, there was a fishing village of some of the poorest people I had ever seen and yet the children and grownups all stopped what they were doing to yell "hello." Looking at their shanty homes and the beauty that surrounded them, I realized how rich these people were and I said a little prayer hoping that their beach remains undeveloped for a long time to come.
At this point we had ridden 80km and I was extremely nervous that we were not going to find a place to sleep and would instead sleep on the beach with only an apple and some peanut butter as food. Another 5km further I saw two scooters heading our way and I was about to flag them down and ask about the location of the nearest accommodation when I noticed they were farangs and I knew something was nearby. Around the next bend we found a row of beach bungalows for every price range but few tourists. It has been the same every where, Bali, Malaysia and Thailand, there are accommodations but not many tourists around to enjoy them, leaving us the pick and the power to negotiate. We found a nice place and settled in for the remainder of the day.
We both took naps, Jodi was in the room and I laid on the beach and later we walked into town for some dinner. I ordered a spicy dish and the waitress warned me that it was pretty spicy and I told her spicy ("pet" in Thai) is good with two thumbs up. She laughed and when she brought my plate she pointed out the chilis that were very hot so I could pick them out. Much to her surprise I ate everything on my plate. I explained to her that I am from the American southwest where we eat hot food. She was impressed and gave me the double thumbs up and said "most Thais won’t even eat those chilis"...I rule!

Ban Krut: Several people in Nong Ai Kaeo asked if we were going to Ban Krut and they all told us it was beautiful and that we would like it. I liked Nong Ai Kaeo and for them to advertise another place seemed like people in Breakenridge saying Copper Mountain is great. We struggled out of bed at 4:30am and if Jodi had said, "Let’s stay" I would have seized the moment. But we are running short of time on our visas and we need to get to Bangkok so we can make it to the other countries on our itinerary. Grudgingly we packed and when we went to use the bathroom before leaving we discovered they shut the water off at night. This made it difficult to flush and between the both of us we somehow managed to clog things up. I spent the next 45 minutes trying to devise a way to clear the pipes without water and a plunger. Nothing worked and I felt terrible that the owners were going to happen upon a terrible mess and smell when they cleaned the place for the next occupants (maybe they will leave the water on and provide a plunger in the future). Sorry guys!
The road was not as lonely as the ride the day before. We saw houses and of course dogs but with the morning light they pay no attention to us. It must be something about the dark and how quiet we move. We stopped in Bang Saphan for some breakfast and I discovered the girl making donuts spoke English. She helped me order some rice porridge with sausage and egg which was something new that we both enjoyed. She also sat with us between customers helping us with our Thai. I wrote everything down in my "*magic book"and I look forward to trying the new sayings.
We rode another 25km and found a beach area that rivals anything we have seen this far. White sand, clear water and great accommodation. It is the Chinese New Year so the place is filled with Thais setting off fire works and having a great time. We ate a huge lunch and settled into a quiet afternoon.

*Note: My magic book is a place I write Thai sayings and the English translations to help me get around. It is getting quite extensive and I need to do some things to make it better organized.

Read about the vicking burial.

Taking a practice ride on the P.O.S.

Koh Samui night market. (He has fish cubes that look just like Tofu.)

Beach in Koh Samui.

Jodi trying to keep the view hidden from the condo building throng.

On the ferry, no more sour face.

Just before we discovered we were lost.

Sichon

Making friends (happy hour in Sichon)

Relaxing in Sichon.

January 25, 2006

January 25, 2006

Before I discuss the who, what when and where of recent events, I need to tell several stories that have backed up in the queue.

The viking burial: On Saturday January 21, I rented a scooter so Jodi and I could do a lap of Koh Samui. We enjoyed the ride but were frightened at first since it traveled at speeds greater than we have become accustomed to. I was a nervous wreck actually riding in the fast traffic with all the cars pulling out in front of us and speeding past. It felt like a really intense video game. Making matters worse, it wasn’t until after we took off that we realized the front brake, horn, head light and seat release didn’t work. We christened the scooter with name P.O.S. (Piece of Sh!t). When I returned it the next morning I mentioned its short comings to the owner and she apologized and did not charge me for the fuel I used in my travels. I left thinking that if they gave it a little TLC it would serve them and the renters for along time to come. Later in the day I went out to buy some water and I noticed they had parked the scooter in the field across the street and piled palm boughs around the base as though they intended to burn it. I thought to myself, "No way, they must have just moved it out of the way until they could get it to a mechanic." When Jodi and I walked to dinner we saw a water buffalo eating grass next to the burned remains of the scooter. We laughed for the next three days thinking about why in the world they would have burned it, how much use we could made of that scooter and what a waste it was to do that.

The Cambodia Lonely Planet: In Koh Samui they had a plethora of used book stores that had books in English and German. While browsing I discovered a Cambodian Lonely Planet with a print date of August 2005 making it the most recent publication. I asked the store owner how much and she said, "200 baht ($5USD)." Since it normally sold for $21USD new, I figured I was getting a bargain. When I returned to our "little home" I started reading it and I noticed some subtleties that did not seem quite right. The color pages were in color, the cover identical to the one I saw at Amazon but the pages were a little lighter in places as if they had been photocopied. I had heard they photocopy LPs in South East Asia but I envisioned a stack of white pages all binder clipped together instead of an exact replication of the book. My version was bound, just like a normal book but it is definitely a copy. I don’t feel too terrible about owning a copy of the publication since the "opinions" offered by LP to me are a problem and I wonder if its’ writers receive perks for favorable write ups. Many times on this trip I have visited places they totally dogged and I went to them thinking, "Oh crap, I hope this next town doesn’t suck" and found the town among the best I visited.
They also don’t even mention some of the smaller dots on our map which have definitely been worth some recognition.

Leaving Koh Samui: We planned on going from Koh Samui, to Koh Phangon to Koh Toa and then onto Chumpon, but learned the ferry companies do not allow bicycles on the Koh Toa or Chumphon ferries making it impossible to do as we planned. We asked if we could ride the ferry from Koh Samui to Surat Thani with our bicycles and were told "yes" and we needed to take the only ferry at 1:30PM. We laid low that morning taking our time packing and started riding to the terminal at about 10:30AM. It was in the heat of the day but we figured it was a short ride and we would only have to do a short ride in Surat Thani to some accommodation. We arrived at the ferry terminal and were told that we could not take our bicycles on the Surat Thani ferry and we should take the Don Sak (a.k.a. Don Suck-o-rama) ferry that leaves in 10 minutes. Confused and dazed we bought tickets to Don Sak and assumed we would figure things out on the mainland.

Don Suck-o-rama: Dan Sak sucks! It is a big hole where they dump western tourists off ferries and charge them what I call "the white skin tax" to climb out. It is 80km from the nearest major town and most people ride the "aircon buses" to Surat Thani to make connections with the train and bus systems. Since it was the heat of the day we could not ride 80km and were left with the choice of riding a bus or waiting until evening to ride. I asked several bus and share taxis for prices and one "jackal" tried to convince me that it was 200km to Surat Thani and it would cost 1400baht each because of our bicycles. As I watched the stream of western tourists unload from a bus and collect their twelve pieces of luggage before going on the ferry. I became very annoyed that they could bring so much crap for free and I had to pay extra for my bicycle that only weighed 11kg (not to mention most of the people were carrying more than my 11kg on their western well fed bodies). I began to feel trapped by the conditions and location of my situation. Jodi negotiated with a bus driver and convinced him to take us for 150baht each. I still thought this was high since the cost for just the passenger was 80baht We decided to have some lunch and not do anything impulsive. We figured at worst we could ride two hours in the evening if we could not find a bus driver to give us a good rate. As the hours past, the day became hotter and things became more uncomfortable. I negotiated with another bus driver and he said he would take us for 350baht total, 50 baht more than the rate Jodi negotiated but we took it anyway. We broke our bikes down and I think they learned just how much they were ripping us off when they saw how little space the bikes consumed in the cavernous luggage bay. We boarded the bus and were told we would leave at 2:30pm (we would wait 20 minutes). We didn’t leave until 4:00pm and during the wait the driver put some really annoying talking book tape in Thai on the cabin stereo at a high volume for everyone to listen to. I looked over at Jodi and she was wearing sour face and said, "If I have to listen to this all the way to Surat Thani I am going to cry". Luckily I had my minidisc player handy and we listened to it at extremely high volumes to cover the background noise.

Surat Thani: The bus dropped us in Surat Thani at what I would call a "non location" (a busy street with no transportation alternatives other than the "jackals" that wait there to collect westerners and charge high fees.) Walking off the bus the Thais ahead of me received little attention but when they saw me I was bombarded with calls of "hey, where you go, I take you". I told them repeatedly "I do not require transportation, no transportation, no." Even while I assembled our bikes and was loading the panniers, they still didn’t get that I did not require their services. It seemed the only thing that changed was the price of transport.
Jodi and I rode our bikes a short distance to find a restroom and a place where we could talk and read the guide book. Jodi suggested we find a place called "Ban Don Hotel" that had a decent write up in the book. I talked with several young women and they were not able tell me exact directions but were able to convey that it was close. So I suggested we make a loop of the next block and found it on the first turn. What a find, the room was clean, cheap and across from the night market, I couldn’t have asked for more.
Our guide book describes Surat Thani as follows: "Uninspiring Surat Thani....is generally worth visiting only as the jumping-off point for the Samui archipelago..." That to me is not a very nice review and we read it thinking that it was going to be a bad stop in our travels, but we found Surat Thani very enjoyable. The city had a nice buzz with the best night market of any city we visited on our way up the peninsula. We enjoyed a nice dinner along the river where I sang some Thai kareoke, had a few to many beers and a fabulous time.
The next morning: We awoke at 4:00am to ride 50km to Chaiya on the old Surat highway. It was a route suggested by Mr. Pumpy. We covered the distance quickly and we were in Chaiya by 8:30am. The only hotel in town looked dismal so with the day being cloudy and cool we decided to press onward. We covered 153km of the most beautiful roadway I have ever seen. We seldom saw cars and most of the time we were alone with only the sounds of the environment to keep us company. At times I was concerned that we were lost but the occasional signs always indicated that we were heading in the right direction. We saw so many things and I can only describe it as the Anti Pole. It was everything the pole isn’t...full of life, color, light, fun and beauty. We saw undeveloped beaches with blue water and long stretches of white sand as well as landscapes of rice fields among mountains and palm trees. It was as if we were traveling in a dream and several times I expected to snap from my sleep and still be in Don Suck-o-rama. We eventually arrived at Arunothai Beach and found some nice beach bungalows to spend a couple of days.

Notes: The ride had several bail out points along beaches with beach bungalows. It is not necessary to stop in Chaiya and possible to find nice accommodation along the way. Jodi and I saw three locations that were not in our guide book or on our map.