We fixed the price, we got to the boat, it turned our our man on the scene(MOTS) wasn't actually the boat driver, but that was okay, the boatman and his lovely wife and daughter obviously knew what they were doing. We had the boat pretty much to ourselves with only a Japanese guy sharing the boat with us. As we were getting on the boat the MOTS said 'you pay me balance now'. Of course we almost did, cos even after 3 months we still have a little faith and trust. Then DT was like, 'no, other end' - we now speak in these weird little half sentences.
The Mekong is huge!! I'll repeat that - The Mekong is huge!! Man it's a big river. You think you are on the other side and low and behold, it is just an island. It is amazingly busy, with lots of people living on the river, so you go past other boats and there are people washing their hair, brushing their teeth, every ablution possible. Sam and Mick decided to test the water filter bottle so they scooped up some water and put in the filter and had a wee drink. No terrible side affects, it was a very expensive bottle, of course it would work. Sam told me later he had the seen the boat driver and his family drinking the water as well, but straight out of the river, then he said he saw the Mother hold the little girl over the edge to have a crap! I think he might have wished he had waited before testing the filter bottle.
We went to a floating market, but it wasn't that interesting, what was interesting though, was the way the town was built on the water and everyone's back garden was liquid. Much like Venice is I suppose, it was really peaceful after the madness of the roads. We got taken to the obligatory honey shop stop and managed to buy some products - how could we not, they were yummy. We thought that the honey would be useful for snacks with the Vietnamese Bread - baguettes, but unfortunately with the ants we kept it in the fridge at the next hotel and I think it is still there.
We started to feel a bit uneasy on the way to My Tho when the boat driver stopped at the beginning of an island and called out to some fisherman. Obviously we couldn't understand a word, except for My Tho and lots of pointing by the two fishermen, the boater and his wife. Which incidentally is pretty cool to watch when you haven't a clue what is being said, but everyone gets really enthusiastic with their conversations. So he set off in the direction of the pointing, I said to DT, 'that bugger's never been here before, he hasn't a clue where to go. We had assumed that because My Tho is down river, you can't miss it! Obviously not when the river is the size of a small ocean! Anyway, a bit further down the track, the scene is repeated. Our antennae were twirling a bit now, but for no reason as shortly after the big beautiful new My Tho suspension bridge appeared before us and all was good. Until... the boatman, pulled into the bank and said ' You can hop out now and bicycle into town - not far'. Aahh No Actually. It was kind of funny because the way he said it was like an enthusiastic tour guide unveiling details of the special offer - free for you. At this stage, remember the river is huge, the bridge is just a misty smudge on the horizon and we are in fact about 10km out of My Tho.
DT got on his 'don't mess with me voice' though and after repeated gesturing to the bridge and My Tho, My Tho, and the man reluctantly pulled out and off we chugged. He then tried two more times to dump us and finally evicted us right below smack into the middle of a building site right below the bridge. We finally paid the ferryman and wobbled off, I could say much to the amusement of the site workers, but they didn't even bat an eyelid! No OSH reps here to worry about Mum, Dad and the 3 kids weaving through their site.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
We can't believe we have travelled all the way to Vietnam and we're going to Miss Saigon!
I thought that one up today on my bike and just couldn't resist it!!
Wow, we can't believe how a silly little thing like a border can change the environment so much! Once again it feels like we're in a a different country. The first few days are always a bit hairy, new road rules - no actually they stay the same - non existent!, new currency to convert in our heads, before every single purchase. Sometimes when we're under pressure we still mentally go back through all the currencies just to check whether or not we're being ripped!
The first day's riding was a bit of a nightmare for everyone, Dave's gammy knee was playing up, I stabbed my finger at breakfast, then fell off at the first set of traffic lights - forgot to uncleat! It must have looked pretty funny though to the people behind me! It was hot, it was windy and amazingly for us kiwis used to the wide open spaces we travelled for 55km and never got into the country. Occasionally we would see a mileage marker saying xkm to the such and such village, how they knew where one finished and the next one started is a mystery. Anyway we came to a mad city of popn 300,000. This was also a nightmare and we were glad to leave this morning!
We decided to change sides of the river and started our day by catching a ferry with the early morning commuters and rode basically parallel to the road we were on the previous day. This was much nicer, still busy, but not quite so manic.
When you are riding over here you have to really concentrate (a challenge for all of us). In your path are a number of pedestrians - ambling along in your path (in either direction), gorgeously elegant school girls (and stinky boys!) ride along 2 or 3 abreast. But the biggest hazard would have to be those crazies on bikes, feet and scooters who zoom along on the wrong side of the road! Nobody even bats an eyelid. Sometimes you are cycling along, look up and 'Hello Dolly' you're about 3 nanoseconds away from a major. You do a major swerve accompanied by a startled grimace of fear, mixed with oops, mixed with sorry - in every language you don't quite know.
What does the person you've almost flattened do. Nothing, they just carry on with that serene, cool as look on their face as if to say - I knew it would be okay!
Our 3rd Vietnamese night is in a town called Vinh Long. We have arranged to continue our journey downriver by boat. We are going to one of those floating markets first thing (8am) and then to a town called My Tho (I think you say Me Toe) and hopefully from there we can jump across to the coast to begin the northwards part of the journey. By doing this hopefully we won't have to go into Ho Chi Minh.
Wow, we can't believe how a silly little thing like a border can change the environment so much! Once again it feels like we're in a a different country. The first few days are always a bit hairy, new road rules - no actually they stay the same - non existent!, new currency to convert in our heads, before every single purchase. Sometimes when we're under pressure we still mentally go back through all the currencies just to check whether or not we're being ripped!
The first day's riding was a bit of a nightmare for everyone, Dave's gammy knee was playing up, I stabbed my finger at breakfast, then fell off at the first set of traffic lights - forgot to uncleat! It must have looked pretty funny though to the people behind me! It was hot, it was windy and amazingly for us kiwis used to the wide open spaces we travelled for 55km and never got into the country. Occasionally we would see a mileage marker saying xkm to the such and such village, how they knew where one finished and the next one started is a mystery. Anyway we came to a mad city of popn 300,000. This was also a nightmare and we were glad to leave this morning!
We decided to change sides of the river and started our day by catching a ferry with the early morning commuters and rode basically parallel to the road we were on the previous day. This was much nicer, still busy, but not quite so manic.
When you are riding over here you have to really concentrate (a challenge for all of us). In your path are a number of pedestrians - ambling along in your path (in either direction), gorgeously elegant school girls (and stinky boys!) ride along 2 or 3 abreast. But the biggest hazard would have to be those crazies on bikes, feet and scooters who zoom along on the wrong side of the road! Nobody even bats an eyelid. Sometimes you are cycling along, look up and 'Hello Dolly' you're about 3 nanoseconds away from a major. You do a major swerve accompanied by a startled grimace of fear, mixed with oops, mixed with sorry - in every language you don't quite know.
What does the person you've almost flattened do. Nothing, they just carry on with that serene, cool as look on their face as if to say - I knew it would be okay!
Our 3rd Vietnamese night is in a town called Vinh Long. We have arranged to continue our journey downriver by boat. We are going to one of those floating markets first thing (8am) and then to a town called My Tho (I think you say Me Toe) and hopefully from there we can jump across to the coast to begin the northwards part of the journey. By doing this hopefully we won't have to go into Ho Chi Minh.
CAMBODIAN OVERVIEW
After our big Siem Reap blow out, which we ended up extending by one day - cos it was just so good, we embarked on our biggest effort so far. 65km then 86km, then 86 followed by a leisurely 74 - 4 days of hard riding. It was great (ish) and much better than we had originally thought as the roads have now been paved all of the way from Siem Reap. Other blogs we had read, talked about the wicked dust and the horrendous potholes. Saying that the last 3 days were some of the worst riding we have experienced.
A quick word about the Cambodian traffic. There are never any traffic queues as nobody ever gets stuck behind trucks, buses, cars etc. This is partly because the roads are really straight but mostly because they are all stone mad. The pass everywhere, through towns, on bridges, on blind corners, it seems that so long as you sit on your horn, long and loud, drive at full speed and use your indicator - its allowed! Usually this wouldn't bother us because most of the roads we have been on so far have a cycle lane for motor scooters, bicycles, pedestrians, bullock carts, pony carts, stalls, parking, someone's wedding ceremony (not really). It appears that someone suddenly had a policy brainwave to abolish the cycle lane, fill it up with potholes and make the road have a big drop off. If you lost concentration and went off the road, you got a nice big jolt to wake you up (and increase the number of punctures you were likely to have).
Before we put Cambodia into the itinerary, I have to admit I'd never thought too much about it and I have to admit, didn't even make the connection with Kampuchea - dumb aye. So anyway we got reading and found out about Angkhor Wat and the Khmer Rouge (learnt how to pronounce Khmer). Basically (if you are as ignorant as we were). Pre 1975 there was a civil war with the country folk against the Government. The Khmer Rouge won. They ordered everyone to leave the capital and set up an agrarian society where you were vilified or possibly worse - shot if you were an intellectual (this could amount to speaking a foreign language or merely wearing glasses), if your skin was too white, if you worked for the previous Government etc. Everyone got shipped out to the country side and put to work growing rice and vegetables for the new Government. 3 million of the country's 17 million population was killed in the following 4 years. Those that survived were left displaced, mourning, starving and the task of trying to rebuild their country. They have done this really well with lots of new infrastructure (the aforementioned roads) and Siem Reap and Phnom and Penh are International Cities.
We finished our Cambo experience by travelling down the Mekong on a boat to the Vietnamese border. It was a 4 hour journey which we shared with some Americans Dad and his 3 sons (18-25) who had been on a similar tour to ours, but 6 weeks via planes, trains, buses, cars.
A quick word about the Cambodian traffic. There are never any traffic queues as nobody ever gets stuck behind trucks, buses, cars etc. This is partly because the roads are really straight but mostly because they are all stone mad. The pass everywhere, through towns, on bridges, on blind corners, it seems that so long as you sit on your horn, long and loud, drive at full speed and use your indicator - its allowed! Usually this wouldn't bother us because most of the roads we have been on so far have a cycle lane for motor scooters, bicycles, pedestrians, bullock carts, pony carts, stalls, parking, someone's wedding ceremony (not really). It appears that someone suddenly had a policy brainwave to abolish the cycle lane, fill it up with potholes and make the road have a big drop off. If you lost concentration and went off the road, you got a nice big jolt to wake you up (and increase the number of punctures you were likely to have).
Before we put Cambodia into the itinerary, I have to admit I'd never thought too much about it and I have to admit, didn't even make the connection with Kampuchea - dumb aye. So anyway we got reading and found out about Angkhor Wat and the Khmer Rouge (learnt how to pronounce Khmer). Basically (if you are as ignorant as we were). Pre 1975 there was a civil war with the country folk against the Government. The Khmer Rouge won. They ordered everyone to leave the capital and set up an agrarian society where you were vilified or possibly worse - shot if you were an intellectual (this could amount to speaking a foreign language or merely wearing glasses), if your skin was too white, if you worked for the previous Government etc. Everyone got shipped out to the country side and put to work growing rice and vegetables for the new Government. 3 million of the country's 17 million population was killed in the following 4 years. Those that survived were left displaced, mourning, starving and the task of trying to rebuild their country. They have done this really well with lots of new infrastructure (the aforementioned roads) and Siem Reap and Phnom and Penh are International Cities.
We finished our Cambo experience by travelling down the Mekong on a boat to the Vietnamese border. It was a 4 hour journey which we shared with some Americans Dad and his 3 sons (18-25) who had been on a similar tour to ours, but 6 weeks via planes, trains, buses, cars.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Spiritual Siem Reap
The big 101km day was huge. But the kids did brilliantly, the big boys were very patient and the little boy and the Mother, worked hard! Mr Pumpy had written in his blog that Siem Reap was tourist heaven, don't fight it, order a pizza and a beer and put your feet up - right oh Mr Pumpy and what's more we'll cycle over 100km to do it. Man it was worth it too. All those negative vibes that had dogged me since the border, just fell away as I walked into the hotel and the receptionist uttered those magic words and here are your vouchers for our buffet breakfast, Madame.
We dedicated the next day to the swimming pool and schoolwork. I felt like I never wanted to leave to the hotel, but as usual on this trip, while what you are doing is always great, the next thing just gets better and better. We planned to ride our bikes to Angkhor Wat (about 6km out of town) the next day. Since the planning stages this had been one of the most do's
It was the centre of the Khmer empire from 9th - 15th century. Built originally by a Hindu King, taking over 37 years, it was changed to a Buddhist Temple because that was the faith of the next leader. It was truly awesome and we only got to see a small part of it. Adjacent to it is Angkhor Thom which is the city that services it as only the monks, king and high priests were worthy of going in their and even they lived somewhere else, only going there to talk to the gods and to pray.
On the journey here and during our time in Siem Reap we have been humbled by the friendliness and hospitality of the Cambodians. As a country they have been through so much, but their level of customer service is unsurpassed, Whether it be in the lovely hotels or the smallest shack on the side of the road they are just a pleasure to do business with.
We dedicated the next day to the swimming pool and schoolwork. I felt like I never wanted to leave to the hotel, but as usual on this trip, while what you are doing is always great, the next thing just gets better and better. We planned to ride our bikes to Angkhor Wat (about 6km out of town) the next day. Since the planning stages this had been one of the most do's
It was the centre of the Khmer empire from 9th - 15th century. Built originally by a Hindu King, taking over 37 years, it was changed to a Buddhist Temple because that was the faith of the next leader. It was truly awesome and we only got to see a small part of it. Adjacent to it is Angkhor Thom which is the city that services it as only the monks, king and high priests were worthy of going in their and even they lived somewhere else, only going there to talk to the gods and to pray.
On the journey here and during our time in Siem Reap we have been humbled by the friendliness and hospitality of the Cambodians. As a country they have been through so much, but their level of customer service is unsurpassed, Whether it be in the lovely hotels or the smallest shack on the side of the road they are just a pleasure to do business with.
Cavorting across Cambodia
Well Everyday as we are riding I am busily composing blogs in my head and I must say, they are mostly pretty damn good. But alas they never seem to make it to the laptop, what with getting a place which has wifi and if we do finding my place in the queue for the computer that night or maybe its because we are just plain knackered at the end of the day it doesn't seem to have happened. So I will start at the start and catch you up with all the important news.
The night before we left Thailand we booked our flights to the UK. We were all pretty excited as we now had a bit more of an idea of what we were doing and the timescale we were adhering to. I wasn't looking forward to leaving Thailand as I understood it, in as much as I knew what food to order, I had a good idea of how the drivers behaved, the weather was lovely and there was always 7-11 and those Lays potato chips for when the going got tough.
Right from the first hassles for visas before we even exited Thailand, I had negative vibes about Cambodia, these fears were not allayed when we spent that first night in Poipet. It just seemed like another country - and guess what it was!
A really hard ride saw us in Sisophon which is a crossroads town where the road splits and the '6' goes to the left of the lake and the '5' goes to the right for almost 400km before they meet again just outside Phnom Penh. In the middle is Tonle Sap which is the largest freshwater floodplain lake in the world. I'm not sure how many freshwater floodplain lakes there are in the world, but this is the biggest and covers 12000 sqkm during the monsoon. Pretty huge.
We had a few hotels to choose from in Sisphon, but ended up in the last one before leaving town, mostly because I was so paranoid about our 101km ride to Siem Reap the next day - I wanted to get as close as possible to make the next day a bit shorter. This was to become our undisputed best value room deal ever for the grand sum of $10, we managed to fit the family into two rooms - with ensuite! It was pretty basic though, but the kids were rapt because for the first time in weeks they could sit on their beds without bruising their tail bones (Thai beds were very firm!).
The night before we left Thailand we booked our flights to the UK. We were all pretty excited as we now had a bit more of an idea of what we were doing and the timescale we were adhering to. I wasn't looking forward to leaving Thailand as I understood it, in as much as I knew what food to order, I had a good idea of how the drivers behaved, the weather was lovely and there was always 7-11 and those Lays potato chips for when the going got tough.
Right from the first hassles for visas before we even exited Thailand, I had negative vibes about Cambodia, these fears were not allayed when we spent that first night in Poipet. It just seemed like another country - and guess what it was!
A really hard ride saw us in Sisophon which is a crossroads town where the road splits and the '6' goes to the left of the lake and the '5' goes to the right for almost 400km before they meet again just outside Phnom Penh. In the middle is Tonle Sap which is the largest freshwater floodplain lake in the world. I'm not sure how many freshwater floodplain lakes there are in the world, but this is the biggest and covers 12000 sqkm during the monsoon. Pretty huge.
We had a few hotels to choose from in Sisphon, but ended up in the last one before leaving town, mostly because I was so paranoid about our 101km ride to Siem Reap the next day - I wanted to get as close as possible to make the next day a bit shorter. This was to become our undisputed best value room deal ever for the grand sum of $10, we managed to fit the family into two rooms - with ensuite! It was pretty basic though, but the kids were rapt because for the first time in weeks they could sit on their beds without bruising their tail bones (Thai beds were very firm!).
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Hello Cambodia
Oh my goodness, what a shock! We are back to being wide eyed. We had got used to the swing of things in Thailand, until it all seemed pretty pedestrian. The funniest thing about Cambodia is that they drive on the other side of the road. We wondered how they would manage it, like is there a pull over area, does anyone tell you, maybe a little instruction card. Or does a big F off truck just beep his horn at you as he bears down on you entering the Kingdom of Cambodia! D is the correct answer there team.
But we have had nothing but loveliness since. The entry visa people gave the boys fruit when we were waiting and everyone has been really lovely. I must admit the hotel we are staying in isn't strictly backpacker, but that's okay we need to ease into things.
The weather has been much colder since Bangkok, but we think that is just a front. It has made for much more comfortable cycling anyway, so can't really complain. Hopefully it will warm up again, hate to lose the tan before we hit Blighty!
We're really pleased we made the decision to finish travelling next month. The boys are really excited about moving into the next phase. We still have heaps that we would still like to do, but we're feeling bad about the lack of schoolwork the kids are doing and don't want it to get to be a chore for anyone. Michael is really missing the peanut butter and jam sandwiches, Jake has almost emptied the country of books and Sam is having cricket withdrawals and is dying to wreck his bike with some downhills!! Dave and Kim of course need a few home comforts for a bit ( especially a soft bed!)
So once again thanks for the messages, hope you are all well.
Lots of love
The Dusty Thomas'
xxxxx
But we have had nothing but loveliness since. The entry visa people gave the boys fruit when we were waiting and everyone has been really lovely. I must admit the hotel we are staying in isn't strictly backpacker, but that's okay we need to ease into things.
The weather has been much colder since Bangkok, but we think that is just a front. It has made for much more comfortable cycling anyway, so can't really complain. Hopefully it will warm up again, hate to lose the tan before we hit Blighty!
We're really pleased we made the decision to finish travelling next month. The boys are really excited about moving into the next phase. We still have heaps that we would still like to do, but we're feeling bad about the lack of schoolwork the kids are doing and don't want it to get to be a chore for anyone. Michael is really missing the peanut butter and jam sandwiches, Jake has almost emptied the country of books and Sam is having cricket withdrawals and is dying to wreck his bike with some downhills!! Dave and Kim of course need a few home comforts for a bit ( especially a soft bed!)
So once again thanks for the messages, hope you are all well.
Lots of love
The Dusty Thomas'
xxxxx
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Terminating Thailand
How exciting, we got our little heads down today and managed 87km to bring us to Sa Kaeo. It was really tough, head winds slight uphill and very long, very straight roads. Much the same as riding around Darfield, Sheffield in Canty. Lots of food stops got us through though, don't they always! We met a lovely lady (Roongjit) at lunch who is an English teacher and was so helpful she gave us her email (in case we get into difficulties) and also her brother's - he lives in the border town and would help us if we had any problems there. It is so uplifting to meet such kindness and friendliness along the way. Also it was great to see our friends from Bangkok with the cycle shop have put a link onto their webpage with our pictures, you will have to use the translator as it is all in Thai and even then in doesn't quite work, but you get the idea. http://www.airwalkfixed-
Big news on the Thomas front. We have booked our tickets to the UK and only have 4 and a half weeks left to do everything we wanted to. So if you answered the question on the front of the blog - Will they make China by August - the answer is almost. We are flying out of Hanoi, but will probably undertake some of the journey by train or aeroplane. We are just researching the must dos so any ideas would be greatly appreciated, at the moment it is looking like South Coast Cambodia and Mekong Delta with perhaps some Vietnam beaches thrown in, prob east of Ho Chi Minh then some Halong Bay (near Hanoi). Who knows we change our mind fairly frequently!
Big news on the Thomas front. We have booked our tickets to the UK and only have 4 and a half weeks left to do everything we wanted to. So if you answered the question on the front of the blog - Will they make China by August - the answer is almost. We are flying out of Hanoi, but will probably undertake some of the journey by train or aeroplane. We are just researching the must dos so any ideas would be greatly appreciated, at the moment it is looking like South Coast Cambodia and Mekong Delta with perhaps some Vietnam beaches thrown in, prob east of Ho Chi Minh then some Halong Bay (near Hanoi). Who knows we change our mind fairly frequently!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Bye bye Bangkok
After 3 mad days getting fleeced in Bangkok (and loving it) we were glad to hit the road this morning. We had done some research about the best way to get out of the made house and it was surprisingly straightforward. We ended up going right through Siam Square which was chaotic, but hilarious.
We stopped at a garage to get some water about 10km out of central Bangkok and Dave got talking to some guys (Singchai and his bro) who own a cycling shop selling fixies (look it up if you don't know - I didn't!). They have just come back from an expo in Taiwan and were really interested in what we were doing, they gave us their details and said to contact them if we had any difficulties. This attitude is always really nice and makes your day.
We stopped at a garage to get some water about 10km out of central Bangkok and Dave got talking to some guys (Singchai and his bro) who own a cycling shop selling fixies (look it up if you don't know - I didn't!). They have just come back from an expo in Taiwan and were really interested in what we were doing, they gave us their details and said to contact them if we had any difficulties. This attitude is always really nice and makes your day.
Champing to get to Chumpon
That scent of a train trip has made riding so much easier as everyone is a bit more focussed and the miles for the last two days have just flown by.
Today we did the best ever rotations. The km just flew by. Mickey led us for the first 3km, after that we did 40km non-stop, our best effort yet. Then we had a quick coke and hit the road again. Micky spotted the Tesco Lotus sign at 50 paces and cruised in for some much needed KFC. Of course if was disgusting and we said we won't have it again - until the next time.
Unfortunately there were no seats on the train to Bangkok that night and only seats the following night. The tout outside said he would get us a pick me up. We chose to go with this as it was only 12.30pm and it meant we would be in Bangkok by 7pm.
The guy arrived so we squashed into a 1.5cab Hilux and hit the road. The boys were so good about it as it was really uncomfortable. I'm pretty sure the spoilt little brats of 6 months ago would have moaned their backsides off we had expected them to go even to Nelson in those conditions. But these boys knew how well off as the alternative involves lots of sweat and tears! The driver was great and our fears of ending up motorway fodder were unfounded.
When we got to Bangkok he flashed his lights at a minibus/truck driver and asked for directions to get to Bangkok central as he didn't have a clue. It was pretty funny when the driver offloaded his wife into the truck as well to direct him. That made 7 in the vehicle. She was a complete nutter who talked non-stop the whole way to the driver at something slightly less decibels than a full shout. Each sentence was followed by made laughter. As we got closer to town she would periodically turn to Dave and shout at him Khao San, Khao San. He didn't know it at the time but that is the tourist hotel area so it was all good.
Today we did the best ever rotations. The km just flew by. Mickey led us for the first 3km, after that we did 40km non-stop, our best effort yet. Then we had a quick coke and hit the road again. Micky spotted the Tesco Lotus sign at 50 paces and cruised in for some much needed KFC. Of course if was disgusting and we said we won't have it again - until the next time.
Unfortunately there were no seats on the train to Bangkok that night and only seats the following night. The tout outside said he would get us a pick me up. We chose to go with this as it was only 12.30pm and it meant we would be in Bangkok by 7pm.
The guy arrived so we squashed into a 1.5cab Hilux and hit the road. The boys were so good about it as it was really uncomfortable. I'm pretty sure the spoilt little brats of 6 months ago would have moaned their backsides off we had expected them to go even to Nelson in those conditions. But these boys knew how well off as the alternative involves lots of sweat and tears! The driver was great and our fears of ending up motorway fodder were unfounded.
When we got to Bangkok he flashed his lights at a minibus/truck driver and asked for directions to get to Bangkok central as he didn't have a clue. It was pretty funny when the driver offloaded his wife into the truck as well to direct him. That made 7 in the vehicle. She was a complete nutter who talked non-stop the whole way to the driver at something slightly less decibels than a full shout. Each sentence was followed by made laughter. As we got closer to town she would periodically turn to Dave and shout at him Khao San, Khao San. He didn't know it at the time but that is the tourist hotel area so it was all good.
Ranong - Kraburi (the ride)
We made a plan to get up bright and early and hit the road as we had read there was some fairly mighty hills on the way to Kraburi.
It turned out that breakfast was included in the hotel price so we had some toast to set us on our way. It turned out to be a beautiful ride and the hill was huge but we just loved it. It was great to be underway before the sun got too hot or the wind got up.
We only had 50km to do so had our first break after 20km which was coincidentally at a little town where the Sunday market was just packing up. It was pretty weird though because it wasn't even 10am on a Sunday morning and they were all done and dusted! The early bird and all that!
We had read about some bungalows just on the south side of Kraburi which were the cleanest in Thailand! Obviously we stopped there and I don't know about the cleanest but the lady was just lovely and showed us where to eat our dinner (her neighbours coincidentally) and suggested we go for a ride after dinner to see the pier.
Well the pier itself was pretty average but it was right on the sea/river/inlet which divides Myanmar from Thailand. There was heaps of longboat traffic going between the two, even after it got dark. I don't think I would fancy going across the river in those boats at that time - they looked pretty rumpty! The hills looked really cool with the sun setting and the lightening flashing behind them. We were really glad we made the trip, after all there was bugger all else to do!
The next morning we had a lovely breakfast - the most expensive in Thailand! and set off for Chumpon.
It turned out that breakfast was included in the hotel price so we had some toast to set us on our way. It turned out to be a beautiful ride and the hill was huge but we just loved it. It was great to be underway before the sun got too hot or the wind got up.
We only had 50km to do so had our first break after 20km which was coincidentally at a little town where the Sunday market was just packing up. It was pretty weird though because it wasn't even 10am on a Sunday morning and they were all done and dusted! The early bird and all that!
We had read about some bungalows just on the south side of Kraburi which were the cleanest in Thailand! Obviously we stopped there and I don't know about the cleanest but the lady was just lovely and showed us where to eat our dinner (her neighbours coincidentally) and suggested we go for a ride after dinner to see the pier.
Well the pier itself was pretty average but it was right on the sea/river/inlet which divides Myanmar from Thailand. There was heaps of longboat traffic going between the two, even after it got dark. I don't think I would fancy going across the river in those boats at that time - they looked pretty rumpty! The hills looked really cool with the sun setting and the lightening flashing behind them. We were really glad we made the trip, after all there was bugger all else to do!
The next morning we had a lovely breakfast - the most expensive in Thailand! and set off for Chumpon.
Ranong - Kraburi
Well if you have been reading these properly and taking notes you should be ready for the test!! Who saw the deliberate mistake!!
We are out of order a bit both geographically and chronologically - sorry. Back in sequence now.
In Ranong the plan was to get a visa extension - we thought for one month. It turned out we would only be better off by 2 days if we got the extension, so we didn't end up taking the boat across to Myanmar. The good thing to come out of this was a day up our sleeves, our hotel was already sorted for that night and we had nothing else to do, so we were tourists for the day.
We went into Ranong and to the market, little tip if you are eating market food - don't take a visit to the market where they buy their supplies, it can be a bit offputting. Dave said it was nearly enough to turn him vegetarian, but not quite! The market was cool though, madly busy and stinking hot! On the way back to the hotel we came across another area which was being set up for a fair which as far as we could make out was a promotion of healthy eating etc. This turned out to be an excellent find as we went back at night for a wander around and thoroughly enjoyed it. When we first got there all the food stalls seemed to be creepy crawlies, grasshoppers, huhu grubs, cockroachy looking beetles, all deepfried. Jake said he felt sick when he saw a little kid go up and buy a bag and then tuck into it as if they were lollies! A bit like the wild food festival but without the alcohol to help it go down!! But luckily there was heaps of other food for the more faint hearted. We also visited the hotsprings, but after Rotorua not really too much to do there.
Due to the fact that we now have only 12 days to cover about 900km, plus fit in some downtime in Bangkok we have decided to head for Chumpon and get the train to Bangkok (slackers I know).
We are out of order a bit both geographically and chronologically - sorry. Back in sequence now.
In Ranong the plan was to get a visa extension - we thought for one month. It turned out we would only be better off by 2 days if we got the extension, so we didn't end up taking the boat across to Myanmar. The good thing to come out of this was a day up our sleeves, our hotel was already sorted for that night and we had nothing else to do, so we were tourists for the day.
We went into Ranong and to the market, little tip if you are eating market food - don't take a visit to the market where they buy their supplies, it can be a bit offputting. Dave said it was nearly enough to turn him vegetarian, but not quite! The market was cool though, madly busy and stinking hot! On the way back to the hotel we came across another area which was being set up for a fair which as far as we could make out was a promotion of healthy eating etc. This turned out to be an excellent find as we went back at night for a wander around and thoroughly enjoyed it. When we first got there all the food stalls seemed to be creepy crawlies, grasshoppers, huhu grubs, cockroachy looking beetles, all deepfried. Jake said he felt sick when he saw a little kid go up and buy a bag and then tuck into it as if they were lollies! A bit like the wild food festival but without the alcohol to help it go down!! But luckily there was heaps of other food for the more faint hearted. We also visited the hotsprings, but after Rotorua not really too much to do there.
Due to the fact that we now have only 12 days to cover about 900km, plus fit in some downtime in Bangkok we have decided to head for Chumpon and get the train to Bangkok (slackers I know).
Churaburi - Kaper (Kapoe)
Thursday March 17, 2011, 64 km (40 miles) -
Last night all the omens seemed bad, Mickey threw up after dinner, the rain came at night rather than the afternoon and my back was sore (not much but it made up the 3 bad things!) So it was with trepidation that I settled down to sleep last night. As usual I was completely wrong.This morning was lovely and bright, Mickey was on top of his game and I'd had a voltarin. We got packed up and said our thanks and good bye to 'Mr' Boon Piya and scooted over to the market for breakfast. Pork bits and sticky rice for Jake, Sam and Dave, Crumpets for me and Mick A sausage for Mick and waffles for everyone, filled us up for just over 1,00baht, so can't complain there, have found this much cheaper than all sitting down to cold rice and last night's stew at the wayside stalls!
The riding today got really hot really fast with a vicious head wind, This didn't last long however and we were soon rollercoastering along over gentle downs and not too bad ups. We had a sprite stop at about 30km which was lovely loads of ice, which the kids then transferred into their drink bottles. There were some children hanging about who showed us their toys and sang some of the ABC song to us! Which was pretty cool!
We came to a munger of a hill, which we all agreed was just like the one out of Punakaiki (West Coast SI, NZ). It just seemed to go on forever and everytime you thought you were going to round the corner and be at the top - there was another one. We met a Polish guy at the top who had also stayed in Khuraburi but was going to crack onto Ranong that day. We are enjoying our 50km rides now that the hills have kicked in and none of us seem to have any inclination to go further. Thank goodness, I thought they would never come to their senses!
Last night Mr Boon Piya recommended the SS Kapoe resort to us. Very good, very cheap! Guess what - he was right, lovely rooms. We got two for 350 baht each. Very clean, cold showers and fan. We could have paid 590 for aircon, hotshowers and brand new, but thought we would save our money.
The riding today got really hot really fast with a vicious head wind, This didn't last long however and we were soon rollercoastering along over gentle downs and not too bad ups. We had a sprite stop at about 30km which was lovely loads of ice, which the kids then transferred into their drink bottles. There were some children hanging about who showed us their toys and sang some of the ABC song to us! Which was pretty cool!
We came to a munger of a hill, which we all agreed was just like the one out of Punakaiki (West Coast SI, NZ). It just seemed to go on forever and everytime you thought you were going to round the corner and be at the top - there was another one. We met a Polish guy at the top who had also stayed in Khuraburi but was going to crack onto Ranong that day. We are enjoying our 50km rides now that the hills have kicked in and none of us seem to have any inclination to go further. Thank goodness, I thought they would never come to their senses!
Last night Mr Boon Piya recommended the SS Kapoe resort to us. Very good, very cheap! Guess what - he was right, lovely rooms. We got two for 350 baht each. Very clean, cold showers and fan. We could have paid 590 for aircon, hotshowers and brand new, but thought we would save our money.
Takuapa - Churaburi
Monday March 14, 2011, 52 km (32 miles)
- World > Asia > Thailand > Changwat Ranong - map
Today is our 24th wedding anniversary, so we set off with thoughts of resort and Chang in our head tonight! Nice early start with everyone in high spirits. It was beautiful riding over gentle hills. We must have started right on rush hour though, as it took us ages to get back across the main road.The motorcycle lane was nice and wide and the km signs were reliable so we had got into a really good rotation of 1km each. We pulled off the road for breakfast after about one hour much to the humour of the people (mostly family I think) who were already there. The lady was lovely though, she kept bringing us food and explaining what was spicy and what was not.
We stopped at the Greenview resort for a much needed sprite and trumpet stop! It is at the top of a good steep climb - although we were sad to climb on our bikes, we all wanted to stay there, but too dear and too early in the morning! It was soon forgotten as we zoomed down the hill and easily covered the last 10km into Khuraburi.
We met a guy who had just come out of a hotel which he said he wouldn't recommend, but who told us there were more through the town, Khuraburi is one of those really long Thai towns). Dave eagle eyed the Boon Piya resort sign across the road while Sam, Mick and I went to investigate some. The ones we had been to, although cheap, were a bit yucky for me so we diced with death across the main road for a look at Boon Piya. They were perfect. So perfect in fact we decided to stay for 3 nights and catch up on some school work.
This town is the jumping off point for the Surin Islands, so although the scenery isn't dramatic they have the best food markets. A morning one by the 7-11 and an afternoon night one on the opposite side of the road. The food was really yummy and good value.
We stopped at the Greenview resort for a much needed sprite and trumpet stop! It is at the top of a good steep climb - although we were sad to climb on our bikes, we all wanted to stay there, but too dear and too early in the morning! It was soon forgotten as we zoomed down the hill and easily covered the last 10km into Khuraburi.
We met a guy who had just come out of a hotel which he said he wouldn't recommend, but who told us there were more through the town, Khuraburi is one of those really long Thai towns). Dave eagle eyed the Boon Piya resort sign across the road while Sam, Mick and I went to investigate some. The ones we had been to, although cheap, were a bit yucky for me so we diced with death across the main road for a look at Boon Piya. They were perfect. So perfect in fact we decided to stay for 3 nights and catch up on some school work.
This town is the jumping off point for the Surin Islands, so although the scenery isn't dramatic they have the best food markets. A morning one by the 7-11 and an afternoon night one on the opposite side of the road. The food was really yummy and good value.
Khao Lak - Takua Pa
Sunday March 13, 2011, 50 km (31 miles)
We set off quite late, but as we only had a 35km it wasn't a problem for us we would still be tucked up somewhere by lunchtime. Or so we thought! About 2km into our journey we saw signs for a Tsunami memorial and as it was only 2days since the Japan Tsunami we thought it would be a good opportunity to pay our respects. It was down a gravel road, which the guy at the sculpture said we could continue along and come out - and we did! It was a nice ride up over a small hill. We almost started the day with a catastrophe when 5km down the road we remembered that the Garmin was still on top of the television in our room! All that high living must have gone to our head! Dave set off at great speed to retrieve it and Kim and the boys set off with great haste to find breakfast. Dim Sum, curry and toasted sandwiches - what a combination! But it did the job and we were soon reunited and back on our way. Another easy days riding over gentle hills and past lovely villages. We seemed incapable of making a decision on where to stay and ended up going backwards about 6km to find a hotel. There is one in Takua Pa but the guy was really unfriendly and just gave me the creeps so I kinda mucked it up for the next approx 2 hours while we rode around searching.Garmin said that there was something just north of town, so we bit the bullet and headed off there, and found some motels which were lovely and clean. We got dinner there too in this huge nightclub which turns into a karaoke bar. Pretty quiet on a Sunday night though. We got really good pork and chicken pad thai for 40baht each.
Friday, March 18, 2011
The Road to Ranong
We found some hills in Thailand! Which is a bit of a shame as we were really enjoying the flat land obviously! Nah they're not so bad, I think we (Kim) must be getting lazy. The last two days have been really hard, and it has been a relief to be doing only 50 or 60km. The scenery is just breathtaking though, I thought that as we got north Thailand just got lovelier, but we think that each new day brings new things, not better necessarily, just different. We are staying in a place that is a bit above our budget, but it is really nice.
Today we are off to Myanmar (Burma) to get our visas renewed, it is pretty painless and just involves leaving Thailand, going across the estuary on a boat, getting logged into Myanmar and zipping back again to re-enter Thailand, fairly pointless, but much cheaper than a visa renew.
Mickey has been pointing at every waterfall signpost since Trang (about 450km ago), and we always say 'later or there'll be mor'e. Yesterday we were battling into head winds along one of those roads that just climb and you don't even know, but it just feels hard. Mick must have been really feeling it cos the waterfall sign came up. 'Waterfall, waterfall' Says Mick. 'jeez we have heaps of those at home' mutters Jake - who studiously avoids any unnecessary excursions. But we took the decision, it said 2km on the sign, so obviously several hills and 5km later we get to a farm track - no waterfall, we go up the track - which is getting steeper, 'it'll be just around the corner' we think. Then this huge hill appears before us (Jake from the back 'NO, we're not going up that'). We have a saying on this trip that whenever we make a bumsteer we say that Jake would be disappointed as one day (just on lunchtime, never a good time) Kim decided we should follow a road because it looked nice and there might be something interesting down there Well the only thing down there was a shrimp farm and they aren't actually that interesting. Jake gave her her pedigree including saying that he was pretty 'disappointed'. In Kim more than the shrimp farm! He hasn't been allowed to forget it, since then.
Anyway we get to this walking track. Dave goes, 'oops, 'I think Jake will be disappointed'. Jake handled it very well, but chose to guard the bikes instead of walking even further on a wild goose chase. Wild Goose chase it was too, 20mins of straight up to the end of the track to see the waterfall - which was pretty spectacular, unfortunately it was about 4/500m away across a valley. Jake chose best on that one and we have told Mick that the next time he sees a waterfall sign to just close his eyes and keep pedalling.
Nice ride back though, except that all the dogs thought they would come out and tell us what idiots we were for even going up the road and getting their big teeth out in the process.
Tempers were getting a bit frayed though by the time we got to Ranong (about 6hours to go 60km) and we were all relieved to get checked into the hotel and off for some food. If we are getting ratty with each other that is usually the best fix.
Lots of love to you all.
The Tired Thomas'
xxx
Today we are off to Myanmar (Burma) to get our visas renewed, it is pretty painless and just involves leaving Thailand, going across the estuary on a boat, getting logged into Myanmar and zipping back again to re-enter Thailand, fairly pointless, but much cheaper than a visa renew.
Mickey has been pointing at every waterfall signpost since Trang (about 450km ago), and we always say 'later or there'll be mor'e. Yesterday we were battling into head winds along one of those roads that just climb and you don't even know, but it just feels hard. Mick must have been really feeling it cos the waterfall sign came up. 'Waterfall, waterfall' Says Mick. 'jeez we have heaps of those at home' mutters Jake - who studiously avoids any unnecessary excursions. But we took the decision, it said 2km on the sign, so obviously several hills and 5km later we get to a farm track - no waterfall, we go up the track - which is getting steeper, 'it'll be just around the corner' we think. Then this huge hill appears before us (Jake from the back 'NO, we're not going up that'). We have a saying on this trip that whenever we make a bumsteer we say that Jake would be disappointed as one day (just on lunchtime, never a good time) Kim decided we should follow a road because it looked nice and there might be something interesting down there Well the only thing down there was a shrimp farm and they aren't actually that interesting. Jake gave her her pedigree including saying that he was pretty 'disappointed'. In Kim more than the shrimp farm! He hasn't been allowed to forget it, since then.
Anyway we get to this walking track. Dave goes, 'oops, 'I think Jake will be disappointed'. Jake handled it very well, but chose to guard the bikes instead of walking even further on a wild goose chase. Wild Goose chase it was too, 20mins of straight up to the end of the track to see the waterfall - which was pretty spectacular, unfortunately it was about 4/500m away across a valley. Jake chose best on that one and we have told Mick that the next time he sees a waterfall sign to just close his eyes and keep pedalling.
Nice ride back though, except that all the dogs thought they would come out and tell us what idiots we were for even going up the road and getting their big teeth out in the process.
Tempers were getting a bit frayed though by the time we got to Ranong (about 6hours to go 60km) and we were all relieved to get checked into the hotel and off for some food. If we are getting ratty with each other that is usually the best fix.
Lots of love to you all.
The Tired Thomas'
xxx
Thursday, March 10, 2011
On the road again!
Well the wheels are polished, they tyres pumped and the buttocks clenched! We are back on the move. Nice easy 50km start for us today, it was so lovely to get back on the road again. We have had a wonderful month off, but we all got pretty lazy. The bungalows at Klong Son were just wonderful (as already mentioned) we had a delicious and thoroughly enjoyable dinner with Mohummed (Mud) and his family last night. Everything was on the menu, squid, cockles whole fish, chicken musaman (yum) prawns, chicken, crab. Really nice it was. I was a bit sad to say goodbye to the whole area, but you know it is time to move on when you walk intot he bakery and they walk up to you with your order!
We had gorgeous scenery today, lots of limestone karsts, small villages etc. We have finally convinced the garmin that 'avoid major roads' is the way to go. We had a hilarious lunch today where we are just pretty much stared at and laughed out - and i thought they said those chimp tea parties were inhumane!! We didn't mind too much. I think that the best part of being on the road is the adventure of it - we don't know where we will be staying or whether it is okay until we actually get there and then if the hotel is shite or \the meal is awful we just think - better luck tomorrow!
School is going really well (ish) We still haven't got anything from correspondence school from Sam which is a bit disappointing, but hopefully it will work out - Jake took ages to start and then it was all go - so hopefully that will be the case with Sambo too.
Tomorrow we are heading into tiger country up towards Khao Lak and Phangnga penninsula. We were heading over to the east coast for some islands, but did a count up on our visa and realised we will need to make a quick sidetrip to Myanmar to renew. That's okay because West coast is pretty good and then we just head east and north towards Bangkok - planning to get there in about 3 weeks.
So thanks again for all the messages and lots of love to you all.
xxxx
We had gorgeous scenery today, lots of limestone karsts, small villages etc. We have finally convinced the garmin that 'avoid major roads' is the way to go. We had a hilarious lunch today where we are just pretty much stared at and laughed out - and i thought they said those chimp tea parties were inhumane!! We didn't mind too much. I think that the best part of being on the road is the adventure of it - we don't know where we will be staying or whether it is okay until we actually get there and then if the hotel is shite or \the meal is awful we just think - better luck tomorrow!
School is going really well (ish) We still haven't got anything from correspondence school from Sam which is a bit disappointing, but hopefully it will work out - Jake took ages to start and then it was all go - so hopefully that will be the case with Sambo too.
Tomorrow we are heading into tiger country up towards Khao Lak and Phangnga penninsula. We were heading over to the east coast for some islands, but did a count up on our visa and realised we will need to make a quick sidetrip to Myanmar to renew. That's okay because West coast is pretty good and then we just head east and north towards Bangkok - planning to get there in about 3 weeks.
So thanks again for all the messages and lots of love to you all.
xxxx
Monday, February 21, 2011
Trang - Krabi
We have just heard the devastating news of the earthquake in Christchurch, it was such a shock, we are feeling frustrated here as we came to town to find the next books in the Harry Potter series for the kids and can't - then popped into an internet cafe and saw the headlines - without even looking for them! It put our problems into perspective! We are just so relieved to hear that everyone we know is safe, but still feeling sad because of what everyone must have gone through and how frightening it must have been and will continue to be.
So this all seems pretty trivial now, we wrote it in our book at the time, but couldn't be bothered publishing it as we have just been too relaxed!!
His bit
Trang - Krabi
Trang to Krabi -140km, two 70k days ride - so we told Mick! Anything over 70ks is impossible in his mind. We got off to a good start, there were a few guest houses around 50km but that would leave a big day the next day, so we soldiered on by 1o'clocks we had 80ks under our belt, Sam wasn't feeling to good, but Mick as full of energy and as everyone knows, the world centres around the one with the biggest mouth! We finally found a hotel at 103km. A big effort from all of us and what made it better - only 37kms tomorrow into Krabi. we then made the extreme sacrifice and 'backtracked 4km' to the market for dinner!
Riding into Krabi you can see al the limestone sticking up covered in gush - quite awesome, seeing alot more dead snakes on the road now (the best type to see!). We stayed in Krabi for two nights, the second day we hired a car to have a look around to find a nice place to base ourselves for a month of school. Ao Nang was on our list, but when we arrived there it was like Brighton, tourists everywhere and 100 or so shops all selling the same touristy shite. We asked around and were directed to this plce with thatched bungalows in the jungle about 3km from the beach, hammocks on the verandahs, just our cup of tea - the best thing for Kim is that they had just been completed so no one else had used her toilet before her! Because we are here for a month the price is really good, we have a bungalow and the boys have one about 20 metres away - so peace for everyone! There is a 'restaurant' where we can get food for all of us lunch and dinner for 300 baht - about $15 and we get delivered a plate of fresh fruit every morning for breakfast. So no cooking necessary - shame! They are building more bungalows so I have been giving Mohummed a hand in the mornings while the kids are doing school work.
We are enjoying not having to pack up every morning to ride on, but are using our bikes to go to the beach, shopping etc.But are concerned about the state of our eyes, not sure if it is the sun or rice, but we all seem to have squint about us! DT.
Her bit
Well almost a week of no riding !!! Wow we have settled into life at Khlong Son really well. The bungalows are really basic, but lovely and best of all brand new - so nasty Thai drain smells!! That's my favourite bit actually! Our day is pretty much get up, get showered, dressed, make the coffee, sit on the verandah and read, play cards etc, eat our fruit, then head off to school work. The boys do maths and lit in the morning and Sam has been doing some science in the afternoon and Mickey is making a powerpoint about Thailand. Poor old Jake has only just got his work today - yay! He also found out that exams for over seas students happen one month earlier !! Gosh, good job he is one of those last minute students.
All our kind thoughts and love to Christine, Amy, Aaron and family, Danny, Fiona, Robbie and kids, Jenny, Laurie and family and to everyone else who is worrying - cos worrying is hard work!
Lots and lots of love
David, Kim and boys
xxxxx
So this all seems pretty trivial now, we wrote it in our book at the time, but couldn't be bothered publishing it as we have just been too relaxed!!
His bit
Trang - Krabi
Trang to Krabi -140km, two 70k days ride - so we told Mick! Anything over 70ks is impossible in his mind. We got off to a good start, there were a few guest houses around 50km but that would leave a big day the next day, so we soldiered on by 1o'clocks we had 80ks under our belt, Sam wasn't feeling to good, but Mick as full of energy and as everyone knows, the world centres around the one with the biggest mouth! We finally found a hotel at 103km. A big effort from all of us and what made it better - only 37kms tomorrow into Krabi. we then made the extreme sacrifice and 'backtracked 4km' to the market for dinner!
Riding into Krabi you can see al the limestone sticking up covered in gush - quite awesome, seeing alot more dead snakes on the road now (the best type to see!). We stayed in Krabi for two nights, the second day we hired a car to have a look around to find a nice place to base ourselves for a month of school. Ao Nang was on our list, but when we arrived there it was like Brighton, tourists everywhere and 100 or so shops all selling the same touristy shite. We asked around and were directed to this plce with thatched bungalows in the jungle about 3km from the beach, hammocks on the verandahs, just our cup of tea - the best thing for Kim is that they had just been completed so no one else had used her toilet before her! Because we are here for a month the price is really good, we have a bungalow and the boys have one about 20 metres away - so peace for everyone! There is a 'restaurant' where we can get food for all of us lunch and dinner for 300 baht - about $15 and we get delivered a plate of fresh fruit every morning for breakfast. So no cooking necessary - shame! They are building more bungalows so I have been giving Mohummed a hand in the mornings while the kids are doing school work.
We are enjoying not having to pack up every morning to ride on, but are using our bikes to go to the beach, shopping etc.But are concerned about the state of our eyes, not sure if it is the sun or rice, but we all seem to have squint about us! DT.
Her bit
Well almost a week of no riding !!! Wow we have settled into life at Khlong Son really well. The bungalows are really basic, but lovely and best of all brand new - so nasty Thai drain smells!! That's my favourite bit actually! Our day is pretty much get up, get showered, dressed, make the coffee, sit on the verandah and read, play cards etc, eat our fruit, then head off to school work. The boys do maths and lit in the morning and Sam has been doing some science in the afternoon and Mickey is making a powerpoint about Thailand. Poor old Jake has only just got his work today - yay! He also found out that exams for over seas students happen one month earlier !! Gosh, good job he is one of those last minute students.
All our kind thoughts and love to Christine, Amy, Aaron and family, Danny, Fiona, Robbie and kids, Jenny, Laurie and family and to everyone else who is worrying - cos worrying is hard work!
Lots and lots of love
David, Kim and boys
xxxxx
Thursday, February 3, 2011
TOTALLY TERRIFIC AND TERRIBLY TOOTHSOME THAILAND!
Thailand has hills, Thailand is hot, Thailand has very little English, Thailand has very few hotels Thailand is still the best!!
Wow, we love Thailand, all of the above but the scenery is amazing - and I know that if we got some pictures up you would see that!! and we will, but not sure when - the only problem is my backside (or my frontside) always looks too big so they don't make the cut.
Well after dragging our sorry little backsides out of that Frangipani place we set off at snail's pace, suddenly the heat seemed hotter, the hills seemed bigger and we were kissing luxurious indulgence goodbye - boohoo. It was the maddest rush to get the 1pm ferry - actually i've had madder rushes with the morrissey's to early morning flights - but not much! We bought our tickets at about 12.45, rushed into the terminal and you know how you follow the signs, follow the signs, everything's good - then no more signs. That was us, lucky guess and we ended up in immigration - amazingly, we had forgotten we even had to do that, but as we were heading to Thailand and not back to Malaysia - we did! Then up the ramp down the ramp 'park your bicycles there', on the boat, phew!
This time only 1hour on the ferry, Welcome to Thailand - two lovely long months on our visa. We are planning to take our time and find some longer term accommodation so that we can DO THE SCHOOLWORK. Correspondence should be on it's way as we speak.
We have had a great time so far, the food is fabulous, but as mentioned above there is a dearth of hotel options, yesterday we ended up riding 99km between hotels, there was one at the 40km mark and rumours of others that never eventuated, we are going to plan a bit more thoroughly as we head for Krabi.
Many thanks to everyone for their messages and emails, we were briefly online on Weds morning and it was great to see the emails etc, so well done guys keep up the good work!! Don't seem to have much internet access here though, unlike Malaysia.
Wow, we love Thailand, all of the above but the scenery is amazing - and I know that if we got some pictures up you would see that!! and we will, but not sure when - the only problem is my backside (or my frontside) always looks too big so they don't make the cut.
Well after dragging our sorry little backsides out of that Frangipani place we set off at snail's pace, suddenly the heat seemed hotter, the hills seemed bigger and we were kissing luxurious indulgence goodbye - boohoo. It was the maddest rush to get the 1pm ferry - actually i've had madder rushes with the morrissey's to early morning flights - but not much! We bought our tickets at about 12.45, rushed into the terminal and you know how you follow the signs, follow the signs, everything's good - then no more signs. That was us, lucky guess and we ended up in immigration - amazingly, we had forgotten we even had to do that, but as we were heading to Thailand and not back to Malaysia - we did! Then up the ramp down the ramp 'park your bicycles there', on the boat, phew!
This time only 1hour on the ferry, Welcome to Thailand - two lovely long months on our visa. We are planning to take our time and find some longer term accommodation so that we can DO THE SCHOOLWORK. Correspondence should be on it's way as we speak.
We have had a great time so far, the food is fabulous, but as mentioned above there is a dearth of hotel options, yesterday we ended up riding 99km between hotels, there was one at the 40km mark and rumours of others that never eventuated, we are going to plan a bit more thoroughly as we head for Krabi.
Many thanks to everyone for their messages and emails, we were briefly online on Weds morning and it was great to see the emails etc, so well done guys keep up the good work!! Don't seem to have much internet access here though, unlike Malaysia.
LUSCIOUS LANGKAWI
Oh dear the Thomas' fell off the wagon - despite fierce declarations of sobriety and frugality until we hit Thailand - and when we fall, we fall hard!!
Well on the sobriety front we did pretty good, just a couple of beers, but frugality, not so sure. We took the ferry from Penang to Langkawi - 3.5 hours on a Beachcomber type boat, we had been really looking forward to the promise of clean, clear water and some R & R after our non stop whirlwind, tour north. The main resorts were 24km from the ferry terminal, in the midday heat it took us about 2 hours - in fact in the cool of the afternoon it would still take us about 2hours - but that's by the by! Anyway, when we finally got to the land of sparkling resorts and sundress shops, sorry fully booked, sorry fully booked, sorry fully booked - eek, the pressure was getting on, we decided to go to the far end of the beach and work our way back, then we would know there was nothing better further on. Thankfully we entered the tranquil, fragrant setting known as Frangipani Langkawi resort - translates to 'black money hole'. Anyway it was about 10 times our budget so of course we booked in for as long as we could, 3 days only on account of Chinese New Year. But it was bliss!! We lived in our perfect little tourist bubble with the aircon flat out and clean sheets everyday!! Bliss. Other blissfulnesses was our balcony overlooking the pool and ocean beyond - the breakfast buffet - nirvana for a Thomas. Possibly the best bliss was the duty-free G&T sundowners!!
Well on the sobriety front we did pretty good, just a couple of beers, but frugality, not so sure. We took the ferry from Penang to Langkawi - 3.5 hours on a Beachcomber type boat, we had been really looking forward to the promise of clean, clear water and some R & R after our non stop whirlwind, tour north. The main resorts were 24km from the ferry terminal, in the midday heat it took us about 2 hours - in fact in the cool of the afternoon it would still take us about 2hours - but that's by the by! Anyway, when we finally got to the land of sparkling resorts and sundress shops, sorry fully booked, sorry fully booked, sorry fully booked - eek, the pressure was getting on, we decided to go to the far end of the beach and work our way back, then we would know there was nothing better further on. Thankfully we entered the tranquil, fragrant setting known as Frangipani Langkawi resort - translates to 'black money hole'. Anyway it was about 10 times our budget so of course we booked in for as long as we could, 3 days only on account of Chinese New Year. But it was bliss!! We lived in our perfect little tourist bubble with the aircon flat out and clean sheets everyday!! Bliss. Other blissfulnesses was our balcony overlooking the pool and ocean beyond - the breakfast buffet - nirvana for a Thomas. Possibly the best bliss was the duty-free G&T sundowners!!
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Penang
Yay - having had this island in our sights for the last week - we made it, that 44km sure took along time. So heated words about direction, some quick dives for the loo after breakfast, two flat tyres and fighting off 50,000 Malaysian scooters for our place on the ferry - we got here.
We were unsure what to do as far as stay in town or go to the resorts, we have had differing opinions from Malaysians about the state of the beach towns, so we have stopped in Georgetown to sort out our business and will take a reccee out to the beaches tomorrow and then decide.
Georgetown is great though, really busy, our hotel is on the edge of Little India and just heading into Chinatown. We had the yummiest curry for tea tonight and then went for a walk through the streets, it is Thursday night and the place is humming, we couldn't help but wonder what we would have been doing and where we would have stayed if we were here as backpackers (in our day), but we were pretty sure that by that time of night it would have involved a bar and some beers!! How times have changed! But we are so proud of our boys and I think we say it everytime we go through a big town, they just ride like pros through the traffic, switching lanes - even indicating - not sure where they get that from! Jake and Dave had a Garmin type disagreement today - we'll never know who was right, but Dave did the manly thing and let Jake have his moment and Jake led us to the Ferry, it took me back to my childhood - Mum and Dad arguing over the map in Christchurch! It all turned out good.
Lots of love to you all, have a great weekend. Happy Birthday to Bid and best wishes to Sarah at the Marlborough Junior Tennis Tournament.
Team Thomas
xxxxxx
We were unsure what to do as far as stay in town or go to the resorts, we have had differing opinions from Malaysians about the state of the beach towns, so we have stopped in Georgetown to sort out our business and will take a reccee out to the beaches tomorrow and then decide.
Georgetown is great though, really busy, our hotel is on the edge of Little India and just heading into Chinatown. We had the yummiest curry for tea tonight and then went for a walk through the streets, it is Thursday night and the place is humming, we couldn't help but wonder what we would have been doing and where we would have stayed if we were here as backpackers (in our day), but we were pretty sure that by that time of night it would have involved a bar and some beers!! How times have changed! But we are so proud of our boys and I think we say it everytime we go through a big town, they just ride like pros through the traffic, switching lanes - even indicating - not sure where they get that from! Jake and Dave had a Garmin type disagreement today - we'll never know who was right, but Dave did the manly thing and let Jake have his moment and Jake led us to the Ferry, it took me back to my childhood - Mum and Dad arguing over the map in Christchurch! It all turned out good.
Lots of love to you all, have a great weekend. Happy Birthday to Bid and best wishes to Sarah at the Marlborough Junior Tennis Tournament.
Team Thomas
xxxxxx
95 bottles of beer on the wall!! Phhsst we wish
No not beer but almost as exciting - 95km completed in one day. Man we were humming, we had enjoyed a big rest the day before after our measly 37km, took some tips and inspiration from the Tour guys, got a humungous breakfast into us after about 11km and then we started doing rotations. One km each at the front and we're very pleased to be able to report that every member of Team Thomas pulled their weight! It was just one of those days when everything clicks, even with Jake's obligatory flattie, for lunch, followed by Dave's for afternoon tea we were really pleased with our efforts and looked forward to a nice cruisy into Butterworth to catch the ferry to Pulau Penang.
During our ride the geography changed with a few more Butiks and a bit more jungle rather than Palm Oil Planations. It was a pleasant change of scenery. We were now proudly flying our Malaysian Flags from our carriers and in fact looked rather a lot like a bicycle-cade ourselves. We're not too sure if this got us more toots or not. The thing about the toots is a crack up over here, some people just about fall out of their cars to toot and wave to you and welcome you to Malaysia, sometimes trucks use the toot as a I'm behind you and sometimes they toot cos you're in the way! The best thing about the trucks is that they will tootle along behind you until they can pass. Unlike in NZ where they will push you off the road - given half the chance. Is that fair?? Not sure, can't say we've done enough cycling in NZ, but that's what it feels like. Another brilliant thing is that all the roads here are asphalt instead of tar seal, so they are so much smoother and easier to pedal on - providing you miss the potholes.
Big decision when we got to Parit Bandar - 44km to Butterworth, turn off to the town (2km) or continue and hope for a hotel. We turned off - and gratefully settled into the Hotel Damai which was lovely (ish). Any hotel is lovely after 95km!
During our ride the geography changed with a few more Butiks and a bit more jungle rather than Palm Oil Planations. It was a pleasant change of scenery. We were now proudly flying our Malaysian Flags from our carriers and in fact looked rather a lot like a bicycle-cade ourselves. We're not too sure if this got us more toots or not. The thing about the toots is a crack up over here, some people just about fall out of their cars to toot and wave to you and welcome you to Malaysia, sometimes trucks use the toot as a I'm behind you and sometimes they toot cos you're in the way! The best thing about the trucks is that they will tootle along behind you until they can pass. Unlike in NZ where they will push you off the road - given half the chance. Is that fair?? Not sure, can't say we've done enough cycling in NZ, but that's what it feels like. Another brilliant thing is that all the roads here are asphalt instead of tar seal, so they are so much smoother and easier to pedal on - providing you miss the potholes.
Big decision when we got to Parit Bandar - 44km to Butterworth, turn off to the town (2km) or continue and hope for a hotel. We turned off - and gratefully settled into the Hotel Damai which was lovely (ish). Any hotel is lovely after 95km!
Le Tour De Langkawi - ooh race day!
We settled into our hotel we succumbed to the boys request for the deferred Western Food night (owing to the unavailability the previous night). The big colonel on the side of the Tesco's building was calling them mighty loudly! They had KFC at the big Tesco food hall and I mean big - it was massive - especially compared to all the other mini marts we had been in during the last week. Myself and Kim couldn't bring ourselves to eat that shite so had rice - again, then Kimbo had to have a wander around the supermarket, because it was Tescos. I dutifully followed!
The next day we weren't too sure where we were ending up, there seemed to be a shortage of big towns after about 40km and before 100km mark. So we headed off towards Taipin, we stopped at a roadside stall for breakfast cum lunch after 17km. You had to constantly stop flies landing on your food and keep the special fly lid firmly on your cup of tea. Jake commented that we would need to make sure we had a good shower tonight to wash all the maggots out of our hair - Michael stopped eating at that point.
We had been a bit excited to see earlier in the week that the Langkawi Cycle Tour - Malaysia's answer to the tour de France was heading our way. We started passing alot of support vehicles (heading in the opposite direction) as we rode along. The next town was called Pantai Remis and we noticed it was all set up for a stage sprint of the race, there were marshalls out and loads of Police about. So we parked up and had a coke and the boys had some roti and settled down to wait for the bikes to appear.
It was ages before we saw any action - but we knew they were near. Finally all the promotional cars turned up - this was called the Cavalcade, about 30 or 40 cars all lined the main street, some had hot chicks in them, others had daughters of sponsors (the ugly ones!) in them. They all jumped out and started madly handing out flags, fans, drink bottles etc. There was heaps of media there as well so that was pretty exciting as they were keen to take photos of the kiws - im pretty sure they thought we were the NZ cycling team, particularly as we got clapped as we rode into town - backwards. Finally the cyclist came through - and as you might know cycling isn't the most exciting spectator sport it was blink and you miss it. There were two leaders then the Pelathon probably 2minutes behind. We then went off to find a hotel, as we couldn't be bothered riding any further that day, a measly 37km. It was good to chill out for the rest of the day.
That night we went to a pretty much non english speaking hawker centre for dinner. We had great fun explaining and pointing at other diner's food, combined with the the ingredients to get our food and drink order in. It was another great feed.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Sabak - Sitiawan
Wow 90km was on the table for today. It didn't need to be but we like to head towards the towns which are denoted on the map as being blue squares. Apparently that means the main town in the district. It nearly caught us today though as it is at the end of a dead end road - just before we headed the 9km up the road we stopped at the garage and checked. Whew that was 9km in and more importantly 9km back out we didn't need. We checked into Lee Garden Hotel which is a Chinese run family hotel, they always seem to be really good for us. The mileage isn't a problem for our legs and puff, but we all seem to suffer a fair bit from sore backside affliction which is pretty annoying. Especially as you don't even get relief when you get to your accommodation, it still hurts to sit down. But ever optimistic we think it must improve. Today on the road as well as covering 83km we had Michael struck down with severe stomach cramps and no energy to continue, it was blazing hot and 30km short of our destination. We jollied him along and as we were all trying to get some relief in the shade of a solitary tree, DT spotted an old motorcycle inner tube hanging from the tree - weird I know but there is so much rubbish about, there is always some sundry which could come in handy! He did the quick McGuyver with the Leatherman - a tool for every occasion and fashioned a towrope which he looped over his seat and towed Mick along. It worked well for about 20mins until..... Jake got a flatty, luckily we had one more tube with no hole in (we've been through 5 already and have some housekeeping to do obviously). So Mick and I carried on - not with the tow rope, I don't think I could cope with that while the boys sorted out the tyre situation, we came to a roadside stall and ordered a creaming soda each while we waited, after a bit he perked up, the boys arrived and we were back on our way. Two things I'm thinking as we set off, that's not good, what will the third mishap be. Luckily we got around the corner and it started to bucket down - also luckily there was a bus shelter just there. We took refuge for about half and hour and continued without mishap. But it all added up to a long day. Lots of love to you all, thanks again for all the emails, facebooks and comments. xxx
Klang - Kuala Selangor - Sabak
"What only 50km?" - easy, and it pretty much was. Same old, same old scenery. More of that Palm Oil monoculture. The town of Kuala Selangor was a bit confusing, but we found out later there was a new town and an old town. We ended up in the old town which was really lovely. There were heaps of monkeys in the park opposite. Sam and Mick went over to investigate and said there was a guy walking past with a packet of chips in his hand, the monkey swooped down, (yes monkeys can swoop) grabbed the bag, scarpered back to his tree, opened the bag and ate them. Pretty much a crack up! I have to say they were very tame, Michael held out peanuts to them and they were so delicate when they plucked them out of his fingers. They didn't even touch him, I don't think they wanted to get boy germs!!
We were up bright and early the next morning for day 2 post rest ride. What a horrible day, I'm sure it was a gentle uphill, as the 65km seemed to take forever. But finally we arrived in Sabak. It is on the banks of a river and has a museum as its tourist attractions. Other blogs I have read by people who rode through the town complained about how hard it is to find accommodation. We went to the Hays Resort which seems 'flash as' as you ride in, beautiful gardens, imposing entranceway. But in reality it is looking a little tired. We didn't care though, it claimed the honourable title of cheapest place to say so far!! But the best bit had to be when we left this morning, we got all loaded up, pretty much in the dining room with our bikes - as that's where we had stored them the night before. The boys were muttering about breakfast and I just assumed it would be way over budget - well anyway I went and asked and heard the magic words - 'breakfast included' We had rice, we had cereal, we had toast, we had teh - and what's more we cycled like demons for the first 2 hours today - what a difference some decent kai makes!
We were up bright and early the next morning for day 2 post rest ride. What a horrible day, I'm sure it was a gentle uphill, as the 65km seemed to take forever. But finally we arrived in Sabak. It is on the banks of a river and has a museum as its tourist attractions. Other blogs I have read by people who rode through the town complained about how hard it is to find accommodation. We went to the Hays Resort which seems 'flash as' as you ride in, beautiful gardens, imposing entranceway. But in reality it is looking a little tired. We didn't care though, it claimed the honourable title of cheapest place to say so far!! But the best bit had to be when we left this morning, we got all loaded up, pretty much in the dining room with our bikes - as that's where we had stored them the night before. The boys were muttering about breakfast and I just assumed it would be way over budget - well anyway I went and asked and heard the magic words - 'breakfast included' We had rice, we had cereal, we had toast, we had teh - and what's more we cycled like demons for the first 2 hours today - what a difference some decent kai makes!
Klang - KL return please x 5
We really loved this KL. It was vibrant and busy. We stayed in Klang which is a feeder (satellite) town about one hour by train out of KL and commuted in for the day on Friday. Once again we loved the Malls and the westernisation of everything. I know that's not in true traveller spirit - but man they had every shop there - it was great! - although we still went Hawker Stall for lunch - cos we just can't get enough of that and also the Western food tastes like shite.
We went up the KL skytower which was great to get oriented on how the city is set out. We managed to find a Borders - yay and got some more books. We need to find second hand bookshops now though as it is getting a bit expensive. Jake has downloaded some e-books, but with one laptop that doesn't work either.
Clever old Thomas family managed to leave the city right on 5.30pm. We ended up waiting 2 hours - not for a train but 2 hours for 4 trains and finally managing to squeeze on the 5th. Serves us right I'd say, we should have known and left an hour earlier - instead of coffee and more doughnuts!! Only 2nd time for doughnuts though!!
We went up the KL skytower which was great to get oriented on how the city is set out. We managed to find a Borders - yay and got some more books. We need to find second hand bookshops now though as it is getting a bit expensive. Jake has downloaded some e-books, but with one laptop that doesn't work either.
Clever old Thomas family managed to leave the city right on 5.30pm. We ended up waiting 2 hours - not for a train but 2 hours for 4 trains and finally managing to squeeze on the 5th. Serves us right I'd say, we should have known and left an hour earlier - instead of coffee and more doughnuts!! Only 2nd time for doughnuts though!!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Melaka - Klang
What an epic ride. The towns have well and truly began to spread themselves a little thinner on the ground and it was looking like we would have to bite the bullet for the 94ker. We ended up (thanks to the Garmin (Jake) and Dave with his map) shave 10km off the ride to Port Douglas. So by the time we got there 3.30 in the afternoon and settled on a hotel at 5pm we were pretty exhausted. But very pleased with ourselves, we had eaten some delicious roadside food and discovered that the tea now all comes with sugar and milk and lots of it!!! Surpringly good especially for two drinkers of 'no milk, no sugar'! We encountered a few more hills which are still not a patch on anything in NZ - thank goodness, but still enough to make you think. Sam is still King of the Mountain and Kim is Queen - although this is a hollow victory as there are no princesses on this tour and she still ends up last! Michael is now also attempting to ride no handed and as such has further dramatically increased his mileage as the wobbles are just getting bigger.
We spent a night in Port Douglas, having finally found a hotel, after a hilarious Garmin induced ride through the badlands, where Dave forgot to unclip when he stopped, some kind locals escorted us out, Mickey's pannier flew off while the escort was in progress and Kim got the giggles through pure exhaustion. Roll on tomorrow..
The next day was the hottest so far and over 82km we managed to slurp our way through an amazing 20litres of liquid and still only have 2 wees per day!! Once again we hadn't planned on riding so far, but the town we were going to stop at was a dump and we decided to press on. We also had a moment when we realised we wouldn't get to KL for our Thai visas until Friday and it is a 2 day processing time so we would be stuck here over the weekend. Dave fixed that one for us though - there is an embassy at Penang! Yay - I know where i'd rather wait out the two days! Today we had a leisurely 34km to cycle into Klang. It is a feeder town just outside of KL. We are in the Station hotel - which is surprisingly just by the Railway Station, so we will get the train in to see the sights before continuing our journey on Friday.
Once again many thanks for all your cool comments, I still can't quite manage to reply to them, but am thinking I need to subscribe to something else. Hopefully it will work.
Lots of love
The Travelling Thomas'
We spent a night in Port Douglas, having finally found a hotel, after a hilarious Garmin induced ride through the badlands, where Dave forgot to unclip when he stopped, some kind locals escorted us out, Mickey's pannier flew off while the escort was in progress and Kim got the giggles through pure exhaustion. Roll on tomorrow..
The next day was the hottest so far and over 82km we managed to slurp our way through an amazing 20litres of liquid and still only have 2 wees per day!! Once again we hadn't planned on riding so far, but the town we were going to stop at was a dump and we decided to press on. We also had a moment when we realised we wouldn't get to KL for our Thai visas until Friday and it is a 2 day processing time so we would be stuck here over the weekend. Dave fixed that one for us though - there is an embassy at Penang! Yay - I know where i'd rather wait out the two days! Today we had a leisurely 34km to cycle into Klang. It is a feeder town just outside of KL. We are in the Station hotel - which is surprisingly just by the Railway Station, so we will get the train in to see the sights before continuing our journey on Friday.
Once again many thanks for all your cool comments, I still can't quite manage to reply to them, but am thinking I need to subscribe to something else. Hopefully it will work.
Lots of love
The Travelling Thomas'
Marvellous Melaka
We absolutely loved Melaka, it was our first day off and we certainly made the most of it. We booked into a niceish hotel, got some washing done, went for coffee and donuts (first coffee since Singapore!) and a few touristy things as well. Melaka is a real tourist town and has been for the last 600 years or so. Apparently a young prince founded the city and it grew into an important and wealthy trading port and we all know what happens to important and wealthy trading ports. So first came the Portuguese to conquer, then the Dutch and finally the Brits - they were the funniest because for the first 100 years or so they decided they didn't really want it - pretty much ignored it - while they concentrated on Singapore. Well maybe that's a bit simplistic and I think the Portuguese might have been attacked first and the Brits only went in because the Dutch had a monopoly going.... But the upshot today is an amazing city with heaps of history. We went aboard a replica dutch cargo ship and wandered around the old town. There is so much development going on there masses and masses of shopping centres, housing estates, new marina. You wonder who is going to fill them. There was one new mall just for IT shops. The food - as usual was delicious - the best we've had so far!!! We always say that! We were a bit apprehesive about leaving Melaka though as our nice neatish 50km spacing between towns was starting to unravel. The next big town was only 15km away or a whopping (according to Google Earth) 94km. What to do! We thought we would just play it by ear. Michael was having kittens - i can't ride that far....
Muar - Melaka
We set off from Muar after a good chat to the lovely manager of the Leewa Hotel. He was so helpful and gave us lots of information about the area and the road between Muar and Melaka. Michael's first day as budget boy, it went to his head a bit with wild promises of the type of hotel he would get -wifi for Sam, big feed for Jake. Mr Moneybags friend to all!! So after a brief stop for breakfast - noodles from 7/11 and some supplies for lunch -nutella, pringles and the softest, best preserved bread to be found outside of America!
The boys make us laugh, they all have their own distinct riding style - Sam likes to be up front - especially at the lights - he will position himself at the front and try to beat everyone (cars, trucks and motorbikes) across. Same with hills, they are a personal challenge which must be ascended in the shortest possible time. When we are cruising Jake mostly rides with no hands, we suspect he is training himself to be able to read while cycling by the time he gets to Thailand! Michael has ridden probably half as far again as everyone as he weaves his way down the highway, making sure he hits every bump and pothole within his path.
A battle of wills is heating up between Dave and Jake. Basically Jake understands the Garmin (GPS) and Dave doesn't!! Any disputes are usually resolved by Dave saying 'put that effing thing away' and riding off in the direction of his choice. Of course we all follow (chuckling!).
The boys make us laugh, they all have their own distinct riding style - Sam likes to be up front - especially at the lights - he will position himself at the front and try to beat everyone (cars, trucks and motorbikes) across. Same with hills, they are a personal challenge which must be ascended in the shortest possible time. When we are cruising Jake mostly rides with no hands, we suspect he is training himself to be able to read while cycling by the time he gets to Thailand! Michael has ridden probably half as far again as everyone as he weaves his way down the highway, making sure he hits every bump and pothole within his path.
A battle of wills is heating up between Dave and Jake. Basically Jake understands the Garmin (GPS) and Dave doesn't!! Any disputes are usually resolved by Dave saying 'put that effing thing away' and riding off in the direction of his choice. Of course we all follow (chuckling!).
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Singapore - Muar (273km)
You know how you see those reality shows and you think they are just doing the dramas for entertaining viewing? Well I felt like i was in the middle of one at 7.30 Weds morning. We are finally packed up at our Singapore hotel and ready to pedal out into the great unknown!! One last thing to do - take our malaria pills it doesn't matter that we should have started them 3 days ago or that we haven't had breakfast yet - it should be fine!! Ya reckon?? First Mick goes - I feel sick :{ then sam is sick :{ :{ then mick is sick and again and again. You can just imagine the voiceover Will the Thomas family ever leave or will they be forced to spend more nights in expensive hotels. Well a bottle of coke and a couple of biscuits later she was all good and we were off with no regrets - just a bit hungry. But it was okay as DT got a flatty about 5km up the road so we had plenty of time for breakfast!! The third one he had changed in 3days!! Not what we imagined.
Everything since then has been plain sailing. We have been so impressed with the vehicles on the road and feel much safer cycling here than in NZ - now I know what all those tourists complain about (NZ roads). We have finally got down to the budget part of the holiday which has been interesting but definitely character building! We have assigned the boys jobs - Tourleader who wears the Taonga and decides on stops and food. Mapman - who checks out the maps and Garmin and Budget boy - This is the prized position as they get the final say on how much food we get and the level of hotel we stay in. They are all doing brilliantly and it is a bit of a comp to see who can save the most. Except for Mick he is Mr now now now!
As far as the countryside goes it is great for cycling as it's flat, but not much to look at, just banana and coconut palms with very few publicservices. There is a huge gap between wealthy and poor. But one amazing thing we noticed was the amount of car washes there were. Even in the poorest towns, then we noticed (amazingly) that all the cars are spotless. I hate to think what they would think of skip of a car!! It is pretty funny cycling throught he villages (Kampungs) and everyone calls out, people stop us in thestreet and ask us where we are from, some people even drove passed today taking pictures of the boys!! One little girl called out to us 'hello friends'. Everyone speaks about 3 different languages which puts us a bit to shame especially when I responded Selamat Pagi to her - which is fine as it means Good morning - unfortunately it was 6 oclock at night! You live and learn!
Chinese new year here at the moment so that is pretty exciting, hopefully if we can stay awake after 8pm we can soak up a bit of the atmosphere.
Lots of love to you all and thanks for the feedback we love hearing from you. Sorry I can't reply to your comments. But it just doesn't seem to work for me i've tried about 3 times and I always bomb out.
xxxxx
The touring Thomas'
Everything since then has been plain sailing. We have been so impressed with the vehicles on the road and feel much safer cycling here than in NZ - now I know what all those tourists complain about (NZ roads). We have finally got down to the budget part of the holiday which has been interesting but definitely character building! We have assigned the boys jobs - Tourleader who wears the Taonga and decides on stops and food. Mapman - who checks out the maps and Garmin and Budget boy - This is the prized position as they get the final say on how much food we get and the level of hotel we stay in. They are all doing brilliantly and it is a bit of a comp to see who can save the most. Except for Mick he is Mr now now now!
As far as the countryside goes it is great for cycling as it's flat, but not much to look at, just banana and coconut palms with very few publicservices. There is a huge gap between wealthy and poor. But one amazing thing we noticed was the amount of car washes there were. Even in the poorest towns, then we noticed (amazingly) that all the cars are spotless. I hate to think what they would think of skip of a car!! It is pretty funny cycling throught he villages (Kampungs) and everyone calls out, people stop us in thestreet and ask us where we are from, some people even drove passed today taking pictures of the boys!! One little girl called out to us 'hello friends'. Everyone speaks about 3 different languages which puts us a bit to shame especially when I responded Selamat Pagi to her - which is fine as it means Good morning - unfortunately it was 6 oclock at night! You live and learn!
Chinese new year here at the moment so that is pretty exciting, hopefully if we can stay awake after 8pm we can soak up a bit of the atmosphere.
Lots of love to you all and thanks for the feedback we love hearing from you. Sorry I can't reply to your comments. But it just doesn't seem to work for me i've tried about 3 times and I always bomb out.
xxxxx
The touring Thomas'
Monday, January 10, 2011
Sweet Singapore
The flight was real cool, cos we got to watch movies. We got up at 3am in Auckland and didn't go to bed here until 2am Auckland time the next day. All of a sudden allnighters don't seem like such fun. I was feeling pretty sick by that stage. Best bits was going on the cycle only route. Funniest bit was when I fell right on my backside into a wet puddle when I skidded on the wet footpath.
SINGAPORE SLING
Wow what a place!! We arrived here at about 6pm local time last night and didn't have enough time to assemble our bikes and ride in. Thank goodness, I'm not sure my blood pressure would have coped as when we did ride in, it took us a couple of hours. So we put them in storage and returned the next day. Kim discussed our route with the toilet attendants at the airport and they said that we should just follow the buses as they all head into town. Next thing we were on a motorway in torrential rain! Great fun though, the kids were amazing, and managed to survive the trip. Luckily about 3km from the airport was a 12km cycle pathway that took us almost into the city along the beachfront. When that finished we took to the footpaths, along with the locals, much more sensible ideas as the cars all whizz along. We were the very relieved Thomas's who finally got back to our hotel. We are all loving Singapore, the people are so friendly and everything is sooooo clean. We are chewing through our cash a bit though, so the sooner we leave the better probably. Chinatown and waterfront tomorrow, looking forward to that, then Hit the Road Jack to Malaysia
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