1st April - Koh Samui to Don Sak
Leaving Koh
Samui was hard. Normally after a bit of a gap we’re both well excited to get
moving but in this case it was difficult. Here are some statz for you. Since we
left on August 29th, we haven’t spent more than three nights
anywhere, and we’ve only spent three nights in Rio, Sydney and Koh Samui. When
we arrived in KS we hadn’t spent two nights in the same place since Sydney,
over a month previously. I was feeling very weary when we arrived, and while we
had a really fab time I wasn’t ready to leave. When we did leave we were trying
to get a ferry 200km up the coast to get a bit of a headstart towards Bangkok,
but the ferry company wouldn’t let us take our bikes on “only backpacks” and
told us another ferry was going to the place, but it wasn’t. We were on the ferry when we realised it was going to Don Sak
which was were we’d caught the ferry over from. To make matters worse, it
poured with rain, we didn’t buy any lunch and the ferry seats were really
uncomfortable. We arrived at Don Sak pretty late and there weren’t any obvious
places to stay for another 60k so we stayed in Don Sak. We went out for food
and bought noodles which were both stone cold, and incredibly spicy. The wifiin our room didn’t work, it was up 3 flights of stairs, things were hard. It’s
very easy to “spiral into doom” (just
like in a 12 hour hey Paul!) and I was spinning deep into despair. China seemed a very long rainy road away, and the route seemed paved with spicy fish.
2nd April - Don Sak to Surat Thani
In the morning
it was still raining, and it rained and rained and rained. Every hour or so it would
be far too hard to cycle in and we’d have to take shelter ASAP, frequently in
people’s houses, frequently without their permission. This day was doubly frustrating as we were cycling road we wouldn't have had to do if the ferry company hadn't been so effing annoying. Things looked up when we found a posh looking café for lunch but then we ended up having their attempt at pasta with tomato sauce, which would not have won masterchef. We arrived in a small town to stop for the night and looked for something to eat. When I'm in a good mood (which is nearly all of the time), I love foreign towns. I walk around the street smiling at people and smelling delicious food and thinking how funny it is that nothing makes sense, I think there is nothing in the world that can possibly harm me. When I'm in a bad mood I don't smile at anyone, can only smell fish, and wonder why anybody thought it was a good idea to set up a stall in the left lane of the dual carriageway. This was one of those times. We bought some disgusting food and then went to 7-11 and bought ingredients to make sandwiches. If one more traveller says to us "When I go abroad I ALWAYS eat the local food" then I'm going to tell them to go to www.nobodycares.com to collect their prize. Almost all the time we do buy really delicious food but pretending it's always delicious would be a lie. When we got back to our room we both discovered we'd been destroyed by mosquitoes. This really added to my misery. There was this cool Wat next to our hotel.
3rd April - Surat Thani to Nice Hut on Beach
We woke up in the morning to more rain. The ride along the quiet coast road would have been really lovely with palm trees, limestone islands, and gorgeous sandy beaches. The Eleys had given us a hammock and I was super keen to try that out, but there is no way that I wanted to try it out in the rain. This was really frustrating. At lunch we stopped and had a beer because we both needed morale. It was hard to enjoy the beer with the sound of the rain pounding on the roof. In the evening we stopped at a really nice hutty place and had supper in the restaurant there. I had sweet and sour chicken but Mum thinks she's tough and had soup which fogged up her glasses. This is an absolutely hilarious spectator sport and cheered me up no end. This hut even had deckchairs outside, if anybody had any desire to sit in the rain, which we didn't.
4th April - Nice Hut on Beach to Less Nice Hut on Beach
Today would have been nice, if it hadn't been raining. Mum's just told me she hopes this blog is "culturally interesting" which is a bit rich coming from somebody who flatly refuses to write, but here's some culture for you. The Thai King "Adulyadej" died on the 13th of October and you'd think it was yesterday. Black ribbons are everywhere, pictures of the king on a black background with verses below. Here's one in English.
The King's birthday is on Father's day which I thought was an incredible coincidence but it turns out the Queen's birthday is on Mother's day as well!!! Who'd have thought it? Anyway. They all refer to the King as Dad and "Dad" started these national cycling days, and now everyone wears t-shirts saying "Ride For Dad". People are still wearing black, and nobody was allowed to throw any parties for a whole month. He was the world's longest reigning monarch at the time he died. As we get closer and closer to Bangkok the mourning gets more and more intense. It doesn't help that nobody likes the Prince, who is a bit of a party boy and sends his children to private school in Germany. The daughter is really popular and is actually older so should be the Queen, but obviously that's not a thing in Thailand. Nobody wants to discuss this and anybody who has told us anything uses hushed tones.
The coastline was getting more and more classy as we headed north, and we struggled a bit finding a cheap hut. We managed it in the end though, and this one had the problem of the incredibly scary dog at the entrance. That rumbling growl they make in the back of their throat is dreadful. As we entered the owner had to shout at us to stop so we didn't get attacked. We were at least comfortable that we'd have a good guard dog, but when we got back from supper it was fast asleep.
5th April - Mum is 50!
The day didn't start off too promisingly, as I'd been unable to get meths so we couldn't have a birthday cup of tea. We did have a raisin bread for breakfast which is one of our biggest treats. We both wore our parkrun 50 t-shirts, for obvious reasons.
We had a fab proper coffee and were riding along the coast road when we met Andrea, a German cyclist who had been living in Thailand and was now touring. Meeting solo female cycle tourists always inspires us both. And makes us wish the other one wasn't there. The day went downhill a bit from there, as we failed to find anywhere for lunch and had to eat bread and plastic cheese. While we were eating lunch Louis, an Australian cycle tourist came along. It was obvious to start with he was very different from us, with a huge beard, music blasting and very short shorts. We joined along and rode together.
We found a lovely room by the beach for the night and Mum opened her cards (thank you everyone) and present (a voucher from me for blowing up her thermarest 10 times). Louis then got out the rum and we had a bit of that. We went to the beach front restaurant and had lovely food. By this point we were both a bit drunk and I ordered "Sweet Chilli Chicken". It turns out this was a big mistake and I am never ordering anything with chilli in the title ever again. After I'd recovered from this it was time to go to bed. Grandpa had very kindly brought over some candles and I had been looking for a cake for days but had only managed to find a swiss roll. It didn't matter anyway as Mum was far too drunk to appreciate mine or Grandpa's efforts (sorry Gramps).
6th April - A big day to the National Park
The coastline was getting more and more classy as we headed north, and we struggled a bit finding a cheap hut. We managed it in the end though, and this one had the problem of the incredibly scary dog at the entrance. That rumbling growl they make in the back of their throat is dreadful. As we entered the owner had to shout at us to stop so we didn't get attacked. We were at least comfortable that we'd have a good guard dog, but when we got back from supper it was fast asleep.
5th April - Mum is 50!
The day didn't start off too promisingly, as I'd been unable to get meths so we couldn't have a birthday cup of tea. We did have a raisin bread for breakfast which is one of our biggest treats. We both wore our parkrun 50 t-shirts, for obvious reasons.
We had a fab proper coffee and were riding along the coast road when we met Andrea, a German cyclist who had been living in Thailand and was now touring. Meeting solo female cycle tourists always inspires us both. And makes us wish the other one wasn't there. The day went downhill a bit from there, as we failed to find anywhere for lunch and had to eat bread and plastic cheese. While we were eating lunch Louis, an Australian cycle tourist came along. It was obvious to start with he was very different from us, with a huge beard, music blasting and very short shorts. We joined along and rode together.
We found a lovely room by the beach for the night and Mum opened her cards (thank you everyone) and present (a voucher from me for blowing up her thermarest 10 times). Louis then got out the rum and we had a bit of that. We went to the beach front restaurant and had lovely food. By this point we were both a bit drunk and I ordered "Sweet Chilli Chicken". It turns out this was a big mistake and I am never ordering anything with chilli in the title ever again. After I'd recovered from this it was time to go to bed. Grandpa had very kindly brought over some candles and I had been looking for a cake for days but had only managed to find a swiss roll. It didn't matter anyway as Mum was far too drunk to appreciate mine or Grandpa's efforts (sorry Gramps).
6th April - A big day to the National Park
We started today with Louis, who quite quickly started to annoy me because of the loud music he played constantly, and I mean constantly. We went to 7-11 to buy some breakfast and he said in a very superior way that he usually buys breakfast from "Granny by the side of the road", meaning an old woman standing by some stainless steel pots. In my experience the pots usually contain incredibly spicy fish which I'm not a fan of at any time of day but especially not before 9 o'clock. Anyway we left him to do this and went and bought custard doughnuts. We met up again a bit later and rode along the coast. I'm running out of ways to describe the SE Asian coast. During this bit we had to keep switching between empty roads and the 4, a massive highway. There's a ditch between the two lanes of the 4 so we kept having to do this ridiculous manoeuvre. By this point Louis's music was annoying me quite a lot. He didn't turn it off ever, even when we went into a restaurant for lunch. After this we went to see a temple infested my monkeys. This was actually quite scary as one chased me away while another one stole the map off Mum's bike and climbed up the arch. The locals had to catapult it to get it to drop it.
After this we seemed to enter the hotel abyss and had to ride for ages before we got to the National Park, where we knew there was somewhere to stay. This meant we had to do a long section in the dark. Louis was all for wild camping but we didn't have any food and he didn't have a tent and I was terrified Mum was going to tell him to share a tent with us (does that make me a bad person? Maybe?). Anyway eventually we got to the campsite (which had tents to hire) and ordered some food. At this point Louis gave me a lecture about being scared of wild camping. Anybody who knows me will have some idea of how well I took critiscism about being scared of camping from somebody who doesn't even have a tent. At this point I was unable to stop behaving badly and stormed off down the beach with my kindle (ironically I was reading "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant", I'm working my way through Anne Tyler).
Camping in SE Asia is not comfortable as the temperature rarely drops below 30, and in the morning we have to pack up ASAP. Anyway the setting was absolutely stunning, we were literally right on the bach in a national park with gorgeous cliffs.
7th April - National Park to Cha Am
In the morning Louis said he was going to ride on his own and we'd see him in Bangkok, which I was pleased with. This encounter taught me two things, 1) I don't like all cycle tourists, 2) I don't like all Australians. Both these things were pretty surprising. Whilst I was pleased Mum felt like she'd been a bad parent because of my bad behaviour. She was really stroppy for the entire day whilst I was practically overwhelmed with positive feelings towards her as I'd realised what a dream cycling companion she was. Anyway she barely spoke to me which was nice. I felt guilty, but not that guilty as I enjoyed the beautiful scenery without hearing The Beastie Boys in the background.The national park was gorgeous, with rocky cliffs and beautiful beaches. We met a peloton of British expat cyclists who were all really interesting to talk to. It seems Hua Hin has a really large european community which was obvious as soon as we got there. This did have the plus side of having a tesco. In Hua Hin we had a stuffed omelette for lunch which was delish. After Hua Hin we had to ride up the main road until we got to this tiny village with the USP of a statue in the sea (why don't more places have these?). We stayed in a fab place and ate at the restaurant across the road. I had lovely non-spicy chicken and cashew nut curry and Mum had some really nice herby thing. The manager recommended these dishes to us as the best food for "farangs" (foreigners). He made us sign his wall and took a selfie. Classic. After a couple of beers Mum was a bit nicer to me too.
8th April - Bangkok Beckons
We'd always planned to get the train into Bangkok and in the morning this become more obviously a good decision, the roads were getting exponentially busier every kilometre and our heads were full of fumes. We had a not very nice ride to the town where we were going to get the train, including lunch in a place which only sold boiled meatballs. Having moaned about the weather for days, it turns out the burning sun is an inferior option as the heat was taking its toll. We arrived at Surat Songkram to get the train to Bangkok and turns out there was a market on the train track! This was really exciting, because when the train came all the stall holders had to fold back their umbrellas, pull in their tables and let the train come through. We walked through the market which mainly seemed to sell dried fish, I am SO EXCITED to be in a country that isn't full of dried fish.The train was up a ladder which wasn't so easy with our bikes but luckily we had lots of help from other passengers. Soon we were heading to Bangkok! We got there in the dark and had a bit of a dodge 5km through the city which took us over an hour. Eventually we got to Granny Bike Bed, a hostel just for cycle tourists!!
After this we seemed to enter the hotel abyss and had to ride for ages before we got to the National Park, where we knew there was somewhere to stay. This meant we had to do a long section in the dark. Louis was all for wild camping but we didn't have any food and he didn't have a tent and I was terrified Mum was going to tell him to share a tent with us (does that make me a bad person? Maybe?). Anyway eventually we got to the campsite (which had tents to hire) and ordered some food. At this point Louis gave me a lecture about being scared of wild camping. Anybody who knows me will have some idea of how well I took critiscism about being scared of camping from somebody who doesn't even have a tent. At this point I was unable to stop behaving badly and stormed off down the beach with my kindle (ironically I was reading "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant", I'm working my way through Anne Tyler).
Camping in SE Asia is not comfortable as the temperature rarely drops below 30, and in the morning we have to pack up ASAP. Anyway the setting was absolutely stunning, we were literally right on the bach in a national park with gorgeous cliffs.
7th April - National Park to Cha Am
In the morning Louis said he was going to ride on his own and we'd see him in Bangkok, which I was pleased with. This encounter taught me two things, 1) I don't like all cycle tourists, 2) I don't like all Australians. Both these things were pretty surprising. Whilst I was pleased Mum felt like she'd been a bad parent because of my bad behaviour. She was really stroppy for the entire day whilst I was practically overwhelmed with positive feelings towards her as I'd realised what a dream cycling companion she was. Anyway she barely spoke to me which was nice. I felt guilty, but not that guilty as I enjoyed the beautiful scenery without hearing The Beastie Boys in the background.The national park was gorgeous, with rocky cliffs and beautiful beaches. We met a peloton of British expat cyclists who were all really interesting to talk to. It seems Hua Hin has a really large european community which was obvious as soon as we got there. This did have the plus side of having a tesco. In Hua Hin we had a stuffed omelette for lunch which was delish. After Hua Hin we had to ride up the main road until we got to this tiny village with the USP of a statue in the sea (why don't more places have these?). We stayed in a fab place and ate at the restaurant across the road. I had lovely non-spicy chicken and cashew nut curry and Mum had some really nice herby thing. The manager recommended these dishes to us as the best food for "farangs" (foreigners). He made us sign his wall and took a selfie. Classic. After a couple of beers Mum was a bit nicer to me too.
8th April - Bangkok Beckons
We'd always planned to get the train into Bangkok and in the morning this become more obviously a good decision, the roads were getting exponentially busier every kilometre and our heads were full of fumes. We had a not very nice ride to the town where we were going to get the train, including lunch in a place which only sold boiled meatballs. Having moaned about the weather for days, it turns out the burning sun is an inferior option as the heat was taking its toll. We arrived at Surat Songkram to get the train to Bangkok and turns out there was a market on the train track! This was really exciting, because when the train came all the stall holders had to fold back their umbrellas, pull in their tables and let the train come through. We walked through the market which mainly seemed to sell dried fish, I am SO EXCITED to be in a country that isn't full of dried fish.The train was up a ladder which wasn't so easy with our bikes but luckily we had lots of help from other passengers. Soon we were heading to Bangkok! We got there in the dark and had a bit of a dodge 5km through the city which took us over an hour. Eventually we got to Granny Bike Bed, a hostel just for cycle tourists!!
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