Anyway, Thailand is a delight, the roads are smoooooooooth with a really wide hard shoulder for pootling along in. Rarely does anyone pip their horn at you and when they do its almost apologetic. People stare at us, oh yes, but when they do it's accompanied by a huge smile and a wave (which I always return, global ambassador for cyclists that I am). People have geared bikes so we can buy spare parts. I can cycle with my legs and arms uncovered without feeling like a woman of loose morals (I quite like having a veneer of respectability). All is good and lovely. The only downsides being a) the mosquitoes b) the blistering heat and c) the 'bonus' meat which the Thais keep treating me to in my rice and noodles. Honestly I thought it was going to be tofu heaven what with all those Buddhists, I have been very much mistaken. The Thais, Buddhist or not eat meat, fish, tentacles in fact anything with everything, they do have tofu sometimes, its only that they love to serve it with a good sprinkling of tentacle, dried shrimp and pork. I can spend ages at the counter, pointing to all the things I'd like with a happy face, even pointing out the things I don't like with an 'oh my god please do NOT put this in' face and accompanying actions, and do you know what they do, they make what I asked for and then find some crazy piece of meat that wasn't even on display, maybe from the back of their own personal fridges or under the murky depths of their stall and put that in instead. They just can't bring themselves to feed me such poor food. This sees James eating many extra portions and/or me picking out lumps of animal and dumping it in James's bowl when no-one's looking.
As for Thailand itself (as apposed to my daily food crisis) its been a pleasure. We landed in Phuket which admittedly was package holiday hell, unimproved by us taking the scenic coastal tour around which involved hills so unbelievably steep I was pulling wheelies up them but once we'd escaped things improved dramatically. First we headed to Phang Nga which was just the most photogenic place in the world, we spent our time on a long tailed boat, zipping around through mangrove and visiting Dr. No's secret island, spending the night at a floating village and the highlight, viewing an island that "bears a remarkable resemblance to a poodle dog" according to the publicity boards.
We visited Khao Sok Nature reserve which was just amazing. On a jungle walk we spotted a beautiful snake which I paused to take a picture of only realising later when we looked it up in a field guide that it was to be treated with 'extreme caution' (but it was soooo pretty). As we sweated our way through the jungle I became obsessed with photographing fungi and plants, we also paused to watch a troop of dusky langurs making their way up the river (though we thought they were gibbons at the time). All this and the most beautiful bungalow on stilts in the jungle by the river with outdoor bathroom (in a glamorous way). From there we sweated our way along steaming roads, camping in a steaming tent, through at times amazing rainforest (and at others huge deforestation for the sake of palm oil and rubber plantations), past Burma and on to the west coast.
From Chumpon we caught a boat to one of the highlights of my trip to the island of Koh Tao so that I could do a PADI open water diving course. I have been so excited by this I just want to become a better diver, do more courses so i can go deeper, dive in the dark and the like and then go on diving holidays, excellent stuff! Koh Tao itself is obviously full of westerners learning to dive so not quite the island retreat you might necessarily track down but I loved it anyway. James wasn't up for it as he didn't want to spend his time watching video's and bobbing around in a pool when he could be snorkeling and seeing stuff but it was one of the things i wanted to do before i left,
so off I went, bobbed around, met some lovely people, had a laugh, learned to dive and fell over drunk at the end of course celebration (surprise, surprise) causing my legs to come up in hideous pus riddled scabs which are only now healing but it seemed worth it at the time and was a price I was happy to pay. We went snorkeling with the lovely people from the course the next day for fun and had a great time, even saw small reef sharks in REALLY shallow water... so on this wave of euphoria I am contemplating doing my advanced diving course in Vietnam...Sad as I was to leave Koh Tao our time was running short so we bombed our way north to Bangkok, pausing only to freeze our brains with slush puppy style slurpees (my latest addiction) and shovel down rice n veg (and J ate the odd bit of tentacle). We did take a detour to another national park which had amazing karst limestone formations but I was totally depressed by the endless shrimp farms and the sight of coconut picking macaques chained to the back of pick up trucks. As we made our way up the coast we called in at a few resorts which the Thais favour and the lonely planet is pretty favourable about them too but couldn't see the appeal, they were either hellishly overdeveloped to the point where you couldn't see the sea or had a bit of a neglected blackpool feel about them. Anyway we sizzled into Bangkok, the heat is overwhelmingly, well, hot on the skin actually. We have spent our time wandering round wats, admiring enormous reclining (and non reclining) Golden Buddha's, buying amulets for protection from who knows what, having a beer or too and steering clear of the sex industry, I've also bought a few nice new stickers for my bike.
So tomorrow we're off, heading to Cambodia and into the monsoon proper, I've got a new (plastic but 100% recyclable) basket for my bicycle (the last one rusted to oblivion), my crocs are at the ready, I've a supply of plastic bags (to keep my feet dryish) and a smile... bring on the rains.
x
