Narrowboatboy’s Big, Bad Blog...Narrowboat & Travel blog based on Lancaster Canal

Sunday today and next to nothing to do so the lazy morning was spent zipping about on the Honda like a couple of twokkers with asbo's around a council estate. Riding down through the chaotic maze of narrow market stalls and then hitting the highway like a battering ram we flew once again, using another pseudonym, to Wing5 Air Force beach. It's been quite windy so the surf is up and the sea is warm.  Returning back for the pre arranged revisit to the torture chamber for another hour of sharp elbows digging into tendons and little brown feet walking up and down your spine trying to realign the vertebrae to bring the Ying in line with the Yang. A song by  'Patrick Watson' and the title track off his debut album.

The jungle was alive with noisy creepy crawlies croaking in the dark at 6am when our lift arrived to take us back into civilisation. The Park Ranger dropped us back on the main road which now meant we had only a leisurely 44km morning ride down to Prachuap Kiri Khan, past the cows and along the coast. Before 10.30 we had found a nice place to stay, dropped off the laundry and swopped the bikes for a Honda... Ao Manao was the destination for the afternoon. A strange place on a military Air Force base where you have to gain entry past the guards and sign in. On doing this, and as long as you abide by the rules, you get access to a wonderful beach. Now you can then get as crispy as KFC or until you get bored to death... Symptom Tongue swelled up to the size of a cows, eyes watering, gasping for breath, palpitations and sweating profusely. Diagnosis Som Tam too hot... On a quiet part of the base the friendly langurs were fed banana's before it was...

The morning dip in the pool was refreshing then the bikes were packed and ready to go before heading for breakfast. Without ordering, we were treated to eggs, toast, assorted MRM's along with a grated carrot and salad cream combo on the side, the closest equivalent to a western breakfast in these parts. We left the surf crashing in on Dolphin Bay and headed south. Today we were aiming towards Kui Buri National Park but riding through Khao Sam Roi Yod National Park along the way. It was here we spotted the first monkeys of the trip and continued on counting all the dead stock squished on the road that included snakes, birds and an unknown furry mammal. Kui Buri park is a 1000 square miles and claims to have up to 240 wild elephants and a 100+ gaurs.   https://www.thainationalparks.com/kui-buri-national-park By mid afternoon it was very hot and we were still 16km from the park so we blagged a lift in a pickup from a local family, getting us up to the ranger station jus...

The problem with an evening in the girly bars of Hua Hin is that you can't tell what is male or female and who is going home with who so in the morning it was time to move on. Our tuk tuk found the bike hire shop around 10am and the helpful guys soon had a couple of newly serviced Marin touring bikes fitted with panniers and all the repair kit required to last the couple of weeks hire. The last advice was where the best noodle soup in town was and after indulging we were off under our own steam. Pedalling south out of Hua Hin, it wasn't long before the bespoke tour took us by some massive bronze statues and we could not resist a closer look. It was Rajabhakti Park, some kind of military shrine to past Thai kings and rumour has it that they had been scandalously purchased from donations by corrupt army officers demanding up to 45 million baht per statue! https://asiancorrespondent.com/2015/12/rajabhakti-park-controversy/ During the afternoon we managed 45km mostl...

A body clock ⏰ malfunction caused the planned early morning visit to nearby Wat Lan Boon to be a little later. It didn't matter as it was, however, a very peaceful Buddhist 🙏place.☯ It's great to have no time constraints. On the banks of the Prawat Burirom canal in Lat Krabang, the temple is also a fish sanctuary. Here you can buy loaves of bread for 20baht and feed the enormous flapping catfish 🐋 into a frenzy. http://www.tour-bangkok-legacies.com/wat-lan-boon.html A taxi 🚖 from here took us back to the airport link 🚝 station then it was back down to Bangkok, off at Makkasan then the MRT 🚇 from Phetchaburi on to Hua Lamphong. This is the main train station in the heart of the city for all train destinations out of BKK. Ours was going to be the 15:35 to Hua Hin🚂 a 229km and 5 hour journey south for the extortionate sum of 152baht!🇹🇭👍🏽 Bangkok is hot today....🌞 Today's instalment is quite cleverly twofold, 'Somewhere South' by the ...

Got an early start and after breakfast got a motorcycle taxi to the Airport express train station at Lat Krabang. This got us down into the heart of Bangkok and then took the sky train to the Chao Phraya river at Saphan Taksin. From here, with a day pass, we hopped on the ferry and took in the sights from the water all the way up to the north of Bangkok even past the power station! Motorcycle taxi = 50baht Airport express train = 40baht Sky train day pass = 150 baht Ferry day pass = 150 baht The return ferry gave us the opportunity to get off and have a walk by the Grand Palace and Wat Pho but the heat and the crowds were too much for any closer scrutiny. From here it was a Pad Thai lunch then a tuk tuk taxi through the crazy traffic and into the madness of Chinatown. More street food for tea... Todays blog title comes to you from a chill out compilation classic from the 90's by Groove Armada.   https://youtu.be/OM7WPPzQ_ZI http://totallythames.org/images/u...

The standard of food on the Etihad flight is quite high so the exotic eastern cuisine menu sounded quite yummy but due to an oversight in the booking department we didn't get a choice as we had been identified as a couple of travelling Rabbi's and under Jewish dietary law, two trays of sealed up kosher food were delivered by a grinning flight attendant! Gingerly, the 80g  Hors d'oerve of some kind of slimy, gelatenous gelfilta fish was opened and immediately a pungent aroma filled the cabin. In the name of Allah, the lid was swiftly replaced and condemned to become ICW at the earliest opportunity.  Next was the deliciously entitled ' Main course meaty 280g' and along with some fluffy boiled rice and a tub of holy water it served its purpose until our next reading of a passage from the Hebrew bible... Shalom... This blog title comes to you from the old boy 'Cat Stevens' or Yusuf Islam as he converted to from the album of the same n...

Newcomers need to be made aware that all the blog titles are always song titles in order for this muso to link all the songs on my iCloud loosely to each blog posted and I will also endeavour to include a link...enjoy! So here goes.... Bussed in from the car park and checked on to the flight, all that was left to do was to walk through the 'smelly' bit where the dolly birds (and boys) try to flog you some lippy and the latest squirty Hai Karate so that you can smell like Donald Trump for the rest of the day. I gambled on a new fragrance called 'diesel' but in hindsight I should have gone for 'unleaded' as the cheaper 'red' now makes me smell like the stuff that I usually fill up the Narrowboat with.... As the sun went down it was time for a libation in the bar before the call to Etihad's pearly gates... This blog tune to get us going is " Smells like teen spirit " which was Kurt Cobains band 'Nirvana', off the albu...

Here we go again, folks... Following a 12 month hiatus, this travel blog is about to splutter into life once again as another journey gets underway very soon. As is tradition, blog titles will always be song titles from my iPod and observations will come thick and fast from a keyboard warrior that goes off to discover new lands,  battle the elements and search for the elusive dugongs... So watch this space.... This blog track comes to you from a favourite indie band of mine, The Courteeners and is off their second 2010 album 'Falcon'. https://youtu.be/EYg5TOmFc7E