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.

More of the shadow puppet show. 

Shadow puppet show. 

More pictures from Narathawat 

Jodi in the share taxi. 

Shadow puppet master 

Golden Buddhas surrounding the main temple. 

Narathawat Golden Buddha 

Narathawat 

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.

Sunrise 

Night market in Ranot.

Wat we passed on our way to Ranot.

Jodi with Graham and Owen. 

Sunset in Songkhla 

Guys wanting Jodi's picture. 

Famous mermaid sculpture in Songkhla 

January 15, 2006

January 15th.

Summary: We awoke early, hit some snakes, saw a good sunrise, lost and found my notebook, made it to Nakhon Si Thammarat and found a hotel without porn.

I like it when a plan works!!! Last night we went to bed early and awoke at 4am. We loaded our bags and had a breakfast of banana and peanut butter sandwiches. We hit the road at 5:30am in the dark and had to use our lights. Something neither one of us thought of was the presence of snakes on the road side to soak up heat from the pavement during the cool morning hours. Riding out of town we would catch a glimpse of a snake enjoying his morning just before being hit by bike tires of some rather alarmed cyclists. As a result of my fear of snakes I suggested we ride further off the shoulder in hopes they did not move to far out into the road. Whenever a car would pass I would use its lights to scan the shoulder for snakes and some were rather big and scary. Fortunately riding further from the shoulder worked and we did not run over anymore.
The sunrise was really pretty and I think Jodi really enjoyed seeing one (she likes to sleep in and seldom arises early enough to enjoy their beauty). She would stop now and then to take pictures and was constantly saying "look now". Something about sunrises along the coast with palm trees and beaches seems magical and I was glad to be a part of it. In addition to the snakes we saw some monks walking down the road and we commented that they were up pretty early and we began to speculate what they were doing and did throughout the day.

At the 60km point, our butts, hands and wrists hurt so we decided to have some lunch. As usual we could not find any stalls after seeing them all morning but kept riding for another 10km (9:30am). The woman running the stall made us a really good soup with rice noodles, beef and pork. We picked around the meat and both enjoyed another really good Thai meal (We like the food here very much). After paying we continued on our bikes and about 5km down the road a woman pulled up along side us holding my notebook. I left it on the table and the woman discovered it and tracked us down to return it. I was glad she found us because it contains my cheat sheets for saying various things in Thai. I tried to pay her but she would not accept, so I tried to thank her in Thai while putting my hands together under my chin and bowing my head. She understood and smiled.

We arrived in Nakhon Si Thammarat at 10:45am. Jodi wanted to find some accommodation immediately to get out of the heat but I couldn’t because I needed to pee so badly that I couldn’t go looking without wetting myself. She noticed a Tourist Authority Thailand (TAT) office down a side road and suggested we go there. I pulled up parked my bike as fast as I could and ran inside to discover they had a great restroom. Meanwhile Jodi talked with a woman inside and received some really good beta on hotels and getting around. Next using the TAT map we found some accommodation at the Thai hotel (no free porn). The room was nice with a king size bed, body pillow and air conditioning. I did some laundry while Jodi checked our finances. We then finished the last of our bananas, bread and peanut butter and lay around a bit enjoying the cool indoors. Tonight we will most likely go to the night market since we both like the food but we might try a restaurant that is pretty popular.

Tomorrow we will check out the Wat Mahathat since our guide book says "Missing out Wat Mahathat would be like going to Rome and not visiting St. Peter’s." I would also like to visit the shadow puppet factory to see a show. I also need to find a bike store early in the day to fix a tweak in my rear wheel.

January 14th 2006

January 14th, 2006
Summary: We took a ferry, met some really nice farangs, almost saw a truck lose a wheel, did not make our destination and ended up in a "no tell hotel" with free porn.
The whole Story:
Today we had every intention of riding the 110km from Songkhla to Hua Sai but the heat in Thailand is much greater than it was in Malaysia and we were pushed inside to seek shelter. In the morning we caught the ferry for a 15 minute ride across the lake and to the highway on the other side. The change in transportation mode saved us about an hour of riding on a busy highway and a causeway. At the terminal we met an Australian (named Graham) and a Kiwi (named Owen). They worked for an oil company that is extracting oil and natural gas from the ocean along the Vietnam border. They were very interesting to talk with, they both lived in Songkhla for quite some time (26 and 14 years) and were out for a mountain bike ride. I wished that I had met them a day earlier so I could ride some trails. On the other side of the lake we had our picture taken by a temple for Graham’s blog (www.cowleysabout.blogspot.com) and we exchanged email and blog addresses. Jodi and I then proceeded to make our way towards Hua Sai. At the mid morning point a truck pulled up along side of us to say hello (as so many do) and we noticed the lug nuts falling off the left rear passenger side of the truck and the wheel to begin to wobble. Jodi and I both hollered loudly for them to stop and they did. We helped them collect all the lug nuts we could find and continued on our way. About midday we passed within 4km of Ranot. I was a bit leery to turn off the main road since our guide book did not have any information about Ranot and Mr. Pumpy had difficulty in finding good accommodations along the route also. I figured it would be best to get to Hua Sai the same as he did since we had some information about the accommodation there. Instead we found a town that doesn’t see farangs very often. None of the businesses including the hotels had any signs in English. Jodi developed a hand signal for accommodations and it worked pretty well. One guy borrowed my pen and piece of paper and sketched a symbol looking like a drop and a box across the street. He handed the paper back and pointed back in the direction we had come. We both misunderstood the distance and stopped short thinking we must not have understood him and found a different hotel but it was closed. At this point I was very worried that we were not going to find accommodation and end up sleeping on the beach of the nearby lake. Jodi had seen a hotel about 6km back so I suggested we ride to it and check it out. Along the way I recognized a sign on a gas station that appeared similar to the symbol on the "map" the guy had given me and behind a strip mall was a hotel that we found with the help a woman who operated a laundry business in the strip.
It was a single story row of rooms with blue tarps separating the parking bays and blue tarp awnings over each porch. Inside was a pretty clean room with tile floors, a good bed, air conditioning but the bath room lacked a lavatory. Despite its short comings we decided to take it and get out of the heat. To me the place looked a bit like a "no tell motel" and my suspicion was confirmed when I turned on the TV and discovered two channels of porn and a condom on top of the bureau. I also found some rather suspicions stains on the sheets. I went to the office to get a new sheet but the manager was not in but she had a stack of sheets behind her desk so I took what I needed and returned to our shelter. We both showered, Jodi did the laundry and we both took a nap until the sun moved lower in the sky.
Tonight we plan on going to bed early so we can awaken at 4:00 am and travel the remaining 100km to Nakhon Si Thammart. After this one push it appears we will be able to make the rides shorter and we will be able to find beach stays along the way...Yippee!
In my past entries I forgot to mention some things that had happened to us on our way to the Thailand border. The ride was really pretty through rice fields and while viewing the scenery we happened upon some guys slaughtering a cow on the side of the road. Jodi joked "Beef! Its what is for dinner" like the beef council commercials. We also happened upon three domesticated elephants feeding in the shade.
At the Malaysia border I saw a kid that I nearly kicked the crap out of for wearing a T-shirt saying "America under attack, September 11, 2001 with a picture of the WTC burning. I find Muslims mostly friendly and his ignorance only helps perpetuate misunderstandings and stereo types.
In Thailand my wife is a bit like a white elephant. She is very rare and all the guys and some small children want their photograph with her. Yesterday after finally discovering the mermaid statue in Songkhla she was approached by several men wanting her picture with them and then one little girl asked her parents to ask Jodi for a photo. We suspect it is because of her red hair.

January 13, 2006

We love Songkhla! Nice digs, good food and the throught of another sunset ride made us want more so we decided to stay another day. Today we plan on going to the night market for dinner, see some sights, grab some beers and watch the sunset. I can't wait.

Tomorrow we have a long ride (100km) to the next town so I doubt I will have time to update.

About the blog. If you are tired of reading it, a program called IpodderX will download them and turn it into an audio file that can be heard on an MP3 player. If you decide to go this route use coupon code "cover", it will save you a buck or two. Also I will try to compose a summary before each entry so those wanting shorter entries can follow without all the details.

Cheers
Kirk

Jodi and the sunset. 

Another piece of art. 

Structure along the beach 

This is about all the house we will be able to afford after this trip. Actually it is some art along our evening bike ride. 

More evening ride photos. 

Guys playing volleyball with their feet and a 6" diameter wiffle ball. 

In the evening we went for a sunset bike ride along the coast. We started in at the port and worked our way towards the beach. 

Beer is cheap and the fruit shakes are great! 

First Thailand picture. Deep water port in Songkhla. 

We saw elephants just before the Thai border. 

Roachzilla lives here. 

Beach in Terrenganue 

Barge on the beach 

Mosque in Marang 

In Terrengganue they had a Islamic Holiday. The mosque doesn't have a parking lot so people park on the highway out front. Three of the four lanes on each side are closed for parking. 

Don't bother counting them, (26 mosquito bites). No it isn't acne or measles. 

Cherating Beach 

January 12, 2006

Hello from Thailand! Yesterday we made the ride from Kota Bahru to Rantau Pajang and crossed the border into Thailand. Other than being short changed by a very fast handed money exchanger things went well. We found the train station, boarded a train for Hat Yai and on the way I read what our guide book had to say about our destination (we bought a Rough Guide this time instead of LP). It said "The resulting concrete mess, reminiscent of Bangkok without the interesting bits, attracts over a million tourists each year, nearly all of them Malaysians and Singaporeans who nip across the border to shop and get laid." Reading that, I asked Jodi if she would mind riding 25k when we arrived in Hat Yai to Songkhla where things sounded a bit more relaxed and we could resume our route up the east coast after a rest day. She liked the idea!
In Sungai Kolok, the Thai border town just across from Rantau Pajang, the station was a quiet concrete platform with about 25 to 40 people waiting for the train. At the Hat Yai train station things were moving much more quickly than either one of us would have expected. There were many more people and our 6 car train seemed more like 20 and I could not find the luggage car to claim our bicycles. I walked up and down the platform searching and frantically looking for any sign of them and when I watched the train pull away I was sure our bicycles were on their way to Bangkok Then I looked down where the lovely and talented Mrs. Roberts was standing and with her were our trusty steeds . . . Thank Goodness! Sitting with her was a farang (their word for foreigner) who was an English teacher in Laos and he was telling us how crazy we were for riding in Thailand because the traffic is quite chaotic compared to Malaysia. Just then a porter arrived asking me something in Thai and I could not understand. He became rather agitated and pulled two 20 notes from his pocket. The farang said "he wants a tip." I asked the farang "do you know what is appropriate and he said, "start low and hope he takes it." I handed the porter one of my 20's and he indicated he needed another for Jodi’s bike. I did not have one but had a 500 note. I went to get change and could not find a person to change that size of note. I remembered I had an envelope of money in my panniers and inside was another 20 note. I gave it to him and he left.

We loaded our bikes and prepared to ride. Outside the train station was a similar scene to our arrival in Bali. There were taxis everywhere and people trying to taking us places we never heard of at inflated rates. One guy said he would take us to Songkhla for 400 Baht but we had no intention of riding with anyone. We planned on riding ourselves and that is just what we did. The traffic was slow and we could keep pace with the motor scooters, so to the cars we were just another scooter. If I signaled they would let us in and when there was a traffic jam we worked the gaps to the front. It was all very easy! Just outside of town it began to rain but we kept going.

We arrived in Songkhla just before dark and we did a lap of the city to get a lay of the land and to find the locations of various types of accommodations. I approached three different types and decided on the nicest (it was a fraction of the cost of anything we stayed at in Malaysia and much nicer!).

The next day we had a nice western style breakfast and did some administrative things like; get a map and sell the Malaysia LP. Next we talked about the things we would like to do and how we will run this portion of the trip. We only have a thirty-day visa so we need to make sure we are in a place to leave the country when it expires so we can get another upon re-entering. Word of advice: Don’t pay the money for an extended visa, just make sure you get across to a border country, Malaysia, Laos or Cambodia by the date of expiry on your current visa and then come back across to get another 30 days. The exit and re-entry can be done on the same day within a couple hours. The expats living in Thailand do it all the time. They call it a "visa run". This isn’t stated very clearly in anything we read prior to coming here so we figured this is good info to pass along. Also if you come into Thailand overland like we did they don’t charge you for the visa. I read at the airports it is $60 USD per visa on arrival.

Latest January 10, 2006

Below is a post I had planned on adding on the 3rd of January. As we kept riding I added to it so it has become quite lengthy....Sorry! Tomorrow we cross the Thailand border where we will catch a bus or train to Hat Yai. There are three provinces in the "Deep South" that we want to avoid because of some unrest in recent days. I will try to update with pictures when we reach Hat Yai, it not it will be the day after from the next town 50km away. Take Care

January 9, 2006

January 9, 2006

It has been six days since our last blog/journal entry and it feels like a month has passed. I am contemplating some format changes to help those with A.D.D. to scan without having to read the books that past entries have become and yet I have created another book for this entry.

Cherating: I decided to go boogie boarding but was unable to get out into the waves because of a really strong current that buffets the east coast of Malaysia and Thailand this time of year. When I waded out if felt like I was standing in a river and Jodi was afraid to go any deeper than her knees. We decided to stay another day (three days total) but in the morning I awoke with 26 mosquito bites on my face and that changed our minds. We noticed our air-conditioned bungalow wasn’t so “tight.” I tried bug repellant but during the night its effectiveness wore off and now I look like I have the measles. I called a “family” meeting and we agreed to have another western breakfast and make haste to the next town before any more blood loss.

Cukai/Kemaman: The ride was short, only 15km from Cherating but a world of difference. On the way we noticed a Club Med in passing. We stopped during one of the many downpours at a warung and tried some new food. Nasi Lemuk: coconut rice with anchovies, peanuts, pork rinds, vegetables, a small chicken wing and another small piece of fish. We ordered ours without anchovies since I made the mistake at another restaurant of adding them to my food, not knowing what they were and found out quickly that I did not like their taste. We continued on in the rain stopping here and there to seek shelter until we were both wet enough to say “oh well” and ride anyway. In town we immediately looked for a “Maybank” to get more money. While we were discussing where one might be, a guy overheard our conversation and provided us with directions. Jodi went inside but their “system was down” and another guy showed her to a bank six doors down. During the 1-1/2 hour wait I sat under a tent erected on the roadside. I have no idea what it was for, but it had a desk that I sat on with a Malay man watching it rain. He didn’t speak English but motioned that he liked that Jodi and I both donned sarongs over our bike shorts when we stopped to get off our bikes. When Jodi returned, I got an earful about how a bunch of people just cut in line right in front of her and treated her as if she didn’t exist. I have noticed I get better results when I ask for things than when she does and I am always served my food first at restaurants. It’s good to be the king and I am thinking about changing my name to Sultan Roberts.
Now that we had money, we needed accommodation and for the first time on this trip we picked the first place we saw. It was nothing special but it was comfortable, cheap and out of the rain. Best of all it was tight, meaning the favorite restaurant of mosquitoes (ME!) would be closed that evening.
Then we went shopping for breakfast to eat the next morning. We found some yogurt, peanut butter and Jacobs Energy Biscuits along with some apples and bananas that we purchased at the lovely fruit market down the street from the hotel. Jodi then said she was hungry (a condition that happens quite frequently). We found a Chinese restaurant where we ate two stuffed crabs and an order of steamed rice. One really great thing is they brought the jar of chili sauce instead of two tiny little saucers. I love the taste and I think we shocked them when we just poured the sauce from the jar onto our food instead of using the provided “micro” ladle.
We then walked around and were solicited for more pirated DVDs but we were over budget for the day and it didn’t seem appropriate to do some non-discretionary spending. Instead we walked around taking in the sites, looking at the river and the local mall (we checked to see if it had a grocery store in the basement, YIP!) and noted that some big time flooding had occurred recently.
We returned to the room where we tuned into VOA (Voice of America) on our short wave radio, which I later renamed to Voice of Bush since it lacked any substance or news but was more a PR station for the USA. I think I will stick with BBC.

Rantau Abang: The ride was 86km and was the one we were dreading the most because of its distance but it turned out the best of Malaysia so far. Just outside of town we missed the turn for highway 3 because we were following the signs to Terrengganu and ended up on the 131 heading north. It turned out to be a good mistake because there were some rather low grade hills that provided enough elevation that we could see some of the landscape around us. We were both surprised how pretty things were up high, rather than “riding in the bottom of the salad bowl” (sorry Ion but it seemed appropriate). Once down the hill, we rejoined the 3 and went through some varied conditions. Lonely Planet describes the area as a barren landscape (I suspect because they don’t want people visiting the place to notice that they didn’t actually visit either.) I found it very interesting. The first 30km was on a wide road with a wide shoulder where Jodi and I could ride side-by-side. Then when we left the state of Kemaman and entered Dungun the shoulder disappeared and the road narrowed. It was interesting to feel the boost the big trucks provide when I would get sucked into their wake. In another 20km the road widened to three lanes and a motorcycle lane. We entered the motorcycle lane where Jodi and I could ride side-by-side again discussing the things we had seen and solving the world’s problems. We noticed some really nice housing, a golf course and some office buildings for Petronas (the largest gas company here) and realized this area provided some good tax income because the road was magnificent. Next we entered an area with 6 oil refineries surrounding the road on all sides. I made up a song called “Petroleum” as we passed. “What’s the stuff that makes the road black…Petroleum, What’s the stuff that makes children cough and hack…Petroleum, What’s the stuff that becomes your grocery sack…Petroleum.” Jodi was kind enough to provide a verse… “What’s the stuff coming from Kirk’s crack…Petroleum.”

Dungun: The ride to Rantau Abang brought us through Dungun where we had a lovely lunch of fish curry and ice tea. They make the best brewed iced tea here with sweetened condensed milk and lots of ice. I love the stuff and usually order two because it provides a good caffeine and sugar buzz on the long rides. Across the street was the local Engineering College and it was amazing. It was by far the biggest campus we have seen and the buildings very modern and well kept. The road all but disappeared through town because of some rather annoying road construction that lead to some delays and some dusty clothes.

Dahimahs Guest House: We did not make Rantau Abang that day but stopped 1km short at a guesthouse run by an English Woman. She cut us a break on our lodging by 10RM and we rented a deluxe room overlooking the river and the ocean. It was a nice end to a great day. I did notice that the area must have been recently hit by a tropical storm because of some rather large debris scattered at the top of the dune along the entire beach.

Terengganu: The ride was about 80km (I am not totally sure since Jodi’s cycle computer wasn’t working). We awoke early and tried something we hadn’t tried during our travels. Instead of eating breakfast at the hotel, we decided to stop at one of the warungs along the way. A friend suggested we try Roti Canai (pronounced Rotee Chani), a fried flat bread with curry sauce. We happened upon a stand with an older man who spoke very good English and ordered two. To me the curry tasted good in the morning and kind of reminded me of green chili and tortillas, Yum! We ate quickly and ordered two more. The woman responsible for filling the man’s orders must have thought that we had enough for breakfast because she made our next order a “take away.” She laughed when we opened the bag and ate the order right there instead of riding off with the shopping bag hanging from our bikes. The next 70km was very lively with many accommodations lining the road, guest houses, hotels and “beach resorts” through several different villages. We eventually entered Marang, a “newish” looking place that LP indicates “was a nice place to visit until it underwent a modernization program.” I liked the clean looking town and was really impressed with the new Mosque they were building. The 10km between Marang and Terengganu the traffic picked up, the road was lined with many different beach guest houses, and it was mostly developed along the way. At one point we rounded a hill and started over a river causeway when Jodi pointed out a very good view of a river estuary. Not knowing where we were, which I found out later is the location of a rather impressive “floating” mosque. We stopped at the “beach resort” at the bottom of the causeway. Their accommodation was too expensive but they pointed us in the direction of the BBBR (Batu Buruk Beach Resort) that was running a special for the month of January. It was really nice and about $15USD per night. Again they must have had a really big recent storm because a barge was beached right in front of our room window. I didn’t mind the eyesore since the beach is currently life threatening due to strong currents and heavy storms out at sea.
We spent two days, almost three due to weather, in Terrengganu. I wish I could say we did so many things but it just wasn’t going to happen for us there. The east coast provinces unlike the west take Friday off instead of Sunday. We had planned a full day on Friday and when we awoke we found most of the businesses were closed and the streets empty due to the Sabbath. So we walked around the vacant town looking for an open internet café and a place to eat but “no dice.” One thing of special note is the “Pizza One” stall in the Batu Barak Food Court has a really good spaghetti.

Merang: We planned an easy ride from Terengganu to Merang. In the morning we awoke early hoping to get an early start so we could ride most of the distance with the sun low in the sky. We are both getting too tan and the skin on our faces is looking like shoe leather. All night I heard periods of rain and assumed that it was like all days but in the morning the wind was strong and the rain sideways, something neither of us was excited to ride in. We checked out anyway and sat in the lobby reading the paper waiting for the weather to subside. There were many children running about and much to our dislike way too noisy for that time in the morning. We were joined by a couple who spoke English and they told us the children were taking practice exams for the end of year tests for school. (I later learned that it is very important that a student do well in order to attend the government-funded boarding schools). Later we were joined by a couple of school teachers that saw our bicycles outside and wanted to ask us about touring. They did some touring around Malaysia and they wanted to know about our travels. We gave them our story and they seemed unimpressed with the pace of our trip because our daily average wasn’t that far.
Eventually the rain stopped and the wind settled down, so we decided to give it a go. Instead of riding Mr. Pumpy’s route up highway 3 we did a route up the coast that is popular with Dutch bicyclists. Unlike Mr. Pumpy’s route the coastal one has accommodation along the way and doesn’t require riding 163km in one day. The ride went well and we were able to stop for some Roti Canai in a small town outside of Terengganu. This time we learned it was possible to order them with egg cooked inside the bread and that tasted especially yummy. As we were leaving, I was approached by the guy who worked in the TV repair shop next door and he told me “a hello and safe journey.” Jodi suggested I have him look at her cycle computer to see if he could fix the wires where they had become pinched between her wheel and the brake caliper. He looked at it, grabbed his tape and wire cutters and went to work. Five minutes later he had it fixed and when I asked him how much he said “no charge” and wished us “safe journeys” again.
In Merang we found a very small village with a jetty that offered ferry transportation to the island resorts that are closed during the monsoon season (now). All but one of the accommodations in town was closed and we did not want to stay there because the room had a very small bathroom with a squat toilet (Jodi hates them). So we found a home stay that was closed but gladly opened to accept our ringets. The room was nothing spectacular but met our needs in spite of Roachzilla that greeted us during the night in the bathroom (I thought about putting a saddle on him and riding him the rest of the way).
During dinner that night we were joined by a gentleman who was educated in one of the all English schools and we had a very good time learning about Malaysia Politics from him. He first emphasized that Jodi and I were very safe and explained the politics behind the Bali bombings and the Malaysian connection. Basically he said the two Malaysians involved in the plot were “wackos” that not many Malaysians share their views. I asked why the Bali bombings occurred during Ramadan and he indicated the bombings were an attempt to destabilize the Indonesian government so a fundamentalist Islamic one could rise to power. We also talked about the Dr. Mahathir years and the jailing of Deputy Prime Minister Anwar. He suspected that now that Anwar has been pardoned by the current government that he will run for Prime Minister in 2008 with the support of many of the lesser political parties. I found all this fascinating due to the reading I had done in my LP (I guess it is good for something).

Kuala Besut: In the morning we departed Merang at 7:09am a new personal best for us. The riding was fantastic, good cloud cover, cool temperatures and a very rare wind from the south. It felt as if a tractor beam from Thailand was pulling us to its border. We averaged a very quick 25km/hr and covered the 74km in just over 3 hours. We debated on going all the way to Kota Barhu but decided to find some digs, drink some beer and enjoy an early arrival at our destination. We found a newly opened guest house that was lovely, everything worked and all the plumbing ran to the sewer instead of onto the floor and into a floor drain (Jodi was in heaven). We did some laundry and did some exploring around town. Kuala Besut is the staging place for visiting the Perhentian Islands. They are currently mostly closed due to the monsoon but some accommodations on long beach stay open for the travelers who venture over on the occasional ferries. We did not go because we are running behind schedule and we want to get to Thailand to enjoy something different. That night we had Tom Yam Soup (YUM!) and did not find any beer (Oh Heck!). We did run into a young Swiss guy who asked us for some beta on different cities on the east coast and we were able to get some beta about Thailand in return.

Kota Barhu: We had a choice of resuming Mr. Pumpy’s route on the 3 or taking the coastal roads to Cherang Ruku, which wasn’t far away but would provide more scenic riding along a quiet road. We were surprised to discover a newly constructed causeway (wasn’t shown in LP or our map) that allowed us to cross the waterway and continue up the coast to Bachok instead of heading inland to the 3. It was magnificent! The road was quiet smooth and went through some scenic small villages. The traffic moved along at an unhurried pace and the road meandered through farmland. It was a wonderful morning. To our surprise (as it wasn’t noted in LP) it had plenty of accommodations and a rider can follow the coast from Terengganu to Perupok (22km from Kota Barhu) and have several choices of places to stay and warungs to eat at.
I like Kota Barhu, it has a nice buzz and has an international feel due to all the travelers who use this city as their jumping off point for travels in Malaysia and Thailand. The food is great and the accommodation plentiful and cheap. I think we will spend two days here. We wanted to go to the Thai consulate to get our extended visa’s but tomorrow is a public holiday (good grief, it seems they have one every other day) so we will most likely just cross the border and hope we can get one along the way.

Thoughts:
After coming from magical Bali and having such a great time there, it tainted our expectations for Malaysia. We’ve found out they were just too high. It’s the monsoon season here and so the ocean is dangerous to swim in and the islands off the coast are closed this time of year. The rides have been longer and less interesting overall. The atmosphere is not as welcoming, is very conservative and sometimes it’s quite uncomfortable to stand out so much and not be able to blend in. We had to stop comparing the two places because we realized it was contributing to a poor outlook on this country, which is why in Cherating Jodi and I had decided to “B-line” it for Thailand (a place known to be more friendly to westerners). The strange thing is since then the further north we go the more we are enjoying Malaysia. The people seem friendlier, the accommodations are improving in price and quality, the rides are more enjoyable, and the food is better. Something I did not expect because of the more conservative theological governments in the north. If anyone reading this considers doing the same route, keep in mind that after Kuantan things improve dramatically. Tolerate the non-working flush toilets, the mosquitoes and the crappy rooms to get north because it does get better. Now all I need is to encounter an overturned beer truck in front of our nights accommodations so we can have the “drink-a-thon 2006” and our trip will be a smashing success. Beer is very expensive, about $2US a can and $3US a bottle and when I buy it I feel like I am buying pornography, but I love the Chinese for “breaking the rules” and selling it when no one else will (they rock!) I eat Chinese often and have some “sin” with my dinner.

Malaysians must love their privacy. I have several theories about why and they tend to remind me of a song called “Nasty Habits” by Oingo Boingo. I have noticed the rooms are like caves with little natural lighting and tiny windows with frosted glass. They offer a ton of privacy but after spending 2 years cooped up in an insulated box with cardboard over the windows, I want that natural light through big oceans of glass in the walls where I can see out and everyone can see me running naked inside. If I want privacy, I will pull the blinds, do my dirty deeds and open them again.

I equate traveling in Malaysia to traveling in Utah but without the annoying cops.

Internet cafe, library and Islam outreach center run by a woman from Hawaii 

The white trash bikers move into their digs in Cherating and not 10 minutes later they have their dirty laundry up for every one to see.

Cherating 

More beach at sunset. 

She sure can get her jersey dirty! Yuck! (Kirk doing laundry) 

January 2, 2006

Happy New Year! Kirk and I spent New Year’s Eve in Kuantan since we decided that we needed another day of rest before hitting the road again. We had a nice time there enjoying an internet café, resting, eating yummy Indian food and buying $1 pirated DVD’s.

After our ride on the day we arrived in Kuantan, we decided to follow Lonely Planet’s advice on a place to eat and it led us to an Indian warung. It was on a main road in a strip mall type setting, but without any doors. The front is just open to the outside as most places are here. The small kitchen was on the right as we walked in and was a very basic one that was also not enclosed. We sat down, waived down and asked him how this worked because we only understood a few things on the posted menu on the wall. He asked if we were vegetarians and we said “yes”. The next thing we knew we had a banana leaf in front of us to use as a plate and we had what seemed like a frantic dance of two waiters going on around us. One was filling our “plate” with rice and then they took turns putting different scoops of vegetarian fare around the rice. In no time we had a nice sampler plate in front of us that included a cup of yogurt and some sort of soup. We asked for some naan and a pancake as well and they served those with some yummy sauces. The waiter kept telling us to try this one dish with the naan because it was “very nice….very nice” and he served us some more of the vegetable dish on our plate to eat with the bread. Kirk and I were famished so we ate it all! It was delicious and quite the experience to boot. We love Indian food because it fills us up a little more than the typical Malaysian fare and the flavor is much more appealing to us as well.

We spent some time in an internet café that we found across from a mall. The internet cafes here are so cheap and they tend to have really fast connections. I was also amazed at how many boys are in the internet cafes gaming. I’m guessing this is because they probably don’t have computers at home and it’s a cheap form of entertainment.

After we caught up on emails and blogging we walked across the street to the mall. We both find the malls in these foreign countries fascinating. For some reason it feels like we get a good sense of the people and what they “consume”. It’s also a great place to people watch. We found a couple of stores that sell DVD’s and bought “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Must Love Dogs”. We went back to our room and watched “Must Love Dogs”. I have to say that I loved the talent in that movie, but I just didn’t like the script.

The next day was New Year’s Eve. I slept in late while Kirk was out on the river walk taking pictures. Our hotel was next to the river so we had a nice view from our room minus the old rundown guesthouse behind our hotel that had a pool filled with dirty rainwater. Apparently tourism here in Malaysia has fallen off and a lot of places have gone bankrupt. It’s pretty sad because I could have seen Kirk and I staying there if it was up and running as opposed to staying in the hotel.

I finally decided to roll out of bed and we went back to the same street where the Indian warung was but this time we tried a different one that was a couple of doors down. It wasn’t nearly as good, but we still enjoyed our meals nonetheless.

After that we walked down to the mega mall in town because we heard they had a British type grocery store on the lower level. Most malls here tend to have grocery stores in them, which is interesting. We bought more tuna and cheese and treated ourselves to peanut M&M’s, yogurt and muesli. Of course most of what we bought were imported goods so we paid a lot of money for our groceries. We didn’t care so much though because we just wanted some western type food and it was New Year’s Eve after all. I find myself craving protein all the time and I’m just not satisfied with their variations of rice and noodles. Kirk and I don’t eat the pork, chicken, or beef here because we just don’t trust it and want to avoid getting sick. I know Malaysia is probably safe to eat meats, but we figure why start now because when we hit Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, we definitely will not be eating meat after some of the stories we’ve heard. So we’ve discovered that we’re pretty happy for at least one meal a day to fill up on other sources of protein, particularly western sources.

Eventually we headed back to our room to enjoy our dinner and watch “Memoirs of a Geisha”. We couldn’t get it to work on our laptop (what can you expect for a $1 copy) so we watched “The Chronicles of Narnia” instead. I found it to be a little disappointing, but what can you say…not every director can be Peter Jackson. We shared a beer, toasted the New Year and were in bed by 9pm. That was our big New Year’s Eve! Sad but true. I guess holidays just don’t mean as much when we’re away from all of our friends and family. I did wake up at midnight to a bunch of people on the streets yelling “Happy New Year!” but then I went right back to sleep. I don’t think Kirk even moved.

New Year’s Day we got up and rode about 50km to Cherating. During the ride we were both chugging along in silence when we heard a noise that sounded like a muffled “hello” coming from the other side of the road. Kirk yelled “hello” back and I looked over to see that he was yelling at a goat! I laughed for about the next mile as I thought that was so hilarious! We’re so accustomed to people yelling to us from the road that now we’re even responding to farm animals.

We arrived in Cherating feeling hot, but not exhausted for once. It was nice to have a shorter ride that didn’t sap our energy completely. Cherating is a little touristy beach town that is a nice change from the city scene and what we’ve been looking for since arriving in Malaysia. We rode into town just as people were packing up to check out from the holiday weekend. So we pulled up a chair at a restaurant that is part of a resort (Well, what they call a resort is a little different than our definition. A resort here is just accommodation on or near the beach which range from scary to adequate...sometimes with their own restaurant and sometimes not.) and waited in the shade until after 1pm for all the people to check out so we could check in. We have a little cabin type room off the main street and across from the beach access. It was the cheapest room we could find with A/C so we took it.

After settling in we went to a seafood restaurant for a late lunch and enjoyed $2 stuffed crabs. They were pretty good! (Thanks for the tip Andrea. I would have never looked for that here if you hadn’t mentioned it.) As we ate there was a torrential downpour. We were glad to be off the road and watching it from a sheltered restaurant. When the rains died down to a trickle we walked down to the beach to check it out. The beach is pretty nice here and pretty quiet. There were people playing soccer, a few surfers, and a few swimmers. We even saw a few other white folks. After feeling the warm ocean water and taking in the fresh ocean breeze we walked back to the main road to see what it had to offer. The main road offers several types of accommodation depending on your budget, outdoor restaurants, warungs, a couple of small convenience stores, touristy stores selling trinkets and that’s about it.

After passing a few outdoor restaurants, we found a nice little library (a shack with a bunch of used books) that also had an internet café. The Muslim woman running it spoke very good English and didn’t have an accent at all. In fact she sounded Western. She was very friendly and we talked to her for a while and she told us she is originally from Hawaii. I didn’t get the chance to ask her about her story and I wasn’t sure if it would be rude or not. I’m curious to know why she chose to give up her western comforts to live as a Muslim here in Malaysia. I suspect she met someone here and married since she had a little boy that was running around the library. We’ll probably go back there today so hopefully I’ll get the chance to find out her story. While we were sitting there these monkeys were running around on the roof and peeking over the edge just above us. Kirk and I were both praying they wouldn’t jump down and thankfully they didn’t. The woman told us they look at monkeys like rats. They are basically a nuisance to them, but you don’t want to antagonize them because they will remember you and could come after you if they see you alone. Double yikes!

We came back to our room and had a little happy hour of peanuts beer. You can’t buy beer here except at Chinese restaurants…interesting little fact. Then Kirk turned on our short-wave radio to listen to the news. We both fell asleep within a matter of minutes and were out until 9pm. We awoke and realized that it was too late for dinner and we were too tired to be bothered with it so we went back to sleep and didn’t get up until late this morning.

It rained for a good portion of the night and it’s been raining off and on all morning. We’ve been pretty fortunate so far and haven’t really had much rain to deal with even though we’re here in the monsoon season. This is the most rain that we’ve seen so far and we’re hoping that the rains don’t continue to increase as we work our way North. Our timing actually seems to be pretty good because we heard they had some flooding up this way a couple of weeks ago. Since then it’s subsided and we were told that we shouldn’t have any problems on our way through.

We will probably stay here in Cherating another day just to get some more needed rest before tackling the long stretches of road ahead. We’re also enjoying the food here as it caters to our Western diet. This morning we found a restaurant that had cheese omelettes, pineapple pancakes (which were actually crepes), and a killer cup of coffee served with sweetened condensed milk. Yummo! I’m totally a breakfast person so this just made my morning. Kirk and I have had a hard time adjusting to eating lunch for breakfast here. They usually serve some type of fried noodles or rice and occasionally we can get white toast and eggs. I never thought I was such a picky eater but I find myself sticking my nose up to a lot of food here. Signs of a spoiled tourist! J

During our breakfast we were able to catch a little world news as the restaurant had a TV tuned to CNN. We relaxed there for a long time discussing current events and listening to the rains. When the rain let up we walked back to our room and decided to deal with our laundry. Kirk’s currently out on the porch doing our laundry and cussing while he’s being eaten alive. Our cabin has a little pond out front which is appealing to the eye, but it’s a nasty little mosquito breeding ground. I’m inside our room writing this blog and hiding out from those little monsters. I have enough welts on my body as it is!

I think today will be a lazy day. I’m quite happy with that. Bike touring is a great way to get exercise, but it sure whips me after a few days of it and I need the down time to recover. Cherating seems like a good place to do that.