Should I stay or should I go?

It was a late night watching the England pack easily deal with a lack lustre Scotland but it gave me time to keep an eye on the holidaymakers and cast some aspersions. Most in the outback Aussie sports bar seemed happy enough to be out of prison and were relaxed suppin ale and casual in their long baggy shorts covering tattooed legs and fake nike flip flops. Most had no tops on so allowing the beer to expand in their blubbery bellies without the hindrance of a shirt. Baseball caps, fags, gold rings and the company of 14 year old Thai girls (not even nice ones - one even had a wonky eye!) seem to be commonplace in this boozer.
The food along the street was thoughtfully being advertised with faded pictures showing what Thai food fusion looks like...the twist being you can have your pad Thai with chips or maybe have what looks to be a battered sausage of dubious meat content on the side....
...I thought long and hard as to what to do....this was supposed to be a paradise island but I was not getting that experience, so I decided to leave in the morning.
On the way to the ferry it struck me that I have biked the 50km around the whole of the island and no-one has shouted hello or acknowledged me when previously on the mainland I was getting friendly shouts and smiles everywhere. I get the feeling that the farang are only tolerated here and it's just about getting the money...why am I not surprised?
Arriving at the port I had just missed the lunchtime boat so it's a look around the town until the next one at 5 going to Ko Pha-ngan...


Previous blog post title inspired by...Radiohead :  EASY : 1 point
A great song off one of the best albums ever...a song written for a world of mass marketing and mass consumption.....no surprises, eh!

Fake Plastic Trees....

 

350km completed so far. Now, having had a ride around half of Samui, and to be honest, in like my best travel agent stylee.....(also having had a few beers)I'll try to sum it up....deep breath.....ok, from what I have seen I am sure that if you get a glossy travel mag and you book yourself into a bespoke, boutique, ridiculously westernised priced, all inclusive, top end gaff with your own bit of beach sat on a fancy mahogany deck chair with topless butler silver service then maybe this island is for you. All I ask is that you take a step back from the falseness and before you get to the security guards on the front door you will notice that it's a shit hole and smells somewhat similar.....yes, some of the beaches ARE nice, but if like me your not that keen to allow sand in the area of the bum cakes twenty four seven then maybe you too could be disappointed. Behind these double glazed closed doors you will not find Asia....sorry.!
Maybe if you venture out of your oasis and into the crammed chaos of dirty, knackered streets packed with makeshift bars competing for customers selling 'pies and peas with chips and gravy' with an orgasmic cocktail offer in the 'Irish' bar to boost your karma does it for you then maybe you have found your Nirvana.....
......for me, well the rugby might be on later so it's off to get served by a fat bloke with a tattooed face and no doubt some piercings in places I don't want to think about before iv had at least a pint of stout and a couple of cherry B's....Come on England....!!

Previous blog post title inspired by...Royksopp:  MED : 2 points
A nice chilled out song by a chilled out band to end a chilled out day......

So easy...

In the north of Ko Samui looking across to Ko Pha-ngan having found a little place to put my feet up on the beach...

       

                 
Previous blog post title inspired by...The Undertones : EASY : 1      point only...
                             

Here comes the summer...

For some unearthly reason I was awake well before dawn and at first light I was leaving the empty resort. Last night I had gone to a restaurant at the first place I had enquired at where the rooms went up to 2500 baht...too much for my tight ass! The restaurant was really nice and almost on the beach and I enjoyed a sizzling plate full of spicy seafood and some beers for more than I had paid for my hut. Still it was cheap in comparison and very very tasty so now I'm up and off to catch the ferry from Donsak to the island of Koh Samui. It is supposed to be very nice so I am led to believe, but I am presuming it will be a bit more westernised than I have been used to so far. I bought a ticket for 200 baht for me and the pushrod and queued up with a load of hells angels and then once aboard, the seatran ferry left bang on 11am for the 1 and a half hour crossing. Just time for a snooze on the sun deck.....

 

Ferry to Koh Samui

Previous blog post title inspired by...The Waterboys :  MED : 2 points
"That was the river, this is the sea..." One of Mike Scott's finest.

This is the sea...

Fishing the river

The king welcomes me to Sichon

After having had an evening with a few beers and banana pancakes on the street and talking with Alex, I had a good nights rest and then I was back on the road again this morning heading north for Sichon. I left Nakhon Si riding through an area occupying a huge army base. My first stop being in the Tha Sala district for an iced chocolate. Today was hot and the drink stops had to be frequent again to keep the liquid intake balance right, water, iced tea, coke and iced coffee being the beverages of choice. By early afternoon I was riding in to Sichon and found a nice resort by the sea at Baan Hinngnam ...only thing about was that I was absolutely the only customer, apart from 2 staff sweeping leaves there was no-one here at all.....weird! Still, I had a nice little hut to stay in about 50 yards from the beach and the place to myself for the rest of the day.

Hut number 6

 

Previous blog post title inspired by...The Arcade Fire :  MED : 2 points
This was definitely a place where no cars go...off the album Neon Bible.

No Cars Go...

The target in sight...

2 February
Yesterday was relatively uneventful as I expected as it was Sunday and to be honest not much happens most days but even less on a Sunday. I biked out of the the town and found the village of Kiriwong. The small village seemed to span both sides of the crystal clear river and it didn't take long to find someone to ask about trekking. The problem being that in order to go to the summit I needed a guide but as I have stupidly just arrived at the height of the mangosteen harvest, all the would be guides are out picking the fruits which turns out to be a little more lucrative than taking some fella up a hill (100baht per kilo). At this point Alex turned up, he was a guy from Latvia and also wanted to trek the hill so over a plate of noodles we conjured up a plan to go on our own into the jungle....
I had decided to stay in the village, initially in a homestay but then heard about about a place by a waterfall that you could hang a hammock for free.
This would be my first night out camping on this trip.

3 February
It had got colder than I had expected last nite so I needed more than just a silk liner if I was going to trek higher. Alex needed some better footwear so we decided to take a songthaew back into Nakhon Si and prepare a little better. If was obvious now that we were on our own as no guides had been
found. Most of the day was spent getting to and from the town with extra supplies and a sleeping bag
for me. We had a good trip interacting with the locals and answering all their questions, again they
are so friendly and helpful. On return to the village and some food we set off in the late afternoon
sunshine with a plan to walk upstream of the river. As the sun started to dip we found an old hut with a shelter to hang hammocks just by the river which was brimming with fish! By 8pm it was pitch black and the insect chorus from the jungle was my lullaby.

brimming with fish here...

Camp -1st night in Kiriwong

4 February
From first light we were off
on foot heading upstream. The river was almost dry as the rainy season had long since
passed so we used small paths and the dry river bed. We were making good progress
that was until we got to this...

Soi Dao waterfall

               ....Soi Dao waterfall.
At this point it was obvious we couldn't follow the river so we had to
climb out and up to find a track. These tracks riddle the jungle and are used to connect small houses and used by the people that work the jungle growing jack fruits, mangosteens, bananas and durian amongst probably many other things. They travel up and down them mainly on motorbikes with gardening implements and simple tools to areas that need attention
or harvesting. On many occasion we stopped the local traffic and tried to
verify our way to khao luang peak. Sometimes we were heading the right way, sometimes we weren't and had to turn back and take another of the
many paths. No wonder they say you need a guide! After walking all day
it became clear that without a guide, getting to the top was going to be impossible and if we continued then we could get very very lost. With water supplies getting low we decided to head back to the river and camp up.  

Camp 2

Songtaew back to town..

5 Feb
Khao Luanng summit had beaten us and left 2 guys knackered after a mammoth effort - still we were not broken but had enjoyed the
opportunity of trying and had spent some quality time in the depths of the jungle.


Back in the village we enjoyed noodle soup and tied my bike to the top of a songthaew for the 30km back to Nakhon Si and checked into the Thai Hotel - number 1 on trip advisor and got a good en suite room for 350 baht. Time to enjoy a day of rest....

Previous blog post title inspired by...Neil Young :  EASY : 1 point
I could pick a NY song for every post but I liked this one for the last post.

Saddle up the Palomino...

Last nights festivities in town were for the Chinese New Year with a big stage and much singing and dancing. Many people had flocked to the main square and I didn't understand a word of it but with all the streets rammed with Chinese food stalls I ate like a pig even though it was for celebrating the year of the horse....
I'm going to leave town today and head about 30 clicks into the sticks to a small village called Kiriwong in the Khao Luang National park with the idea of a few days hiking up to the 4747ft summit and roughing it. I just need to find a guide from the village to help...will be in a wifi black hole for a few days I guess so I will have to store up some blogs.

Previous blog post title inspired by...Rage Against the Machine :  MED : 2 points
An angry enough song to accompany the last blog post I thought...