As per request I’m working on creating a map of my trip, to make it easier to follow my route. As of writing it’s no way being accurate and doesn’t reflect where I’m now, but it’s a rather flexible tool, so can be adjusted and updated as I move along. But I’m not going to plot any side road and wrong turn I take! Clicky! You can zoom in and out and but so far I haven’t integrated any interesting stuff, such as pictures.

As always (!) Google provides the service.

Outside the sun is shining. Work will be continued tonight. Now, maybe if it rains one day AND I have WiFi available I might even integrate it with individual blog posts … but don’t count on it It might be a better investment of my time to go back and do some spell check and clean up. Unless somebody want that job (sigh!). Ah, come rainy day!

The guy who spoke out the words in my sensational headline was the boats 150 kg dive master – let’s just call him “Big Guy” – and they were expressed on the boat going back after a long day of sailing and diving. So what happened – what troubled our sea farer? Well, before that is answered I think we need some summoning up.

I spend a couple of days in the town of Krabi (Krabi doubles as the name of the province), mostly just exploring the area on my bicycle and taking it slow. My appetite is back on full strength, which is fortunate since Krabi has quite a few delicious snacks from the Thai kitchen to offer the hungry traveller – besides the pizza, pasta and even Scandinavian food you can also get since this is a major tourist destination. Apart from breakfast (mostly yoghurt with fresh fruit) I stay strictly to the Thai diet … love it! It’s strange, a few days ago my stomach turned every time I walked past a local food market, the smells just not appealing at all. Now I enjoy the excellent and cheap food, and preferably from basic food stalls.

It’s unfair that the past days have hardly been covered on these pages because Krabi is a spectacular area and if not excellent for cycling then at least very good – the fact that you cannot avoid the Highway 4 does detract from the score. The highway is really not as bad as it sounds, with a wide shoulder and not a lot of traffic. But minor, quiet roads are of course preferable.

You know the pictures from Thailand of beautiful beaches and a view to the ocean dotted with longtail boats and limestone cliffs? This is the place! To sum it up in a few words: On land it’s green everywhere with thick vegetation consisting of various palms, rubber trees, huge sugar canes and lots of green stuff that’s beyond my limited botanical vocabulary and is so entangled anyway that it is hard to see where bush ends and tree begins. Add limestone outcrops on every horizon and it looks picture perfect. Turning to the seaside you have muddy mangrove forest or beaches that opens up to a view of the sea dotted with small rocky islands of limestone, almost all uninhabited but often with excellent beaches – the film “The Beach” where filmed on one of them and there is a “James Bond Island”. Jump in the water and look down and you will find corals as well as a varied marine life. It’s a land- and seascape that naturally attract not only lazy sunbathers working hard to get a tan but also more adventurous travellers that like to go diving, climbing or canoeing. All activities easily accessible since the tourist infrastructure is well tuned. The Krabi area is one of the areas that was badly hit by the Tsunami in 2004 where thousands where killed, but asking the locals all that is forgotten now (currently the worry is the political mess the country is in, as this is already hurting the tourist industry. Some fear that in the worst case scenario the situation might escalate to civil war, but more likely some general of the army takes control and beats the hell out of those demonstrants).

The only time I really got my heart pumping while staying in Krabi was visiting the Wat Tham Seua, where I climbed the 1272 steep steps in the midday heat to get to the temple on top of a cliff from where there is a fine view of the area. The Wat (temple) is also a working monastery and it was perhaps more interesting to see the living quarters of the monks. Humble places, but don’t be kidded – monks have cell phones and satellite TV as well.

Next stop on the road was Ao Nang. I expected Krabi to be a tourist trap, but was pleasantly surprised. Ao Nang instead deserves that predicate. It was quite quiet (out of season) but this is a town where everything is about catering to tourists. Finding good, cheap Thai food was a bit difficult among the Italian food places – some call it Little Italy. Lots of tailors and shops selling knick knack. Still a nice place to spend a few days exploring the islands and nearby beaches. I chose to go diving…

Ok, I will cut the suspense short … you should have guessed by I didn’t drown or anything: The diving was nice and no stress and we where drowsily making our way slowly back in the boat, when Big Guy suddenly cuts a conversation with the missus on the cell phone short. Instead he stares intently towards something on the sea and begins giving orders to change the boat’s direction. I look for dark storm clouds or a tsunami wave thinking that WE are to be in some kind of troubles, but it appears he has spotted a guy in the water calling for help. We turn the boat and get there in time to pick the guy up. He turned over in his canoe and couldn’t get back in – we should later get plenty of chance witnessing his lack of ability in this discipline. A little later his two friends joined us and we towed them back to the shore. They had crossed open water to get to one of the islands off shore. I think that was a bit too ambitious for them. I don’t think they would have made it back before it got dark.

One of the crew members took it with a smile, but he clearly wasn’t too impressed with the canoeists.

I caught one of the crew members after shaking his head in response to the canoists.

I got lots of pictures waiting. Think I will put them in a later post. Must eat know!

Eh… don’t know if I suffer from that famous writer’s blog or something, but I realize it has been some time I last updated this blog. But I’m still alive, making my way slowly … no very slowly north along the Andaman coast which has turned out to be something of a tourist trail. I’ll see if I can catch up…

I left Trang on the 14. I did so not knowing exactly where to go, but with my mind set on the small city of Krabi as an possible destination. However, I knew that would probably be unrealistic, the distance being 140 km and me having a bit of a mental and physical downer because of a stomach bug or something had hit me. And sure enough, my legs told me clearly they didn’t intend to cooperate with my brain on that project, so at an intersection after some 30 km I turned left instead of right and ended up in the small coast town of Pak Meng. As it was holiday time in Thailand – only a few people very throwing water about in celebration of Songkran, so I remained almost dry – the town was packed with Thais on short vacation or just having a day at the beach. Among the Thais where another farang cyclist, David, who I met while searching for a place to stay. While we talked at the side of the road a small group of 3 or 4 Asian tourers rolled by, but despite the fact that David and I was shouting and waving at them to stop for a chat, they ignored us completely and went on with their own business. Anyway! David, being familiar with the town, quickly offered to help me find a place to stay and we spend some time doing that, since the first couple of places where fully booked. We finally found a newly built place a bit out of town. I think the people there initially thought we where a gay couple, because I (or we) where offered a bungalow placed discreetly in the back. But when it became clear to them that only I would stay there, I was “upgraded” to one of the centrally placed bungalows and given a 50 Bath reduction in prize.

Later, I joined David for beers and food and we spend lot of time talking about touring by bicycle … not as nerdy as it sounds as it is a good starting point for discussing the the food, beers, languages, sights and women of the world. I must say David is a pretty experienced tourer, having spend half his life on a bicycle somewhere in the world, but mostly Asia. David writes a travel blog as well. One of David’s principles is to drink beers regularly. That is itself not uncommon perhaps, but according to David it is a rich source of minerals that are essential for the touring cyclist as we sweat litres in the heat every day. I do not know if it is backed up by any hard facts, but I have decided to take his words for it! Cheers!

After a few lazy days in Pak Meng – the plaze I stayed at pleasantly got a bit cheaper each day, and in any case I liked the area – it was about time to leave for Krabi. This times my legs cooperated and the 100 Km ride was pleasant.

Sunset on the beach of Pak Meng with longtail boats and limestone cliffs in the background.

I promise: No more sunset pics for a while!
* Farang is the Thai’s word for European foreigner.

As you might have heard Thailand is sailing through troubled waters at the moment. People are killing each other in the south bordering to Malaysia in an ongoing, year long struggle and just recently, in Bangkok 18 people (last count I’m aware of) where killed.

I am writing this from from the small city of Trang, where business seems to go on as usual. Or that’s what I thought. Today, I got myself in troubles though, and where caught in serious, nationwide riots. No shit! I’m not kidding.

As you might know I have suffered a bit from a stomach bug lately which means I haven’t been able to eat quite enough (living mostly on a diet of yogurt) and I have generally felt tired for the last couple of days. Because of this I postponed departure from Trang and decided instead to go on just a short spin. All dressed up in lycra and sunglasses mounted to add those extra 5 points on the “cool” scale, I try to find the road, that will take me out of town towards the coast. Problem is, the streets are taken over by gangs that prowl the streets in trucks entering into spontaneous fights with other formations placed on the street. And I’m trying to navigate in the middle of it, being an easy target on my bicycle.

I have overlooked an important detail … it is the national holiday of Songkhran, a celebration of the Thai New Year. Sonkhran is a “water festival” celebrated in what is typically the driest season of the year. In effect it means that the whole nation is involved in a huge water-fight, that aims at giving every one a serious drenching. It goes on for one or in certain places several days. Huge volumes of water are thrown about – from large buckets placed on the street or loaded onto trucks. Some are fortunate enough to be armed with a hose. The more sadistic minded have actually put ice in the water! Sometimes I’m just hit with a bucketfull of water, other times I’m stopped by the road patrols and have something smeared in my face before I have some water poured over me and is released to go again … 200 metres down the road where the situation repeats itself. I ask, but no one is able to explain the significance of this, but I think it is fair to guess that the water is supposed to symbolize some sort of cleansing. I can smell that something have been added to the water, it smells pleasantly perfumed.

Everybody is having a party and quite a few are slightly drunk. It is quite fun, but after a while it becomes a bit cumbersome so I give up and heads back to Trang. The riots goes on till dusk, where it sort of dies out.

Happy New Year!

My face is decorated in celebration of Songkhran.

Just to let you know: I know I have been slow with updates lately, but Internet situation has been bad. Currently I’ve “hacked” an unsecured network from some shop or whatever, but it’s quite unreliable. In any case, 3 “new” entries below.

I’m currently in Trang. Will keep you updated …