Nuts on Bents Blog

Our next stop was a little town called Khuraburi, not really a resort town but a popular traveller’s hotspot for diving trips out to the nearby islands. There was a decent selection of bamboo and (more insect proof) concrete bungalows here. We had another rest day here to let Sedef recover fully, staying at a brand new bungalow with a/c, TV, and hot water for only 500B (about 7 pounds). We ate out in the night market, very popular with the locals, the food is cooked in outdoor stalls with tables in front – very simple with no frills but really tasty and filling! And cheap too – a full meal for both of us for about 1.50!!

After Khuraburi, we stopped at Takua Pa, having got soaked to the skin by a downpour that lasted a few hours. First we took refuge, hoping to sit it out with several other locals. Half an hour later, it looked like it was set for the day, so we thought what the hell – we get soaked with sweat anyway! At least now it was cool!!

Takua Pa is another travel hotspot alas with a rather poor selection of hotels – namely, one! The eloquently named Extra Hotel, with pictures of enticingly clad ‘extras’ hanging over the hotel door! :p They were only the local karaoke hostesses as it turned out…

From Takua Pa, we decided to go off route and head inland eastwards to visit a highly recommended national park. Even though it added an additional 80kms to our trip – but we thought ‘what’s the rush?’.

Leaving Ranong we headed down the mountains towards the sea – this time the Andaman sea (West coast of Thailand). Our first stop was the very quiet and sleepy Laem Son National Park, with only two places to stay. We chose the Dutch managed resort called Wasana, which we were told about by other fellow cyclists.

So we think this is full scientific proof that frogs have no sense of smell! :p

Chumphon is generally considered the starting point of Southern Thailand. One road heads towards the Eastern Coast, and another over the central hills towards the Western Coast. Having deliberated over the last few weeks on ‘East or West – which is best’, we opted for the more scenic Western Coast. We had more detail on the route courtesy of Durk, and it would also take us through Ranong, a city at the Burmese border, from where we could do a day-trip to Burma and get a new free 30 day Thai visa upon our return. Handy really since we only had about 10 days left on our visas!!

The hills to Ranong (which we had feared) were surprisingly easy, with only one biggish one (150m altitude). The road was quiet and scenic with tropical forest, and a light rain every now and again helped keep us cool. Before Ranong we stopped off at another cave, which was home to thousands of bats and absolutely stank of bat poo.

Ranong was an interesting town with Burmese and Chinese influence, and was full of other expats (probably mostly from Phuket) in town, also on the visa run like us! Weirdly though they all looked really drugged up for some reason?! We heard Ranong was quite famous for its illegal amphetamine trade – though we didn’t see any evidence (other than the zombie like tourists) that might explain why!

The visa run is commercialised, with companies offering a door to door service. We decided to do it ourselves to save some money, and actually spent only half the price! Bus to the Ranong pier, exit stamp at the immigration office, and then haggling for a longtail boat to take us across the river to Kaw Thaung, the Burmese town on the other side. Our longtail boat driver took care of the rest – even jumping on and off at the various island checkpoints (Thai and Burmese) to get the necessary stamps, pay fees etc. Half an hour later we were in Burma.

We spent an hour in the town, strolling around and amazed at how different it was from the other side of the water. Much poorer, and more like India in fact. We wandered into the fish market, only to regret it moments later and search for the nearest exit holding our breaths!!

Back on the boat and then on Thai soil, we went back to the immigration office – 3 hours and half a dozen stamps later we had our new 30 day Thai visas!!

Leaving Prachuap on the coastal road, we had a tough 200km over the next couple of days… First we took the wrong road (again!) and had to cycle an extra 10k around a peninsula, got attacked by a pack of 6 angry dogs, and then had to climb over a steep hill in the heat of the day. Finally we got to Thung Wua Laem beach near Chumphon, a sleepy resort with only a few hotels and a diving centre. Since we were tired and it was now dark we checked into the largest hotel there, marketing itself as a ‘diving resort’.

The next morning, we promptly checked out and into a new bungalow near the beach at half the price at 600 Baht (10 GBP). Sedef was also disappointed to find out there was no scuba diving at the so-called ‘diving resort’ due to low demand (!). They needed a minimum of 10 divers and she was the only one!!

We took two rest days here to recharge our batteries, even out our farmer tans, and to feed our bellies! Well Nic did – as he sometimes does he had a continuous craving for Spaghetti Bolognaise, and must have had the same dish at least 10 times in the short time we were there. Often double portions in one meal!! He enjoyed it hugely, washing it down with freshly squeezed watermelon… mmmm…

We also met a fellow cyclist-traveller during our stay here. Durk Van Der Veen, hailing from Holland, who had just spent over a month cycling in New Zealand, and then flew to Bangkok, cycling down on the same route as us towards Phuket. We exchanged cycling stories, copied out information on route, accommodation etc. from his amazingly detailed cycling tour guide (alas in Dutch!!!).

Having found out where we were from the hotel manager and Miss ‘Wee’, we continued on the coastal roads and finally found our way to the National Park. There was so much to see in the national park, but we had to restrict ourselves to only the best sites, that were (roughly) on route for us.

We first cycled to the visitor’s centre for the park, and had our lunch there by the sea. We then locked up our bikes, and scrambled up the 1km cliff trail around the headland to the next bay. A totally isolated beach not accessible by road, miles of white sand and almost no one on it!! Oh apart from 200 screaming 10 year old Thai scouts who were on a field trip!! Either that or a reenactment of Lord of the Flies. :p

Having climbed up from sea level over the cliffs, and back down to the beach on the other side, we had another stiff 430m climb to the Phraya Nakhon cave, up on the mountain. Half an hour later our hard efforts in the stifling humidity was rewarded with an amazing cavern, almost like a movie set, with giant ferns and trees reaching out to a small opening in the roof cavern, making us feel like ants!! The cavern is a Buddhist holy site as well, with a very well preserved 17th century Wat (temple) in one chamber of the cavern. We were the only people there, it was very spooky and made us feel like we were in the valley of the dinosaurs!

Back on the bikes we pedalled to another beach nearby which had a camping site. The place was deserted when we got there, making us wonder if it was abandoned?! Thankfully it wasn’t and we managed to set up our tent just before dark, and the campsite staff even cooked us an evening meal in their own kitchen. Before turning off all the lights, leaving the whole beach in pitch dark. With no artificial light pollution the stars above looked almost supernaturally bright, and all in the wrong places!! Not to mention so many of them… truly amazing.

Next day we backtracked to a nearby cave that we missed the day before. It was another huge cavern, pitch black (thankfully we had torches), and full of stalactites and stalagmites.

Back on the road we cycled to a nearby low-key tourist resort, Prachuap Khiri Khan. We found a nice new hotel that was surprisingly cheap, and we splashed out an extra 100B (about 1.50 GBP) for a seaview balcony!!

PS – 7000kms on the odometer!!

We left Hua Hin, still following the network of coastal roads (not on our map). We had a print-out from a fellow cyclist’s website which had a copy of a local tourist map from Hua Hin to the Sam Roi Yot National Park.

We first cycled through a forest park, with an excellent mangrove nature trail. The trail was circular, and took a half hour on foot to explore. Back on the bicycles, we continued heading along the coast towards the national park… only to find ourselves staring at a big padlocked gate!! Fortunately for us there was no wall on one side of the gate, so we wheeled our bikes around. The dirt track on the other side of the gate lasted for another 50m before disappearing into a sea of sand. Nic ploughed ahead, trailer in tow and soon found himself wadding through soft mud like sand. Sedef followed on taking care to avoid the wetter looking areas, though we both became stuck in the sand and only strenuous pushing managed to get us across to firmer ground some 200 meters away. We washed our mud-caked shoes in the sea at the village fishing harbour and continued on a now tarmac’d road. 1km later the road ran out again, forcing us to backtrack to the shoe washing point. We must have been looking rather lost as a local woman took pity on us and rode with us on her motorbike on the right road out of town. Alas, taking us over the large hill we were trying to avoid!

Again back on the coastal road we managed to make good progress towards the national park… until we ran out of road again! By now light was fading, our energy zapped and only a rough idea of where we were! Thankfully we met a Thai lady called ‘Wee’ who spoke good English and recommended a resort hotel nearby called ‘Kalamona’ - we had a lovely modern bungalow beside the sea. One of the nicest places we stayed in during the trip, with a nice white sand beach in front (deserted).

If only we knew where exactly we were!?!:p (as if we care – hammocks are such hard work… someone has to do it!!)

Rather reluctantly (since it was such an amazing place) we left Bangkok and headed down south, excited that we would be at the seaside again after almost 3 months!! The last time we saw the sea was in Istanbul..

Despite the heat of Pakistan (and, to a lesser extent India), and our slow adjustment to it, we were still unprepared for the heat and humidity of Thailand – let alone cycling in it! The temperature during the day soars up to 35C, even in the shade around 30C. So unless you can get a very early start (i.e. 7am) you end up sweating bucketloads as you cycle through the heat of the day, absolutely dripping with sweat and clothes completely soaked through. Neither of us remember sweating so much… ever!!

The humidity makes cycling quite oppressive – almost as if someone is sitting on your chest as you go… But thankfully there are petrol stations and cafes to stop almost every 5 kms. We would often disturb the locals having a midday snooze – as even they feel drowsy with the heat… Normally we would stop for a break every 25kms – now we find we have to stop every 15km to take in fluids. We are drinking 2-3 litres each a day!!!

Nevertheless we pedalled on, enjoying the scenery and the nice tarmac highway 4 with considerate drivers. The highway was nice enough to cycle on, though quite busy. Alas initially we had no other option as it was the only road heading southwest.

Two days out of Bangkok, we arrived at the town of Petchaburi. Having left our bicycles at the travellers’ favourite riverside wood guesthouse, we hired a tuk-tuk for a few hours to take us to some sights around town. First we went to Khao Luang caves – an amazing underground cavern full of Buddhas and is a working temple. There is a bat cave connected to the main cave alas we were not allowed to go in since it was too dark. We then went to two of the many wonderful Wats (temples) in this town – first to Wat Yai Suwannaram which has a fine old teak door bearing a gash made by the Burmese in 1760 as they plundered their way through Thailand. There was also a Buddha in the main Bot (temple building) with 6 toes on one foot – no one knows why! We were the only tourists there, with only monks going about their peaceful daily routine, to keep us company. Next we went to Wat Mahathat (called as such since it houses the requisite Buddha relic to be able to bear the Mahathat title). The entire temple was a piece of art with stucco depictions of angels and demons draped over all the buildings and hanging off from the gutters. A slow walk through the night market back to our hotel afterwards, as it was getting dark. We looked at all the strange food on display at the stalls, having no idea what half of them were.

Next day we left the highway and headed towards the eastern coast about 10km away, taking a quieter coastal road which wasn’t on our map. Nice as the highway was we wanted to cycle through the real Thai countryside and go through small fishing villages… oh and see the sea! We figured that as long we cycle south along the sea nothing could go wrong. It was lovely to have our first drink break on a deserted white sand beach!

Following the coastal road we headed south towards the Thai resort of Hua Hin. On the way there we stopped off to see Phra Ratchaniwet Marukathaiyawan – we had to copy it from our guide book as there is no way we could remember all that!! It is the 1920s lustrous seaside palace of King Rama VI. A very stylish and simple building, consisting of a series of interlocking wooden verandas and walkways, which surround each room.

10km later we arrived at Hua Hin – a horrible westernised resort town that has absolutely no Thai character left whatsoever. In fact we could have been in any Western resort anywhere in the world…

Accommodation was ridiculously pricey, and nearly all full. We were lucky to find a fan-cooled room in one of the wooden jetty guesthouses with rooms on stilts built over water. The town had two redeeming features though – a good fish restaurant where we had lobster, and a Subway where we bought a packed lunch for the cycle the next day!

With so much to see in this amazing city, our planned 3 day-break quickly transformed into 6 days!! We saw all the sights in our guidebook, and also did some exploring of our own at the less touristy places, such as the supermarket (where we had great fun browsing through loads of packets of stuff we had no idea what they were – we bought some anyway, turned out to be dry fish mostly!), shops selling Hello kitty merchandise (which Sedef luuurves), oh and the bikeshop (which Nic luurves)! :p

Grand Palace & Wat Phra Kaeo – The most famous Bangkok landmark and the holiest Buddhist site in the country. The Wat houses the most important buddha image in the country – the Emerald Buddha. An absolutely amazing place with weird and fantastic architecture and Buddhist angels and demons wherever you look!

Wat Traimit – One of the many Buddhist temples in the city, which is distinguished by the fact that it houses the world’s largest solid gold buddha (13th century) – valued by weight alone at $14 million! The buddha was originally encased in plaster to protect it from pillages – only to be rediscovered in 1955 when the plaster was cracked whilst moving it! This led to a nationwide frenzy of tapping away at plaster Buddhas to check for hidden golden images!!

Wat Suthat - Another fantastic temple which houses Thailand’s largest Buddha image (8m high)

Wat Po – Houses another famous Buddha image – the 45m long Reclining Buddha depicting the Buddha entering Nirvana

Amulet Market – Amulets are a nationwide craze in Thailand – everyone carries at least one to ward off misfortune. They are also valuable collectors items. The amulet market has a collection of thousands to choose from – ranging from 5 Bahts to 1000s depending on age and material. Saying that we couldn’t find one that we liked!!

Flower & Vegetable Market – Not many tourists here, just local Thais hustling & bustling about unloading, processing, and selling the produce from the countryside. Not dissimilar to the ones in the UK in atmosphere – though the smells and the produce were very exotic!! We didn’t recognise half the stuff on sale!! (those things with long tentacles in the first picture are dried squid – quite yummy surprisingly and addictive)

National Museum & National Theatre – Two things to say about these two: one was great, and the other was, erm, ‘different’!! :p The national museum has an impressive collection of Thai art and historical artefacts. In the evening we got tickets to a Thai dance performance. We were stressed getting there on the canalboats since we were half an hour late…though as Nic said afterwards ‘we weren’t late enough!’. :p The costumes were fantastic but the music (to our western ears) sounded out of tune and we had no idea what the story was as everything (including the programme) was in Thai!!

‘Carnal capital’ - one cannot talk about Bangkok without at least mentioning the sex industry – however unlike cities like Amsterdam, this goes on behind doors in the red light district ‘bars’ since prostitution is illegal in Thailand. The HIV rate we heard runs as high as a staggering 41% amongst the prostitutes (of both sexes). We did not however see any ‘lady-boys’ although even in our hotel there were quite a few fat middle aged ‘farangs’ with 18 year old Thai chicks sitting on their laps at dinner!!

Downtown Bangkok – In contrast to the historical parts, downtown Bangkok is crammed full of skyscrapers and modern shopping plazas. In answer to high traffic congestion, they regulate traffic on three levels – cars on the ground level, pedestrians in pedestrian walkways above the cars, and the ‘sky-train’ running above the walkways. Very Bladerunner!!! We went to a plush cinema to see Memoirs of a Geisha (9/10!) with comfy electric reclining chairs, blankets, wine cooler and side table, and waitress service! We could have probably got a Thai massage as well if we had asked for one… It was a bit of a shock though when we had to stand up with everyone to pay our respects to the King before the film!!

Thonburi canals & floating markets – For the equivalent of 15 pounds we hired a longtail boat for 2 hours to take us around the canals of Thonburi (‘old’ Bangkok) to see the amazing houses on stilts and the floating markets where sellers peddle their wares.

…oh and we fed the catfish at a local fish farm – hungry they were!!

Chatuchak weekend market – An amazing 6000 stalls are set up every weekend over an area covering 10 football pitches, where you can get literally anything you want!!! We spent almost all day browsing through handcrafts, foodstalls selling some appetising kebabs but also bugs and insects on sticks, puppies and all sorts of exotic animals, furniture, knick-knacks… and, well, everything else really!!! Unlike a lot of markets there was some very good quality stuff as well.

For any cyclists out there who want a good bike shop in Bangkok – try Probike just north of Lumphini Park. They have a good stock of bikes and parts and can service your bike on the day! There we met several other western cyclists touring around Asia. One of them was heading into India – hope we did not scare him too much with our experiences!!

Oh and happy Chinese new year! (we just missed it as we left on the day it was celebrated (Jan 29) – year of the dog!

PS – Thanks to the guys at Siemens we have been able to replace our GPS – well just the B&W version but it will be just as indispensable!!

Our plane landed in Bangkok (well 25kms from Bangkok!) in the early hours – we seem to be making a habit of this!

We checked into a local hotel near the airport and had 12 hours of sleep each!! Tired after the boogie night and the flight.

We head into Bangkok tomorrow – initial impressions of Thailand: very hot and humid (34C! And this is winter!!), very polite smiley people, nice drivers, great tarmac roads, and loads of 7/11s!!!

We decided to leave India with a bang and a bit of clubbing action…
…so we set out with Darius to explore the nightlife in Kolkata. He took us to the trendiest bar in town (‘Someplace Else’) where there was a resident rock band playing live rock favourites. We whipped the crowd there into a frenzy shouting ‘Pink Floyd!!’ repeatedly (which the locals seemed to favour too), until the band started playing a string of Floyd hits!!! It was worth straining our voices and speaking in a hoarse whisper for the next two days! :p

From the bar we moved on to a nightclub at the Sheraton hotel – where we met two Brits who were enjoying themselves on company account (and invited our group to join them too!). We danced the night away like two maniacs on speed until the early morning!!

Next day we bid our farewells to the Boses (and Scooby the leg-humper) and made our way to the airport. Thankfully Thai Air were surprisingly relaxed about the bicycles, which were just wheeled over to the plane with no hassle for us!