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I woke up 5.10 and decided to rest longer then got up at 5.30. My alarm was for 5.45 but I never heard it so its a good thing I woke myself up. I pretty much just left on the bike and headed south fairly slowly at first as it took a while before I wanted to get some speed. Anyway I'm not going to try and build tension, I got where I was going maybe 10 minutes later than I would have liked and it was fine for sunrise, just not the place with the penis rock. So I tried somewhere else and still no penis rock, so I went on the internet with my mobile data and found it was a lot closer to my hostel that I was. I headed there and it was empty so I got some pictures before heading north to the big buddah which was open by the time I got there and empty as well but 2 thai people turned up to pray and then soon after that the first tour bus. I headed back to the hostel, booked my boat and bus to Krabi at the cheaper price of 550 instead of 900. Sarah and the other guy in the room were sleeping so I got so my stuff together and went to the beach and just sat on a hotel sunlounger and nobody said anything even though they all had the same hotel red coloured towel and I had my own Costa rica towel. Went back to the hostel around 11, showered and packed and went downstairs to find Sarah there who had time to say the tour yesterday was crap before her bus came and she was off. My pickup was also on time and a Canadian from the hostel opposite got in, there was already a Thai guy there and wee picked up some Chinese tourists from a hotel where they had someone out front who's job was to stop traffic for the hotel. Anyway the pickup took us to a bus place and some of us boarded a big bus that drove to the ferry. The bus got on the ferry but we needed to get off and go on as foot passengers. At the other end we boarded the bus again which drove to Surat Thani and there we waited and I grabbed some food before a small minivan took us to another bus station to wait for a while before we took a public bus. The Canadian guy didn't seem to want to talk much maybe because his girlfriend broke up with him so I listened to music and read my book on mindfulness which had something about being aware of choices which is something I have pretty much always done which is why its not so easy to make them so maybe I'm more mindful than I thought. The bus ran late but eventually we were on the edge of Krabi and the bus looked like it was going to take us in and then did some strange manoeuvering including a u-turn and parked in some unknown bus station nowhere near to Krabi. Thankfully there was a pickup happy to take our money and I got to the hostel around 9.30, too late for the free bbq or the flip cup drinking competition. The hostel seemed ok, its called Pak up hostel and has each room named after a subject in school and each bed is then something from that subject (DIY for some reason had scissors and ruler as beds), I was in geography on the UK bed. Hung out a bit and met someone who was going to the tiger temple tomorrow at 9am. Some of the people at the bar looked pretty drunk and I was about to leave, but then I got asked to play beer pong. At first it was Canada vs UK but they knew the game and we didn't so we mixed teams up. It was a bit slow and with 2 cups each left the English girl just knocked our cups over to end the game.
Woke up at 6am and decided to sleep some more and then woke up again at 8am as the English girl was getting up. I got up as well and after lots of faffing went to rent a motorbike but then the woman there wanted my passport and I had forgotten my camera as well. The English girl meanwhile was doing a tour for 400 baht which is not bad. I went through lots of details for the motorbike as I'd been stung in Croatia with the bike having no insurance. She said the whole bike costs 48,000 new which is quite a risk but although websites say it is dangerous they also say it's fun and a good way to see the island and I do have to have some fun to write about as well as other things. So I decided to rent it for the day and it's only 150 baht (less than £4) but then I had to sign the form and it said I'm not allowed on mountain roads so I couldn't go where I wanted to which was to the waterfalls. I went back to the hostel to check if I could still do the tour but it was too late as Sarah had left so I agreed to the bike and also paid 40 baht for a bottle of petrol and off I went, checking my mirrors moving ok for about 100 metres when I realised the fuel gauge was broken so I went back and the woman said it was ok it just didn't have enough petrol for the gauge to move and the bike could do 20km on that (wow so this was looking more expensive). Anyway off I went again towards the only waterfall I was allowed to see, and stopped for a couple of view places before I got to a petrol station where the attendant with the pump asked me how much so I said 100 bahts worth so that it would last a while and she filled it up to 76 baht and the tank was full, so not so bad. I carried on to a Tesco Lotus where I stopped for breakfast.
I went back to the bike, took my key out of my pocket to start it and I realised that with the hotel key I now had 2 keys. As my brother said from some TV show he watched, keys are responsibility, so I had a little at least. Headed off to a viewpoint next and as the map had said there were 2 aggressive dogs which someone had bookmarked whcih I thought was pretty amusing as it showed up as an attraction on the map. The view was ok but it wasn't too photographic and the hills were pretty steep but the bike did fine despite the woman at the bike shop sating to me that there was not enough power in the bike to do the mountain roads but considering how easily it went up the roads I thought there was oodles of power for the bike to go prettyy much anywhere. Anyway I carried on to the waterfall and it turned out to be the main one recommended by the internet (I had got my waterfalls mixed up). So I parked up and took a picture of some people riding an elephant and then walked to the waterfall. There was a woman charging 50 baht entry but I'd just seen a 4*4 rock up with a screaming woman on the roof (enjoying the ride) and they'd gone to a different entrance so I chanced that one and there was no entry fee there. I walked along and there was a tiny waterfall and pool with some Germans stripping off to swim but the map told me there was more to see including a natural pool to swim in at the end. The waterfall 2 was pretty good for photos and after that there was quite a hike and I got slightly lost on the way before I came to a small pool. So I got changed old school German style (since nobody was around) and went in but it was too shallow so I was soon out and decided to carry on walking. After some difficult terrain and also some easy paths unlike Bono I had found what I was looking for. The pool was about 10 metres square with a waterfall and it got pretty deep in places, it's just a shame it was so muddy. While I was there I thought about my blog and wondered if I should include at some point the Thai sales banter they have like when I say I'm English they say sound as a pound to me. Then I thought what do they say to people from other countries so I decided to find out by pretending to be from another Country next time someone asks me where I'm from. After I left the pool I headed back trying to follow the main path with ropes as much as possible and made it back to a restaurant area which had a pool and water slide (only 100 baht to use). This was the area just after the 50 baht fee which I missed earlier. I carried on down to try to find the 3rd waterfall and then left the main paths but there wasn't much so I decided to keep going all the way to waterfall 1 along the stream and found a better swimming spot which was long and thin (thats what she said), more like what you want when swimming. after I carried on walking mostly over rocks, past a zoo where people were taking 4×4 trucks to the waterfall. It was all a bit commercialised for me and as I hadn't gone the main route I turned up at the top of the waterfall for a different view and then there were some disused steps down which were fine to use. This waterfall was definitely the best of them and it had a big pool to swim in but I'd done enough swimming and my t-shirt and trunks were wet enough so I chatted to someone also not swimming and she told me about a petrified mummy and also a penis rock to see. I had to walk back along the road to my bike as the place is designed for not walking but it wasn't too far. As I left the area I checked out the shooting range and the cheapest price was 1,500 baht for 10 bullets whcih is a lot. I left and went to see the petrified mummy which was just a monk who didn't decompose so they put him in a box and recently someone decided to put sunglasses on him. After that I decided to go to a viewpoint as it was not late enough to go back and penis rock was on my way back. The view was on a building that never got completed and was pretty good since it was near the top of a hill. I checked maps.me and decided a secret buddah garden would be good, but despite having some good reviews when I got there I wasn't really in the mood for it and was running out of time so skipped the 80 baht entrance fee and decided to make it all the way around the island since my fuel gauge was still reading full. I headed across and hit the west side of the island before 5pm so decided I had some time to waste before sunset so I followed a sign for a waterfall and started walkibg along the path but then when I checked maps it was over 1km walk to the waterfall which would have taken too long so I got back to my bike and went to Na Thon where the sky looked nice already from the pier. then I went north and sat down at a restaurant with a view and decent prices and ate watching the sun go down. After that it was getting dark and I still had half the island to get around which was fine. I stopped at a food market but actually wasn't hungry so I carried on to another market and parked up my bike maybe not in the best spot but I didn't plan to be long. I walked through the market which was just one road with table stalls on either side. There were different things so I walked for a couple of minutes then turned around always being slowed down by other people. When I got back my bike had gone with no sign of it so I wasw worried, but I walked on a bit and saw my bike on the side on the pavement with a guy there. I asked him if there was a problem like maybe a car had crashed into it or something but the guy said no he saw the police lookie lookie so need to move and 20 baht thank you very much the enterprising scammer but it wasn't too much and I probably shouldn't have left the bike there anyway. Headed off again to see the big buddah but when I got there the gates were locked so I headed back to the hotel and left my swim gear to dry. There was no sign of Sarah or anyone else at the hostel the Germans had all left so I went to the internet travel shop place and afterwards went on the bike to see what was happening in town. There was a club with some ladyboys and then there was some live music. I just sat around drinking something non alcoholic before going back and reading a bit and planned an early morning the next day so I went to bed around 12 as nobody was there. We arrived at 6am which meant we had at least had an ok amount of sleep. So we all got off the bus to hang around until 8am for the boat. The Phuket guy was still asking to make sure they were going to get him where he needed to go and then after that he carried on chewing the ear off a fellow traveller. Eventually the Phuket bus turned up first soon followed by everyone elses and by now there was plenty of space. So still no boat and we drove to Don sak only to wait around some more. I bought a banana and a fried chicken breast from a vendor stall for breakfast.
A woman went round to people waiting for the boat and did good business selling us transfers to our hotels for 200 baht (150 was the normal price I found out later). Then the boat came it was pretty empty so I sat near the front with more space but it was a bit cooler because of the air conditioning. I tried to use the usb on the tv to charge my powerbank but it didn't work and I looked over a free guide to Koh Panang I'd picked up. Like Andrea had said to me on the bus it was wet season there with the rainfall in November being double that of any other month - great! The boat was slow and so I got bored later and moved to some other seats where I lay down and slept a bit. When I woke up and looked around things looked ok until I realised the boat had stopped so I grabbed my stuff and went to the back of the boat where the bags and cases had all been moved and they had started loading more on. There was a crowd of people waiting to get on the boat and others already across or on the walkway. I looked around for my bag or someone who knew where it would be but nothing so I stepped across next to the walkway onto the land and pushed through the crowd and found my bag. Then I headed down the pier and managed to catch up with the others from the boat and get the minibus which would take us to our hotels. One couple's place was only about 10 minutes away so if they paid the same price they got ripped off. Mine was the joint last place and it was after 12 as I expected. I checked in to find lots of Germans in my room and the weather was good so I grabbed my stuff and went to get some food before heading to the beach. I had to walk through a hotel to get to the beach which was annoying but the beach was decent, maybe a bit narrow with the hotels and the bars sun loungers taking up space. I'd just eaten so instead of swimming, I walked along the beach first a decent distance and then decided to swim to an island. I thought about my stuff being stolen as in research I'd done for Koh Samui there was a lot of mention of crime, so I decided a bit like in the film the beach I would carry my bag to the island. Originally I had wanted to take my phone and money with me into the water but that was how I broke a camera in Rio, but when I wrapped my money in an airport bag and double bagged with a plastic bag but after a brief swim water had got in and I couldn't find a waterproof bag they all had holes in. So I plastic bagged up my rucksack and carried it over my head while swimming my back which wasn't so easy especially when seaweed got in my way, I was spluttering when I found that I could walk again and walked the rest of the way to the small island. Then I went swimming only for it to start raining very soon but I carried on swimming while most people on the beach packed up and left. There were 2 people jet skiing in the distance as they had probably paid for an hour and didn't want to waste it and meanwhile the rain started pelting down, but I decided to swim for 20 minutes until thunder, lighting and constant strong rain made it not at all enjoyable so I got my bag and walked back across. The beach was deserted now and there were not many people on the main road when I got to it. I'd come a long way so I had to walk the same distance back along the road and checked out some restaurants, but the prices were pretty expensive compared to Bangkok with some lobster, steak and other places charging 1,000 baht for a meal. I made it back as it stopped raining and I went to get a couple of hours internet from a travel place which I followed with dinner. Then back at the hostel I was resting and the Germans were there as well as an English girl called Sarah. I convinced her to have a drink so we got some drinks from the 7-11 and sat downstairs. She was from Wrexham but worked for a bit in Manchester. When she went to bed I decided to check out the area to see if there was anything going on, but the main drag was too far away so after 10 minutes walking and nothing interesting I called it a night. Got up at 6.30am and the seating area of the hostel was closed off until 8am so I didn't think they did breakfast, which considering the price seems normal, but after Myanmar where every place did breakfast it was a change. Got my stuff together in the dark and left to get the suitcase fixed. Again I took a bus but this time it did go to the right train station, just very slowly as there were loads of cars going somewhere and got in the way of our route. The bus was pretty empty with only about 10 people on board and then I took the train 4 stops and tried to head in the direction of the mr bag fix shop, but there was no pavement so I had to get a taxi which cost 45 baht which is not too bad.
I got there and the woman working there told me it would cost 1,200 baht and take a week. I wasn't sure the wheel actually needed changing and also asked if it could be done today so that I could go to the islands and she got a man to come back to the shop who spoke English and they did the job in 30 minutes for 400 baht which was a great result. As we were not on a main road I used the map to walk to one only I found a dead end as someone had barricaded a doorway so I picked up my empty suitcase up and climbed over the wall with it. After that I eventually got a taxi and decided to take it all the way back as it would mean less changes snd hopefully be quicker. The meter starts at 35 baht but the journey took ages so it cost 160 in total so the real cost of getting the suitcase fixed was 3 hours and 640 baht, but I quite like my massive London print suitcase, at least for another month or so. I went back to the hostel and grabbed some pad thai for breakfast before booking the ticket to Koh Samui that I'd been looking at the last 2 days as its cheaper and is at one end so I can end up in Koh Tao after 2 boat hops. I noticed that they store luggage so after I had packed my things back into the suitcase and checked out of the hostel, I went and left it at the agency and went out to visit the national museum. On the way I happened to pass the coin museum way which was free and also pretty good. They had some tie in to the Country's history all translated to English and they even had braile and floor bumps for blind people to follow. Turns out the King (Bhumibol who passed away recently) had received award from the UN for the things he had been doing in Thailand some years ago. I went to the national museum next and followed several Thai people to a tent but they wouldn't let me in so I wandered round a bit and most buildings seemed closed until I found one that was open and had people praying before a buddah. I read the description and 2016 was a special year for the king and queen so in August they had opened this special exhibition with treasures which are normally spread around Thailand. The walls of the room were all murals and there were some other things to see but not much so I left and security for the tent had gone so I walked in and it was full of pictures from just after when the king had died. It was a good thing for me to see and there are still lots of people mourning the death now which is due to continue for a year. o I went to the racecourse to see some of the many people who go there and they do still get free food and water. I found out later that they queue up so that they can go into the grand palace and see where the king is currently buried and that the palace is also now open to tourists. I headed back and went past a restaurant which looked closed, probably couldn't compete with the free food nearby. Then I used the internet at the travel agents to update this blog, and I went to get some lunch at a place I had chosen earlier as it looked pretty cheap but it was now quite busy and so I waited for ages before one of the women working there looked at me and then I saw her checking my order before speaking to the chef and they finally cooked my food. I'd ordered the chefs special vegetarian curry and it was too spicy which slowed me down eating it. As it was 4.30 there weasn't too much I could do so I just went back to use the internet again and did some more exciting ACCA CPD before we went to get the bus. There were lots of other tourists and we had 3 different stickers depending where we were going. I had one of only a few blue stickers and sat down on the bus and a Colombian girl with a yellow sticker who was going to Koh Tao sat next to me. She was called Andrea and did music promotion and wanted to work in Europe but the visa had fallen through so she was heading back to Colombia in December. We talked until 10, maybe keeping some people awake and then we both tried to go to sleep. The bus stopped at 11pm for a 30 minute toilet stop so most poeople were woken up. After that I slept until 2.45 when the bus stopped for people going to Koh Tao to get off where they would wait until morning to get a boat. One guy got really stressed as he wanted to go to Phuket. He kept asking people where the bus was going and repeated he wanted to go to Phuket even though the driver told him it was ok. We carried on and as there was loads of room, I stretched out and went back to sleep. I woke up when someone moved into our room in the morning, but I didn't feel like getting up and when I did it was after 10am. There didn't seem to be any breakfast so I must have missed it. Got my stuff together and headed out to get the rabies innoculation but as it was 11 and the clinic shuts at 12 for lunch, I decided not to rush there and walked instead, going past some places to see, none if which were very interesting. There was a park which looked nice on the map but most of it was closed off and when I got in another part and there were lots of people wearing gowns for some kind of graduation or something as there were also lots of people taking photos.
I carried on and was close to the clinic at 12.50 and I still hadn't eaten as the one place I'd looked at the menu had had tourist prices. So I went to a coffee shop and got a strawberry smoothie thinking it might be like back home but it was just strawberries and ice and was not so nice. Got to the clinic and registration was easier as I'd been before, had to check blood pressure (121 over 69) and weight (73kgs), so I'd lost 7kgs in less than a month. The clinic still took a while but I got the last rabies shot for 523 baht (about £13). Decided to head back on the bus and caught the no 12 I'd been told to take. So I got back to near the hostel and it was getting close to 3pm so I renewed my room booking for another night as I was pretty sure I wouldn't get everything done today, then I looked for somewhere to eat and I found a place to buy a sim card which was more expensive than Myanmar but supposedly has 7 days unlimited internet and 1.5 gb afterwards which should do me just fine. I found somewhere to eat which was in a hotel where they also had internet computers so I was looking to go back there later, but I still needed to get my suitcase fixed first and while eatring I googled a few things like how to fix suitcase wheels. I found a place called mr bag fix in Bangkok which sounded perfect but the shop was not so nearby. So I went back to the hostel and unpacked my suitcase onto the bed and headed out and by now it was 4pm and it started raining so I went back to get my umbrella and then made it to the bus stop where the bus google told me to take took ages to come and then I got told it didn't go where I wanted but I found out it went close and I didn't want to have to wait for another bus. Traffic was really bad and the bus hardly moved so that by the time I got to the train station it was 5.15 and the shop was supposed to be shut. I thought they might be open until 6pm so I Skype called them and got a recorded we are shut message. Traffic was still bad so I walked back stopping on the way to buy some things including a box of Langsart fruit which I quite like. Got back to the hostel and left my suitcase and bag and went out to use the internet but the hotel place said their internet did not work but pointed out a place across the road so I went there whihc was ok until they shut and kicked me out. I grabbed some food and drinks and sat in the hostel reading, listening to some boring ACCA Video for my CPD and drinking vodka orange. No party tonight and mainly Spanish people sitting around. Lizzie had been ill most of the day and hardly left the room which isn't very good as it's probably hotter in the room than it is outside. I went to sleep around midnight. Was awake around 6am with some noise ongoing and I decided to get up at 6.30 for the 3 S's to be ready and then had breakfast which was not bad, egg with rice and noodles. Left the hotel around 7.30 and got to the border control to find 4 Israelis taking their time going through the process. Thankfully I was able to get ahead of them and on the other side found a pickup to take me for 20 baht but then had to wait for it to really overfill up.
The bus drove into Mae Sot and I got off at the last stop near the market and then made my way to the bus terminal and realised my phone had automatically updated the time for 30 minutes ahead so I changed my watch. At the bus station there were buses to Bangkok but they didn't look like moving and there was no ticket offices or local buses it also . I walked around the station but it didn't look like it was going to work and people pointed me in the direction of another bus station which was quite far so I could either go back where I'd come and take the pickup again as it had gone past there only I'd stayed on when I should have got off or I could try something different and I thought there should be some local buses or pickups so I went to the main road instead. I saw something that looked like it might be a bus stop but the people there were just motorbike taxi drivers and I really didn't want to take a motorbike with my heavy suitcase so we had a short but pointless not properly understood conversation before I walked on. I carried on and it was pretty hot and the suitcase wasn't rolling too freely but there were no buses and no pickups and not too many taxi either and it was only 1.7km to the bus station by now so I was thinking of just walking when one of the wheels on my suitcase really stopped working and I tried to look at it but it was too hot and burnt my fingers. It looked like I had lost a pin holding the wheel properly together and when I searched I couldn't find it so instead I just waited for a taxi who took me to the bus station and I got a ticket part of the way to Bangkok (Nakhon Sawan) as the direct Bangkok bus went later at 6pm. I'd had the wheels on my suitcase break in South America but at least there it had been after 3 months, this was just 1, and I was hoping I could maybe get some kind of fix done when I got to Bangkok. I saw a group of 4 Germans turn up at the bus station including what looked like Laura from Hsipaw. They agreed a price to Tak and disappeared while I filled most of the hours wait reading. I had been sweating and had also noticed a billboard for King Bhumibol and even though most people were not wearing black here I was in red so decided to change and the first dark t-shirt I came to was the one Mr Linn's wife had given me so I put that on and sat waiting for the bus which was supposed to leave at 12.30 but at 12.05 the woman came and made me get onto a little minibus where we then had to put the suitcase on the roof as the bus was full. The minibus was not even as far as Tak when it stopped for what turned out to be a police check and documents were looked at (not mine) and a woman and her son were taken off the bus before we carried on. After that the minibus stopped occasionally to let people off but then soon filled the seatsed again at the next stop and were arrived around 4pm at our stop halfway to Bangkok. I got out and our driver showed me to a person who helped me get a ticket for the next minibus and it all went well I got the front seat and they found space for my suitcase. I went to the 7-11 to get some food and a Thai man talked to me when I came out. His Dad had worked in the embassy in London so he had lived there. After I sat down and continued reading until the bus was ready to go and a tall guy I had seen at Mae Sot turned up so I asked how he had got here and he had been on a later minibus but the driver had gone really fast. The guy who turned out to be Canadian / Quebecois from Montreal had been doing meditation in Myanmar and was planning to spend a month in Bangkok. He was normally a clinical psychologist and we talked for a while before it felt we were disturbing the others too much as they seemed to just want to sleep. The bus made ok time and arrived around 8.30 at Mo chit on the main road not the bus station. I was a bit flustered thinking about which route to take and forgot to tip the driver (which I wanted to do as they had given me the front seat and found space for my large case). The thai embassy guy asked where we were going, the Canadian said downtown and the he agreed the skytrain was best, I said Khoasan road and the guy said to wait for the number 3 with him as it goes there. We went and sat at a bus stop and I showed him my hostel and he said I need to get off a stop before Khao san and he will tell me when. So we waited a while and a number 3 bus came but he said not that one we want the red one and as its Sunday there is not so many. We kept waiting and I couldn't read the bus numbers but he could and we talked a bit but I think I said something wrong as he didn't want to say much. We sat there over an hour when the bus finally came and he stood at the edge of the pavement and waved at the bus but the driver or conductor waved forward to show where they stop and carried on. I lugged my suitcase along after the bus but it stopped too far away and not for very long so we both missed it. He didn't seem to upset and wanted me to wait for yhe next one but I decided to take the train instead and then after a taxi and when I got off I had to walk one street to the hostel and make my way past a group of breakdancers before arriving pretty late at the hostel. For some reason to do with the hostel being new they couldn't find my booking but it was all ok and I shared a room with an English girl who turned out to be about 50 but still a party person called Lizzie. She was from Bristol and was going to take her daughter around Thailand for a few weeks when she arrived in a few days. I decided to walk around the block and see Khaosan road and there were so many people out and about with their shops snd stalls offering alcohol, massages, laughing gas, insects to eat, ping pong show etc. A lot of the people looked like the kind of tourist you might find in Ayia Napa or Ibiza. I didn't know anyone and didn't really feel like a party so went back to the hostel where I joined Lizzie who was having a beer. A Phillipino girl joined us and later a Polish guy who lives in London and had spent 8,000 on a meal for 2 in a fancy restaurant here. Lizzie went to bed around 2 or 3 and I ended up going to bed at 4am. |
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