Category: Simon

Sukhothai, being the old capital, is rather flush with temples (wats). The best way to see them is on two wheels, and for a change we skipped on a moped and hired a couple of sit-up-and-beg pedal bikes for 50p each. You get what you pay for, my bike made worrying crunches as it rolled along, and neither had anything resembling decent brakes. The site is world heritage listed, and some effort is being made to tidy up and restore the ruins. In my book it’s a bit of a shame, the temples look quite rustic with plants growing on them. Riding our bikes in a stately fashion, not too fast to get us hot, but fast enough for a cooling breeze, we passed round temples, square temples, some with pillars, and some with a Buddha in one of his poses. The area is famous for the walking Buddha pose, but it just makes him look a bit feminine (like a Bangkok lady-boy…)
After a heavy, but fortunately brief rain, we rode to a massive sitting Buddha, once enclosed in a rather tight fitting temple, but now open to the elements. There was also a herd of cattle, boney and loose skinned, grazing next to a moat that surrounds some of the temples. The lack of tourist crowds, and the freedom of being under our own steam made it feel as though we were discovering the temples for ourselves, apart from a hat and whip, I don’t think I could feel any more like Indiana Jones. He probably wouldn’t be seen dead on a bike though, so with aching bums and a broken brake cable we handed the bikes back and went to try the town’s other restaurant out.

The Thai people do have a lot of pride and respect for their Royal family. Every shop, restaurant and bus has pictures of them, and judging by today, everyone (apart from confused Farangs like us) stands as the national anthem gets played in the morning.
Our journey today, as always, involved a variety of modes of transport. The late departing train made up for it by having a stewardess dishing out food (it was 2nd class carriage too). Some poor unsuspecting grandma and grandpa samlor (rickshaw) drivers pedalled us and our huge backpacks to the bus stop for 50p (I felt like asking if I could do the cycling). Our bags were squeezed on to the bus for the ride to New Sukhothai where a Songathew/pick up truck took us to the old town.
Leaving the town exploration until tomorrow, we called in at the one stop Coffee Cup restaurant – beer, food, cheap internet, massages and travel agent under one roof, with friendly staff too!

The original plan (yes Cat, we’re using that same numbered day list style!) called for a day trip to the River Kwai, but we used up a slack day to lie in and get our bearings. With the next couple of days tickets arranged we were advised to check out the Royal Grand Palace. Until recently, Bangkok had no roads, just canals (I’ll refrain from any Venice connection, Manchester is closer…), and as we crossed over one, a huge crocodile was swimming upstream. Well, maybe not a croc, but a good 2 metres of kimono dragon-esque creature swimming through the brown water and flotsam in search of a meal (or maybe wondering what the hell he was doing there, as I was…)
The ferry dropped us off near the palace, but the first sight was the colourful roofs of Wat Pho, a buddhist temple adjacent to the palace. The star attraction was the huge gold reclining buddha, about 50 metres long housed in his own building. I’m betting the builders were glad the buddhists didn’t want a standing buddha as that thing was big. At least my curiosity was satisfied as to what the sole of a buddha looks like (mother of pearl, in case you wondered), and the only enlightenment that sole received was when the camera flashes went off. (sorry, couldn’t resist a rubbish joke…)
We ended up only having half an hour to look around the palace, which was probably a good thing as I had to wear trousers over my shorts in the stifling heat. There were also a number of “helpful” people telling tourists they wouldn’t get in, or it was closed already, probably in preparation for some scam or other. There are plenty of signs telling you not listen to these people, often right next to the scammer, which makes you wonder why they don’t just get the police to stop the scammers. The same goes for tuk-tuks and longtail boats in Bangkok, they look like such a fun way of getting around, but everywhere you look says to avoid as they are probably in cahoots with a scam, and just get a taxi instead.
That evening we headed to Khao San road, bars and tat shops galore, and of course the one time we leave our umbrella behind is when Bangkok decides to have a tropical downpour and change the road into a river. Good job the beer was cheap!

With an almost full day of boats and buses to Bangkok ahead of us, we mopeded out to a cafe on a cliff to have breakfast with a view, and soak up the last of what Koh Tao had to offer. As we sat expectantly waiting for the ferry, a little notice appeared indicating that the ferry was running a couple of hours late, the only problem being that we were now due to arrive in Bangkok at 2am, fun!
The journey made us thankful of iPods and their vast selection of music, memories of long bus journeys with a Walkman and a few worn out cassettes are a thing of the past. As expected our arrival in Bangkok was amongst the chaos of taxi and tuk-tuk drivers eager to help make a quick buck, so much so it wasn’t even worth haggling when they start at about 25 times the actual fare. The hotel was only a short walk away, so with that overladen traveller look of big rucksack on the back, and small one on the front we made our way through the deserted streets to the nirvana of a proper bed for the night.

The wind was still blowing this morning, whipping the seas up, and keeping us sitting by the pool. In a quest to find the amazing snorkelling the island is meant to have, we hired another moped, although this time in more manly blue and white colours, and without a basket. We drove the only road to the other side of the island and spent the afternoon there, reading on the beach and spending a good while on the last snorkel, not really finding anything new apart from another school of fish that rapidly crunched their way around the coral.
We tried to explore the rest of the island, but there was literally one road only 5km long, and we missed even the dirt track turnoffs that were optimistically marked on the map. Still, we managed to squeeze in another beer whilst watching the sunset, and then cheated by going to the local Italian-Mexican restaurant for dinner. The Italian bit was on the opposite side of the road, which meant my pizza took a while to make it’s way over. That’s something the Thais haven’t mastered yet – delivering food at the same time (it is tasty when you get it, so we’ll let it slide…)

That little peach moped was put to full use this morning as I zoomed around Ko Pha Ngan looking for a WiFi connection, eventually making it to the main town to stand outside a cafe and freeload their internet.
Later that afternoon we boarded the ferry to the last island of our trip, Koh Tao, reputedly home to some fine sea life. So, after dumping bags we (ok, well I) were in that snorkel mask out looking for new wonders. Maybe we were on the wrong beach, but beyond a few sea turds (sea cucumbers if you’re being accurate) and a dense school of fish scaring me as they appeared out of the murky water, there wasn’t much to see. Come to think of it, the best snorkelling has been in Malaysia.
That evening we watched the sun set over the ocean whilst quenching the heat induced thirst with a couple of beers from the comfort of bean bags. Just as we finished the wind picked up, blowing mini coconut type fruit to fall dangerously close. Time to take cover and seek shelter from the rain in another beach restaurant – it’s tough you know… 😉

The idea of renting a moped never really escaped my mind since yesterday, and despite the rental guy bringing out a peach moped with rather fetching basket on the front, I was raring to go. Thankfully an automatic, all I had to do was sit on, twist the throttle and go! Looking a little out of place as I was about the only person wearing a helmet, I whizzed up and down the roads, getting enough practice in until I felt safe enough to take Caroline as a pillion. Together we did an unintentional tour of the island, only managing to stop a couple of times, either because our map was bad, or we missed the signs that were all in Thai. Still, we had a stop at a Buddhist temple and a nonexistent waterfall before returning to the hotel. We had spotted an Italian restaurant with free WiFi (what else do you need?!), and were about to be so Italian by turning up for a pizza on a moped when the sky turned black and we were treated to a tropical downpour, good job the hotel restaurant is good!
Caroline’s update: After that stressful pillion ride (it was actually not too bad if I tried not to think of the number of accidents I had read about or the number of people I had seen with obvious moped style injuries!) what better way to unwind than another massage. I decided to try a Thai massage this time not realising that I was actually signing myself up for being poked, prodded, pulled, kneed, stood on, punched, slapped and having all my bones cracked! By the end I was left wondering if I’d been given a massage or been beaten up, especially since it ended with some vigorous blows to the back of my head! I think I’ll stick to the relaxing oil massages you get on beaches in the future.
P.S. Apologies for the influx of posts, there’s been a lack of internet!

A distinct lack of taxis had us walking the 6km to town, concerned we were going to miss our boat, and contemplating hiring a moped to get us to the pier on time, but fortunately a Songathew stopped for us and we made it in plenty of time.
Ang Thon is the setting for the novel “The Beach”, about that traveller’s nirvana of an off the beaten track place undiscovered and untouched by other tourists – although I doubt there is any beach in Ang Thon that hasn’t been invaded by tourists, given the number that we saw. Still, the beauty of the forty or so islands is undisputed. Whilst the water was a bit murky, snorkelling revealed spiky sea urchins and almost luminescent yellow fish. We didn’t actually need to snorkel to see those urchins as the next stop at a lagoon had plenty in it. After a beach lunch, and giggle at the attempts of some people to kayak and how frustrated they were getting, we took to kayaks ourselves and toured the cliffs and caves of a nearby island. That was our day done, just a ride back to shore with the sun shining and wind whistling past as the boat sped on.

We wanted to catch the local bus to the next town, and had made it to the bus stop in time, but it didn’t seem to come. Still, we managed to get a minibus for the same price. We also wanted to avoid the dodgy travel agents who charge too much commission, but before we knew it we’d bought tickets to the next island. Fortunately, we did get tickets, and were only fleeced out of a few pounds, but lesson learned that some Thais are just interested in getting cash out of tourists (there’s quite a lot of nice Thais too mind you…).
The sun beat down as the ferry idled it’s way over to Ko Pha Ngan, our next tropical island. Time to catch up on some music listening and blogging, although when they’ll get posted is another matter as phone reception is flaky at best. The touts were out in force as the ferry docked, shouts of “YOU! Taxi!”, and “where you go?!” were directed at us before we’d even disembarked. Fortunately, we could walk on by as we had found a helpful government tourist advisor who had booked us into the Cabanas.
The hotel backed on to the beach, and we had just enough time to have a swim and snack before watching the sunset whilst walking along the beach – it’s amazing how quickly scenes change and you can forget about the woes of a day. With our next days adventure booked we relaxed and moved onto Fiji Thai time.

Even though the lake in Khao Sok is man made, the views are very impressive, almost making up for the one and a half hour bone shaking ride in the pickup truck/Songathew. A longtail boat took us for an hour long trip to the other side of the lake, passing by huge limestone cliffs (tallest in the world) and dead trees oddly sticking up in the middle of the lake. We stopped at a floating village, a series of shacks precariously balanced on bamboo rafts, with big gaps at the bottom that made us glad we were day tripping and not staying over as we’d planned. There was enough time for a cooling dip in the lake, a kayak around and scrumptious Thai lunch before getting back in the longtail. A long walk and ride on a bamboo longtail float got us to the coral cave, only lit by the guide’s torch. The features were similar to the Australian and New Zealand caves, only they looked a lot older – shawls ran to the floor, stalagtites looked sturdier, and there was lots of crystals growing in all directions, making it look like coral. On the way back we had time for another dip, and my new found favourite drink: Milo (hot/cold chocolate to anyone else…).