Thailand Notes Part 4: A Resort And An Ending
For the remainder of my trip, I wanted sun, beaches, and relaxation. So I picked a small island and booked a scuba resort.
Koh Tao Island
The process of getting from Chiang Mai to my hotel on Koh Tao Island was quite a long-drawn-out event. Here’s the short version. I caught a plane to a city who’s name I dont recall, and had to deal with taxi drivers and tourists arguing over the cost of transportation… again. I will never understand why a tourist will argue with a taxi driver over $2cad. Spent the night at a hotel, then took a taxi to a bus to a boat to another boat and spent a lot of time baking in the sun between. At some point someone stuck a sticker on my shirt that showed my final destination. It made me wonder how many tourists they’d lost before they came up with that idea. Once again I was alone, heading out to somewhere I had never been surrounded people I don’t know. Luckily Thailand is visually more inviting than Nepal and I arrived at my destination during the day. They also had someone from the hotel pick me up at the dock. I had booked my stay at Ban’s Diving Resort, thinking, to hell with it, I’ll spend the last of my money at some beachside motel and relax. Well, I thought it was a little hotel claiming to be resort, a common exaggeration when you budget travel, but this was, by far, the nicest place I had ever stayed. They had multiple pools, a dozen buildings to house guests, a landscaped garden between, and even a golf cart that worked like public transit. I signed in and signed up for a scuba refresher in the morning, I had my license, but I was rusty. After food I went to bed, sunbaked, desperate for sleep, and thankful I had paid extra for AC.
The refresher was fairly uneventful. I was tossed into a pool with another diver and an instructor and retested on the basics. It didn’t take much for me to get back into the groove. However, I was a little suspicious of the other diver with me. He claimed to have done over 100 dives and to have his advanced open water. His skills in the pool and general lack of knowledge shed some doubt on that. It crossed my mind that no one actually asked to see my certification, and therefore, one could easily lie and just go diving. It strikes me as needlessly dangerous for yourself and those around you but, it could be done. I believe this was the case with that individual but it wasn’t for me to say. After class, I got talked into an afternoon excursion and the dive master was the instructor who gave me the refresher, so it all worked out well. The first dive I was plenty nervous but it was fairly uneventful. It was exciting enough I decided to ignore my budget and take my advanced open water course. The following days dives were a little more exciting. I dove with a French man who was rather rude and pushy underwater, swimming too close to me and to wildlife. He got within inches of a turtle and bluff charged by trigger fish, shame they didn’t nibble him a bit, pain may have taught him a lesson. In the evening I went for a long walk up and down the beach. It was beautiful, but it was lonely. It’s a strange feeling to be lonely in a place many consider to be paradise. I had once read that resort towns, like the big ski towns in The Rockies, have a really high suicide rate because people move there and find it doesn’t solve their problems.
Getting my advanced open water was a lot easier than I had expected. I assumed there would be some course work, maybe some theory, or a test. We just did specific dives. Basically there is a list of dives and you pick 5 of them, that’s the class. In this case, the instructors picked based on what was available to us and what they felt would be the most fun, which is a fair way to operate. We started with a deep-water dive, we went down to 28m and played a math game to check for nitrogen narcosis. A condition I am told will cause a sensation similar to being intoxicated and impact motor skills and brain function. The test was: the instructor holds up fingers and we hold up however many we needed to add to get to 11. For example, she holds up 6, so I hold up 5. It’s a smart test, though somewhat revealing of how bad some of us are at mental math. We were only that deep for about 4 minutes, then slowly worked our way up and took in the sights. Interesting side note, at that depth we hit the thermocline, that razor sharp edge where water gets very cold, if you’ve ever jumped into an Alberta lake you may know what I am talking about. Our next dive was supposed to be a “fish identification” dive where in we practiced hand signals for different species of fish. Once we got down to depth, we saw that the ocean was littered with plastic bottles, one of the instructors went up and got a large mesh duffel while the other got us all stacking the bottles into a pile. In the end we only made a small dent but cleaning garbage out of the ocean was very satisfying. I like the idea of having a task beyond looking around, much like hiking, I prefer to have a goal. After the dive we dumped water out of the bottles and stashed them away. I’m hoping they didn’t just go onto a barge and back into the ocean somewhere else.
Night Dive
We sat on the boat and waiting for dark, as the sun set, we slipped back into the water. Truth be told, I was terrified while waiting on the boat, but as soon as I got in the water I was just excited. It was like motorcycling in the rain, I was so focused on the task and it was such a rewarding challenge, my brain just didn’t have room for fear. We pointed our flashlights and saw the blue patches on a stingray glow. The instructor brought us in a circle and had us shut of our lights and wave our hands. As we did, bioluminescent plankton lit up. It was very faint and you had to really look for it, but the little blue flashes were there. It was not a light show that rivaled fireworks, it was just faint whispers of light not intended for the human eye. After the dive I went to the restaurant attached to the resort and found I couldn’t get anyone to come take my order, or even bring me a menu. This was a common theme at that establishment during my stay. Throughout the week I just went to the nearby 7-11 for suppers and ate them on my balcony. It was quite isolating, and very stereotypical of a tourist to eat all his meals from 7-11. Towards the end of my stay, one of the instructors informed me there was a really good fried chicken restaurant about a block away… I became a regular there during my stay.
The rest of the week was more diving and relaxing. One of the dives was a navigation dive where my partner and I were shown a map, given a slate to draw our own and make a plan, then off we went. I suggested she take the lead as I have a lot of experience with maps and she said she needed the practice. She got lost almost immediately. I recognized a large rock crack and took the lead. We did a lap around the pinnacle and did a swim-through at 26m. I was about to lead us south west to a rock pile, but she stopped me. It turns out I was running very low on oxygen. We made our safety stops and surfaced. The entire ascent, we locked arms ready to share her air via the spare regulator. It never came to that, I ended with just under 15 bars on the gauge. Typically, you try to end with somewhere between 40 and 50 bars of pressure. After that dive we did a shipwreck, unfortunately visibility was horrible. I could barely see my outstretched hand. So I followed the group only able to see their silver tanks in all the green algae. We did a swim through on part of the ship and got some pictures. It was a strange disorienting sensation to be swimming and see the current change direction, without a fixed object for reference, it felt like I was spinning and changing direction against my will. It felt like drunken spins. Diving in poor visibility is something I thought would be terrifying, but once down there I realized that no matter how bad it got… I could just go up. This made it an interesting learning experience, but I was sad I didn’t get a good view of the ship, the pictures I have seen of it look amazing… One more reason to go back.
I decided I wanted to get a tattoo on my second last day on the island. My diving was done and I wanted a full day to recover before taking boats, busses, and planes where aftercare would be difficult. I booked my appointment at a well reviewed shop. He quoted me a price of about $150 cad and told me to be there at 3pm. I came back at 3, after my last dive. He was tattooing someone else and without looking up, he told me to come back at 5. I went for pizza and never came back. To hell with him if he can’t keep a schedule. Didn’t need that tattoo anyway. Later, I had a few drinks at the bar with some of the dive instructors. It was nice to see they were super friendly even off the clock. After a dozen dives and about a week on the island some part of my mind was considering finding a way to stay, maybe get trained as a dive master and make my living that way. Its weird, I was still quite sad and alone feeling, but I wanted to stay. I liked the diving, I didn’t like the empty hotel room.
Back To Kathmandu
My full week in a private room on the resort and diving daily resulted in a bill of just over $800. I don’t know how it ended up that cheap, I was expecting a little over double that but they offered discounts for dives and accommodation. I didn’t ask too many questions or look too close. Happily and hurriedly, I paid my bill and left the office. The next few days were just an uneventful blur of busses, boats and a plane back to Bangkok. I stayed at the edge of town near the airport far from anything a tourist would want to see. The next day I went to the airport and waited for my flight back to Kathmandu. In the airport, I did a tourism survey and was given a small coin purse. It really felt like a scam of some kind but they never asked me for personal information so it must have been legitimate. I also took the opportunity to send a few post cards to my family. While waiting to board the plane I noticed a Nepali man wearing a Magpul shirt. Naturally I went over and complimented it. He informed me he was from Nepal but lived in the USA, hence the firearms shirt. On the plane, near Kathmandu, we hit some hard rain and turbulence. We circled the city for about an hour waiting for the weather to clear. We were told we may divert to Delhi, luckily it didn’t come to that. This time I stayed at the same hostel, they just texted me the room number and I helped myself. It went much smoother than the first time I stayed. I was also very relieved to see the duffel bag I had left behind in storage was still there, dusty, but untouched.
I spent the next few days wandering the streets of Kathmandu in a smug self-satisfied way, I was proud of myself for all I had done. I picked up a few more gifts for friends and family from the various little shops and decided to splash out and stay at a $35 a night hotel my last two nights. It was beautiful, big, and clean. The balcony overlooked a little shrine statue in the alleyway. In the evenings I smoked cigars on the balcony while writing in my journal. Mamita asked to meet me at a café at 9pm. I wandered the dark streets to get there, thinking about how 10 weeks ago they would have terrified me. Upon arrival I found my phone was off, I turned it on and found she had texted me to reschedule for the morning. Mamita met me for breakfast and I told her about my travels, it was nice to catch up. On the way back to the hotel I bought Natalie a Royal Enfield T-shirt to match mine, she had requested it. I wasn’t sure when I would see Natalie again, but we were already talking about her coming to visit me at home during the summer to do some hiking, that did end up happening, along with a few other trips. Repeatedly I repacked my gear for the flight home, and relaxed in my hotel room, for supper I had a water buffalo burger that was positively amazing.
The last day was dull, almost intentionally so. I tried to sleep in, I checked out at 2pm and stored my bags. I walked Thamel one last time and tried my best to soak it in and remember the feeling and the smells. After some lunch, I bought a 200npr copy of H.G Well’s The Time Machine. Finally, it got late enough, I got a ride from the hotel to the airport and started the long trip home. There were long flights and layovers and I had no idea what my life would hold when I got home. At the time, I had no job, and no plan, and was somehow, ok with that. My friend Troy picked me up at the airport, fed me a burger, and delivered me to my apartment. Everything was how I left it, and I didn’t feel too terribly different… Maybe a little thinner… I was sad it was over, and I was glad to be home, it was time to sleep in my own bed, and see what the future held.
There’s no great way to say this, but I took this trip because I hated my job and was depressed about my divorce. It’s hard to say if it helped with either of those much, but I think it turned out to be a net positive for me in other ways. I made friends that I am still in touch with and in less than a week of posting this, I will be meeting Natalie, her boyfriend, and two of her friends in Cabo to do some diving. And probably never would have gone to Guatemala if it weren’t for Natalie and Renata. Aside from the people I met, it let me do a bit of a hard reset and take stock of what I want to do with my life. Certainly I don’t have all the answers, but I know now that I want to keep travelling and I know I want to spend time with friends and family… After some time at home and at a semi-office job, I took another run at HVAC, it turns out that job wasn’t a good fit, but the industry is and I am now a first year apprentice and going to trade school in the new year. Turns out I like working with my hands and fixing things. Not everyone has the opportunity to travel like I do, but that was the life I had built for myself… and this trip has made me optimistic about what the rest of my life could look like now that I have a better understanding of what I do and dont want out of it. As for healing from my divorce, it didn’t help, only time was able to do that. But hey, it might help you, so book the trip, and tell me all about it when you get home.
Thank you to everyone who has been reading these stories… more to come in the future.
Posted in Scuba Diving, Travel and tagged adventure, backpacking, Koh Tao, Outdoors, Scuba diving, Thailand, travelwith 4 comments.
Thailand Notes Part 3: The End Of The Loop
In the morning, we all agreed to stay an extra night at the same hotel in Mae Hong Son, I needed the rest and I think the others did too. We decided to do a day trip to visit a Long Neck Kayan village (sometimes spelled Karen). Riding to the village, the roads deteriorated from nice tarmac to dirt, and just before the village there was a steep downhill. The road was cut out of a hill and had a steep berm on both sides. Courtney and Will were far ahead of me and when I came to the hill, I saw the Courtney had been the victim of our first crash. She was, for the most part, unhurt. She had some scrapes on her elbow and knee, but nothing serious. Her bike took a few dings, and a mirror had spun loose. I used my multi-tool to tighten the lock nut holding the mirror in place, and we continued. We arrived at the village and found it small and nearly empty. We walked the main street and saw a few vendors had small huts set up selling trinkets. The Karen people are refugees from war torn Burma, the women famously wrap brass coils around their necks to give the appearance to a longer neck (it actually pushed down the collar bone creating the illusion of a long neck). The women were friendly, but the village was primarily peoples houses and small stalls selling to tourists. I didn’t want to invade peoples’ privacy and wander into their homes, which I have heard of other tour groups doing. A local woman with excellent English introduced us to some other women selling their souvenirs, I bought a bottle opener for myself and a post card for my nephew. I decided not to take pictures of the locals, it already felt like an awkward invasion of privacy and snapping pictures felt like another level of that. After a very brief tour, we headed out.
Natalie had mentioned seeing a sign along the way for “something she wanted to check out” so we stopped and had a look. It was some sort of business sign outside of a farm and while we debated what it was and if we should pull in, a woman was riding out on a scooter. She informed us that it was a restaurant owned by the farmers. Natalie was interested but Courtney and William weren’t, I wasn’t overly interested myself, but Natalie didn’t have a GPS to get her home. With all the charm of a wet blanket, I decided I best have some lunch with her while the others headed back. We went in to the empty open-air restaurant. Our table was shaded by a thatched roof held up by beams and no walls. The waitress spoke little English so, I just pointed at the cooler and ordered us a glass bottle of soda water, thinking it was cool. It turns out that cooler was just for show. We were brought glasses and a bucket of ice to go with it. I wash shocked at how refreshing that was in the heat. We finished the small bottle, and someone who spoke better English came by. We ordered another bottle of soda water and some chicken with rice. While we ate and chatted, I got my phone onto the Wi-Fi and translated the menu. It turns out their specialty was frogs. I was tempted to try some, but we had just eaten and I was full. At least, that’s the excuse I used. This lunch, somehow, stands out to me as the best meals of my trip, or possibly ever. It was probably the company, and the fact I was in a country I never thought I would see and doing something I never thought I would do. But there I was, on the other side of the world riding a motorcycle in a jungle, and now eating lunch with someone I had known for little more than a month. There was no rush to do anything for the rest of the day, the food was good, and the drinks were cold. We explored the grounds a little and then went back to the hotel to relax for a bit before doing a hike up many many stairs to get to two large stupas. While there we saw monks doing evening prayers. I don’t know for sure, but that high up, we looked west and I am sure we could see Burma. Or, rather, trees that were growing in Burma. We went for supper and then went for a walk so the others could show me roti, a local dessert. It started to rain and we ate our crispy, crepe-like dessert under the eave of a building next to the sweet woman who made it for us. Afterward, we had a late night at the hotel, we sat on the patio out front of our cabin until nearly midnight talking a lot about not much at all and stuffing our faces with snacks from the local convenience store.
I woke not feeling well, a price paid for my over indulgence in sweets before bed. Our first stop of the day was at the Su Ton Pae bridge. On the way there, Courtney and Will had gotten ahead, and Natalie, without a nav system, missed a turn. I struggled to catcher her on the winding narrow road, eventually I flagged her down and we got going in the right direction. It was a large bamboo bridge across a field. I think the field flooded seasonally to necessitate the bridge, but I don’t know that. The bridge ends at a Buddhist temple. While there we hung a small slab of wood, about 2 inches by 6 inches on a wall with others. People write their names and their wishes on them, we put “loop group”, our initials, and “good vibes” on ours. I used the bathroom, on the way out saw a dog curled up drawing ragged breath, I found an empty bowl on the ground and filled it and put it near him. I hope he was just dehydrated and that I helped, but I will never really know.
Our next stop was at Fish Cave, a spring fed cave that became a stream full of carp. They were called Mad Carp because they contain a toxin, and possibly as a result, they are considered holy. At the entrance we were sold a small pail of greens to feed them. When dropped into the water, it was an absolute frothing feeding frenzy. The grounds were well kept, and the river was crystal clear. Natalie had mentioned seeing a sign about a hike from the main road and wanted to investigate after the fish cave. We went and followed the trail until it led to a steep hill with some signage. My phone translator wasn’t overly clear but it seemed to say do not enter, and possibly something about danger. Will and Natalie promptly ignored that sign and continued. Courtney and I decided to head back and wait. We sat in a small wooden hut near a bridge at the trailhead where the bikes were parked. The others were gone for nearly an hour and I think we were both fairly annoyed by that. I think the heat was starting to get to me and my attitude. My grump session was interrupted by seeing locals spear fishing in the river. They had scuba style face masks on and rudimentary fishing spears and were having pretty good luck, it seemed.
Eventually Will and Natalie came back, having found some sort of small monastery at the end of their hike. It was now time to head for the hotel. Unfortunately, we got somewhat separated and Courtney got far ahead. I ended up guiding the others to our destination, the town of Ban Rak Thai, a Chinese settlement, about 1km from the Burma border. I read online it was started by soldiers who were opposed to the communist revolution in China. The town had beautiful red lanterns hung over the streets. At the hotel it was a bit of confusion about rooms but we settled on a 3-bed dorm style room for 1000 baht total. The hotel was also very confusing, it was mostly concrete and wood and had a variety of stairs and ramps going every which way. It felt somewhere between a treehouse and a maze , or perhaps a combination of the Winchester Mansion and The Lost Boys hideout in Neverland. We went for supper, but the first place only had Chinese soups and noodles that my western eyes didn’t recognize as food. Luckily, they were sold out of what the others wanted to order so we went elsewhere. The next place we went to was lakeside and much nicer inside. I got a pork omelet and it was amazing. On the walk back, we bumped into another tourist on a scooter who was very much lost. He wasn’t very clear but it sounded like he had missed the turn to get to a monastery. We wished him luck as he left, I do hope he made it.
We got a late start on the day and ended up leave at about 12:30, it was raining lightly and I bought us some cheap rain ponchos. Somehow I still have mine here at home and still take it with me on motorcycle trips. We initially wanted to go to a small town called Ban Jo Ba to do a farm stay. Just before town, I was in the lead, and rounded a corner followed by downhill S- curves. The curves surprised me and I hammered on the rear brakes to lose some speed before the turns. As I rounded the second corner, I looked in my mirror in time to see two scooters high-side in near perfect unison. I parked my bike and ran up the hill. Courtney and Natalie seemed to have come in a little fast and hit the brakes too hard, I think. Both girls were shaken, but uninjured. Natalie’s jacket seemed to have taken a good scrape on the shoulder but luckily, I think, she rolled on landing instead of taking the impact or skidding. Courtney’s bike needed another mirror adjustment and it was good to go, aside from the addition of a few extra scratches. Natalie’s bike also got a mirror tweak, and when I went to move it, the bike revved but didn’t go. It didn’t take long to see that the chain had come off the rear sprocket, sadly, it was hidden under a chain guard and my Leatherman wasn’t up to the task of removal. A local, who spoke no English, stopped his truck and took a look. He motioned for me to follow him, I jumped on my bike and we went into town. He stopped at a house and spoke to a man, he was on his step sitting like buddha in loose fitting and somewhat grubby exercise clothes, his long hair piled on and around his head. Shortly, he jumped up and drove off in a hurry on a scooter that had to be push started, had I not seen it running, I would have assumed it had been stripped for parts. When he returned, he had a little nylon duffel bag full of rusty wrenches, and I spotted a set of vice grips that had been ground flat like a spanner wrench (which strikes me a genius). He handed the bag to the man in the truck. We then went back up the hill to my companions. The man propped the bike on the stand, pulled the guard off, loosened the rear wheel, set the chain on, set the proper tension, and put it all back together. It was very impressive, the speed and confidence with which he did it. We gave him 1000baht palmed in a hand shake to thank him, it was all we had for cash that wasn’t buried in our bags. I then drove the two scooters up the hill as the girls didn’t feel confident doing so. We debated the merits of facing the hill again and decided against going down it. A consideration was that the town below didn’t appear to have much and having to come back up the hill in the rain felt a bit risky to them. As we got back on the road, the light rain turned into proper rain. Luckily, the next town was only about 15 minutes down the road. We went slow, dead slow. Everyone had a bit of a spook in them and I feared another accident could result in a refusal to get back on the bikes and we were far from home. In hindsight, I think all members had more grit and dedication than I was giving them credit for. The hotel was nice, but the man checking us in spoke no English so he just held the phone while someone else walked us through check in. William and Natalie went for supper, I walked to the local corner store and grabbed food for Courtney and I. Neither of us felt up to dinner out. I had been not feeling well and her spirits were low. It was an early night for us all.
In the morning, considering the previous days events, I was relieved to find the weather was clear. We opted to skip breakfast and drive straight to Pai. We made it without incident and stopped for lunch. While waiting for food, I grabbed a Rubik’s cube off a nearby shelf in the café and solved it. I thought I was a big deal for that, Courtney then solved it much faster than I had. We didn’t waste much time in Pai, and I was thankful for that. Its hypocritical of me, but, that place is an absolute tourist trap and I hated it. It looked like a town the tourists were taking advantage of. Entitled foreign teens everywhere and in the way. Scooters flew by us with riders wearing little more than swim suits and clearly lacking skill and hoping blind arrogance would make up the difference. There was also no shortage of tourists with large bandages covering areas commonly afflicted with road rash after a crash. Outside of town and clear of its chaos, I started to feel pretty good on the winding road. Unfortunately, the girls were possibly still a little shaken and a bit slow on their much smaller scooters. I would race ahead, making full use of the street tires affixed to my dual sport bike, get my fill of thrill, and then sit and worry while they caught up. That must be how my mother feels every time I go somewhere. I didn’t mind, but my mind did wander to the idea of doing the trip again solo someday or even with more experienced riders on sportier bikes. Not worrying about others sounded nice, in that moment. We hit some rain towards the end of our ride, but nothing too severe. As we got into town, I missed a turn. Courtney offered to take over as navigator. I was glad to see her up to the task. Were I a better navigator, I may have done that on purpose (I am not a great navigator, and that was not a ploy, but I may use a ploy like that in the future). My bike read one bar of fuel remaining and we were stuck in Thai rush hour traffic. I once was lost in Aukland rush hour in a rental van with the fuel light on. That was far more stressful, I can push a bike and I wasn’t lost. I informed my companions of my low fuel and told them I was heading directly to the rental shop. When I pulled into the shop I was expecting a full white glove and magnifying glass inspection, but the woman barely looked up from the counter before giving me back my deposit. Honestly, I felt a little annoyed, I was mentally prepping for this all week, I was ready to defend myself with pictures of every scratch and scrape on that bike.
We went for supper at a very fancy, and empty, steak house. After the weeks of vegetarian Nepalese food and the various gas station and street food of the motorcycle trip, a big slab of meat was just what I wanted. So I treated myself to pork chops. Our trip was over and I was sad about it. All that was left to do over the next few days was for the others to return their bikes and for me to book flights for the next leg of my trip. The entire loop, I was worried about bike damage and had read some horror stories about insane charges and even scams involving the rental company stealing the bike from in front of your hotel, but ended up having no issues. The girls got a lot of their deposits back and weren’t charged much at all for damages. They inspected Will’s bike a lot, I guess he looks like the type to crash, but he kept it shiny side up the entire time and they gave him his full, deserved, deposit. We had a few lunches and dinners together after that, but eventually all had to go our separate ways. Natalie caught a train and I got a plane. I was worried I had seen the last of my friends.
Technical
The only technical thing I can think of, is that I made sure to pack light for this trip and that really paid off, I just had a small 20L dry sack and a 25L collapsible backpack and neither were full. The waterproofing ended up being a big savior. I really liked the jacket the rental agency lent me, it was from a company called Dianese, and I did try to find it in Canada but the model is out of production and was quite expensive when it was in production, so maybe someday I’ll buy the new model when I am feeling spendy. The Mae Hong Son Loop is famous for a few reasons and the twisty roads are a big part of that. I met a few people along the way who were on their second or third time on the loop and had done it decades ago before smart phones and GPS maps. I could definitely be talked into going back, and I would definitely try and talk this same group into going again. Another fun thing I did do on this trip that was perhaps a little silly, I would text my parents what hotel I was staying at so they could use google street view and satellite images to see the layout.
A big thank you to everyone I came across on this trip, the locals were always friendly, welcoming, and did their best to help tourists who had gotten themselves into trouble.
Posted in Motorcycle, Published Work, Travel and tagged adventure, backpacking, Mae Hong Son Loop, motorcycle, Thailand, travelwith no comments yet.
Thailand Notes Part 2: Chiang Mai to Mae Hong Son
Motorcycle fever had gripped me and made it easy for Natalie to talk me into the trip north to do a week long ride called The Mao Hong Son Loop. A very short version of this story found its way into Motocycle Mojo Magazine.
After much research, we rented our bikes from two different shops. Mine, from a larger shop that carried full size motorcycles with manual transmissions and the others rented scooters, Natalie and Willy rented “semi automatics” which were essentially clutch-less manuals. Courtney rented a true automatic. We agreed to pick up the bikes in the morning. That night we went to a very crowded street market, I felt very claustrophobic and was annoyed to see some of the items I bought at The Silk Factory in Bangkok were for sale for a fraction of what I paid. The food smelled delicious but I didn’t dare risk being sick the next morning. That night I also read up on common scams from rental agencies. The most predominant seemed to be trying to get you to pay for pre-existing damage.
When we got started the morning, I had brief moment of being everyone’s dad and somewhat forced everyone to get a full-face helmet. Thailand is littered with road-rashed tourists and I was hoping to not add to that demographic. All the rental shop helmets had some kind of damage on them ranging from scratches to full splits down the middle, which made for excellent visuals during my presentation. No one else seemed worried about that. We picked up the other’s bikes first, and Natalie was so uncomfortable, she asked me to drive the bike back to the hostel with her as a passenger. That was a nerve-wracking endeavor, she wore a helmet and I had a ballcap. It wasn’t rush hour, but there was definitely more traffic than I wanted to deal with. In my life, I have done some questionable things on motorized equipment, but that one made me the most nervous.
Once back at the hostel, I packed my bag, a 30L waterproof stuff sack, and picked up my bike. The only helmet they had that fit me, and had a visor in good enough shape to see through, had a big doobie on each side and “420” on the back. I found it funny but a little annoying. To avoid getting scammed, again, I took dozens of pictures of my rental bike and a video, when I left, the owner was well aware of every scratch. Once we all met up with our rides, we realized Courtney and I had the only bikes with phone mounts so I asked her to lead so I could bring up the rear. We were finally on the road at 3pm, which annoyed me greatly. Traffic out of the city was bad and Natalie was unfamiliar with bikes so her and I went slower than Will and Courtney. Somewhere deep in my memory, from an unknown source, was a belief that the most capable rider should bring up the rear. Sadly for our group, that was me, but I didn’t mind going slow and seeing the sights.
The only thing of note on the highway was a very large reclining buddha statue on the side of the road. A ways out of the city, we got separated enough that Natalie and I stopped at a run down shop for water and to contact the others ahead of us. Natalie ordered the fried chicken, looking at the state of the place, she will never have to prover her bravery to me. Though it did look crisp. We regrouped but the park we wanted to drive through was closed, we detoured to the town of Hot, the name felt appropriate given the absolute heat of northern Thailand. Courtney picked a hostel for us, and it was an absolute winner. It was little two bed cabins, with attached bathrooms and AC for 400 baht each. Will and I shared a room and I mused at the thought that I was paying $8 cad a night. We walked along the street and found a vendor selling noodles, this was my first Thai street food experience. It had, I believe, pork and fish balls in it (though I am not sure what part of the fish is the ball and I intentionally don’t think about what part of the pork that is), it was good and filling and cost 40 baht ($1.60). We went back to the hotel and sat chatting in the girls’ cabin, the power had gone out and we debated how to pass the time. Someone suggested cards. With nothing better to do, I walked to the corner store and purchased a deck, not realizing they were 375 baht ($15!). They are nice cards, heavy waterproof plastic and in a nice case, but that still pretty steep. By the time I got back, the power was back on and no one was interested in cards now that we had TV and internet. I went to bed thinking about how much nicer the roads in Thailand were than the roads in Nepal. I was also somewhat grumpy about the heat and our late start, I reminded myself that I am on vacation and shouldn’t worry so much about clocks.
We left Hot at the crack of noon. I was a bit frustrated to leave so late. From there we went on a very winding road and stopped at a temple but it wasn’t open to visitors. It was still interesting to drive up to it through the main gate and see the architecture. From there we went to Bo Kaio Pine Tree Garden. It was a nice forest walk, a smooth dirt track through well spaced conifers like we had driven through in Nepal. We also witnessed a bride and groom getting their photos taken. As we headed back to our bikes, it began to rain. We drove to a nearby restaurant and had dinner. It was chicken and rice on cheap plastic plates, and cups that didn’t look clean to me. I asked for the bathroom and got a lot of confusion and pointing and was eventually sent out back to an unlit outhouse with a squat toilet. The rain eased and we continued our trip.
Unfortunately, the rain came back even stronger, we were thoroughly soaked by the time we found a roadside shelter to stop at. After a long wait, it became clear the rain wasn’t stopping and it was now getting dark out. We packed our gear as best we could to avoid damage to electronics. I put my phone in a bag in my pocket and let the mapping app guide me via my headphones, Courtney did the same. Within a mile of leaving our shelter, we passed an overturned semi truck. We slowly snaked around it, it served as a reminder that this was real and dangerous, up to this point, in my mind, it was just uncomfortable. We continued on, driving as a team. Courtney was leading and would give hand signals showing when to pass slow traffic and when to turn. It felt so coordinated, high stakes, and the quiet concentration made it feel somewhat clandestine. It felt like we were a team sneaking into town. Looking back, it reminded me of being a boy and playing soldiers with the neighborhood kids. The rain slowed and stopped as we came into town. The residual heat in the pavement dried the water off in minutes. The steam filled the air like a fog. It was the closest I had been to cool since I had entered the country (both temperature and otherwise). We wove through back roads to find a hotel Courtney had picked before we left. Unfortunately, it was hard to find and when we did get there, it was full. She quickly picked another and headed toward it. We rounded a corner and suddenly I was driving on a main road lined with vertical lights, there were hundreds, all about 4 feet tall, like a vertical fluorescent bulb. They lit the road in an interesting effect and the steam from the rain made it look like a dream or maybe a rave. I could have driven back and forth for hours. We got to our new hotel, a white stone building, we parked along the street and went in to check availability. The place had no guests and the woman at the front had to call the owner to come in. He was excited and rented us dorm beds and told us to bring our bikes in off the street. As we backed our bikes from the curb and pulled into the court yard, Natalie dropped hers. I think it was just a result of the low speed and perhaps tired from the days riding. I lifted it back up for her. We parked in the courtyard out front and he closed gate to the street. We all had showers and gave our wet clothes for laundry. I spent the evening in a long sleeve shirt, underpants, and a towel around my waist. I guess only a single pair of jeans wasn’t a great strategy, but at least they got a wash. We sat outside and ordered food from the attached restaurant. We ate a variety, mostly fried, and drank sodas. We stayed up late eating, drinking, and telling stories and I went to sleep happy. This was the best slumber party I had ever been to and the days riding in the rain was a real team building exercise. Before this we were friendly, after this we were friends.
I woke up feeling terribly ill. Likely a result of supper the night before. After several trips to the washroom, I dosed myself with anti-diarrhea meds and hoped for the best. I bought toast with jam from the restaurant attached to the hostel, it was outright nasty. The bread was yellow and had a sour tang to it, it reminded me of bread I had in Colombia years before. To me, it tasted like it was made with rancid butter, but that cant possibly be accurate. Throwing the bread in the trash, I forced down a granola bar that had been rattling around in my bag and we headed to a café to get breakfast for the others. After a rather lengthy ordering and eating process we hit the winding road again.
The ride was really getting exciting, these curves are what the trip is known for and Thailand’s climate allows for road surfaces to stay nice. Natalie and I stopped for gas and found an odd self serve station. It was a small pump, inset on a wall on the side of the street. I put the nozzle into my tank, loaded my cash in like a vending machine and hit the green button. Immediately the gas started flowing and a little tune played. I was glad I had the nozzle in already, the handle did nothing to stop or start the flow, that could have been a disaster. I declined lunch that day as I still was not well. We rolled into the city of Mao Hong Son around 6pm and had no rain that day. We checked into a nice hotel with a pool in the courtyard. Courney and I went for a swim while Will and Natalie sat by the pool. Somehow a joke came up about Natalie and I doing the lift from Dirty Dancing. We never actually got to try it, until a year later in Guatemala. After the pool we went off in search of food. I was positively starving, and Thai food was getting the best of me. I requested that we go for western food, and somehow the few places that sold it were all closed. I was getting very down and outright frustrated, I was in that stage of hunger where I no longer felt hungry, and just felt grumpy. We eventually found a little restaurant and I had some kind of spicy rice-based dish. It was good but I could barely eat it. I went back to the hotel long before the others and relaxed. Truth be told, I was having fun overall, but in that moment I just wasn’t feeling it. Luckily we still had a few more days of riding to enjoy so I didn’t have to end on that note.
Posted in Motorcycle, Published Work, Travel and tagged adventure, backpacking, Mae Hong Son Loop, motorcycle, Thailand, travelwith 1 comment.
Thailand Notes Part 1: Scammed in Bangkok and Cooked on a Train
I flew to Thailand with very little research and absolutely no guide book. Something I had never done before. This whole trip was a big whim and I had no idea what to expect, it was exciting and scary to think about.
Bangkok
I flew into Bangkok without a plan or clue. The hostel I had booked was dorm style, I wasn’t looking forward to shared accommodations, but private room prices were outright wild. In the airport an official scolded me for having an Ushuaia stamp in my passport she warned “this is for official stamps only” and waved me along. I had gotten the stamp at the tourist center in the town of Ushuaia in 2016 and no one said anything about it until now. As I walked out of the airport, I was shocked by the heat, and the cleanliness, of the city. It was a long cab ride to the hostel and the entire time I marveled at the smooth roads. Going from the infrastructure of Nepal to that of Thailand felt like being hurled into the future, it was a bit of a shock.
The next day I could barely leave the hostel, the heat was so extreme. I would walk building to building, refreshing in the air conditioning. In my travels, I spotted a gun shop. I went to walk in to see how they compared to Canadas. Before I could get a single foot in the door, an old lady shooed me out. It was then I spotted the sign on the door “no tourists, no pictures”. I kept walking and suddenly discovered dozens of gun shops all with the same stickers and equally welcoming. I even saw a street vendor selling accessories, I thought some wood grips for my 1911 would be a neat souvenir but he wouldn’t even look at me, never mind sell to me. I laughed at the fact that I had officially been kicked out of a gun store. That evening, I went to Kao San Road and was thoroughly disgusted. It was a short walk from my hostel and it was everything Thailand had to offer sleazy tourists… bars, “massage” parlors, laughing gas, grilled alligator, knockoff clothes, and drugs. There were also old men walking around asking people if they wanted to see a “ping pong show” and making a popping noise with their mouths… I didn’t spend much time there, it wasn’t my scene.
On my last day in Bangkok, I got scammed. I was walking around, bogged by the heat, and waiting for the streetlight to change so I could cross the road. A man said “in Thailand, we just cross, like this” and walked with me across the street. I thanked him and kept walking. He then kept pace and asked me about myself and what I was doing etc. He then claimed to be some sort of tourism board something or other and had suggested I see some temples and a silk factory. I said that sounded nice, and he wrote their names down. He also said the silk factory usually only exports but for a few days a year they do local sales.. I wasn’t interested in buying anything but I was curious how a silk factory worked. He told me most tuk tuks would take me for 100 baht to all 3. He then waved one down on the road and chatted with the driver, then turned to me and said “he will take you”. So I hopped in, thinking it was odd but some temples would be nice. The man drove like a maniac, I had no idea these little 3-wheelers could go so fast. We went to the first temple, The Happy Buddha Temple. It was small and somewhat unpopular, but I went in to see. There, a man was praying and started talking to me. He asked what I was up to, I told him and he said he really liked the silk factory, that it was where he bought his suits from for business trips. The driver took me to the next stop, the silk factory… instead of a factory tour, it was just a sales pitch, which wasn’t shocking, I figured they just had all the tuk tuk guys on some kind of consignment. I politely declined the salesman’s offer to have several custom suits made… Shockingly, I am not a suit guy, and I didn’t feel like stuffing 6 of them into my backpack. As I was leaving, he asked if I needed anything for gifts, I looked around and picked out a tie set for my brother and a silk kimono for my dad, he then said he could do a custom dress shirt for me since I was buying something. I said sure, I went with a dark green linen material in a long sleeve button up. The salesman asked for my hotel and said he would have them delivered that evening, all in I spent about $180 cad. Our next stop was a temple complex, beautifully built and maintained. I wandered the ground and took some pictures and was ready to leave.
The tuk tuk driver suggested a trip to the docks, he had a friend who could take me out on a boat, I declined because my stomach was upset and I had had enough heat. I went back to my hostel and relaxed. As 5pm approached, I went downstairs and asked the hostel staff if any parcels had come for me and then explained my day. The woman looked at me worried and said “how much did you give them?”… then proceeded to explain there are lots of scammers. I looked online and googled the shop, it turns out everything about that day was a setup, the man walking, the tuk tuk, the man at the temple, all of it. They also run another scam, which is they take you out on a boat and refuse to come back to land until you pay the driver off. It sounds like I almost got the boat scam too. Reading online, it looks like people were scammed into slightly over paying for suits, usually multiple suits. I guess its harder to get scammed when you are cheap. I had paid by credit card and was now hoping the salesman wouldn’t show up so I could just cancel the purchase… I also wondered if violence was the answer if or when the delivery guy got there, but they seemed to use a 3rd party delivery service. The items did arrive, and sure enough, the shirt fit, little short on the sleeves but the torso was long enough. I usually roll the sleeves anyway so it was a practical shirt and I paid about $90cad for it. I essentially got scammed into paying western prices for things. Later in my trip I found the tie set I had bought for $40 for about $5 at a night market… I got got, no doubt, but not for much, and its sure a funny story now. I still laugh at the idea of an elaborate four man setup just to rope me into paying $180. At this point I was more or less done with Bangkok.
The Heat Train
Natalie had reached out to me and suggested I meet her in Chiang Mai, in the north, to do the Mae Hong Son Loop with some travelers she had met there. When I first planned my trip to Nepal, I considered trying to get into India as well for some kind of train trip. The idea interested me but I just couldn’t make it work. So I was excited to get my chance at train travel. For this trip I had booked the train online, the website was in Thai and I used google translate, making sure to book a carriage “With Air”… Before departing I loaded up on various drinks and snacks from the local 7/11 and hoped for the best. I boarded in the early afternoon, I quickly learned that a car “with air” was not the same as one with air conditioning. In my seat, looking out the window I saw that it was bolted shut. The small ceiling fan did its best, but it was over 40 degrees outside. The landscape was beautiful, but it was sweltering in the car.
Initially the train was rather full and there was an American couple that staff had to walk back to their seats several times. They seemed to have trouble with the idea of assigned seating and eventually settled for leaving their bags unattended while wandering to seats they liked more. Over time, the train made stops and people got off. They were the lucky ones, to escape that sweltering heat. Around sunset, a well dressed man with white gloves came through and converted my seat, and the one facing it, into a bunk. Similar to a dining table in an RV being converted into a bed. He also put on a clean sheets, a pillow and a top sheet to be used as a blanket… in case I got cold. The bed was a little wider than me and a bit shorter, it had a fabric curtain I could close for privacy, but that blocked airflow. I tried to sleep but it was simply too hot.
Around midnight, I ran out of beverages. What little sleep I did get had bizarre fever dreams, I had dreams that my ex was texting me, when I came to, I checked my phone and couldn’t find them. When was the last time you saw a cellphone in a dream? Sweaty and confused and more than a little dehydrated.
The train arrived an hour and a half late, which was confusing to me, I can’t imagine it got lost or stuck in traffic. I stepped off the train into that, comparatively, cool 5am air and decided I wanted to walk. Prior to leaving Bangkok, I had asked Natalie to book me a bed at her hostel, she said she would, late in the night she had texted and told me she was not able to, “but it would be fine”. I was anxious about that, but it was morning now and there was nothing to do but head to her hostel and go from there. I talked to my dad on the phone while walking. When I passed an open McDonalds restaurant I hung up on him… I ordered a breakfast sandwich, a water, an orange juice, and an Iced tea. I took my time getting it all in, and felt thoroughly nauseous, I think I had mild heat stroke. My head felt foggy, I was weak, and my stomach was rather upset. Throwing some anti diarrhea meds down, I proceeded toward Natalie’s hostel. I arrived around 8am and sat in the waiting area reading my book until 10 am when she got up. I was rather annoyed by that, she knew when my train was coming in, I didn’t expect her to meet me at the station, but waking up at a more reasonable time just seems considerate. Mentioning it seemed like a bad idea, I correctly assumed my irritability was the dehydration and exhaustion. We walked together to a hostel our other would-be travel companions were staying at. It had proper AC and I got a private room with a small bed, but couldn’t check in until the evening. I put my bag in storage and went for a shower. The shower area had no AC and I struggled to peel off my sweat-soaked clothes. After the shower, I was still sweating so much I struggled to dry myself. I was then introduced to William and Courtney, our travel companions for the trip. Even now I am not sure how Natalie found them, but I am glad she did. William was a Swedish man who had been living and working in Australia, throughout the trip I would find he was immune to stress or worry. I found myself envious of that. Courtney was from Chicago and was very sweet, her and I were very different politically and yet I still enjoyed all of my time with her. Of our group, I had the most motorcycle experience, which was minimal. I had my International Drivers Permit and a motorcycle license, Natalie and Courtney both had regular driver’s licenses, and William had nothing. I was far and away the most experienced on two wheels with my total of about 4 days of riding. I was immediately worried, but no one else was.
Technical
There’s not much technical here beyond maybe read the guide book or google common scams in the country you are visiting otherwise you may end up with a funny story. Furthermore, always try to get clarity and never make assumptions about AC, beyond assuming it won’t be working. In south america I learned to ask “does the bus have AC? does it work? will it be turned on?” because sometimes the answer to those questions is no all the same.
Overheated, dehydrated, and delirious on that train, in my opinion, was probably the most dangerous part of this trip. I brought a lot to drink and I shudder to think what would have happened had I been less prepared. I’m also a little sad that my first and only real train ride experience was so terribly uncomfortable, I had been romanticizing the idea for years.
Posted in Travel and tagged adventure, backpacking, Thailand, travelwith 1 comment.