Jaunuary 20, 2006
We stayed an extra day in Nakon before moving onto Sichon because I had a mechanical problem with my bicycle. Jodi noticed that my rear wheel was out of true while riding to Nakon. I found a nice bike shop near the train station and the hotel and asked them to fix the wheel. They said that I should return around noon and it would cost 100 baht ($2.20USD). I left thinking that returning by noon was going to be a problem because of our plans of going to the Wat and the shadow puppet museum. We decided to see the Wat anyway and tried to make the most of the 40 minutes we had to walk its grounds. At the door we were handed flowers and incense which we discovered later was necessary to enter the more sacred areas. We each had to light the incense and offer the flowers so our hearts would be pure to enter. Inside was a golden Buddha, surrounded by several Hindu deities. There was a set of stairs that led upward to a large spire that housed several artifacts of the Buddha. We both wished we weren’t such morons about Buddhism so we could better understand what we were seeing.
Running short on time we exited and found our way to the bike store where the mechanic showed me the wheel and where it had cracked around the spoke nipples and one location where the nipple was ripped free of the rim. I needed a new rim and had the bike shop build one for 800baht ($20USD) using my existing hub. I asked him why it had failed and he suggested I had too much weight on my rear wheel or the last time it was trued the mechanic over tightened the spokes.
I returned to the room and was distraught because I thought we had dumped enough weight previously and the weight I did have, I had little trouble moving the 1200km this far. Jodi and I decided to go through the exercise of examining our bags again and putting things that were not absolutely needed into a pile. When we were done, the pile did not look like much but when we picked it up we were both impressed with its weight. We went to the post office handed the bag to the clerk. He selected a box and put our stuff inside and after some formalities we gave him 200 baht and we were rid of another 3.5kg. We then returned to the bike store to claim my bike and found the mechanic putting the last touches on. While walking back to the hotel it became apparent that he had not only built a new wheel but had trued my front, adjusted my brakes and added air to both wheels making the 200 baht a bargain. At our sunset happy hour we discussed the day and how the wheel problem took most of the day to sort out and how we both felt we wanted another day to see some sights.
The next morning I paid the hotel for another day and we went to the Wat to see the last couple of things we missed and then walked to the shadow puppet museum. The weather was hot and by the time we made it to the museum our clothes were drenched in sweat. We viewed the exhibits and learned that shadow puppets are pieces of cow hide cut into traditional characters from the Hindu and Buddhist religions. The older ones were not colored but as the craft developed they learned by adding color to the puppets the shadows would be in color also. Next they did a little puppet show for us and we both enjoyed it very much. The rest of the day we "tooled" around looking at things and getting ready for our next ride to Sichon.
We arose at 4:00am and enjoyed another sunrise cruise of 90km. We arrived around 10:00am checked into a nice beach resort and spent the rest of the day relaxing by the ocean and napping. We found Sichon a very relaxing stop with no tourists, a nice beach and quiet. About 3:00 P.M. we became hungry and rode our bikes to the nearest and only seaside restaurant. We ate dinner and rode into the fishing village to get some beer and breakfast food for the next morning. We found several "mini marts" and a fruit stand. At one mini mart were some locals having a happy hour after a long day of work. One spoke a little English and he joked with us a bit. Jodi suggested we join them for a beer so we asked if we could join them. They welcomed us and for the next hour we emptied bottle after bottle of Chang beer. Every time our glasses would become the slightest bit empty another bottle would arrive and our glasses would get topped off. They taught us some Thai and we talked about our lives and how different they are. When it became my turn to buy the next bottle I held off long enough for Jodi and I to finish our glasses, so I could set the new bottle on the table and we could get out of there before we were both too drunk to ride our bikes home. The woman who owned the store offered to drive us in her truck but we did not feel our condition was bad enough to not ride. It was fun and reminded me of college when I would have a few beers on Friday afternoon and somehow get home. The funny thing is we did another 20km that night just riding and having fun around town.
The next day we thought we had a "short" ride of 45km to Don Sak to catch a ferry to Koh Samui. Jodi suggested we ride a costal road shown on the map instead of the highway, I agreed. We found our way to the correct roads and found the ride breathtaking with the early morning sunrise and views of the coast. It was great! There were some hills but nothing that we could not handle. Then we turned a corner and found a hill that looked more like a wall. We assumed we were going the right way and climbed 2km before I asked a passing motorcyclist if this was the way to Don Sak. He chuckled and said we needed to ride back the way we came and take the highway. It was getting hot and even though we were not convinced that we were going the wrong way, we decided to head back the 20km and do as he suggested. I did the math and figured that our detour although annoying would not set us back too far and we could be in Don Sak by 11:00am. Out on the highway it was hot and it was difficult to find food stalls at the intervals of previous rides. We were both hungry and we finally found a stall to have some curry with noodles. During the stop it became even hotter and by the time we resumed our ride I was beginning to wonder if we shouldn’t go back to Sichon and lay low for another day. We passed a sign indicating the ferry terminal was 35km so we pressed on. We came upon a junction between a lesser highway and the main. I wanted to take the lesser one but Jodi insisted we take the highway because it looked less hilly and easier in the heat. The road went through some really nice landscape where the mountains had eroded leaving only limestone pillars covered in jungle. I wish we had taken some pictures but our desire to get to our destination and out of the heat was the overriding need. We found another sign that indicated that the ferry terminal was 28km away and I learned that the other road would have been a shorter ride. We were on a giant loop which looked equidistant on the map but we discovered that it wasn’t. Jodi did the math and said we just turned a 45km ride into an 88km ride. We continued on and we stopped on a hill and Jodi became stuck in her SPDs and fell over. She started to cry and was beating herself up about how all the decisions she made that day were bad ones and that I should never let her look at the map again. It was really hot and I started looking for a plan "B." I suggested we ride back to the first intersection and stay at one of the beach resorts there. She would have nothing of it and insisted that she could make it. At this point neither one of us was enjoying the journey. Jodi had what I call her sour face on and I was riding along making up songs about how much it sucked...."On The Road to Don Suckorama". The singing helped brighten my spirits but Jodi just kept riding with her sour face refusing to join in. (Later she told me that my singing did help.) We stopped in Don Sak for a snack and finally arrived at the ferry terminal in time to catch the 1:00pm ferry. I thought this ferry would be like the rest we had ridden where bicycles ride in the passenger compartment but they made us ride onto the ferry with the motorcycles, cars and trucks. Below deck it was really hot with the fumes from the vehicles making the day even worse. We locked our bikes and made our way to the passenger decks the whole time fuming (...pardon the pun) about the stupidity of making us keep our bikes below. Even on the boat it was hot and in our state of exhaustion it seemed like we would never escape the heat. On the other side we rode off the ferry with the trucks and pushed ourselves through the scorching sun for another 14km. We found a really nice place that was more than we wanted to spend but it was out of the heat and we were both dead so we treated ourselves.
Originally we planned on spending 2 days on Koh Samui, 2 more days on Koh Phangan, two more days on Koh Toa and finally a ferry to Chumphon but we learned that they will not allow bicycles on the ferry to Koh Toa and the fees for each ferry plus our bicycles was exorbitant compared to other ferries we have been on. So Jodi and I have stayed in Koh Samui longer than we had anticipated and have had to change our plans. We’ll cut our time here short in order to take the ferry to Surat Thani and then ride the 200km to Chumphon along the coast. We’re not complaining though, as we have both really enjoyed hanging in one place for awhile and our bungalow feels a little bit like a house. The stay here has us both hoping that we will once again have a home to go to one day.
Koh Samui looks very much like Hawaii and I keep singing Joni Mitchell’s "Big Yellow Taxi" everywhere I go. We are both enjoying our stay with a nice beach only 100meters away but to me it no longer feels like Thailand. There are real-estate offices everywhere selling time shares and condos and fat westerners wearing not enough clothes riding Harleys. To me it feels like a big development machine gone awry leaving very little of the local culture that we have experienced in the other places we have been. Yesterday we rented a scooter and did a lap of the island (despite the fact that we found out it was a big p.o.s. - the horn, the headlight, the front brake and the key to the gas tank didn’t work) and found some scenic vistas to view the coast and take some pictures. We also went up into the mountains where it was cool and the views nice, but overall we found out we’re not missing anything by staying where we are on the island. Most of all, it has been nice to relax for a couple of days and enjoy some comforts of home before heading out again.
Running short on time we exited and found our way to the bike store where the mechanic showed me the wheel and where it had cracked around the spoke nipples and one location where the nipple was ripped free of the rim. I needed a new rim and had the bike shop build one for 800baht ($20USD) using my existing hub. I asked him why it had failed and he suggested I had too much weight on my rear wheel or the last time it was trued the mechanic over tightened the spokes.
I returned to the room and was distraught because I thought we had dumped enough weight previously and the weight I did have, I had little trouble moving the 1200km this far. Jodi and I decided to go through the exercise of examining our bags again and putting things that were not absolutely needed into a pile. When we were done, the pile did not look like much but when we picked it up we were both impressed with its weight. We went to the post office handed the bag to the clerk. He selected a box and put our stuff inside and after some formalities we gave him 200 baht and we were rid of another 3.5kg. We then returned to the bike store to claim my bike and found the mechanic putting the last touches on. While walking back to the hotel it became apparent that he had not only built a new wheel but had trued my front, adjusted my brakes and added air to both wheels making the 200 baht a bargain. At our sunset happy hour we discussed the day and how the wheel problem took most of the day to sort out and how we both felt we wanted another day to see some sights.
The next morning I paid the hotel for another day and we went to the Wat to see the last couple of things we missed and then walked to the shadow puppet museum. The weather was hot and by the time we made it to the museum our clothes were drenched in sweat. We viewed the exhibits and learned that shadow puppets are pieces of cow hide cut into traditional characters from the Hindu and Buddhist religions. The older ones were not colored but as the craft developed they learned by adding color to the puppets the shadows would be in color also. Next they did a little puppet show for us and we both enjoyed it very much. The rest of the day we "tooled" around looking at things and getting ready for our next ride to Sichon.
We arose at 4:00am and enjoyed another sunrise cruise of 90km. We arrived around 10:00am checked into a nice beach resort and spent the rest of the day relaxing by the ocean and napping. We found Sichon a very relaxing stop with no tourists, a nice beach and quiet. About 3:00 P.M. we became hungry and rode our bikes to the nearest and only seaside restaurant. We ate dinner and rode into the fishing village to get some beer and breakfast food for the next morning. We found several "mini marts" and a fruit stand. At one mini mart were some locals having a happy hour after a long day of work. One spoke a little English and he joked with us a bit. Jodi suggested we join them for a beer so we asked if we could join them. They welcomed us and for the next hour we emptied bottle after bottle of Chang beer. Every time our glasses would become the slightest bit empty another bottle would arrive and our glasses would get topped off. They taught us some Thai and we talked about our lives and how different they are. When it became my turn to buy the next bottle I held off long enough for Jodi and I to finish our glasses, so I could set the new bottle on the table and we could get out of there before we were both too drunk to ride our bikes home. The woman who owned the store offered to drive us in her truck but we did not feel our condition was bad enough to not ride. It was fun and reminded me of college when I would have a few beers on Friday afternoon and somehow get home. The funny thing is we did another 20km that night just riding and having fun around town.
The next day we thought we had a "short" ride of 45km to Don Sak to catch a ferry to Koh Samui. Jodi suggested we ride a costal road shown on the map instead of the highway, I agreed. We found our way to the correct roads and found the ride breathtaking with the early morning sunrise and views of the coast. It was great! There were some hills but nothing that we could not handle. Then we turned a corner and found a hill that looked more like a wall. We assumed we were going the right way and climbed 2km before I asked a passing motorcyclist if this was the way to Don Sak. He chuckled and said we needed to ride back the way we came and take the highway. It was getting hot and even though we were not convinced that we were going the wrong way, we decided to head back the 20km and do as he suggested. I did the math and figured that our detour although annoying would not set us back too far and we could be in Don Sak by 11:00am. Out on the highway it was hot and it was difficult to find food stalls at the intervals of previous rides. We were both hungry and we finally found a stall to have some curry with noodles. During the stop it became even hotter and by the time we resumed our ride I was beginning to wonder if we shouldn’t go back to Sichon and lay low for another day. We passed a sign indicating the ferry terminal was 35km so we pressed on. We came upon a junction between a lesser highway and the main. I wanted to take the lesser one but Jodi insisted we take the highway because it looked less hilly and easier in the heat. The road went through some really nice landscape where the mountains had eroded leaving only limestone pillars covered in jungle. I wish we had taken some pictures but our desire to get to our destination and out of the heat was the overriding need. We found another sign that indicated that the ferry terminal was 28km away and I learned that the other road would have been a shorter ride. We were on a giant loop which looked equidistant on the map but we discovered that it wasn’t. Jodi did the math and said we just turned a 45km ride into an 88km ride. We continued on and we stopped on a hill and Jodi became stuck in her SPDs and fell over. She started to cry and was beating herself up about how all the decisions she made that day were bad ones and that I should never let her look at the map again. It was really hot and I started looking for a plan "B." I suggested we ride back to the first intersection and stay at one of the beach resorts there. She would have nothing of it and insisted that she could make it. At this point neither one of us was enjoying the journey. Jodi had what I call her sour face on and I was riding along making up songs about how much it sucked...."On The Road to Don Suckorama". The singing helped brighten my spirits but Jodi just kept riding with her sour face refusing to join in. (Later she told me that my singing did help.) We stopped in Don Sak for a snack and finally arrived at the ferry terminal in time to catch the 1:00pm ferry. I thought this ferry would be like the rest we had ridden where bicycles ride in the passenger compartment but they made us ride onto the ferry with the motorcycles, cars and trucks. Below deck it was really hot with the fumes from the vehicles making the day even worse. We locked our bikes and made our way to the passenger decks the whole time fuming (...pardon the pun) about the stupidity of making us keep our bikes below. Even on the boat it was hot and in our state of exhaustion it seemed like we would never escape the heat. On the other side we rode off the ferry with the trucks and pushed ourselves through the scorching sun for another 14km. We found a really nice place that was more than we wanted to spend but it was out of the heat and we were both dead so we treated ourselves.
Originally we planned on spending 2 days on Koh Samui, 2 more days on Koh Phangan, two more days on Koh Toa and finally a ferry to Chumphon but we learned that they will not allow bicycles on the ferry to Koh Toa and the fees for each ferry plus our bicycles was exorbitant compared to other ferries we have been on. So Jodi and I have stayed in Koh Samui longer than we had anticipated and have had to change our plans. We’ll cut our time here short in order to take the ferry to Surat Thani and then ride the 200km to Chumphon along the coast. We’re not complaining though, as we have both really enjoyed hanging in one place for awhile and our bungalow feels a little bit like a house. The stay here has us both hoping that we will once again have a home to go to one day.
Koh Samui looks very much like Hawaii and I keep singing Joni Mitchell’s "Big Yellow Taxi" everywhere I go. We are both enjoying our stay with a nice beach only 100meters away but to me it no longer feels like Thailand. There are real-estate offices everywhere selling time shares and condos and fat westerners wearing not enough clothes riding Harleys. To me it feels like a big development machine gone awry leaving very little of the local culture that we have experienced in the other places we have been. Yesterday we rented a scooter and did a lap of the island (despite the fact that we found out it was a big p.o.s. - the horn, the headlight, the front brake and the key to the gas tank didn’t work) and found some scenic vistas to view the coast and take some pictures. We also went up into the mountains where it was cool and the views nice, but overall we found out we’re not missing anything by staying where we are on the island. Most of all, it has been nice to relax for a couple of days and enjoy some comforts of home before heading out again.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 6:32 PM
1 Comments:
Hi Kirk & Jodie,
Great to read your trials and tribulations. After the Artic this must be hot for you guy's, just as well it's the cool season in Thailand.
We visited Samui last year and had the same reaction you have had. We couldn't get out of there fast enough. Our previous vist was about ten years prior to last year visit and it was still prestine and the real Thailand. They say it's progress!! Who need's it.
Hence we will stay put in Songkhla, now don't tell to many folks about this place. Okay just kidding.
Keep those pedals turing, and if you get lost, just enjoy the journey.
Safe travels & Cheers
Graham
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