We have been enjoying Koh Tao, though it has been rainy and quite stormy at times, with the wind whipping through the palm trees and sand blowing up through the roads off the beach. We’ve been getting weather, they say, from the cyclone that hit Myanmar. The first one. Someone said there’s another one brewing, though we don’t know anything about that yet.

All I know is that I’ve been in a boat on seas that scare the hell out of me, with the Japanese divers clambering to the front of the upper deck, cheering and roaring and jumping up and down with every buck of the boat while the rest of us look wide-eyed at each other, and I’ve puked, and I’ve fallen on my but after losing my balance, and yet I still love the diving and it’s all worthwhile. Mostly.

We have two more days here and then the Southeast Asia Adventure comes to a real end.

We took the night bus from Louang Prabang back down to Vientiane. What took us 27 hours of riding time took the bus about ten hours to drive. We re-traced the many windy switchbacks and steep ascents and descents in an all-out thunderstorm. Dave and I were in the first row of seats and had a perfect view of windshield wipers that did nothing, the driver standing up to wipe the fog from the inside of the windshield, and once, while briefly dozing off, we awoke in time to see the bus skidding through a herd of cattle on the road while blaring the horn and locking up the brakes. I very much dislike riding on a bus.

The next morning we enjoyed coffee and pastries in Vientiane before riding to the Buddha Park, built by a guy who was into Hinduism and Buddhism and created some sort of following that worshiped both. Weird place, it was, with concrete images of all these gods and goddesses plopped down willy-nilly around a grassy park.

Then we rode across the border to Thailand, where we bought tickets for the night train to Bangkok. Second-class sleepers were sold out (the best deal, we’ve been told) so we bought first-class sleepers for 2500 Baht, about US$80, total. Wee! We ate and read our books and waited for the train. The cars were nice and our cabin had two bunks and a sink and included a/c.

We got on board and settled in with our books, when an official looking man came and said the train would be delayed a couple of hours because of a crash. The wait ended up being longer, but we didn’t care. Someone came by and made up our beds for us and we were so tired from not sleeping on the bus the night before that we went right to sleep. It was a cozy, long rest! We got into Bangkok several hours after schedule, but we didn’t care.

One day and night here in Bangkok has been spent boxing our bikes, re-packing things to leave in storage and things to take to Koh Tao. And tonight we catch the night bus to Chumphon and then a catamaran to Koh Tao. We’ll be there, diving and snorkeling, for 9 days. Then we come back and fly home. Just like that our Southeast Asia bike tour is finished and we’re almost home.

64 km

We woke at 4 a.m. and left at 4:30 to ride to the train station in the dark. Bangkok at this time was an interesting mix of fading night life and the bustle of morning cleaning and setting up for the day. We rode through light traffic past prostitutes of various sexual orientation, street sweepers using twig brooms, market vendors sorting their bagged produce, and manual laborers starting their commutes.

We bought tickets for the train to Aranya Prathet, a few kilometers before the Cambodian border: third class with fan, the only “choice” available. Both of our seats cost us 96 baht (about US$3) and space for our bikes in the cargo car were 180 baht total. The ride offered six hours of building heat, with food and drink vendors hopping on and off at every stop. They would walk up and down the car aisles from one end of the train to the other and back, announcing their specialty continuously.

Border Crossing

We rode about eight km from the train stop–seemingly in the middle of hot, dry, flat and desolate nowhere–to the border. It took about three minutes to get our Thai exit stamp, then we rode to the Cambodia side where, after a few minutes more, we had our entry stamp. We were told by an Australian expat who was in line behind us that the border crossing changes every time he does it, so I’ll stay brief on the details for those planning a tour of their own because it may change any time.

We were glad we bought our Cambodia visas back in Bangkok, which made for a quick and easy border crossing. One thing to note: in the Cambodian Consulate we were told the visa was 1,000 Thai baht. Dave asked if we could pay in U.S. dollars, which is used in Cambodia, and he said yes, “Twenty-five dollars please.” That was a better price at the current exchange rate, as 1,000 baht is about US$31. Also, as we approached the border, there were several people sitting around who wanted to steer us to a place to buy our visas. They seemed disappointed when we said we had one already. I don’t know what the going rate for a visa on arrival is or how you go about it, but it seemed sketchy to us.

As we left the Cambodian immigration office we were immediately attacked on all sides by touts wanting to arrange a pickup for us. They start with innocent questions that a nice person might be tempted to answer. If you are that person, you might find yourself stuck in a conversation with a guy who chases you down the road and becomes more and more insistent that you must receive their services, that you have already, in fact, ordered their services and that you must go this way or that way right now, sir, over here, sir, where are you going sir, the truck is right here, sir, excuse me, sir! And meanwhile, your not-as-nice girlfriend is riding down the road waiting for you to catch up so you can put the mirror on your bike and put on your dust mask because yes, after all, she would like to ride this road and leave this madness behind. Quickly.

50 Kilometers of Hell

Here’s the scoop, one that you’ll read in every journal about every border crossing from Thailand to Cambodi: it sucks. Really. It’s just not a fun experience. We read several accounts of people hopping on a bus to Siem Reap either right off the bat or at Sisephon, 50 km later. The road, you see, is hell. This dirt road (not gravel) is very rough, very dusty, very noisy, with killer exhaust fumes, and incredibly heavy traffic, and is in stages of construction the whole way with heavy machinery here and there. There is nothing to see along the way, as the jungle has long ago been mowed down and in the dry season like this the land is very bleak and brown. Besides, the dust cuts the visibility down to about 100 meters. It’s one thing to deal with rough dirt roads, but another to do it with all these other conditions. There is a 20-km section before Sisephon which has recently been paved and which is wonderful, but through Sisephon and almost all of the way to Siem Reap it is dirt again.

We rode to Sisephon, starting in the incredible heat of 2:30 p.m., because we didn’t feel we could trust a single person at the border and the harassment was overwhelming. We didn’t see any buses nearby, and when we asked we were assured our bikes would not fit in the bus. I realize now that we should have seen if it was possible to arrange a bus beforehand, maybe in Bangkok at a travel agent.

So, unless you are a hard-core, die-hard cyclists who loves a very challenging experience, just skip this whole section. If you do ride it, have a good face mask, because even with one you will be coughing up dust afterward like a twenty-year smoker. I had quite enough of it just getting to Sisephon, even with 20 km of it being paved. And I rode nearly 2,500 miles of dirt last summer. I am no delicate flower.

March 21-24

We have had a very busy few days in Bangkok. There is so much to see, and we also had quite a list of to-dos before we could get out of here. We have successfully:

• Taken a taxi to get our Cambodia and Laos visas (3 hours, mostly due to traffic as they are next to each other)
• Taken boat taxis and the sky train to Wat Pho for a morning of beauty, then a bike shop, a massive shopping center, and a grocery. We could not get a taxi to take us back to our guest house area (the traffic is nuts and it was quite a ways) we had to walk, sky train, and boat taxi ourselves back.
• Enjoyed a Thai massage.
• Taken another boat taxi to the Grand Palace (the king’s sometimes residence and site of the royal Wat and a museum) and walked through open markets and sampled street food.
• Enjoyed a Thai foot massage.
• Figured out our route and means of travel to Cambodia (by train).
• Bought plane tickets to fly home from BKK in May.
• Arranged details for our dive trip in Koh Tao.
• Updated pictures, written entries, and now posted those entries.
• Done lots of research on the internet.
• Gone through our stuff and cut it down quite a bit. We will store a box at our hotel until we come back to fly home. My load is much lighter now, as is Dave’s!
• We’ve also eaten some really great food, from breakfast to lunch and dinner and fruit shakes in between. This place has no shortage of great food.

We leave tomorrow morning by train to the Cambodia border. We’ll probably cross over and stay in the dreaded Poipet so we can get a very early start to our ride the next day.

Bangkok!

Wat Pho

Wat Pho

Wat Phra Kaeo

Wat Phra Kaeo

(By train)

We showed up an hour early for the 6:20 train just like the ticket man said to the night before, “for the bicycles.” Well, that was completely unnecessary, as the ticket window was closed. When the same guy opened the window 20 minutes later, he asked if we wanted on the train about to pull up, and we said sure. So we bought tickets: 196 baht each for us plus 80 baht per bike. We rushed our bikes out as the train came in, took the panniers off and got them to the cargo car near the front. We then noticed our seats were in car fourteen near the back of the train! Since the train was about to pull away we hopped on the first passenger car, and walked with all our panniers–getting disapproving shakes of the head from train employees–through several sleeper cars and passenger cars to the fourteenth one, which turned out to be a third class fan car. Well, at least it was early!

The ride took about five hours and was ok, though next time we’ll be sure to ask for second class air-con. We had a snack at the train station and then had a crazy, adrenaline-inducing ride to the western Banglampu area to find a guest house. The Rough Guide noted a few, and we tried our top three choices. The first two were full, then we tried Baan Sabai on a quiet, smaller road near the river off of Phra Athit.

We will spend the next few days getting visas, shopping for bike items, and getting caught up with ourselves before heading to Cambodia.

59 km

The ride today started out ok, following smaller roads closer to the coast, most of which were not on our map. In one small tourist beach town that looked like it was built completely in the last five years, Dave skidded to a stop because he had seen a couple of St. Bernard dogs lying in the reception of a guest house. One of them was interested in receiving visitors, and got up to meet Dave. They made quick friends before we sadly had to move on sans dog.

We eventually found ourselves on highway 4 again, and it was busy though only a two-lane highway here. One advantage of riding 4 is that our speed was about 50% faster than on the smaller roads, and we flew into town fairly early.

Hua Hin

We followed the recommendations of our Rough Guide, and ended up in Karoon Hut, one of the remaining guest houses built right on the water on one of the former shrimp piers. We had an air-con room with bath for 500 baht (the fan rooms had a tiny window and no ventilation). We could hear the waves roll in underneath our floor. Hua Hin is very touristy, fairly expensive, and busy, but it has a nice vibe at night, and we enjoyed eating street food with some locals and walking around watching people.

Updated Plan

We got out the maps and opened up a calendar on the computer to plan the rest of our trip. We had started out with grand plans of seeing all of Southeast Asia, but then had also wanted to enjoy plenty of beaches and islands and dive along the way. Add to that about a week of being knocked out sick, and we realized we had better cut it down and make a plan.

So we decided to leave for Bangkok by train in the morning. We needed to get visas for Cambodia and Laos, as well as a couple of things for the bikes. After a few days we will take a train out of Bangkok to skip the hassle of the crazy traffic, heading straight to the border near Poipet, Cambodia. From there we’ll ride to Battambang, then get on a boat up the river and across the lake to Siem Reap. There we’ll visit Angkor Wat for a few days before cycling East and up to the border with Laos. Then through Laos to Louang Prabang by bicycle. From there we’ll likely take a boat up the river and over to Chang Rai, then cycle or bus to Chang Mai. We’ll ride the train to Bangkok, and then we’ve scheduled a dive trip on Koh Tao for the last week of our time here in Southeast Asia before flying home.

We realize this puts us in Cambodia and Laos at the absolute hottest time of the year, but if we can ride and enjoy this area, then we’ll surely be able to ride through the Sahara as we plan to in the fall. Our upcoming Africa bike tour is on our minds as the days get hotter, and we’ll make note of how we feel as we ride through the heat. There’s always room for change in our plans.

21 km

We ended up paying our camping fee with our breakfast at the park restaurant on the beach. Then we went for a swim since the tide was in. It was too shallow to do much, but it felt great and was a nice way to start the day.

The park name means Land of 300 Peaks, and there are many rocky peaks that jut out of the land, some of them with caves. We rode through the park to Sai Cave, near the water at the end of a tiny fishing village. We hiked up a steep 280 meters to the small cave. A man sitting just inside the entrance had flashlights to rent. We had our headlamps, so we went on in and the man went back to his nap. It took a long time to cool down, as it was a really hot day and that climb up got us sweating. But eventually we enjoyed the coolness of the cave.

Then we rode to Ban Bang Pu (or Poo, depending on the sign), a small fishing village with a wat. Behind the wat you’ll find several open air restaurants and longtail boats that can take you the 10-minute ride around the headland to the park’s northern beach, Laem Sala. There is also a trail that goes up and over the headland to the beach and we decided to walk it, as the longtail boats were running quite a racket. They charge 300 baht round trip for the same day, but if you return the next day it is 600 baht. That’s 50% more than our average hotel room cost. They seem to have all coordinated their prices, and even the restaurants were selling boat rides. We wanted to camp on Laem Sala, so when the woman at the restaurant nearest the trail offered to let us keep our bikes inside her building, we agreed. We packed what we needed into just a couple of panniers and left the rest on our bikes, then locked the bikes to a pole. We then got ready for the hike, which everyone–park staff and the locals here–said would be long, steep, and too hot.

It was a breeze! It was less of an effort than we did earlier today to get to the cave, plus once we got around the headland a bit we were in the shade and had a slight wind off the ocean. It took us about 15 minutes, including a couple short photo stops. We saved ourselves 600 baht and enjoyed the hike as well.

We signed in with the armed forest ranger (or guard, or military soldier, who knows) who wanted to get all our information, see our park entrance ticket, and check and double-check that we actually wanted to camp and that we had our own tent. I think he wanted to get us to spend more money for a bungalow, which they rent at all the park locations where you can camp. He noticed the ticket was from yesterday, so we explained that we camped in the park at the other beach last night, and we had been in the park visiting the cave today. Then he wanted our receipt for camping, but we hadn’t been given one. We now realize that if you don’t get a receipt for anything you pay for in a park, they probably pocket the money, as signs had warned us to get a receipt pretty much everywhere. He eventually just had us pay for camping for tonight (60 baht for two) and took our park entrance tickets. We did not get a receipt for camping, but we weren’t going to argue with a guy who had a gruff manner and a handgun on his hip.

We set up camp on the beach and set off to hike up to the biggest and most prized cave in the park: Phraya Nakhon Cave. It is not only a beautiful natural formation, but also a cherished and holy spot for the Thai people. King Rama V liked it so much he had his cipher inscribe his symbol on the wall, and later another king had a monument put up in the middle of the cave. Several of the kings have visited the cave as well, and it’s a popular trek for Thai people as well as foreign tourists. Since we started late in the day and most of the busloads of people had left via the longtail boats, we had the place to ourselves. The cave is huge, and the top of the largest part is partially collapsed, so there is light shining down into it, with the monument built up on a small hill in the middle. There are trees and bushes growing below the hole, on the mound created by the crumbled top, so it is a neat combination of dark stone walls and green foliage stretching up to the light.

Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park Info

Any signs we saw, both on Highway 4 and the smaller coastal road, indicated not the name of the park, but the beaches within the park: Sam Phraya Beach in the south, and Laem Sala Beach in the north. The only time we saw a sign for the park itself was right before the entrance.

The entrance fee is 200 baht per person. Camping is another 30 baht per person, per night, paid in the area you camp, which is on either beach. You can ride to Sam Phraya, but Laem Sala is only accessible by boat or a steep hike up and down stone stairs. You would have a hard time pushing your bike up, so see if you can stash it with a restaurant. There are bungalows and restaurants at each beach, as well as toilets and showers, though the showers on Laem Sala are the kind where you dip water out of a basin. We had a guy offer to rent us a tent at Sam Phraya, and you could probably track down a tent at Laem Sala as well if you’re not carrying one.

You get a brochure with pictures and a map, which explains what our guidebook did not: that there are a couple of villages within the national park. It was originally a marine park, but the boundary was expanded in 1982 to encompass the wetlands and other areas more inland. There are checkpoints at the southern and northern ends which locals travel freely in and out of. You can find restaurants and mini-markets at each town.

73 km

Today we tried again to follow the beach as closely as possible, trying to avoid Highway 4 because it’s a freeway in this area. We did pretty well starting out, but soon, somewhere before Bo Nok on our map, the road turned to packed dirt and gravel. It looked well made and well used so we continued. The stretch of riding on this road was some of our favorite along this coast: it was beautiful, quiet, with a good wind off the sea, and interestingly dry with several kinds of cacti and succulents.

It did not, however, take us where we wanted to go. After a relaxing twenty minutes, the road ended in a huge dead zone of abandoned shrimp farms. Shrimp farms are everywhere in this area. The dirt is dug out in large rectangles, with the dirt being built up into berms on all sides. Sometimes they’re lined with black plastic, but often not. The working ones have loud engines hooked to paddles that churn up the water, probably to oxygenate and circulate it. We imagine the shrimp farms must be abandoned when they build up too much salt and minerals from evaporation, leaving an ugly scarred area of land upon which hardly anything grows.

We turned around and headed back, riding through a spontaneous brush fire near a pineapple field that left us with ash stuck to our sweaty, sun-screened skin. We took a turn away from the ocean to find a road that would continue north. This road took us right to highway 4, but we only had to deal with the noise and busyness of 4 for a few kilometers before we took a road (unmarked on our map) back to follow the coast.

We entered Khao Sam Roi Yot (or Yod, depending on the sign) National Park on the southern end, ate an early dinner at the restaurant near the park checkpoint and headed straight for Sam Phraya Beach to set up camp. It was a quiet place with only a handful of other people. We set up the tent right on the edge of the trees next to the water, then headed out to explore the rocky headland and stranded fishing boats. The tide was out so far we could hardly see the water. It was a really shallow bay. We showered and got in the tent early since the mosquitos were vicious. A great breeze off the ocean made for great sleeping.

We took a rest day today so Dave could finish the engineering project he’s been working on the last couple of weeks. While Dave was in the a/c room hogging the laptop I have been at the internet cafe writing and, you know, stuff.

We also found some of the best food we’ve had so far in Thailand. This woman cooks all the specialties: spicy seafood, fried vegetables, curry, pad thai , som tam (papaya salad, my new favorite), and even tom yam (spicy seafood soup). The food is all incredibly fresh and each dish has distinct and complicated flavors. We ate here last night and at lunch and dinner today. We enjoy the woman’s quick smile and nod of approval at our use of spicy peppers. I love to watch her cook each dish separately and carefully, starting with fresh vegetables and mixing spices and sauces as she goes. If you’re coming to Prachuap and want to find her, here’s how: from the beach road near the main part of town, turn west onto the road on the south side of the bright green and orange-trimmed apartment building. Go a couple of blocks and the open-air restaurant is on your left. Not the one on the corner, but right before that. These are terrible directions, I’m realizing. But if you see this woman, please stop for some great food:

MONKEYS

Dave and I rode to the north end of town to climb the 417 steps up to Khao Chong Krajok, a Buddhist chedi built on top of a rocky headland. The Rough Guide called it “monkey infested”, and that it was. Before we even found the stairs, we saw dozens of monkeys sitting around and playing on the grounds of the surrounding park. People approached with food to sell us to feed the monkeys, but we declined. Feeding wildlife rarely ends well for the wildlife or the people.

We parked our bikes across the road from the stairs so we could lock them to a post. A man selling peanuts for the monkeys pointed to the mirrors and said, “monkeys,” while shaking his head and motioning that they would mess with them. Then he said, “I watch for you.” I thought maybe we should have walked, it didn’t turn out to be that far. Oh well. At least the panniers were back in the guest house.

We reached for our dog sticks and the peanut man said “no, no, no,” we wouldn’t need them. In his limited English he basically said the monkeys were harmless. Dave and I looked at each other, shrugged, and put them back. Then we headed up the stairs built into the hillside, winding around trees and big rocks. The monkeys were everywhere–on the steps, in the trees–making a huge racket. They were small, but they were many.

About halfway up I stopped to look at the view and one monkey grabbed my Nalgene water bottle and started screaming and pulling. I yelled, “No!” but he only hissed back at me and kept his hands firmly on the bottle. I pulled it back and held it close to me, realizing these monkeys were used to having things held out for them. The monkey was MAD that I took back my gift, and we had to swing wide around him to move up the stairs.

As we approached the chedi at the top Dave wanted to zip on his pant legs so he would be respectful of this Buddhist place. The gate was up ahead, and as a man walked down and passed us, he said, “Grab a few of these, those guys get a little aggressive at the gate!” and he held out a handful of broken tiles and rocks. Oh my goodness.

But we got through the gate just fine, and soon saw why this spot was chosen. To the west was the calm teal ocean, to the south was Prachuap and the sandy beach to the next headland. To the north was another beach with smaller towns to the next headland and our route for tomorrow. To the west we could see jungle-forested mountains marking the Burmese border about 12 kilometers away. A wonderful breeze cooled us off, and we wandered around the small chedi.

We found out the source for all the broken tiles near the top of the stairs: the monkeys were slowly stripping them off the rooftops and crashing them down below. The monkeys swung up, around, over, and through every inch of this place. There were hundreds of them on this small hill. They probably couldn’t survive at this point without being fed, because no place this size could support a population this big. There were mothers with babies all over, ensuring the population would grow and continue. There was a monk sitting on a bench, feeding and trying to slowly win the trust of some of the monkeys so he could pet them. They never quite let him get that close.

We continued enjoying the view for quite a while, watching the sun sink down low. We watched the monkeys groom and play and fight. When we decided to leave, there were several monkeys guarding the gate. Dave went first and tried to shoo them away, but they wouldn’t move. He clapped. Nothing. Then finally he lurched forward and stomped his feet and they scattered. We ducked through and made our way down, moving wide around particularly grumpy monkeys, until we made it down and back to our bikes.

The mirrors were wrenched in hard angles and smudged with prints, but the peanut guy was nowhere to be seen.

84 km

We continued north, choosing our way among the small roads closest to the sea. When faced with an option, we just turned right. Mostly it worked. Until we ended up on a dirt road. Which turned onto another dirt road. Which became smaller and smaller and we’d gone in each direction possible only to find dead ends (a house, property on the coastline that was paved for a development but then abandoned, a railroad access trail that ends at a bridge, a yard full of dogs barking and charging on all sides) so that we finally pick our way back to the main highway (4/A1). We decided there must be no other way but highway through this area.

We are glad we chose to ride small roads up to this point, because the 4-lane divided highway was loud and hot and busy. We got off after several fast kilometers heading toward the coast again, and eventually slipped into Prachuap Kiri Khan from a quiet road on the south side. Today felt like our hottest yet, and was our longest after being sick. We felt like melting banana ice cream by the end of the day.

We found a clean and functional old hotel room for 350 baht with a/c and right off the bat took a cold shower. Can I now announce my new favorite product ever? Ok, yes, I will then. Powder. Yes, the product our grandmothers used to keep in the bathroom in pink canisters with silky puffs to apply it is actually the most useful product in existence today in the sauna we are traveling in. However, ours is no grandma powder. It is Snake Co. Prickly Heat Powder, special lavendar scent (though it doesn’t actually smell like lavendar, just less kapow! than the regular kind). It has all kinds of essential oils and herbs that make you feel cool like IcyHot or Tiger Balm but also smelling nice. It keeps us from stinking out our neighbors at the table next to us at the restaurant when we head out for dinner. It is pure magical bliss, and I don’t go out in the evening without it. We were recommended it back in Singapore in one of the we-sell-everything markets in Little India by the guy who told Dave that, yes, this would surely beat the foot odor in his shoes. Too much information, you say? Well, if and when you come to Southeast Asia, you will thank me for this recommendation. Buy a nice big can.