The final countdown and reflections

Well were to start, I’m 33, mouse ging hair blue/gray eyes slim build, woops not internet dating, so I started riding from Singapore 25th March 2009, covered over 5000km over 5 months and had not a single flat tire which is simply amazing. I mean if someone had told me that at the start I would have laughed at them, it’s just crazy, thank goodness I had my schwarbbles is all I can say. I have wanted to leave the bike on the side of the road and walk away many times, but with determination bordering on the obsessive I made it, at times I had to push myself harder than I ever have before both mentally and physically stopping myself from camping on the side of the road which sometimes may have been a better idea then riding on, what was one more day in the big picture really.
I have seen a side to the countries not many people see, I have journeyed were not many tread(tourists), and meet some amazing people(local and tourists) and experience joy, loneliness, fear and pleasure. I have been trailed by motorbikes, polices, the army, cars, trucks, Vans and tuk tuks and have done more high fives than at any other time in my life. What makes a journey, it’s the journey itself, the exploration of new places meeting new people and experiencing new things. And I know I have ranted on sometimes about how hard it has been but I am still ready the next day to carry on and have still enjoyed the journey.
Statistical info
Rode 5003 km over 6 countries in 5 months, That’s an average of 80km/day over 62 riding days or 34km/day over the 147 days I was away. No flat tires how freaky is that, one crash which just happened to have 4 witnesses so cant deign it ever happen, four trailer breakdowns First in Lao, Cambodia and two in Vietnam, One broken spoke in Vietnam, One broken head set seal found in Cambodia, One mended cable guide at Ankor wat, Six redesigns on gloves not as successful as redesigning the grips, three train rides and worth the money, three bus rides all killers, one minivan ride as bad as the buses, nine boat rides comfortable.
Longest day 11 hours 30minutes or there about, hellish hills in Lao rising 600m than falling 600m beautiful country though. Longest distance 160km only because I wanted to see if I could, Hardest ride Uon kuon to Lham phra bang , Most Ice-creams in one day 4, I needed them it was hot. Most meals in one day 7 meals and that was mostly rice plus I snacked as well. Hottest day 49c Vientiane Lao. Hospital Visits 5, Hours in theatre 1, Doctors seen 7, Operations 2 non fatal, Insurance claims 2. Biggest Hills Lao but stunning views with villages clinging to the ridges, well worth the grind, Best Temples Cambodia one of the wonders of the world a must see for everyone and make sure you take your time and enjoy the temples of Ankor. Friendliest people South Vietnamese fantastic people most are not out to ripe you off and good fun to have a chat with even if they don’t speak English. Longest time lost 4 hours and 60km still it was a story to tell and I found my comrades in the end.
So there it is I head back home to the welcoming shores of New Zealand well hopefully welcoming, Asia has been good to me again and has kept me in her warm embrace, she has shown me a new way to travel and new roads to travel. What would I do different, I would have someone with me next time, the worst days were the best days, were I would have liked to point out something or had someone there to experience what I was experiencing, riding with the fellowship was a great time for me and being able to enjoy or sometimes not enjoy the trip with others was great.
The time I really wish someone else was there was the sunset in Sichon in Thailand here it is again just to remind you of what you missed
I just have to write a bit more, the sunset tonight was extraordinary. Ok just so you can get the idea, I’m sitting in a restaurant that is above the local harbor on a hill. The boats are heading out fishing for the night, the harbor swings in and around the hill. There are old fisherman’s buildings and ramshackled wharfs with a forest behind and tall palm trees popping out the top. The sun is slowly going down behind some clouds, the sky is a fiery red, as the sun breaks through the clouds the water starts to glisten like a million diamonds. I am sitting supping my Coke, yes would be a great add for coke. Then the sun slowly sinks down between two palm trees, it looks larger then in NZ and because of some thinner cloud cover the sun is a dark orange.
I kinder had a small twang of loneliness at this point more that there I was sitting watching this amazing sunset and no one was there to enjoy it with me. O well I probably have not really done it justice with my description but I hope you can get the idea. It’s was one of those sunsets that you remember for the rest of your life. Yes people it was that good. No photo’s sorry left my camera behind. What sort of photographer am I.
So I will sign off now, I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog and following my progress, and I look forward to seeing those of you who live in New Zealand very soon and catching up with you all and meeting the new members of the different families. I hope you all have been keeping well and a special thanks to those who sent me news from back home as it was great to hear. Will see you soon.

Stevesasiatours

Bangkok, and early morning

The train pulled into the main station on time at 5am, I grabbed my bags and headed out to face the tuk tuk drivers that were waiting like rabid dogs on a hot summers day for a kill and as soon as I got in eye sight of the exit it started,” were you go” “Ko san road long way” I have been here before and it’s not that far, very easy on a bike, well the going price was 200baht till I started laughing then the real negotiations started, I decided at this time more players would be better so headed for a couple who had just walked out into the mayhem and looked a bit shell shocked, we ended up procuring a Tuk tuk for 30baht each which I still think was a bit high but at 5am I cannot be bothered to walk around to much.
The tuk tuk only took a couple of minutes to arrive at Ko San road and then we headed for the hotel I normally stay in, it’s clean and tidy and has a few different rooms to choose from, my plan was to upgrade to one with Aircon, the problem was when we got there we were told there was only water on the ground floor so everyone one would have to use the bottom showers and toilets. Not for me this time so Me and my two comrades headed off in search of another place that would be good.
The problem with looking so early no one has left yet and generally backpackers only make up there mind to leave the night before so we search a few hotels with no luck, the decision was made to have breakfast first and then carry on the search. After a hearty breakfast the search began again and lasted quite some time, we had found a place will I had my comrades were looking for something a bit better but this would do me for now and I would try and upgrade tomorrow.
There was one problem with my room that I had not noticed was that I could not lock the window to my room so I managed to take a few screws out of the wall and things and have tied the window closed, it looks as though last time they used a crow bar to get in they will need one again and this time with the screws I have put in they will more likely smash the window if they use a crow bar again. I will still lock my bag to the bed and have been carrying around all my electrical equipment and money so the only thing they would get is my old t-shirts and a sleeping bag. Good luck with that. I am moving places tomorrow to some were a bit more up market for my last 3 days in Bangkok.

Reflections coming soon to stevesasiatours

Bus then a train then Bangkok

The night before I had decided to leave and head back to Bangkok, the weather was looking crap so it would not be a beach day, I wanted to spend a few days in Bangkok before I left anyway so it felt the right time to go, I had decide to do it the old fashioned way and sort myself out, local bus to Phun Phin and from there night train back to Bangkok, easy ahe.
Packed up did not really rush to get out, had a big breakfast then sorted all my bills out and headed off, had decided to walk as the bus station was only a couple of km down the road, just a bit of a amble really. Made my way towards the bus stop and had to ask a couple of times if I was going in the right direction as it seemed to be more than a couple of Km’s down the road and I thought maybe I had missed it. Finally found what I thought was the right street, there were buses but it did not feel right. A guy from a tourist Agent called me over so I headed his way, to get directions again. Asked were the station was, you get buses from here, Ok how much, coff coff splutter splutter what how much, this women had I think picked a price out of the air and said, the silly cow had gone way to high, I laughed and asked them were the local station was again. They started talking in Thai and I coffed at the right time and the guy then asked me if I spoke Thai, I did not answer just smiled at him. Then I stood up and said thank you in Thai and said if you’re not going to help I’ll head off, only then did they say it was just around the corner.
I managed to arrive 15 minutes before the bus was to leave so it ended out being perfect timing, I grabbed some snacks and now had a 4 hour bus ride to go on, which turned out to be very good, besides lunch and that was only because I ate were the locals eat and got my mouth burn, that’s spicy burnt, which lasted for about half an hour, and that was only with a couple of mouth full’s. I arrived 2 hours before the train was to depart and managed to get a sleeper berth, the last sleeper birth so that was pretty good. The only problem was this train would arrive in Bangkok just after 5am, it would be a early wake up call.
The train arrived on time even after they put up it was going to be late, I piled on and found my seat and relaxed, I was on my way, besides not being able to sleep I found the journey to be pretty good and when I finally did get to sleep we had maybe 5 hours to go. O wellgot to read a lot of my book that’s for sure.

The beach and surf

Beach day I woke up feeling pretty good, there was a bit of noise from the Bulgarians in the morning as they struggled to get up for a snorkeling trip, I am not sure how they survived as they still must have been drunk. Meet up with the Aussie girl Liz and a Irish girl Linda down stairs it was off to the beach, we jumped on a local bus and headed over the hill to Patang beach on the West of Phuket Island, really you hardly leave the city, well it’s all one big city really just a couple of hundred meters over some hills where they have not started to build yet.
The beach was a wide expanse of golden sands with hotels and resorts clinging to the beaches edge, it is astonishingly over developed, but with a line of coconut trees there is a little gap from the resorts and hotels which gives the beach some protection from there sight. We settled halfway along the beach which was a few km long. There was surf coming into the bay and it was not long before Liz and I were out trying to catch some waves, Liz’s two was not so good in the surf and end the end she bailed for the shore and some sun time. The looks of the weather heading into the bay I did not think there would be much sun more like rain. I ended up splashing around for a hour before it was time to get out.
The locals had their boat out and were towing people behind in a parachute which looked like good fun, one of the locals would go up with the person but he would just hang on and flip himself up into the wires and guide the parachute along, it all looked extremely good fun. By the time I was out the clouds had blackened over Nongs mothers and rain was starting to sweep across the bay, it was time to make our retreat and head for home. As we left the beach the rain came thick and fast, it did not last too long but we decided to head back to the hostel, which was a good move because more rain came sweeping through, not the best day for the beach.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing and reading my book to pass the day away, I joined in for the Thai style BBQ for dinner put on by our guest house, with no BBQ in sight I am not sure why they call it a BBQ but the food was pretty good and I spent the rest of the night chatting with a group of people out the back and watching the rats scurry back and forth across the lawn.

Lazy day, Minivan ride

Food beach and swimming and that was it, Tania had had some bad news so we did not meet up for dinner, when I went to the beach I had to walk back through the local monkey troupe about 20 of them had come down to the beach to say hi to all the tourists and have their photos taken. Most had recently had their hair done just for the occasion, it must have been their one day out a week. The kids were running around and fighting in the trees while the mums smiled and picked fleas off each other. And that was about my day.

Next day

I think you can get lazy when backpacking, I was going to take the local bus from Ao Nang to Phuket but in the end could not be motivated to do it so instead booked myself in for a Minivan ride. Yep what a mistake. I was picked up at the guest house and loaded up onto a bus and driven to Krabi to wait for another bus to take me to Phuket, the first bus was alright a bit run down but still not so bad, had to wait around for the minivan and then we loaded up and headed off.
Now I don’t mind fast drivers, but you have to be safe with it, with in the first half an hour we had had 3 close calls, the driver was a dick, plain and simple, a right idiot. Great we have him for the next two hours. The minivan had had a new muffler put on it, now I learnt years ago that this can have benefits and down sides, you get a little more power but as in the case of our van you get a really bad drone at certain revs, luckily this drone was cancelled out by the incredibly bad diff whine that once up to speed so some new kind of torture, then to top this all off the driver who is nuts had to talk, well talk is the wrong word yell down his phone just be heard over all the other noise radiating from the Van. God I wished more than anything to be back on my bike, it would have taken two to three days to ride but it would have been much more preferable then this. Where are you bike.
We stopped for toilet and food break on the way through and our driver decided he would start removing the bags in the door way while I was trying to get out, he managed to get the bag out while scrapping it across my shin thank you very much, O and I was half way out when he started to remove the bags. So I was less than impressed with him by now.
We went like the clappers on towards Phuket with the driver laughing every time he had a close call, I am not sure if I should have said something but on retrospect maybe I should have. We made it to Phuket and were dropped off at a travel agents were they pushed there hotels on everyone, except me, I must have looked to cheap or something, then I had to load up into a different car for the journey into Phuket town, my new driver just dropped me off in the middle of town and was going to leave without saying were I was, for all I knew I might not have been in phuket at all, I managed to get from him a road I needed not that he seemed happy about telling me. Great day, why do people backpack again??
After 5 minutes I managed to find some land marks that related to my map and soon found the back packers, dorm room excellent, as it turned out it was not so bad. I was staying in the same room as a couple of Canadians who seemed nice enough, they recommended a restaurant around the corner so me the two Canadians and a girl from Belguim headed off for food then we were going to head out for drinks and a bar down the road. The food was good and the night was fairly interesting with a fairly big group of us heading out. I did not drink too much as was not really feeling into it, but the other made up for my lack of drinking tenfold. There was a few sick people on the way home and in the morning. The bar we went to was having a first anniversary party not that the drinks were cheap in fact they were more than triple the normal price, the music was pretty good and they even played a load of international music as well, Later I wandered home with some Bulgarians around midnight as I was heading to the beach the next day with an Aussie girl.

Snorkling and will we make it home

I was up early ish to head out and catch the boat we were jumping on a dive boat for the day, heading out to Island number 4 for a start then Island number 5, yep very original names I must say, must have taken them weeks to think of those. The boat trip out was not to bad there was me, Tania, our driver, the divemaster and an Italian going out for a beginners dive. It was on a long tailed boat. The sea was fairly calm when we left but the further away from the mainland we got the rougher it got.
The Italian guy by the time we arrived was looking a bit green around the gills, not a good start for a dive really. Once we were stopped I was over the side and in the water, have to say visibility was not so good because of the storm the day before and the waves today, I did manage to find a big group of clown fish and a sea snake which was pretty cool. Played with the clown fish for a while but kept my distance from the Sea Snake, best not to upset it. After an hour of looking around I headed back to the boat the weather was looking worse.
Once we were all back on board we headed to a sheltered bay to have lunch and relax for a bit, I did a bit of snorkeling after lunch but ended spending most of the time relaxing on the boat waiting for the divers to come back, they were not out there long as the Italian guy had been throwing up at lunch time and was still not very good the poor bugger. The rain started to come down as we headed off, I had borrowed a wetsuit and I am glad I did, the ride back was pretty rough and we were constantly getting covered in water, at a few points the water was pouring in over the side. I think I got more wet on the ride back then I did when I was snorkeling. Even the dive master was looking concerned at a couple of points, the driver seemed fairly relaxed so I just kept my eyes on him. If he looked worried then I would be worried.
After battling the waves for a hour we finally made it back to the safety of the harbor and I was kind of glad to be on solid ground again, I don’t think Tania enjoyed the ride back at all and the Italian differently did not he was still looking pretty green. I meet Tania again for dinner that night and depending on what happened the next day we would meet again. I was going to say one more night then head to Phuket for a couple of nights.

Getting out of Railah beach

Now Raileh is one of the hardest places to get out of when the weather is ruff, the sea was breaking right up against the front of the resorts there so the boats head to a quite are right in the corner of the bay, the thing is the Resorts that line the front of the beach don’t have a way through, it’s once your there that is where you must stay, so in crap weather you have to fight your way through the surf to get to the boats and they only go when there is enough people.
Now when I got to the West beach I thought I would wait for a hour or so and hope the tide would be out a bit so making the trip a little less wet and hopefully me and my bag would survive without getting to soaked, yea right. Good wish but it was never going to happen. One way or the other the weather would get me.
I decided I would stop and have some lunch before I made the journey hopefully calmer seas would help. When I was half way through my lunch a guy came along asking for people going to Ao Nang my next destination, why is it that people always want you just as your eating lunch or dinner. I scoffed my food down and headed for the boat, there was only one way to do this and that meant getting wet, so I jumped in with my bag above my head and waded through the water to the boat, managed to get there without getting the bag wet but I was soaked to above my waist, lucky the water is warm.
The boat trip around the bays was just as bad, my bag was up front so it managed to stay dry which was good, at least I would have dry cloths to get changed into when I arrived in Ao Nang. The long tailed boats are not really that good in rough seas the water just sprays over the side and right into were everyone sits, it’s impossible to stay dry. So by the time the boat crashed through the waves and made it to Ao Nang I was soaked the only part of me that was dry was my back where my backpack was.
I managed to find a nice enough hotel and had a shower and got dry. I was in Ao Nang over ten years ago and it has really changed, from a sleepy little village with a few guest houses and bungalows to resorts and flash hotels it even has a Macdonalds not that that is a good thing really. So times have changed in ten years. I meet up with Tania that night for dinner and a chat, I was planning to do a snorkeling trip the next day and invited her a long if she wanted to come.