A Taste for the Road

I finally have gotten a taste for motorbikes...And I love them! This past weekend about nine of us took six bikes out on the road from Kanshanabri for a two day tour of the highway and mountain ranges.
After arriving in Kanshanabri on friday we set about getting oriented on the bikes for the 500+ km trip. Ryan and Alisa were the most experienced riders in the group and gave a few lessons to thoes less experienced, okay to thoes who had never been on a motorbike in their lives. Now I've been on a motorcycle before but only as a passenger and driving it was a compleatly different thing. I was told the basics of the controls and what to do when so taking off initially was pretty easy, however turning around and not crashing the bike within the first five minutes wasn't. As I was attempting my first U-turn I some how reved the throttle with the brake on and then released the brake wich resulted in the bike wheeling up on it's back wheel with me standing behind it wondering what the hell to do. The bike toppled over on it's side with the throttle locked and began to spin harmlessly as I cam down hard on my left knee scraping up my shin and, for a short time, bruising my knee. As I got up I killed the engine and then restarted it to return down the street to tell everyone, who at that point was capable of riding the automatic bikes no problem, that I wasn't going to be driving. Heather then attempted driving the bike and took to it like a duck to water.
Following all the driving lessons and no more injuries we all set out for a long ride up to see what we could see on the other side of the mountain.

We passed by some wonderful sights including the river Kwai.

After we reached our first rest stop I took another lesson on driving the bike and it was much better! I had Alisa on the back giving me little hints and tips as I rounded corners and crossed traffic. Soon after lunch we were doing 80 km/h down the highway, I can't describe how good it felt to be in control of a bike, I am sure that my four year plan to get my motorcycle lincence will be shortened to as little as possible.

The remainder of the trip out was nice except just before sunset when it started to rain a little sending a slick onto the whole road that we traveled on. As we were rounding a corner Stephenie slipped on her bike and was sent sliding on her side across the road. Luckely there was no oncoming traffic and we were all going slow enough to see this happen so we all immeditaly stopped and pulled her off the road. Even luckeier still Steph sustained only minor road rash to her leg, foot and shoulder. The bike she road was still in working order and since no one else was available to drive I took it and followed along as Heather took our original bike with another passenger so that we could all get to where we were going before dark.

We finally arrived at some small town that I forget the name for and settled down for the night. Everyone was tired so it was an early night after dinner and again an early morning the next day. The trip back was much more relaxed and we arrived back in Kanshanabri about an hour or so ahead of schedual. This trip has to be not only one of the most enjoyable things I have done in Thailand but it is one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done.
Untill Next time.
Talk to you soon
Ray

Midnight in Bangkok

Back from Kanchanabri retivly unscathed. Pictures of our motorbike adventure to come.
Today we returned from the two day tour of the courtry side and tommrow I am leaving to go to Ko Samet for a little R & R. I'm a little nervous about going somewhere on my own but I am going to get over that tommrow when I get up and leave the apartment for another few days of adventure. During the day I am usually spending time alone so I might as well spend some alone time on a beach. I wish I had someone to go with me even if they had never been to Ko Samet either, I think then it would be a bit more silly and fun. I need to remember that I have the ability to be fun with myself too.
Wish me luck, I will be back on Thursday for Kareoke and Friday I will try and post some pics from Kanchanabri.
Talk to you soon.
Ray

Krabi!

Friday evening 5pm and we are off to Krabi!

It's a beautifal evening and the sun has just set, casting Bangkok into it's magical street lit night. Heather and I flag down a cab to get us to the airport, we each have our back pack suffed full of clothes and cameras, I brought along my guitar so I could play for Heather on her birthday.
The cab driver seems fine as we drive through Bangkok even tho he is a little jerky in his driving however we notice something is wrong when approching the airport the cabbie misses the "Passenger Terminal" exit and starts taking us to "Air Cargo". Now I know I'm a fat guy but I don't need to fly Air Cargo! We think that maybe this is a back route so we don't say anything untill he pulls up to the bus terminal and askes for directions, we drove past five different signs that said where to go! With new directions in his head the cab driver turns down a few back alleys and gets us on to some type of major road and almost gets hit by a truck and we almost run into another cab, needless to say Heather and I are not impressed at this point. Heather knows that we need to turn left at the next road and tells the driver and he almost doesn't turn down the street, she said it almost a half a dozen times. Finally approaching the Passenger Terminal the cab driver almost drives into a flag person who is directing traffic.
After paying the cab driver we arrive with about twenty minutes before take off so we check in and start to run to our departure gate which just happens to be the farthest terminal away from us. We started by standing on the moving walkways and eventually we were jogging on them just to make the flight. We eventually arrive at our gate and board the plane with minutes to spare.
The flight over was nice and short, they gave us a Meal in a box that was comprised of juice, water, and salad with some kind of chicken product that I couldn't really identify. Once we landed and went down to the baggage claim I had to sift through the Euro trash to get to my guitar that they made me check even though some of the noisey kids they allowed on the flight were bigger than my guitar. After leaving the airport building and buying shuttle tickets to Ao Nang, which was the closest beach that we could get to that night, we spent about half an hour sitting around on the concrete being told one thing then five minutes later another. Finally we were escorted to a shuttle van that transported Heather and myself and a flight attendant to Ao Nang which was pretty busy for a small beach town on a Friday night.
Walking up and down the main street we were asked every few steps if we wanted a room. "Cheap! Cheap! Come now!" All the cheap cheap rooms were Groooooooss! A few of them were run by white people and Heather and I both felt sketchy about taking a room in Thailand from a white person, call me paranoid but I didn't want some Thai girl to knock on our door at midnight telling us that the front counter had sent her. We soon found "The Ao Nang Palace Hotel" and at 800 baht a night it was a steal! Nice clean room with a private balconey, mini fridge, TV, full bathroon with a nice shower, and a big bed. For $24 a night I would recomend it to anyone staying in Ao Nang. This was the view from our room.

The next day we discouvered that Ao Nang did not have a very nice beach at all and Raillay beach seemed more and more apealing by the second.














Boarding a long tail boat for 60 baht we were sped over to Ton Sai beach then Raillay East then Raillay West, had we stayed on the boat we would have discouvered Pranang Beach the first day which is the nicest beach in that area. However because we didn't know what was where we spent most of the day walking around the mud flat type beaches of Raillay East, having a couple drinks at this small resturant where all the wait staff seemed to be moonlighting ladyboys, later we took a boat back to Ton Sai Beach and booked into one of the cheapest places we could find and promptly fell asleep because the heat had taken it's toll on us.



Later that day we sat and watched the sunset and took and early night.

Sunday was Heather's Birthday and we had planned on going over to another of the beaches and going for a walk up to a look out point that we had seen on one of the maps. First we needed to change accomidations so before breakfast we packed up our stuff and treked up to another "Resort" which was much nicer than our first choice. We walked around a bit but then I noticed that the heat was really getting to me because I started to see spots in my vision, so we went back to the room and I realized that I haden't drank any water so I was starting to show the first signs of dehydration. We got some "oral rehydration salts" and they definatly helped but they had the strangest picture on the package. It looked like a little bear kicking the other in the head.

After an hour or so of recouperating I was ready to trek out to see what we could see, but then it started to rain, and it rained all the rest of the day. It wasn't a bad day, we sat at one of the covered resturants and ate and drank for most of the day. Just before the sun set the rain stopped and we were able to catch a nice sun set from the beach.

We spent the evening first at a bar where there was a pool table, that I beat Heather at twice, and then we went to a nice resturant that had amazing Bar-b-q chicken, potatoes, and corn.
Monday we finally got out to Pranang beach and saw some of the most amazing rock formations that I have ever seen.
If ever at Raillay beach check out Pranang because it has the best sand, the best view and it is the most secluded.



We didn't spend a lot of time on Pranang because we had to catch our flight later in the day so we took a boat over to Ao Nang and as we were eating lunch it started to rain again, really hard. We spent a couple hours at the resturant and then took a taxi down to to the air port for a short flight home and great ending to a great weekend.
Talk to you soon
Ray

To the Grand Palace

On Wednesday I went out on my first big excursion alone to the Grand Palace and I was stunned at all the detail that went into creating these buildings. When I first got there my taxi driver dropped me off infront of the gates and I got harranged by a Thai who told me that the Grand Palace was closed untill 1:30 for the Thai people only, it was 12:00 at this point, so instead of standing around waiting I could take a Tuk Tuk tour and see a huge 45m tall Buddha then go to some shops around Bangkok. Heather had warned me that this would happen and to not listen to people like this because it is just a waste of time, however I was kinda curious about the standing Buddha so I climbed aboard the Tuk Tuk and took off on a journey of amazment and annoyance. The frist stop was the standing Buddha which was stunning I have never seen anything like that before, it was huge!This little scupture caught my eye because of all the fine detailing on the sides. On each level was an intricate design of figures resembling demons or people.















After the Buddha my Tuk Tuk driver took me to a bunch of different shops that I probably wouldn't have gone into on my own. He took me to six different shops: two tailors, two jewelery shops, a travel and tourisim shop and some handi craft store. The idea was that I spend at least five minutes in each one and he gets a kick back on free gas or something. So if ever at the Grand Palace and someone tells you it's closed, go check for yourself. After an hour and a half on a Tuk Tuk I was about ready to lose my lunch but luckly the trip was over and I could now explore the Grand Palace.

I was amazed at all the fine detail that the Grand Palace held from the figurines to the buildings there was care and effort put into every inch of the place. I didn't get a tour guide to show me around because I was kind of sick of going around with someone that I didn't know and didn't want to be around so I explored the site on my own.

After about an hour I was sun baked and tired of walking around so I hopped into a cab and went to meet Heather at her school. The cabbie wanted 700 baht for the cab ride, I paid about 200 on the way over, and I was about ready to get out and get another cab but then I bartered down to 400 and was so tired from the day that I just wanted to go so I paid the extra baht and we were on our way.
Today we are going to Wat Hin for the weekend, it is a little place in the North east of Thailand just south of Laos. I'm pretty excited to go out of Bangkok and get some much needed beach action.
Untill Next time
Ray