Jan 1st, 2016 – Bangkok, Thailand
I slept the whole bus ride from Siem Reap to Bangkok thanks to a sleeping pill. I was awoken at the Cambodia/Thai border. It took a long time to get through. You have to hit customs for Cambodia before going through the Thai line to get a stamp. Seemed to take hours for both. I left my Lonely Planet guide for Southeast Asia, AND my newly bought New Zealand guidebook at the hotel in Siem Reap. Highly frustrating; I don’t know how I missed them. I was flying blind when I got into Bangkok. I had a tuk tuk take me to the “nearest” hotel. But the price was not right and I searched around a little for a better deal.
Jan 2nd, 2016 – Bangkok
My first stop today was the Chatuchak Market, one of the biggest and most famous in the city. Thai markets kinda rock! The selection, quality, and price of the food just can’t be beat! And only a 20 minute walk from my hotel.
I decided that for now I have had enough of bike accidents in big cities and that I would use public transportation – a combination of the subway and the sky tram. Unfortunately neither of them go to the major tourist section and the Grand Palace, so I decided to walk from the subway station to the palace, a lot farther than I had imagined. By the time I got there, they weren’t letting anyone else in the palace except for Thais. I later found out that it closes at 3:30 PM and that’s about when I got there. I had fun walking around it though, I guess.
A bite to eat at Subway ( how I’ve missed thee) and then I started to head back to my hotel again, but I also had hopes to reach the other sight that I had planned to see, the infamous street called Khao San. This tourist strip was dubbed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie The Beach as the backpacker capital of the world.
After having walked all the way back to the subway station, I took bus 53 back to Khao San. I was entertained by the smells and sights and had dinner one street over, a little less pricey.
By this time I had decided that I would not make the train out to Chumphon tonight, but would catch the 1:00 PM tomorrow so that I could come back to the palace and actually see the inside.
After a late dinner I waited for the 53 bus to come so I could get back to the subway and my hotel. But it never came. I had waited an hour. I took a taxi instead, but I missed the last subway by a matter of minutes. My bike and bag were at my hotel, but I decided to crash at a different hotel near the subway stop and return to my original hotel in the morning. At 12:20 AM, my watch died. The glass had cracked open. Going even more blind…
Jan 3rd – En route to the Island of Ko Tao
I simply ran out of time again this morning. By the time I got the subway back to my original hotel and ate breakfast, I realized I would not have enough time to return to the Grand Palace before taking the 1:00 PM to Chumphon.
When I arrived at the sky tram headed for the train station, I realized I did not my have mattress pad. I returned to where I had breakfast, looked for it along the road between the breakfast place and the sky tram, but there was no sight of it. The last place I remember seeing it was under my table at breakfast but it mysteriously disappeared. I’ve been carrying that thing with me on my entire trip and I had only used it once! It would have come in handy the three nights I slept on the beach on the islands of Thailand in just a few days time. I got the train to Chumphon, an eight hour ride south. As the train rolled along we were only a few miles from Myanmar to our west. I saw an excellent sunset from the dining car.
A tuk tuk ride to the pier about 10 miles away from Chumphon’s station got me to where you can by a ticket for an overnight boat to the island of Ko Tao. Only one problem, I didn’t have enough cash, and no one here seems to take a credit card; and for some reason, I couldn’t get money out the ATM (this took days to fix!) A young woman at the pier offered to exchange Thai bhat for some of my American money, a lifesaver.
The boat was not much to speak of – a small cargo boat that had a room where maybe 25 of us tourists slept on mats on the floor.
Jan 4th – The island of Ko Tao, Thailand
The boat left at 11 PM and got to the island at 5 AM, which was still too early for me, so I found a place on the beach and slept for another two hours. I enjoyed biking around the island even though there were some serious hills – flashbacks to Laos. High above the ocean on this small island, I felt like I was in the scene from Cast Away where Tom Hanks climbs to the highest point of the island to have a look around. Afterwards, I rented a kayak for an hour and swam all day at different spots around the island. The water felt amazing, even in the early morning.
I met a guy from Seattle while watching the sunset. He invited me to dinner with a friend of his from Seattle and her four cohorts who were taking a four day diving certification course. She works for Jameson. Her job is to go to bars around the world and get people to drink Jameson with her without letting them know that she works for Jameson. She gets paid for this, but says it’s taking a toll on her body. One of the guys, Patrick who lives in Austin, was totally cool and inspired me to think about the Peace Corps again. He’s younger, but we have done a lot of similar travel.
Jan 5th – The Island of Ko Phangan, Thailand
After crashing on a hotel recliner on the edge of the beach last night I took a mid-morning ferry to the island of Ko Phangan. The ferries are expensive and everywhere I go in Southeast Asia, they charge me extra for the bike, whether it is the bus, train, or a ferry.
Ko Phangan is a much bigger island than Ko Tao and there are a lot of killer hills. I stopped at a couple of nice beaches along the north end of the island before heading back to the town and the main pier.
Jan 6th The Island of Ko Samui, Thailand.
Last night was the second night in a row I slept on the beach. this time on a plastic kayak which was surprisingly comfortable. I haven’t gotten really all that cold at night sleeping in a bathing suit and a shirt. The accommodation is much more expensive on the islands. I am way over budget for Southeast Asia. I broke a personal record yesterday drinking 7 smoothies. It seems that it is so hot that even when you sleep you build up a thirst. Do you think I have a smoothie addiction? – I would rather spend my money on smoothies than accommodation!
Ko Samui is the second largest island in Thailand behind Phuket. It took me the majority of the day to travel around about two thirds of the island – of course, I stopped for lots of swims and smoothies. The nice thing about Ko Samui is that there is a road that runs around the entire coastline, unlike the other two islands I visited where the roads sort of just go this way and that.
Jan 7th – Surat Thani, Thailand
Last night I slept on the sand. It was surprisingly chilly, and this is where my mattress pad would have helped to shield me from the cold ground. I had Cast Away on my mind again as I worried about a coconut falling on my face in the middle of the night. I was on a pretty remote beach, unlike the two previous nights. Another Cast Away moment – When Tom Hanks is floating in the middle of the ocean on a raft after the plane goes down he suddenly hears a pop as the raft hits the reef of the island. I heard that same popping noise in the middle of the night! Only it wasn’t a raft, it was my front tire! The tube just popped without any provocation! I knew what that sound was almost immediately, that is, after first thinking it was my raft. In the early morning, my second attempt at changing a tube (the first being in Nepal) went pretty well.
But I needed a bike shop badly. Not just to buy extra tubes, but my bike chain is in bad shape thanks to dusty Cambodian roads.
I got a car ferry back to the mainland. If only I had done this before. No charge for the bike, so much cheaper, and probably more comfortable because it’s less crowded.
I biked from the pier of Donsak to Surat Thani. 70km (44 miles) and found a bike shop. They fixed my brakes, but my gears are really no better.
Jan 8th – Rajaprapha Dam, Thailand
80km (50 miles) today to a the beautiful manmade lake surrounded by prolific karsts in Khao Sok National Park. I did a little more than 80km because I couldn’t find the pier. Probably over 90 for the day. When I got to the pier and enquired about getting a long boat to one of the floating accommodations on the lake I was taken aback by the price for the boat. On a two week vacation, ok, but not on my budget. So I backtracked and found a nice bungalow with all sorts of perks – AC!!, a hot shower, a front patio, soaps and shampoos, the biggest bathroom towel I have ever seen, and and well, it’s cozy – all for $11. More like it. Tomorrow it’s on to the western edge of Khao Sok National Park (I’m on the east tonight). In two days I’ll be on the Tsunami affected west coast of Thailand.
