Nelly the Elephant...

Ok, time to wrap this blog up...

We packed our trunks and said goodbye to the beach at Ban Krut by taking the 09:00 train up to Ban Pong and then the local bus on to our final destination of Kanchanaburi.

The reason for heading here was twofold, one to see the bridge over the River Kwai, the war museums and the cemetery and       secondly, a highlight.....we had a hot overnight date with some big old nellies....!

The aptly named 'Good Times' resort looked after us in luxury, nestled on the banks of the famous river. From here were collected and taken by minivan the 10km out to Elephants World. 

Elephants World had been started by a Thai veterinarian a few years ago as a sanctuary for old nellies that had been rescued from all over Thailand. Most of them are very old and have unfortunately had really tough lives, having been used for many years logging forests, trekking or lately being used to earn money from strapping clueless fat westerners to massive chairs and parading them around Pattaya or Phuket.

The 22 now have a great retirement home, being looked after responsibly and be able to be fed and treated with dignity.

On arrival their own personal Burmese mahouts had brought them to a large open raised feeding platform where we hand fed baskets of watermelons, yam nuts, papaya, pumpkins, banana and corn before they wandered off for the day towards the river. Here we all got going with brushes and bowls and gave them a scrub down in the cool water, one of a number of opportunities to spend time in the cool water with them. They seemed to love it and all the scrubbers had a fantastic time helping them out.

Later, while they ambled about like old women, going where they wanted, we spent the afternoon making sticky rice and pumpkin balls for the older lassies that had no teeth or were
blind and needed some extra TLC. It was great to see a few of
them enjoying the mud bath but the organisation kept us busy preparing more food and planting crop under the direction of the long term volunteers. After their evening meal it was time
to walk with the mahouts to take them back into the quieter
forest area where they would spend the nights. We, on the other hand, had a nice comfy lodge by the river to stay in and to reflect on the first day.

Up early again in the morning to go and walk them back for breakfast where more baskets of fruits were devoured, one at a time and very slowly. Our free time in the afternoon gave us an opportunity to be taken by songtauw about 5km up stream and
dropped off to float back down with the current in the cool clear
water, another great experience!

All in all we had 2 fabulous days to be close and personal and get to know some of the characters of these big gentle creatures....a great privilege!

All that is left is to get on a plane home...

www.elephantsworld.org

Elephants World at Kanchanaburi is a responsible sanctuary and should not be confused with any other organisation that uses elephants for tourism of which unfortunately Thailand has many!

Until the next adventure you might want to keep an eye on

Andromedaonthelancastercanal.blogspot.co.uk

Last song by the Toy Dolls

andromedaonthelancastercanal.blogspot.co.uk

After the Goldrush...

Monday morning started with work...

Meeting up with the local 'Trash Heroes' who operate a weekly meet to give the beach a spring clean and keep it looking as nice as it is. The beach has been wonderful for us all week so it's a small effort, by way of thanks, to give some help to the locals and donate an hour to help a very worthy cause.

A bit of temple worship was next. The Wat at Ban Krut was undergoing a bit of a makeover so we headed up the hill to Phra Mahathat Chedi Phakdi Prakat. A huge golden Buddha image in meditating pose and an impressive stupa above with panoramic views over the coastline of Bang Krut from the fishing village below all the way to Bang Saphan.

Once again, a Neil Young track from the album of the same name.

Black Eyed Dog...

Still in Ban Krut

Still 32 degrees in the shade

Still, the orphans are doing fine...

Track by Nick Drake

Eat that up, It's good for you...

One of the sounds of Thailand is 'swishing'. You hear it every day, from morning till night. On the beach, the streets, the garden, the front porch....adept at cleaning every nook and cranny they are used everywhere.

Made from coconut palm fronds, everyone owns a 'swishing' brush...probably purchased from a mobile purveyor of fine swishing brushes like this guy...

Thais love cooking,cooking, cooking and eating, eating, eating....

The streets are the best source of fab tasty food and its all ridiculously cheap. 

Moped street stalls congregate at most places from about 6pm and cook til late.

Sat down on the little plastic tables with the locals you can enjoy every taste sensation Thailand has to offer, from noodle soups, pad thai, spicy som tam papaya salads, grilled fish, squids, green curry, fried chicken with sticky rice to pork and chicken combinations with rice or noodles. 

If your eating out, the best way is to have a walk round all the stalls first to see what's cooking, then go back and pick what you think you want to eat, look for a smiling older lady that looks like she has been cooking for the past hundred years. 

At the stall, point at what you think you want, smile and nod when she asks you if you want it spicy and pick out a few other side plates like Pak bung,noodles,sticky rice. Basically try to cover all options using numbers Neung, Som, Sam, See through to Ha.

Order a beer Chang to go with it then take a seat and wait to see what you get....whatever arrives will be damn tasty. 

Everything can also be ordered in plastic bags to 'take home' if you so wish.

Another alternative would be to learn more of the language to be able to order basic food but where's the fun in that?

Track from two door cinema club from the album 'Tourist History'.

Back to the Start...

After an invited insight into the workings of a Thailand railway's nerve centre we chugged our way back up to Hua Hin this morning with all the accompanying important parcels, boxes, coconuts, yellow flowers and even the dried fish to return the bicycles back to Tour Asia Adventure HQ.

They had served us well, and apart from a few dents and scratches from being tied on to various modes of transport, we reluctantly left them, but in good shape.

Hanging off the back of a songtauw we sped back into town to have a wander and a leisurely lunch. Hua Hin is far too big a town to be enjoyable, but it was nice to be able to adopt 3 orphaned puppies!

All that wandering about plays havoc on the old 'plates of meat' so luckily an old lass with bony knuckles was on hand to administer some relief!

Track from Razorlight for obvious reasons...

Appropiate Ending...

Having some downtime in downtown Chumphon meant that there was time to get some laundry done and explore a little. Not a big place but it was fun getting to know it a little. Roaming around the markets, spending baht locally and eating huge ice creams before enjoying a nice relaxing pummelling again before heading down to the station for the early evening train north.

The busy, slow train tonight only rattled in to the tiny station of Bang Saphan Yai towards 21:00. We got off with only a handful of locals. It was a dead town and it was getting late so the nearest hotel would have to do. The following morning at first light we left the hard slab bed of the Cockroach Inn... definitely the worst nightly accommodation choice to date!

In the cool of the morning we headed out on the 4045 before dropping on to the very quiet lane that ran adjacent to the coast. Now in the south east, the Gulf of Thailand was our sea shore and with only lizards for company, we rode north with the sun now blaring down on us.

A stop for a remote morning dip then another for coffee put us on until we reached Ban Krut. 

Here, by a quiet stretch of beach by the surfy sea, with a few bespoke bars, Thai kitchens and a 7eleven we found a lovely clean modern bungalow, one of only 5 in a private Thai residence....so it's the end of the road for a few days of luxury at Baan Kieng Lay...

Today's track from a Uk indie band, The Electric Soft Parade from the album 'No need to be downhearted' circa 2007.

Big Decision...

We had a ticket for the 999 long tail off the island and we were the first on the 08:30 directly off the beach. The Andaman sea was choppy today, blowin' a sou'westerley, but with only a quick stop at the pier on Ko Muk it wasn't long before we were powering up the estuary of the Kuan Tung Yu and disembarking at the little pier.

Less than 30km to do on the bikes today, getting passed by monkeys on mopeds and cows in pickups, we stopped for noodles and liquid then it was a right turn off the 4008 down to the river on the opposite bank from Kantang. A 4baht ticket got us across as the ferry was ready and waiting to go. On the other side at Kantang we found the small 'end of the line' railway station and got on the waiting 12:40 to Trang for 5baht and tied the bikes up with string in the cargo carriage at the end.

At Trang Railway Station at 13.15 it was decision time....it was also very hot too!

We decided to head back up north but the next train to Hua Hin was at 17.30?

Or we go up as far as Chumphon...leaving in 10 minutes!

Actually, it was the same train we had just got off!

Buying a new ticket, and booking in the bikes back on board took 5 minutes then it was off to tie them up with the same bit of string in the same spot in the cargo hold, much to the bemusement of the guard that had helped to offload them earlier.

We were now going to arrive at Chumphon around 20:30, time to sit back out of the sun and watch the countryside go slowly by.

The trains here are pretty cool. They are very cheap, always run on time and all manner of food and cold drinks get hawked up and down all day long. Or, at each flowery station you could treat yourself to fried chicken through the window.

 A great way to travel as the old carriages with doors and windows wide open allowing certain decapitation, briskly rattle along the dusty tracks, briefly stopping at all the little funny-named stations along the way.

Passing palm, rubber, papaya and coconut trees, simple rural life goes on with the odd cow and an impressive Wat thrown in, on the very edge of a dense jungle.

Title track by Damien Jurado off his album 'On my way to absence'.

Crawled out of the Sea...

So many perfect beaches and so little time, so today we tried to do them justice and successfully managed all three...

After breakfast a small jungle path took us to Ao Nieng beach, amusing ourselves with hermit crab racing and snorkelling off the reef, it was like swimming in an aquarium. 

A walk around to the main beach for lunch and a well earned snooze in the shady hammocks then over the hill for a last dip at the empty Sunset beach on the west.

As we were in and out of the sea others seem to be content turning themselves into KFC (Kentucky Farang Chicken) by welding themselves to plastic chairs in the 37 degree heat.

Tomorrow we leave the relaxed beaches behind and head back to the mainland it's back on the Ha Thips....even the Internet is slow here...!

Track by Laura Marling and a double whammy cos the album is called 'Alas I cannot swim'!

The Captain...

Captain King came good. 

The smiling, moped sidecar taxi girl arrived in full hijab promptly at 07:00 and with a couple of bungees the bikes were strapped on. With the awkward ballast distributed fairly we careered off, comically, up the bumpy island road to the port at Ban Ma Phrao.

Captain King had probably been up all night, checking bearings on sea charts, depth of fathoms, weather conditions and wind speeds and had probably plotted a compass course due true north across the Andaman sea.....but he needn't have bothered. 

Nautical sea conditions were , as far as I could see, 'as flat as a fluke'! and odds of us getting there were 'favourable'...probably about 3-1 on.

His proud vessel, a sleek 30ft hand crafted wooden long tail with a performance Porsche engine strapped on the back driving a massive propeller was idling sweetly as we loaded the manifest on to the poop deck below the busy pier.

Onlookers waved, and the lady that drove the moped taxi smiled sweetly as we set sail and ripped out of the harbour with the enormous engine bellowing smoke, out north to sea on the crest of a wave with the compass set for Koh Kradan, about an hour away!

On arrival into the clear turquoise waters, Captain King deftly rammed the prow of the boat up on the white sandy beach and we had officially landed on the next island. 

Paradise Lost was the next stop for the accommodation and it didn't disappoint. A generator powered collection of bamboo houses in the jungle with a room for 700baht and a private beach to die for only 5minutes walk away up a little jungle track.

All in all ....a pretty cool place!

Photos will have to be tomorrow as they have been censored due to excessive nudity and limited wifi... 

This will have to do for the next couple of days, I'm afraid!

Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro provide this lovely raucous track from the album 'Only Revolutions'

The tide that left and never came back...

It was only few paces for a morning wee and a swim in the warm Andaman sea as the day broke before 7am.

Following the now obligatory breakfast bowl of noodle soup it was off on a scooter, borrowed for the day from one of the waitresses. For 100 baht and the proviso that we would put some juice in it we went for a nosey around the 34 square kilometres of the island. The sea was well out today for some reason? 

Maybe something to do with the earthquake in Indonesia last night?

The purpose built Dugong watching tower, over the rickety pier by the small stilted Muslim fishing village, provided no sign for us of the strange elusive creatures.

Smaller dusty tracks only led past the rubber trees, probably used for making condoms, deeper into the jungle where the macaques were happily swinging about noisily in the coconut trees.

Back up at the pier in the north, much to everyone's hilarity, a young bull was arriving 

by boat and being persuaded along to its new home, later to be found wrapped around a tree!

A transaction was then woven over an iced green tea that involved a 'Captain King', a 7am pickup from the south and a seaworthy long tail boat off to Koh Kradan for tomorrow. Many hands were shook, backed up with smiles and nods of approval seemed to seal the deal....watch this space!

Playing footie with the kids was fun but it's now far too hot....hammock and cold Beer Chang anyone?

Now on the south west it was an ideal place to watch the sunset.

Track by another indie band, the 'Veils' and a track off their debut album that questions

todays sea quite nicely.

Got a Keep Movin'...

Trang is incredibly HOT....it's a baking 35 degrees!

A fellow train traveller on a bike kindly showed us to a nice guesthouse in a quiet part of the town and saved us the time and effort of looking for somewhere ourselves.

There was no way you could ride in this heat without ending up with third degree burns so getting to the ferry port will need to be done early tomorrow morning when it's a lot cooler. This gave time to pig out down the quite wonderful night market on spicy catfish and a local speciality 'Moo Yang'.

Leaving Trang at 6am gave a better temperature to ride the 50k along the 4008 to the port of Hat Yai. The markets were already in full swing and the lines of monks were out on their daily morning pilgrimage to collect the free stuff and give out blessings.

This was a nice easy ride and we had soon done 32k before a coffee stop. Continuing on down the rural traffic free road we were bombarded with 'Hello's' from the quizzical locals as we passed by. As we arrived at a deserted Hat Yai beach around 10am it was time for the first dip in the Andaman sea....and it was well worth it!

The long tail ferry boat was ready and waiting for us, so once we had paid the 70 baht fee we then had to manhandle on the bikes along with a moped and a load of melons. 30 minutes later we were arriving at the little pier on the first island, Koh Libong....home of the infamous and elusive dugongs!

On arrival we opted to head down to the quieter south of the island and here we first rejected a plush resort with rooms starting at 6000 baht for a nice little beach bungalow for 800 baht and ideal for a spot of snorkelling.

A track from American singer songwriter Willie Mason and the title track off his first album 'Where the Humans Eat'.

Blame it on the trains...

Our last day in Prachuap Kiri Khan. 

It was time to say goodbye to the beach and the langurs, the  seafood, the temples and the smiley faces and the Honda...

It was time to head further south...

Arriving at the station around 22:30 with a ticket for the midnight train, all that was left to do was to get a luggage ticket for the bicycles....unfortunately, the station master had other ideas as there wouldn't be room for the bicycles tonight but they would probably go on one of the next trains and maybe arrive in a couple of days time!

 A few minutes of contemplation ensued then another plan developed. 

As it always does in Asia...Same Same but different...as they say around here.

We now had tickets for the earlier 23:16 to Thung Song Junction. A sleeper train that would get us in at 08:15 with room in cargo for the bikes so we could get a connection on arrival to Trang in the morning. This is exactly what happened and after a nights slumber we had made our way further south during the early hours.

The 08:55 left Thung Song on time the next morning and arrived at Trang one and a half hours later but we paid the price...the ticket cost a whopping 15 baht!

We were once again the only 'Falangs' in town.

(farang=westerners: but Thais can't pronounce an 'r' )

It was greener here.

The jungle was closer.

This track comes from Art Brut off the aptly named album 'It's a bit complicated'.