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Thailand/Narathiwat Round the world trip 2007
8/11 Beat the heat – Ride in the Rain! Seems to work. And we don’t have much choice. The bays along the east coast of Thailand along the Thai Sea are different one from another. The clean, clean sandy beach of Coral Bay was replaced by a shallow wide mud flat, brown and broiling at Bahn Saphon. Last night our stop in Prachaup Khiri Khan was at a wide bay full of boats, smooth as glass and protected by a temple perched high on one of the many limestone outcropping. This town appears to have an ex-pat community and many locals speak some English with many services available. This would be a great town to return to for an extended stay.
The terrain undulates. The south west winds are light but at our backs. We pass rubber, cocoanut and palm oil plantations, many fishing, shrimp and squid operations and farms. The foliage is lush and flowers, exotic. The people are lovely! Thailand truly is the Land of Smiles.
Through our efforts to find side roads we found an aquarium – sort of out in no where - a lovely facility with interesting exhibits and some English explanations. We pass many signs for caves and waterfalls, but we don’t want to ride the extra kilometers to leave our bike unattended as we hike back into these attractions. We have to be content with what we see along the roads.
We decided to take a side route through a Thailand National Park: Khao Sam Roi Yot. The guide book waxed poetic about the caves and general beauty of the place. So we paid $400Baht each ($14) and rode on in. It was after we had passed a miserable fishing village and 10 kilometers of prawn and squid farms that we realized this was a public road. To get to any of the caves or attractions, one had to go many kilometers off onto side, sometimes dirt roads, park then walk many meters or kilometers to view the caves. We didn’t want to leave an unattended Bici with all our gear to tromp up a hillside to peer into caves with our tiny reading lights. We were told by ex-pats that all the parks are like that. Populated, developed and with fees for foreigners. We will try to avoid them in the future!
We are heading north toward Bangkok hoping to take a bus/train into the city to pay for our Los Angeles plane tickets (the Thai travel agent who made the arrangements would not take payment by phone or email and the bank could not help us either – go figure). Then we plan to bus back out to where we leave Bici and ride north to Chaing Mai for a couple more weeks.
August 12 Thailand/Hua Hin Weltreise 2007 >
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August 10 Thailand/Samui Weltreise 2007
The terrain undulates. The south west winds are light but at our backs. We pass rubber, cocoanut and palm oil plantations, many fishing, shrimp and squid operations and farms. The foliage is lush and flowers, exotic. The people are lovely! Thailand truly is the Land of Smiles.
Through our efforts to find side roads we found an aquarium – sort of out in no where - a lovely facility with interesting exhibits and some English explanations. We pass many signs for caves and waterfalls, but we don’t want to ride the extra kilometers to leave our bike unattended as we hike back into these attractions. We have to be content with what we see along the roads.
We decided to take a side route through a Thailand National Park: Khao Sam Roi Yot. The guide book waxed poetic about the caves and general beauty of the place. So we paid $400Baht each ($14) and rode on in. It was after we had passed a miserable fishing village and 10 kilometers of prawn and squid farms that we realized this was a public road. To get to any of the caves or attractions, one had to go many kilometers off onto side, sometimes dirt roads, park then walk many meters or kilometers to view the caves. We didn’t want to leave an unattended Bici with all our gear to tromp up a hillside to peer into caves with our tiny reading lights. We were told by ex-pats that all the parks are like that. Populated, developed and with fees for foreigners. We will try to avoid them in the future!
We are heading north toward Bangkok hoping to take a bus/train into the city to pay for our Los Angeles plane tickets (the Thai travel agent who made the arrangements would not take payment by phone or email and the bank could not help us either – go figure). Then we plan to bus back out to where we leave Bici and ride north to Chaing Mai for a couple more weeks.
