Surat Thani to La Mae - 109 km

Firstly apologies for yesterdays outburst on Koh Pha Ngan, reading it now the post seems a little rash, but I was getting seriously annoyed with the place.

Well, my first century ride today - perhaps I was fuelled by the annoying chav's at the half moon party - who kept winding me up about the ride. I had actually met them first in Khao Sok National Park, they were getting hammered at the Reggae Bar. Then somehow I managed to bump into them again at the half moon party  - this time completely paralytic and blathering on that I would 'never get back on that bike' in their northern english accents. Though many are - not all brits abroad are bad, I had met some interesting people from Crawley in the next bungalow, and another girl from Dover after them who totally agreed with me about Pha Ngan. Thankfully today the conditions were mild (30°C), and I was feeling good so I kept piling on the km's. I could have gone further but I didn't like my chances of finding accomodation at the next place along. I reached La Mae at about 3pm, it's a smalllish town, but the people friendly; some local kids lead me on their motorbike to a beach bungalow which I would never have found without their help. Its pretty empty, save for a few strange Russian men sitting around with their Thai girlfriends. I wasn't sure if the Thai people even celebrated the calendar new year, but there is some kind of festival setting up here tonight. So happy new years all, I wont be having a big one, I'm planning another 100km to Chumphon tomorrow.

Koh Pha Ngan

I'm not sure what to say about Koh Pha Ngan exactly, but I will say this - overpriced shithole. Don't go there. Unless your idea of a good time is sharing a beach with thousands of gym junkies and club tarts, drinking buckets all night, and then nursing a hangover in the heat all the next day. Even the Thai people working there seemed so over it, moping around all day trying to take money from the stupid tourists.

So I've had my fill of that now, I couldn't stomach the thought of wasting any more time or money. Phi Phi was so much better, I think it's because people go there to do things other than get wasted. I'm back in Surat Thani now, thankfully, eating food at about a quarter of the price and relaxing in my air-con room ready to push on towards Bangkok tomorrow. Presently I couldn't care if I spent new years alone, in some backwater town between here and Bangkok, I think it would be preferable to Pha Ngan.

I did read some good books while there;

Conflict: Journeys through war and terror in South East Asia - By Nelson Rand.

This is a very readable and interesting look at some of the military conflicts simmering in the region. The historical information is succintly condensed, and interspersed with anecdotes from Rand's time spent embedded with forces from both sides. The author covers the final days of the Khmer Rouge, as witnessed on the frontline - alongside Cambodian Goverment Troops in Anlong Vengh. He trudges through guerilla camps in Burma with the Karen jungle militia, documenting their struggle with the military Junta.
Later he tells the story of the H'mong people, who were recruited by the Americans in the war against communism. To this day there are H'mong people hiding in remote jungles trying to avoid extermination by Pathet Lao. In the final chapter he gives a summation of the conflict in Thailands troubled southern provinces.

The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

A dark and revealing story about the new India. I really enjoyed it, worth every cent.

Khao Sok National Park

I decided on a two day trek with an overnight stay in a raft house. The raft houses are a bit shambolic, and some germans at the bus station warned us they found a snake in their hut, so we all started worrying what we were in for. In the end it was ok, I only had to deal with a frog coming inside during the night. The first day we did a jungle trek to a cave which involved wading through a river, and then continuing through the jungle to a large cave that takes about an hour to walk through. There is a river running through the cave, and some of the narrower sections can be quite deep. I was aware that six tourists and their two guides had died in the cave a couple of years ago when the river flooded, and there was also warning sign that the river is prone to flash flooding. For the whole morning it had been extremely overcast so I decided to wait outside, and two of the others in our group did the same while the rest went through. They made it out ok, and I'm sure I would have been fine too, but I wasn't feeling ready to die for the experience.

Khao sok is quite a beautiful park, but theeming with wildlife it aint, or at least in the parts we were taken to. This wasn't helped by the guides strategy of taking us around in noisy longtail boats to go looking for animals. A dutch guy who had been in National Parks all over Africa and Central America agreed it was a crazy idea, we should been in canoes or paddle boats. We did see a couple of monkeys, but that was nothing special, we were hoping for hornbills, civet cats or sunbears. The last day we did another jungle trek to a stunning viewpoint high above the lake. It was very impressive, I have the photos on my SLR along with some other good ones that I'm afraid to load onto the computers here for fear of getting a virus on my memory card. I wont be able to post these until I get a backup device in the mail shortly. 

Surat Thani

Well, Surat Thani wasn't exactly the tourist haven I had imagined. Jack had told me it was a big city, and all I knew of it was that people travelling to Koh Samui and Koh Pha Ngan gather here to catch the ferries. Most don't stop for long, and I can see why. Surat Thani is big, busy and a fair bit dirtier than the villages and small towns I had been riding through. I only found one foriegner that was up for a bit of chit-chat. He was an older American guy from Seattle, sitting in the night market drinking a fruit shake. We were the only two foriegners there. The guy had actually been living in Asia for six years, and had lived in Jinghong of all places - a small city just across the Chinese border from Laos where I will ride through. He spoke very fondly of the place, and had spent three years living there. He even knew personally Sarah, a trekking guide working out of the forest cafe in Jinghong with whom I had been in contact with about arranging accomodation and the like for my arrival in China. Small world - he wished me well, and said to fun in his old neighbourhood.

So with very little to do in Surat Thani I made the bus trip back along the way I rode to Khao Sok National Park. I looked around a bit today after I arrived but plan on doing a proper tour starting tomorrow. Following this I have booked accomodation on the islands over Christmas & New Year, so I wont be updating the blog until I have recommenced riding in the new year.

So have a Merry Christmas y'all and I look forward to posting some more stories soon.

Ban Takhun to Surat Thani - 74km

So last night I was eating at this restaurant when I met a local guy Jack (Cha - in Thai), who was running a language school in Ban Takhun. He was forty-seven and born in Surat Thani, but moved to Germany to study Psychology on a scholarship when he finished high school. He said he was quite a good student, and his father was dissapointed when he did not pursue a career in politics, as his family were involved with the Thai goverment in some way. By the sounds of it he had travelled alot, and had been all over Europe, lived in France amongst other places, and said he had managed to learn Germain in just one and a half years. Quite impressive. He claimed his english was poor, but I think it was probably the least exhausting communication I had experienced from a non native english speaker thus far. He was interested in recruiting native english speakers for his school, particularly those from Europe or Australia as  our pronunciation is more suitable for dealing with the droves of tourists that come to Thailand from these places. He currently had a couple of filipino girls working for him. So if any english speakers reading this want a teaching job in Thailand, you can get work here in Ban Takhun. I think he said it was 20,000-40,000 baht per month, which is much higher than the average wage of 8,000 baht. If interested contact Jack - shaihong2009@yahoo.com. Ban Takhun isn't a bad place, there are no tourists despite its close proximity to Khao Sok National Park, reputedly the best in Thailand. I think most base themselves in Phuket or Surat Thani and make the trip to Khao Sok by minivan.  Jack described Ban Takhun as a kind of rich village. Most people were farmers from the surrounding hills, but apparently they make decent money working their rubber plantations. Unlike the buildings, all the cars there looked shiny and new.

So anyway, I was hungover this morning and tried to revive myself with a traditional Thai breakfast as recommended by Jack. It was great, a breakfast curry with rice, omlette and some vegetables. I didn't get going until about ten, but I felt good by this time. The riding was nice too, some of the best scenery so far. I even managed to capture the landscape free from powerlines by heading down a side road for a short while. I might even have to go to the national park to see this lanscape at its best, but early today I rode through some nice country. There were some climbs, but nothing too bad, and once through the mountains I rode through rubber plantations for most of the day until I reached Phun Pin where it was forested again, and much cooler. I got to Surat Thai around 3:30, and was generally impressed with my experiences today.

Thap Put to Ban Ta Khun - 73 km

Feeling the heat today. Found myself stopping regularly for refreshments; the camelbak water not only tastes like crap, but it was so warm I found it almost undrinkable. There seem to be small shops almost every 5km though, so I have been taking full advantage, and downing 2-3 cans of whatever sweet, cold beverage I can lay my hands - hourly. I passed through bamboo forest for most of the day, and by lunchtime I was exhausted so I pulled in at one of the numerous road side eateries. There was a Thai guy who spoke good english, and he quizzed me about my adventures and filled me in on his own situation. The cook made a nice meal of fried pork, with rice and vegetables and I watched on as some local bhuddists traded small talisman'.

Naturally I was invited to join in. It was quite amusing, they were pawing over them with keen interest, some using eye glasses to examine the finer details of what looked cheap tourist souvenirs. With the english speaking Thai now absent, I couldn't quite grasp exactly what was going on here. I know that the southern provinces of Thailand have a strong muslim influence, but perhaps this is the transition area to bhuddism, and they feel the need to overtly display their faith?*  I hung around for a while, largely to keep out of the heat and pushed on to an abandoned service station where I dowsed myself in water and sat in the shade for about an hour. It was hard going most of the way, short climbs and then short descents into a headwind. I was actually aiming for a town called Phanom today, but when I arrived there was no hotel. I didn't really fancy camping in this heat, without access to showers etc, so after about an hour of riding around saying 'rohng raam' (hotel) I was told to ride 10 km north to Ban Ta Khun where I secured accomodation, and now find myself finishing this blog over a couple of singha's. Cheers.

* Having travelled more extensively now I have come to realise that these bhuddist amulets are actually really common, all throughout Thailand.

Krabi to Thap Put - 65km

The Norweigan decided against the whole riding thing, not that I had asked him to come, rather he said he had wanted to, but in the end he went to check out a few more beaches instead. The ride to Thap Put had some decent scenery, though most of it spoiled by powerlines and such so I didn't get any really good photos.  I was however impressed by how easy it was to find your way in Thailand; huge signs and always in english and thai. The other good thing about riding in Thailand is that the highways have a slow lane for bicycles and motorbikes off to the side (like a wider than normal shoulder) so I don't feel so worried about trucks plowing me down.

Much of the riding was through tropical forest, and there were karsk mountains around but difficult to photograph due to the forest. The road was mostly flat, I think I was going at about 25km/h for most of the day and I reached Thap Put early at about 2 in the afternoon.

There wasn't much going down but I managed to find a few locals drinking Singha. They were running a custom auto shop, as in the pimp my ride sort of deal. There was a younger guy who had a little english so he managed to translate my conversations to the others. I was eventually invited into the shop for a viewing of the owners extensive trophy collection. There were elaborate trophys and plaques from competitions he had won all across thailand. He selected his favourite trophy, from a win at the national championships for our photo.

After this the younger Thai guy showed me his personal ride, complete with an assaulting display of its immense stereo system. MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice were the only recognisable tunes, although I think he might have mellowed it a bit later with a dash of Bryan Adams. *cough*

All was going well until they started suggesting some local prostitues should join us, an offer I refused and thought I was understood, but sure enough 30 mins later a couple of girls rolled up in a pimped out isuzu ute (immensely popular in this part of the world) and at this stage I decided I had better get going for some dinner.

Around Krabi

Today I spent a bit of time exploring the area around Krabi. Incidentally the Norweigan has gotten hold of a bike so is riding with me to Thap Put tomorrow, and perhaps beyond that for a few days. We did 26km's this afternoon just to visit a couple of beaches, and I found the heat managable. The sun is not nearly as intense as Australia, and I am getting used to the humidity. Unfortunately I'm having problems getting the pictures off my SD, so I won't be able to add any until I get to Bangkok which is some weeks away.

In Krabi now and ready to start.

So I got to Phuket on the 10th at about 1 o'clock in the morning. My flight with jetstar was delayed by 4 hours, and as such I was very late getting to the hostel. In total I had a nine hour wait at sydney airport and I ended up buying a second small camera duty free. Which, I'm glad I did because this one I can take anywhere, and its also waterproof. So far I took it snorkelling off Phi Phi island, but unfortunately I was really sea sick, so I didn't get the chance to use it. It was probably more-so due to my hungover state, and that I had eaten so much for breakfast that I got sick in the long tail boat. They jump up and down alot as they pass over the swells and after just 20minutes of snorkelling I was really ill. They dropped
me back on longbeach, where I was sick a few more times and eventually I staggered the 45 min walk back to my hostel.

I have left Phi Phi island now and am in Krabi with a Norweigan guy who is interested in accompanying me for the first 2 days of the ride. Its not certain whether he can get hold a decent bike to rent though, so I will wait for one more day here in Krabi, and then I will get going. I had to take the bike to Phi Phi, which was probably not such a good idea because I have noticed all the steel parts are now looking rusty. The hostel owner had a bike, one of the few around not covered in rust, and advised a good spray with WD40 every couple of days will take care of it. Other than that did the usual; buckets, beach party, massage, watched a bit of thai boxing, they even let drunken tourists in the ring on Phi Phi.   

Route Map Stage Two - Across Japan

In Japan, I will actually start riding in Fukuoka (not on map but NW of Miyazaki), and go south towards Kagoshima city. From here there are ferries that will carry you to the Ryukyu islands. I will be visiting the main one, Okinawa where I will stay with a host family that has accepted me through the wwoofing (willing workers on organic farms) program. Rather than ride back up the entire length of kyushu, I will catch a bus or train to Fukuoka and continue east through Hiroshima and Osaka to Susono City, (near Shizuoka) where I have arranged another farm stay.

Hopefully well rested at the place in Susono, I will go northwest, through Matsumoto, Hakuba, (these are alpine regions) Itoigawa and do a loop finishing in Tokyo from where I will fly home. This route is some 2500km and I hope to complete it in around 30 days of riding. Time and money permitting I may go further north to Hokkaido, and return to Tokyo by plane/bus.