Another early wake up for another early start and another 100km day to reach the city of Hua Hin. We rode along Highway 4 towards Hua Hin. The road was extremely flat so we made excellent time with our highest average speed ever (21.8km/h)! The road has been getting increasingly busy and ugly the closer we get to Bangkok and today was definitely the busiest and ugliest yet. Lots of trucks, lots of flat run down buildings full of garbage on the highway – definitely a scenic low point. We did pass our first rice paddy, though, which was a beautiful bright green:

We stopped for a Coke when we started to feel overheated. The girl at the counter asked if we wanted her to remove the bottle caps for us, we said yes. Then, she poured each of our drinks into one of the inescapable plastic bags! I’m not sure what the point of doing this is when the Coke comes in a nice glass bottle to start with…

We arrived in Hua Hin and were surprised to see that it was such a developed, tourist focused city. There were hotel high rises all over the place, and we saw our first Starbucks since entering Thailand. The guesthouses were a bit pricey and the ones we looked at were a little on the dirty side. We chose a place where we could lock our bikes right outside our room.

I took a shower as soon as we checked in and realized I’d developed heat rash all over my legs! I was pissed. I have had so many weird health-type issues on this trip and Jamie has had absolutely zero. I spent the rest of the afternoon out of the sun, reading my book in front of the fan. I also spent the afternoon fuming about my heat rash and the maddening fact that Jamie didn’t have it! By the next morning I’d gotten over my bitterness. I was also happy because we’d decided that we wouldn’t cycle to the next city, 65km away, but would instead take the train from Hua Hin to Bangkok. The highway is simply getting too busy and non-scenic to be enjoyable and neither of us want to waste any more days of our tour on this when we could be in other regions of the country.

In Hua Hin, we also saw the most Thai women with western men that we have seen so far. Our theory is that there are three types of arrangements: flat-out prostitutes, women who marry older men to improve their financial situation, and then something that seems like a girlfriend-for-hire. These are usually young, attractive Thai women spending time with young, western backpackers. Maybe some of these are actual love connections, but we have seen several of these girls (some of whom speak little English) dragging their backpacker “boyfriends” into shops with womens’ fashions to buy them expensive gifts. We keep looking for a book that explains what is going on – maybe there’s a guide on how to get a Thai girlfriend for a week? We are dying to know how this works, but it’s hard to decipher what’s going on just by watching these people on the street. I think Jamie should go into one of the tourist bars to chat up the Thai girls that hang out there and find out how it works, but he won’t do it. Hostess bars are also popular here. These are bars full of very attractive Thai girls where westerners buy the girls drinks and in return the girls flirt and chat with them for the evening.

Prachuap Khiri Khan turned out to be one of the highlights of Thailand so far! After cleaning myself up a bit (refer to the last picture in the ‘Sweat Hogs’ post), we ventured out to the night markets. First stop was the market near our hotel, set up in a big parking lot. We ordered fruit shakes here, which are served in bags rather than cups. That’s the standard for most of the food stands in Thailand. This serving method means you can’t ever set your drink down and must either finish it quickly or carry it around like a purse on your wrist. The lady that made our fruit shakes approved of Jamie’s selection – watermelon – by saying ‘delicious’! She did not have anything good to say about my cantaloupe shake and only shook her head and said ‘no’. Here I am stealing a sip of the delicious watermelon shake:

Next we walked down near the water and through the town’s gigantic fair. It was being held in honor of the princess of Thailand’s birthday. There were rides for kids, carnival games with giant stuffed animal prizes, millions of food stands, and a lot of loud music. I sneakily took this picture of a cute little girl ordering crab-sticks at a vendor:

The next morning we got up early to beat the sun and walked around to see some of the temples. This one was immaculately maintained with beautiful gardens surrounding it. All the signs were in Thai and Prachuap Khiri Khan wasn’t mentioned in our guidebook so I don’t know much more than that.

Here’s another temple, in a different style. I need to learn the names of these styles and what they mean. We foolishly bought a ‘Southeast Asia’ guidebook rather than a Thailand specific book, so we usually don’t have enough information and feel like we don’t know what we’re seeing most of the time:

As we rode into the city yesterday we noticed a huge hill next to the sea, with a temple on the top. We were excited to climb to the top for the view! Here I am, halfway up the stairs. Even though it was extremely early in the morning I managed to completely soak my shirt with sweat again!

By far the strangest and most interesting thing about the climb to the top of the hill were the monkeys. There were literally hundreds upon hundreds of wild monkeys that lived on the hill. They owned the staircase and occupied most of the steps with activities like picking lice off each other, playing with rocks, play fighting with each other, nursing their babies, picking leaves off bushes and eating them, etc, etc. We literally had to squeeze past groups of monkeys sitting on the steps – they were not at all afraid of us and usually didn’t really get out of our way. It was actually a little bit creepy to be amongst hundreds of animals that aren’t at all afraid of you. Here is a mother, some babies, and some young monkeys huddled together either nursing or eating lice off each other:

Me warily picking my way through monkeys up the steps:

This was a small stray dog hanging out on the stairs. The poor thing had a horrific case of mange and had lots of raw bare skin showing through his fur. This little monkey came right up to him and started picking through his fur looking for bugs. The dog just stood patiently there and let the monkey groom him. Hilarious!

The views at the top of the hill were stunning!

On the way back down the stairs we had to pick our way through the monkeys again. There was a huge male monkey on one of the steps, playing with a shiny piece of metal. He was banging it on the ground and on the stairway railings. I must have looked too interested in his precious piece of metal because he glared at me and bared his teeth, then ran off the stairs to the hillside. He then started screeching and growling in a horrifically scary way… it was very low and guttural, and all the of monkeys on the hillside joined him. It was like he had sent up an alarm and all the other monkeys joined in on the growling to make sure everyone knew about the dangerous shiny metal coveting humans on the stairs. Jamie and I were both incredibly freaked out as we realized we were way on top of a deserted hill and surrounded by angry monkeys. To make it worse it was not just 10 or 15 monkeys growling – it was literally at least 100. Jamie said “Don’t act afraid! Just keep walking down the stairs!” So we did, the growling gradually died away, and we escaped with our lives!

After posting our stats for last week, we were a little embarrassed that we rested more days than we rode and covered less than 200 kilometers. Are we getting soft? To prove our stamina (Sarah says to “deal with my inferiority complex”), we rode another 120 kilometers today to Prachuap Khiri Khan. We thought the heat was going to bother me more than Sarah, but it is actually the other way around. We both look like we have been barbequed, but the heat makes her much more uncomfortable than me and she also sweats a lot more when riding. At the end of the day, her arms, legs, and face are encrusted with salt. Good thing water is cheap because we are going through about ten liters a day.

After we left Chumpon, Highway 4 became a lot more busy. It is now four lanes instead of two and there are a lot more trucks on the road. For some reason, there are also many, many more dogs. Today we were chased on seven different occasions by dogs, sometimes by as many as five at once! Yelling and growling back no longer seems to work. It actually riles them up more and attracts additional dogs. The surprise of Sarah’s bell works on some of the timid dogs, but usually we just have to outrun the pack. Someone send us an air horn quick!

I’ve noticed I take a lot less pictures on the road here in Thailand. There is garbage everywhere here. We met a family from Australia who had been to Cambodia and they told us that Thailand is spotless in comparison. Uh oh! Today we saw a guy walk out of a 7-11 and just toss his garbage on the ground without a thought. We really can’t figure it out.

One neat thing along the road was this giant chicken shrine. It was right in front of a Buddhist temple and looked to be about thirty feet tall. We have never seen any statues of animals like this around temples before.

Coconut groves also line the road around here. We’ve seen workers pushing carts around the groves and collecting the coconuts off the ground. We’ve also traded the sheep trucks of New Zealand for pineapple and coconut trucks here. Here is a huge pile of coconuts waiting to be processed.

We also passed the narrowest spot in Thailand today. Only 10.96 kilometers wide! Not much else to say about that.

Prachuap Khiri Khan is not listed in our guidebook but is actually a very nice town. It is not too large, but has a beautiful beach and a busy night market. Here is the entrance to the city:

The waterfront has a lot of restaurants and hotels that look out over the islands and colorful boats.

We were riding around looking for a place to stay when we were approached by a crazy-looking Thai riding a dilapidated bicycle and tooting a clown horn every two seconds. “Bungalow, bungalow!”, he said and motioned for us to follow him, and we did. After about thirty seconds of riding in his wake, we realized this guy had not read The Rules of the Road. It appeared he believed traffic laws did not apply to him, for he had a magical clown horn. Is that light up ahead red? Well then toot your horn three times and ride right through the intersection. Need to turn right onto a busy street? Just toot twice straight up into the air and cut off a two ton truck. And last but not least, if you find yourself on the wrong side of the road just ride right down the middle right into traffic tooting constantly as cars swerve to avoid you. Thais believe in karma and this guy must have saved the King’s life because he thought he was invincible. Add that to the fact that he had three teeth, the single English word he knew was “today”, and the fact he was obviously a source of amusement for the locals and it made for a pretty interesting search for a place to stay! In the end we lived though and we found a clean room in a hotel with shared bathrooms for 160 baht. (~US$4.70)

Here is a sweaty Sarah happy to be alive and ready for a cool shower.

Sarah and I left Chumpon very early this morning. We were on the road by 6am and we were lucky we got such an early start because today was another blistering day of sunshine and humidity. The highlight of the ride was probably the fat little Thai boy at the restaurant where we stopped for breakfast. He was literally cracking up every time he looked at us, we guess because of our sweaty, white bodies. He brought us our drinks and then sat down at the table right next to ours and stared at us, chuckling to himself. His mother kept sending him away on errands to distract him, but he always returned to catch one more glimpse of the strange bicycle tourists.

After 100+ sweaty kilometers, we arrived at our destination of Bon Sapphon Noi on the coast of the Gulf of Thailand. This area is full of beach resorts that are popular with Thais but that don’t see as many farang as the main tourist areas. We were surprised to learn that the accommodations are a lot more expensive around here; the rooms at the beachfront resorts ranged from 800 to 1600 baht! Those prices are way out of our range so we when saw a sign for a resort about 400 meters off the beach we decided to check it out. As we rolled up, the owner was sitting in front of one of the bungalows. Our conversation with him went something like this:

“How much are your bungalows?”
“400 baht”
“Can we see –”
“300 baht”
“OK”

After unpacking our gear, we sat down for a beer with him and began with the usual smalltalk. The owner told us his name was Mr. Bong, “you know, like beer.” After about five minutes of pleasantries, he told us he made bead jewelry and then immediately took off the two bracelets he was wearing and gave them to us because “we were his friends.” I usually get nervous when people start giving us stuff because I worry that they are going to ask us to pay for them later, but we thought Mr. Bong seemed a little eccentric but genuinely friendly so we continued to drink with him and a short while later we were served fried prawns and squid from his restaurant. Delicious! Half a dozen beers later, he blurted this out, “I have hormone problem. Married ten years, no children, wife say goodbye.” Our guidebook says that Thais are very open people, but wow, we weren’t expecting that! He said he loved babies and loved making them fried eggs and tom yum soup. Awww! He wanted us to come back to his resort in 2008 with a baby. Maybe we will! He also told us he was having liver problems and was waiting for his sister to arrive to take him to the hospital in Bangkok tomorrow. We weren’t surprised given the amount of beer he was drinking but we were a little shocked when he told us he drank a bottle of Johnny Walker Red and a bottle of Johnny Walker Black last night Is that humanly possible?! Maybe we misunderstood and those are his two favorite whiskeys. In any case, we kept him company for several hours while waiting for his sister and he seemed happy to have us around, saying before we arrived he was “home alone.” He showed us a giant mango tree in his backyard and taught us how to pronounce many Thai words, which is always entertaining for us. Lately a lot of people are thinking Sarah can really speak Thai – she is getting pretty good! Mr. Bong showed us a photo album of his niece and nephew, and told us about the upcoming water festival called Songkran which celebrates the Lunar New Year. People line the streets all over Thailand to splash each other with water. If we understood him correctly, it is permissible to get water on someone’s face but if someone gets your body wet you can tell them to “go to the police station.”

Around dinner time, his sister arrived with her husband and daughter. They didn’t seem too happy with his drinking and some strained discussions ensued that we could not understand. We went off to our room to shower and to give them some privacy. When we came out a while later to find some dinner, he invited us to eat with him and the family. The family seemed a little uncomfortable but they didn’t speak enough English for us to ask them whether or not it was alright and he was insisting so we went. Dinner turned out to be very nice at a beautiful restaurant overlooking the Gulf of Thailand. We dined on fresh squid, prawns, soft-shell crab and a variety of Thai dishes. The family was friendly, but very shy – especially the nine year-old daughter. She buried her face in her hands when we used our phrasebook to ask, “What is your name?” and “How old are you?” Her mother kept encouraging her to practice her English with us, but she did not want to talk to strangers! After dinner we thanked everyone and headed off to bed while they got ready to drive back to Bangkok. A few minutes later one of the resort staff showed up with a TV for us to use in our room. Another gift from Mr. Bong! What a generous host and friendly person.

Stats from Thailand Week 2
3.26.2007 – 04.01.2007
3 days cycling, 4 days resting
185.38 kilometers
61.79 km / cycling day
10 hours, 33 minutes, 51 seconds in the saddle
3:31:17 / cycling day
US$222.70
US$31.81 / day

Sarah and I have spent the last two weeks in Thailand trying to decide where to go next on our trip. This is the first time where we have no concrete future plans. No onward plane tickets. No hard dates to meet. It feels a little strange not knowing what is going to come next and we are struggling to figure out what to do. We have discussed whether or not we should try to find the best places on the planet to tour on a bicycle or should we really try to get remote and adventurous? Maybe Southern China, northern India, France, Argentina? Should we stick to our original plan of one year or travel for longer? We have talked about teaching English in Taiwan or volunteering in India too. It feels like everything is up in the air.

We spent today resting in Chumpon, which isn’t that great of a place but it does have a large, interesting night market where they sell everything from fruit to fish to dishes.

We are staying in a guesthouse in Chumpon called the Farang Bar. Farang is the Thai word for foreigner and the owner even has a fat little Pug named Farang. Not sure what that says about his opinion of us!

Our hostess with the mostess in Kra Buri had asked us if we wanted breakfast in the morning. We said sure, and told her we’d be ready at 6am. Unfortunately our alarm malfunctioned and we didn’t wake up until 6:20! We rushed out and found her waiting for us…we felt awful for having her get up so early with us still sleeping. Oops. She served us each a sunny-side up egg, some toast with jam, cheese slices (first time we’ve seen these in Thailand!) yogurt, instant coffee, and tiny green oranges. It was all very good, but cost a bit more than we’d expected. Oh well, she was so friendly and we were happy to give her some extra business.

We started the day a little later than usual – around 7am. We knew we had 65km to cover and had heard from the Thai bike group that it would be mostly flat which was very nice. The morning started out with extremely dense fog. When Jamie was only 15 ft ahead of me I could just barely see him.

We rode through the Isthmus of Kra today, which is the most narrow point of Thailand. We rode right alongside the river that divides Thailand from Burma, which means we were only 100m from Burma! We stopped and took some pictures, of course:

Jamie with Burma in the background:

Burma:

Me with the Kra Isthmus sign in the background:

Myanmar (Burma) only 100 meters away! Who knows what the rest of the sign says:

We stopped for a Pepsi halfway through the day for a short rest in the shade. Another hour later I felt like I was being roasted alive. It was SO hot and whenever the breeze started it didn’t feel refreshing – it felt exactly like I was riding in a convection oven. I’m not exaggerating at all. We stopped at another roadside restaurant for another rest in the shade. My limited Thai came in handy because I was able to understand that two dishes contained fish and the other was pork. We tried one fish dish, one pork, and then Jamie ordered a small whole roasted fish (skin, eyes, everything intact) coated in chills and spices. He loved it, here’s a picture:

We arrived in Champon at 11:30am and started our search for a guesthouse. Then Jamie’s back tire went flat again!!! Ack! Some guys on a moped showed us where the guesthouses in town were – we walked along behind them due to the flat tire that we didn’t feel like fixing. They seemed a little odd, like they were leading us on a long ride to some obscure guesthouse that they’d get paid for, so we thanked them for their help and said goodbye. We checked into our cheapest guesthouse yet – only $4 and change! We’ll spend the rest of the evening exploring Chumpon. Looks like there’s a big night market which promises lots of tasty food.

Fun Fact: I am drinking a beer as I write this and I just took a drink from my glass and felt something weird on my lip. It was a fly, trying to crawl up my lip in order to avoid being swallowed. So gross!

Woke up at 6am and it was already getting light out – the days are getting noticeably longer as we head north and it gets closer to summer. We were on the road in time to enjoy the comfortable temperatures of dusk. The road towards Kra Buri rolled and undulated (to use the words of our New Zealand guidebook) the entire 59 km. At the top of the largest undulation of the day we stopped to enjoy a posted scenic viewpoint. On the way down the other side of the hill we passed a picnic area. We felt exactly like we were in New Zealand! The English signs and hills felt out of place in Thailand.

We visited the Ranong bike shop yesterday to get Jamie’s rear rim re-taped and hopefully end the flat tires. It is constantly and unexpectedly just going flat. It is not at all fun to stand in the sun on the side of a road with buckets of sweat dripping off everything, trying to fix a tire. It’s even worse when you think about the fact that every minute spent fixing the tire means you’ll be riding closer and closer to the dreaded hour of noon when the sun is at its most brutal and there is not a speck of shade to be found anywhere. As the day gets hotter we also notice that the dogs don’t even care about chasing us as they usually like to do. They’re too busy sacked out on the side of the road trying to deal with the heat!

Anyway, at the bike shop we chatted with the owner and found out he and a group were planning to ride 120km the next day in the same direction as us. Just 10km into the day we ran into them all! They were waiting at one guy’s house for everyone to show up so they could start off. We stopped and chatted on the side of the road. They all had lots of fun lifting up our bikes and grunting and exclaiming to each other about how nuts we were to be carrying so much weight. We also took lots of group photos. We teased them for wearing so much clothing – everyone had long sleeves on, I don’t know how they can ride in all those clothes!

After we left the Thai cyclist team we passed through some small fishing villages where women were sitting in bungalows along the side of the road weaving gigantic green leaves into roof thatching. I wish we would have stopped to get a picture, it was pretty amazing. Halfway through the day we stopped in a town to search out some breakfast. Just as we stopped the Thai bike team caught up with us and pulled into the town to get a drink. They bought us each a Thai-style Gatorade, we chatted a bit more, and then they said “Come on! We will ride together!” Oh great…I was hungry and ready for a break, but neither of us wanted to pass up the chance to ride along with a big group of Thai cyclists! We rode with them for 10km. I think they were going a little slower than usual to accommodate us, but I was at my aerobic limit regardless. I kept it up, panting and sweating like crazy, for the 10km but then I decided to throw in the towel. We waved goodbye, dropped back, and stopped at the next roadside shop serving breakfast.

We ordered the usual, “Kai Jeaow”, which is a simple omelette served over rice. We also each got a tiny can of iced coffee, brand name “Birdy”. Everything is so tiny and cute here! Here’s the shot of our typical breakfast feast. This is one of my favorite parts of the day:

Bikes parked outside the restaurant:

We reached our destination of Kra Buri by 11am. We checked into some bungalows just outside town, showered, read our books for a little bit, and then headed into town. We wanted to eat some lunch and stopped in a cute looking corner restaurant. It turned out to be a coffee shop. The co-owners were two women who’d grown up in Kra Buri together, went to university in Bangkok, and then moved back to start the coffee shop together. We were ecstatic to discover that they served the same type of delicious iced coffee that we’d had at D.D’s! We walked around town for a bit. Here’s a house we passed that was drying chills outside:

We headed back to our bungalow to chat with the owner (she spoke English!) and eat some dinner. She herded us down the block to her brother’s ‘restaurant’. I use that term quite loosely. She told us to take a seat, take a seat! The problem was, there were only two tables and they were all full. We said, it is full, we can not take a seat. Then she kept motioning at a table of two teenage guys…so we sat down with them. They sheepishly said Hello to us but wouldn’t say anything more, then moments later they got up and left to hang around at the end of the driveway. Our hostess said, “What do you want? Fried Rice? Or Noodles with Pork? Fried Rice? Noodles? What you want?!” We said, Noodles sound good, and she told her brother. Then she said, You want something to drink? Pepsi? We didn’t want Pepsi but we also didn’t know what we really wanted. So we sort of froze and stared at each other. She thought we didn’t hear her and started raising her voice so she could be sure we didn’t misunderstand her: Pepsi? Pepsi?!? Pepsi?!! We said Yes Yes! Pepsi sounds good. So we ate noodles and Pepsi for dinner. It was pretty hilarious. The noodles were OK, it was a very small serving which is typical, but there was all sorts of mystery meat in them. I tried a piece and it sort of dissolved into powder in my mouth. Ew. I didn’t eat anymore meat. Jamie later said he saw all the meat just laying out in the open with the flies and sun. Nice!

After dinner we went next door and bought two beers and a fine selection of Thai junk food, including banana chips, tiny cakes, some weird corn cones, etc. We ate these in our room along with a small watermelon we’d bought earlier in the day. Later on we signed on our hostess’s guestbook and went to bed.

The boat ride from Koh Phayam to Ranong was quite nice yesterday, other than the fact that I wound up with the only seat on the boat that wasn’t in the shade. After 30 minutes I couldn’t handle the feeling of the sun creeping up to barbeque first my hand, then my arm, then my shoulder, then my neck…! So I sat on the floor with the bugs and ants and read my book for two hours. I was happy to be in the shade & happy I remembered to get my book out for the ride, so it wasn’t too bad. View from the pier, before getting on the boat at Koh Phayam:

Another pretty fishing boat:

I spent a very productive morning studying Thai. I am trying to learn the characters so I can recognize some common words. I can count to ten now, too! Here’s my study sheet:

We ate lunch near the pier in Koh Phayam, and Jamie sneakily took this picture of a Thai family taking a break in the restaurant’s back room. They were playing a card game and having a grand old time:

Upon arrival at the pier in Ranong we hopped on the bikes to ride into town and back to the same hotel we stayed in last time. It started to rain, which created a strange feeling. Our upper bodies were wet from the rain and so felt nice and cool in the breeze created by riding. But as the rain hit the hot pavement it created a steamy heat wave swirling up around our legs. When we rode through deep puddles, the water splashes were actually hot.

At bedtime we realized that the screens in our windows didn’t close all the way and one of them had a giant hole, offering a myriad of ways for the mosquito population of Ranong to pay us a visit. I went on a mosquito killing spree and then turned off the lights hoping they wouldn’t be smart enough to find their way in. No such luck. After an hour we gave up trying to sleep and got out of bed to kill more mosquitos and duct tape the edges of the windows to block further attacks. This is exactly why we brought duct tape, and we felt like geniuses for having it!

At this point I thought I felt an eyelash in my eye, so went in the bathroom to get it out before continuing with the killing spree. I looked in the mirror and realized that my entire eye was bright red and very swollen – so much so that the clear membrane of my eye was actually wrinkling up when I blinked. Yikes! Nurse Jamie held my eye open and vigorously sprayed it with saline solution in case there was something in there. Naturally, my pajamas got soaked with saline, too. It is so hot here I didn’t care, though, and just went to sleep and hoped it would be better by morning (it is – just red, not too swollen anymore). I also decided to shut off the alarm for 6am…lack of sleep from mosquito attacks, inflamed eye, and the fact that Jamie needs to go to a bike shop to get new rim tape in his back wheel mean we will take a rest day in Ranong. (Since New Zealand, Jamie’s rear tire has been going mysteriously flat. He has had six flat tires already, most of them are on the inner side of the tube and we can never find anything that looks like it is causing the flat. A mechanic in New Zealand thought our tubes were faulty, but replacing those and the tire itself hasn’t helped so now we are going to try re-taping the rim to see if that fixes the problem. The rear tire we swapped was trashed anyway. It developed a large double-humped bulge after 2500 kilometers of cycling. That’s two Panaracer tires that have failed on us so far, so we are in the market for new tires. We are hoping we can get the Schwalbe Marathon tires in Bangkok.)

Last time we were in Ranong we discovered a restaurant that has the BEST iced coffee – D.D. Coffee. It is like a melted coffee milkshake and tastes like real, strong espresso because they actually have an espresso machine at the restaurant! This is a majorly exciting discovery because every other time we’ve had “coffee” in Thailand it has been that nasty instant Nescafe crap. Needless to say, we made a beeline back to D.D’s today!

Fun fact: we’ve spent the past five days going into every drug store and pharmacy we pass, looking for dental floss. No one sells it anywhere! Today we finally found it in Ranong…thank goodness!

After a little over a week on the Thai mainland we decided it was time for a taste of the island life. One day of biking got us from the tiny beachside National Park of Laem Son to Ranong – a city bordering Burma on the western coast of Thailand. After a frustrating hour of riding our bikes around Ranong in the very hot midday sun, we found a decent hotel to spend the night in. Our room was on the 4th floor and had a neat view of the city…but there was no elevator so we got to experience the fun of schlepping all our gear up four flights of stairs for the first time! We ended up locking our bikes outside in the ‘secured’ car park behind the hotel. They were there the next morning, but we both spent a lot of time worrying & peering out our window towards the bikes in an attempt to catch anyone trying to wheel them away. The sunset in Ranong was beautiful – here’s a glimpse of it from the main street:

The next morning we woke up, rode our bikes to the pier, and caught a longtail boat to the island of Koh Phayam. The boat ride was supposed to be two hours long, but something was wrong with our boat’s motor so we spent an additional hour sitting at the pier waiting for it to be fixed. The smell of rotting fish in the sweltering sun was overpowering at the pier – disgusting. There was also a hyperactive four year-old Australian with lenient parents on the boat. This kid literally spent the entire three hours running back and forth over our feet, fiddling with our bicycles, and peering waaaay over the side of the boat. I was wishing he would fall in for a bit of excitement, but no luck. View during the boatride:

Upon arrival in Koh Phayam our boat was mobbed by guesthouse owners out to hook a tourist our two and drag them back to their resorts. Having the bikes was nice because we weren’t dependent on these people for a ride – instead we got to cycle around the island and pick out a place to stay with no pressure. We somehow ended up on a very rough trail through the remote jungle in the middle of the island. After 4k the trail ended and we were on the other side of the island…on a beach! No more road! So we pushed our bikes through the soft sand, then got back to ride along the shoreline towards the bungalows. Riding our bikes on the hard packed sand was easy and we just couldn’t get over the fact that we were actually riding our bikes on the beach on an island in Thailand. Wow! Here I am:

Bamboo Bungalows was our residence of choice. Here I am relaxing in a hammock. The open air restaurant is right behind me:

Lots of traditional fishing boats along the shore:

Fruitstand where we bought watermelon for a snack:

There are tons of dogs around here. None of them are spayed or neutered and they are all running around breeding like rabbits. We’ve been chased by dogs a few times but so far they haven’t tried to bite – they just run along side us barking like crazy. Sometimes yelling at them gets them to back off, and we recently found a bamboo switch that we’ll use to swat them like the locals do. I am also going to start looking around for a nice handful of rocks to throw at the next pack of barking dogs I run into. The other day we saw a dog get absolutely nailed by a speeding truck. I felt really guilty about it because the dog had stopped in his tracks in the opposite lane to stare at us and wasn’t paying attention to oncoming traffic. A truck came roaring around the corner and the crash as the it hit the dog was so much louder that you’d expect. The dog went flying through the air and did not move again. At least he died instantly rather than just getting maimed. Here’s a funny skinny dog we saw while walking on the beach:

A neat fishing boat covered in white flags and wire traps of some sort. Maybe for crab?

Someone’s bungalow on the beach.

We continue to be amazed at how inexpensive it is for people to vacation here in Thailand. You can stay here on this beautiful island in a nice bungalow for $6 a night. Each meal costs about $2, local whiskey is $1, and local beer is $2. You could live like a king for for only $15 a day! Or you could work at any old job in the US for 6 months during the summer, come live here for the other 6 months, and you’d still come out saving money in the end.

We also had our first sighting of an old, fat, white guy with a young beautiful Thai woman. These two were walking down the beach hand in hand and then came to our resort to eat dinner. We have never eavesdropped so much in our lives! These two were not getting along either. They tried to order some fresh fish for dinner and she wanted two fish for herself, while he thought they should only get three total. She was so mad at him she got up and moved to the chair at the far side of the table. He attempted to pacify her by saying, “I’m not used to having woman tell me what to do. In America no do.” We almost burst out laughing! He proceeded to talk to her in pidgin-English for the rest of the night and eventually switched to a chair next to her. Here’s to hoping things work out for those two lovebirds!

The sunsets here are amazing! Here are some pictures:

Koh Phayam is known for its cashew nut trees. The trees are all over the island and their fruit gives off a very strong sweet scent. Cashews grow as a seed hanging off the end of a pear shaped fruit.

The seeds are picked, boiled, and then dried in the sun. When they are dried the outer husks are peeled off.

After two days here we’re getting a bit restless. Neither of us are the type that can lay around and relax on the beach for too long, and we’re excited to keep cycling North towards Bangkok! So, this afternoon we’ll hop on the boat back to Ranong. In the words of George Costanza, “Onwards and upwards!”

You may have noticed that the pictures in our journal posts are no longer links to larger versions of the pictures. This is because we are using Windows Live Writer to write our blog posts and when uploading posts with multiple pictures to our server, WLW has a hardcoded timeout value that is exceeded on the slow internet connections here in Thailand. Because of this, we have to remove the links in order to upload the posts to our server.

All is not lost however, I am uploading our pictures to our Flickr site which means you can view them at different resolutions (including the very large originals), comment, make prints, etc. The photos are also organized into sets, so you can view just the Thailand pictures we have taken so far if you want too.