26. Change of plans

I have become one of them. I had to choose between two evils, and I chose to take the bus rather than cycling into Bangkok. Even though I was the only foreigner on the coach I have degraded myself from Master Explorer to Simple Tourist!

I had caught up with Rob and Dan in Phetchaburi the day before. I got up somewhat early and did the 70 kilometres from Hua Hin before noon, thanks to a nice tailwind. The number of beers we had suggested we were happy to see each other and they convinced me to change my planned route, come with them to Chiang Mai and from there into Laos. So far I have been able to keep up with my schedule pretty well, especially since I skipped a few days in Phuket, but suddenly all my planning is thrown away.

There are a lot of advantages to join them on their route. It is undoubtedly a more interesting route, I get to see northern Thailand and Chiang Mai and I don’t have to ride several long, boring and hard distances like Bangkok to Siem Reap or the mountains between Laos and Vietnam. Also, having company through Laos and Cambodia is probably a good thing. The disadvantages are, among others, that I’ll have to take planes, trains and buses to get back on track unless we ride really fast, as the new route adds more than a 1000 kilometres to my original plan. I also have to consider other peoples feelings (and these guys are really, really sensitive) and it will slow down my pace.

Despite this I decided to tag along. I enjoy their company and I can always, at any time, continue on my own. But before I could join them I first had to leave them. I had plans in Bangkok while they where going to make a detour to see the Bridge over river Kwai. I had no interest in a bridge, not enough to skip Bangkok, and we agreed to meet later in Ayutthaya.

Phetchaburi definitely deserves more tourist attention. It is a beautiful city and I felt privileged to visit the Khao Wang palace, the night market and to take a swim in the river. The monkeys are a bit of a nuisance though, while visiting the temple they chewed on my water bottle, Dans helmet and Robs handlebar tape.

The bus to Bangkok suddenly stopped and everyone had to get off. We were still on the highway and had to climb the barrier to get off the road. I assembled my bike, I had to take my wheels off to get it on the bus, and started riding. I was glad I took the bus, because the last six kilometres into Bangkok was quite stressful and that ride alone upgraded my status to yet again become Master Explorer.


Distance:
70 km from Hua Hin to Phetchaburi.
7 km riding around in Phetchaburi.
6 km riding on a highway into Bangkok.
Total: 1950 km.

 70 km from Hua Hin to Phetchaburi. Damn I’m good!

 Rob, Dan and a bottle of Chang.

 Khao Wang means “Hill with palace”. It is almost as if they had no imagination at all.

 Same place, another angle.

Pretty nice.

Angry mom. Probably because her kid ate our stuff.



Cycling the last few kilometres into Bangkok.

25. Trying to catch up

I love riding my bicycle! I find that I am not comfortable for long on chairs, in cars, or on the floor of a bus, but my saddle is always comfortable. Standing in line to buy a ferry ticket, to check in the ferry ticket, to enter the ferry and to exit the ferry is incredibly boring and frustrating. Every time a coach passes me on the road I am happy I am not one of the sleeping tourists on board. They don’t know what they are missing.

Since I had stayed too long in Koh Tao, as usual, Rob and Dan had passed Chumphon two days ago. I was going to try to catch up with them and asked Dan about the terrain and according to him it was flat. They rode along the coast but I chose the main road Route 4 as I was 200 kilometres behind and had no time to smell the flowers. But while the coastal road might be flat Route 4 definitely was not and I considered leaving it more than once.

For the first time I didn’t have a planned destination but just wanted to get as far as possible in a day. When the sun was starting to get low on the sky I got to the “town” of Thap Sakae, mostly consisting of a couple of buildings along the “highway”. I checked in to a hotel, probably the only one, and went to a “restaurant”. They served one dish and one dish only; fish balls with noodles. At least that is what I think it was. They only had chopsticks and I was happy Ezer had taught me how to use them or I would have starved. Before I left I articulated that I would like to bring another Coke with me to the hotel. She understood, brought me a Coke and a small plastic bag with ice. Nice, I thought. Then she opened the Coke and poured its content into the bag and put a straw in it. How convenient. Especially when you're in a bed trying to write on your computer.

The hotel was ok even though they didn’t have Internet, but when I went to bed I didn’t know if I imagined the bed bugs or not. I didn’t want to take any chances so I replaced the linen with my own travel sheet, but to no avail. The next morning I had been bitten in places I’ve never been bitten before.

The road finally got closer to the coast and when I reached the next major city, Prachuap Khiri Khan, I decided to leave the main road for a while. I rode around the city looking for Internet without any luck, even though I asked some police officers I couldn’t find the place they directed me to. It was a pretty nice city with a beautiful beach front and I enjoyed the ride, but finally I gave up and continued along a smaller road along the coast, a road that pretty soon turned into a very rural road leading back to the highway.

I passed a Wat and decided to take a closer look for once. The monks showed me how to worship Buddha, in which order to offer flowers and incense and to put gold flakes on to the figure of Buddha.

Closing in on Hua Hin, where I hoped Rob and Dan were waiting for me, I passed a sign that said Internet. An old lady let me know that I could use any of the ten computers. However, the first two didn’t power up at all, the next two did not have any kind of network connection, and it was not due to the pirated version of Windows that was installed. I didn’t have time to give any free consulting and left muttering inaudible Swedish curses.

In Hua Hin I sat down on the curb hoping to find an unsecure network, which I did. Dan had sent me a message that they had left this morning for Phetchaburi. Damn it! But now I was only 65 kilometres behind, I can cover that distance before breakfast.

Hua Hin is a textbook tourist city with multi story hotels lining the coast. I walked along the road trying to find my way down to the beach, but the fenced resorts made it impossible. After a kilometre or so I got tired of it and went to the night market. In other cities the market offers food and clothes, but in Hua Hin all you can buy is crap. If you suddenly feel the need to buy a plastic pool table, this is the place to go.


Distance:
137 km from Chumphon to Thap Sakae.
140 km from Thap Sakae to Hua Hin.
Total: 1867 km.

 Night market in Chumphon.

Rural road out of Chumphon.

Route 4. Not flat.

WTF?

The "restaurant" in Thap Sakae.

Prachuap Khiri Khan.

 Prachuap Khiri Khan waterfront.

Monkeys along the road. Not pictured: Monkeys doing it.

Along the ocean again.

Very lonely rural road.

Worshipping Buddha.

Night market in Hua Hin.

24. Divers do it deeper!

Studying and getting up at six o’clock in the morning was not my intention on this trip, but as my new policy is “Just Do It” I just did it. I’ve pedalled a distance equivalent to the length of Sweden and passing a test can’t be that hard. And it wasn’t.

Phil, Pieter, Lies, Sianos, my diving buddy Brandon and I were instructed by Paul in the art of breathing compressed air from a cylinder while deep under water, and I was immediately hooked. The few doubts I’d had disappeared after the first real dive and I decided to continue with Advanced diving as soon as I passed the Open Water course. The group got along great and we shared dinner and experiences while trying to keep down the alcohol consumption. You don’t want to be hung over with 18 metres of water above you.

While the other four in the group had to fly home Brandon and I went on to the advanced course where we were joined by Charles and Steve. They had pretty extensive diving experience so practicing deep diving, buoyancy and navigation was a breeze. At least for me and Steve; Brandon and Charles had some problems telling time, counting to three, and spelling “Brandon” backwards. Two great Swedish girls, Tezz and Lelle, joined us for the night dive. Monsters always come out at night and we got to see a lot of spotted sting rays and barracudas.

A week ago I had some experience in snorkelling, now I am an SSI Advanced Diver certified for a depth of 30 metres, among other things. Feels pretty good!

Koh Tao has a lot of western restaurants and I have been trying to add some body fat to my skinny chest by eating three meals a day mostly consisting of pizza and burgers. It seems to have helped a little, but I still need to find a way to consume 10 000 calories per day. Some people seem to manage it by the looks of them.

Brandon and I rocked back and forth to the imaginary waves while eating a pizza and we realised we should probably take a break from the ocean. We each had had 12 logged dives with a total time of more than 9 hours and 40 minutes in just a week, and land felt like it was moving beneath our feet.

Back on the mainland it turned out to be 25 kilometres from the docks to Chumphon which was longer than I had hoped for, especially since we arrived after five o’clock in the afternoon and the sun was getting low on the horizon. However, the road turned out to be fantastic with beautiful scenery and 25 km is a nice warm up since the bike has been stationary for a week.

I cycled the distance in about an hour and started to look for a hotel. After a few dead ends I found something that looked a little bit too upscale for me, but I decided I could use a decent place after all the nights in the dorm at Big Blue. To my pleasant surprise an air-con room with the best hot shower I’ve had so far on this trip set me back 360 baht, a sum of money I think I can handle.

Chumphon might not be the most interesting city on the map, but they had everything I could ask for and it is always exciting to explore the streets in a place where you are the only foreigner.

Distance:
27 km from the docks to Chumphon.
Total: 1590 km.

Street in Sairee, Koh Tao.

The great team!

Paul shows off by jumping off the side.

Bull shark!!!

Surrounded by fish.

Exploring the reef.

Reef.

All ok by me!

Divers do it deeper, and in cracks. The jokes are endless.

Christmas tree worms!

Fish everywhere.

Lunch with PADI instructor Emma Andersson.

January 3rd versus February 13th.

23. From west coast to east coast

The downside of staying at a resort in the middle of nowhere is that there are no shops or food stalls around. The three of us happily went to the restaurant for dinner only to find that it closed at nine. Sharing the little candy I had didn’t make us any less hungry so we went to bed early, causing us to miss the television show “Sex Change Hospital” dubbed in Thai. Pity.

We left in a hurry the next day. We were all hungry but didn’t want to spend a fortune for a breakfast in this place, so we continued down the rural road on which we had arrived, hoping to find something to eat as soon as possible.

Finally, we saw people eating at something that could be a restaurant. We stopped and tried to order some food and got some. Nothing looked like what we thought we had ordered, but it was good nonetheless. Dan pointed to the food the other people were eating and it was immediately removed from their table and put onto ours. With full stomachs and a cup of coffee saturated with condensed milk we were ready to go. I don’t remember what this meal cost but it was somewhere between free and almost free.

Back at the main road, Route 4, we made good speed although when Dan and I arrived in Takua Pa, Rob had almost finished a bottle of Chang while waiting for us.

The GPS isn’t as accurate in Thailand as it was in Malaysia, but with the help of a local we found the hotel we were looking for. As we are three to split the bill we treated ourselves to an air-con room, which also had a balcony with a decent view.

While looking for the hotel we had passed the night market and we walked back there to grab something to eat. We tried several kinds of food and Dan was ecstatic about it all. Rob and Dan are real gourmets while I just know the difference between tasty and not tasty. And spicy and not spicy.

Another quick breakfast at the closest 7-11 and we saw the first foreigner in Takua Pa, a guy with the looks of a serial killer and his ladyboy friend.

Rob and Dan were going to ride along the west coast while I headed towards the east. I had had a great time with them and it felt a little bit sad to be alone again, but it is nice to ride at my own pace. If faith decides, we will meet up again.

I made good progress, but then I hit the mountains. A couple of really steep climbs reminded me that the highland is called a highland for a reason. It is no longer too difficult to climb, but it is slow, strenuous and boring. The scenery, however, is absolutely fantastic all the time, everywhere, and I could probably stop every 100 meter to take a picture.

Half way to Surat Thani, just before the city of Phang Kan, I stopped at a beautiful restaurant and had a fantastic omelette filled with pork and vegetables.

I was looking forward to the downhill that surely must come before I reach the east coast, but it was basically hilly all the way across the country. It was getting late when I finally arrived after eight hours in the saddle and I checked in to the first hotel I could find. At the reception I tried to get information about how to get to Koh Tao, the purpose of this city is basically to ship people to Koh Tao, Koh Phangan and Koh Samui, but even after drawing a boat on a piece of paper all I could get was that it left the docks at 08:00 in the morning.

With the help of someone’s unsecure Internet setup I found that the docks were about 5 km to the northeast of the city, which meant that I had to get up really early the next day. A shame, since this hotel included breakfast in its ridiculously cheap rate. Nevertheless, I had no interest in staying so I dragged myself out of bed and started to ride in the general direction of where the boat supposedly would leave. I followed a road along the canal, a little bit worried since time passed and nothing resembling cruise ships could be seen. After more than 5 kilometres I asked some workers and they just told me to continue, so I did.

Finally a sign pointing down a dirt road said “Koh Samui” so I took my chances and followed it down to something that actually looked like it could harbour a boat, a lot of people were waiting and a bus was parked outside. I went to the ticket desk and learned that there is no speedboat directly to Koh Tao as promised by guidebooks and the Internet (isn’t everything true on the Internet?), instead I have to go by bus to Don Sak 60 kilometres to the east, then take a ferry first to Koh Samoi and then Koh Phangan and finally switch ferry to Koh Tao. If it was true, or they just didn’t want my bicycle on the speedboat, I don’t know.

Regardless, the trip to Koh Tao was uneventful and my bike was more carefully handled than most of the other passengers’ luggage. People from different diving firms gave me their pamphlets and I chose the one that seemed the nicest, and had the nicest girl trying to convince me, so I signed up to Big Blue Diving. The day ended at the company’s waterfront restaurant having a couple of beers with Lelene and Detlef, a nice French / German couple.


Distance:
74 km from the Waterjade resort to Takua Pa.
161 km from Takua Pa to Surat Thani, loving every inch of the way.
7 km from Surat Thani to the docks.
3 km riding in Koh Tao.
Total: 1563 km.

Dan wants it all at the night market in Takua Pa.

Fresh roadkill.

It might not show, but this is a really steep climb.

Fantastic scenery.

More scenery. Somewhat flatter road.

Ferry to Koh Tao.

Koh Tao waterfront.

View from the restaurant at Big Blue.

22. Riding with Rob and Dan

Even though Krabi turned out to be a rather boring place I had a great time with Rob and he showed me the beauty of Sang Som. For some reason unknown to us we just couldn’t get out of bed the next day and we were forced to extend our stay by one night.

It turns out that when people talk about Krabi they mean the area in general and not the actual town so we continued to Ao Nang a little further along the road. It was a short but beautiful ride and we ended up at Laughing Gecko, a cheap guesthouse with bungalows made out of grass or something.

Moving on we met another couple cycling south and had a chat with them. I bragged about my GPS, how convenient it was and how it made it possible to avoid the main roads and still don’t get lost. Rob and I said goodbye and then cycled off in the wrong direction. We noticed when the road turned out to be a dead end and we were so ashamed that we took some extra detours so we wouldn’t risk crossing paths with the other cyclists again.

I thought the people in Malaysia were happy to see me, but in Thailand it feels like almost everyone is waving and shouting “Hallooo!”. Sometimes I really need to concentrate on keeping my hands on my handlebar instead of waving all over the place.

A sudden loud noise from my bike and I instantly knew something had broke. We stopped and as I had feared one of the spokes had snapped and the rear wheel was ridiculously out of true. If I continued more than a few kilometres like that I would probably deform the wheel permanently.

We stopped a Songthaew and got a ride to the nearest town, Ao Luk, where we discussed our options. It was getting late and a motorcycle place was unable to fix my wheel, the nearest bicycle store is in Phuket, so we would either have to stay the night or try to catch a bus. We asked around for the bus-stop when a man offered to drive us to Phuket Airport for 2000 baht. I didn’t see any other way out, at least not a convenient one, so I accepted. Staying close to Phuket Airport would be perfect, since Robs friend Dan was going to arrive in a couple of days to join Rob through Thailand.

We checked in to a decent guesthouse in Sa Khu in northern Phuket and went to sleep. Unfortunately they were fully booked the next day so the first thing we had to do was to find another place to stay. I finally was able to get a cab to the bicycle store in Phuket town with my rear wheel and while the driver waited the guys at the shop replaced the spoke and trued the wheel again. For that they charged me 110 baht while the taxi-ride set me back a thousand. I had now spent 3210 baht to get the spoke replaced, which of about 3% was for the actual work.

Phuket is really touristy. For the first time in Asia I am hassled at the beach by people trying to sell junk souvenirs or massages, and everyone surrounding us is speaking Swedish. We were relaxing at the beach reading and just passing time until Dan’s flight would arrive at midnight.

My plan was to continue south down to Patong beach while Rob and Dan were going to ride out of Phuket and go north along the coast. I tried to figure why I wanted to go to Patong, probably because that’s where all the Swedish charter tourists hang out, and I realised that I would most likely enjoy riding with my new friends more than getting drunk with my countrymen. I already considered the area I was in to be too touristy and with too many Swedes, so I decided to tag along for another couple of days.

The road out of Phuket was a busy boring road so as soon as we crossed the bridge connecting the island to the mainland we diverted and cycled along a beautiful rural road along the coast. As we were getting hungry a sign pointing us to a dirt road told us there would be a restaurant and we decided to try it out. It turned out to be a beautiful lakeside resort in the middle of nowhere. We had an awesome dinner and successfully bargained a decent price for a night in one of the luxurious bungalows.


Distance:
20 km from Krabi to Ao Nang.
47 km from Ao Nang until my bike broke south of Ao Luk.
22 km riding around in Phuket.
44 km from Phuket to Waterjade resort.
Total: 1318 km.

Bungalows in Ao Nang.

Rob likes his Sang Som.

Ao Nang.

Beach in Ao Nang.

Elephant happily chewing along the road.

As soon as you divert from the main road the scenery is stunning.

Doing nothing in Phuket.

Greeting Dan and assembling his bike.

Another beautiful road with litter.

Rob and Dan thinking about the hardship of life.

The ride from Krabi to Ao Nang.

21. Thailand

After just one day of cycling my farmers tan is back with a vengeance, I think I might have forgotten to put on sunscreen. I got a late start as usual even though I’m now in Thai time and got one more hour of sleep. While having breakfast outside of a 7-11 I talked to a man from Alaska who warned me about some pretty steep hills on the road to Trang. Sure, there were quite a lot of climbs, but nothing worth writing home about.

I was a little worried about my shape since I hadn’t been cycling for six days and the worries were confirmed when I started riding. It was really hard and I had to push to keep the speed I had gotten used to. After 15 km I was already worn out and had a break. There must be something wrong with the bike I thought and checked the wheels, just to find that the front brakes were grabbing the wheel, making it really hard to spin. I fixed it with my trusty Leatherman and it was once again easy to roll. The brakes must have been that way since I serviced the bike in Penang five days ago, and I didn’t notice until now.

It’s really hot and my water gets so warm it almost becomes undrinkable. The gas stations along the road were frequent and I cut down on the amount of liquid on my bicycle and instead did regular stops to get nice and cool drinks and yoghurts.

After a while the road got boring and I decided to ride through the neighbourhoods. The area is really beautiful with amazing cliffs all around. People around here seem to be quite well off with nice houses and cars, everything is neat and the pavement is fantastic. After a while I had the road all by myself with nothing but nature around me and I was really enjoying the tour.

I hadn’t seen a house for miles when the road suddenly turned into a dirt road. I got a little worried but my GPS told me to continue so I did. The condition of the road varied from a reasonable dirt road to a really bumpy gravel road. By now I was regretting my decision not to carry anything to drink, it had been a long time since I passed a store and the little water I had was almost boiling. I checked my GPS and it said I would reach a somewhat large road in 7 kilometres or so and I pushed on hoping to find a gas station just around the corner. But there weren’t any. In this part of the country people don’t need gasoline or something because I rode mile after mile passing a lot of homes, even though they were of much lesser standard than the ones I passed before, but no gas station in sight.

Finally a lady along the road seemed to be selling stuff and I stopped for much needed refreshments and a fantastic ice-cream. I filled my bike with water and promised myself never to ride without it again, but just a couple of minutes down the road the gas stations started to appear once again. Whatever.

A pretty major construction work went on for miles and my newly cleaned bike, and my bags, got dirtier than ever. Red sand covered my bicycle and the back of my t-shirt and I realized I didn’t have a single clean pair of clothing in my bags. I stopped by a market and bought their largest t-shirt, still just large enough to fit me, with a nice print of Smith & Wesson on the back.

I have seen a lot of road kill, some pretty exotic like a huge snake and some lizards, and now I’ve got my first scorpion. They leave the animals on the road for quite some time, many animals are so flat and dry they look like they have been painted on to the pavement.

Trang turned out to be a pretty nice town and again I found a decent hotel for only 200 baht. It was a long ride so I got to bed early and actually managed to get up rather early as well.

I rode towards Krabi pretty much in the same manner, but this time I was more careful to avoid the most remote roads and I carried enough water. I passed a group of people sitting outside of their home when they started to shout and waved me in. I joined them and they offered me cold drinks and snacks. They didn’t speak any English but we still managed to have a really interesting conversation and the guy was jealous about my beard. I think they wanted me to marry one of the girls and take her with me on my bike, but I respectfully declined.

A police motorcycle kept following me for a couple of hundred meters and then drove up alongside. The cop started waving but I didn’t really understand what he wanted so I just gave him thumps up. It seemed to satisfy him and he drove off.

Just before I reached downtown Krabi I stopped to check my guidebook and GPS for a decent hostel. While I was sitting on the curb I saw another cyclist approaching, loaded with twice the number of bags that I carry. It’s Rob, an American who is more than half way around the world! We shared a room in a recommended hotel and treated ourselves to the best pizza in Krabi. I’m fortunate enough to only meet people who like beer and Rob was no exception.


Distance:
143 km from Satun to Trang.
129 km from Trang to Krabi.
Total: 1185 km.

Far away from everything.

Beautiful scenery.

Nothing special, except for the 1000 km anniversary.

Trang.

Ride from Satun to Trang. Pretty good average, I think.

Local guys and girls. Not marriage material though.

Krabi.

Beers with Rob.