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Published: October 4th 2007
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My dearest fan-base. Please accept my most sincere apologies for the lack of attention I have been bestowing upon you of late.
What
have I been up to then I hear you scream? Well...
After I last left you I managed to recover from the full moon party via a patented method of drinking cocktails and slipping in and out of sleep in a hammock at the water's edge, listening to reggae music and watching the sunset. Ahhhhhhhhhh! 😊
I think there has only been one documented case of a human being achieving a higher state of relaxation than me on that day, and he went on to start a whole religion; "Budhism" or "Boodism" I'm not sure, it may be a silent "H".
Got a whole series of
"loverly" pictures of the sunset!! Mmmmmm!
A New Day
I was blessed with bags of energy and decided against my better judgement to rent an ATV (quad bike) and go exploring in the jungle. I managed to haggle it down to 500Baht a day (starting at 1000, that's half price don't you know). After that succefull barter session me, myself and my slightly enlarged ego decided
Beautiful
I love my camera to hit the old dusty trail, literally.
So off I galloped. There is no part of the rest of the time that I spent with the dear old quad bike that would be in any way shape or form legal in anywhere in Europe. I wasn't asked for any ID or driving liscence (though he did take my passport as a deposit - after having agreed to rent it to me and believe me, he didn't check it!) and I was wearing only boardshorts, flip-flops and sunglasses. I did enquire about a helmet (given the slightly specific small text in my insurance document along the lines of "all void if you don't wear one"), however, it took me over 10 minutes simply to explain to the renter-man the concept of a helmet. So no, he didn't have one. Never mind, the quad bike only had 5 gears!
I had a little map in my pocket and set myself the challenge of reaching every bay over 2 days. It was great fun. The "roads" are really little more than dusty paths at the beginning, turning into full on muddy-ravines as you go further into the jungle. I had SO
Let the Jungle Paths Begin
This is easy... I don't know what everyone's talking about! much fun riding around as fast as possible; jumping, swirving and sliding. WEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
After a while the roads became no less than trecherous and were it not for the fact that I was pretty much lost and had been going for ages I would have turned back! On the occasion, however, Greg-the-fearless raised his beautiful head and just kept powering on. I may have come off a few times, but who's counting ehh? (I didn't even cut myself, so I don't think it really counts).
It was so peaceful in the middle of the jungle, no sound what-so-ever, except for pure nature. Oh and this rather annoying "wirring" sound, a bit like an engine, the sort that would power a small vehicle of some sort....
The only bad thing that happened to me was Mango Bay. It looked good on the map, sounded good so I thought "Let's go". This had by far the steepest roads of all and I was really beginning to question the sense of the trip, but I just kept powering on (didn't want to simply turn around and waste a 30 min journey). As I approached the summit of the peak
Getting Deeper and Steeper
Hmm... getting a little trickier I needed to cross a little man came running out of the jungle (not kidding) and kept shouting at me to stop, so I did. "No motobike, No motobike. You walk". He was telling me that the road down was too savage to attempt. I wisely listened and set off on foot. Thge descent got so steep in points that I actually ended up sliding down some of it!!! I thought it would be a quick 10 minute descent but it turned out to be over 30 mins down, in the baking heat, and with each step I kept thinking, bugger... I have to go back up this!!!
I had to keep going though as I'd run out of water and needed to replenish at the "Mango Bay Grand Resort" awaiting me at the bottom. Cut a long story short, I finally arrived to find a deserted semi-complete resort with no restaurant / cafe / bar. The only thing they could / would sell me was a warm (air temp so actually quite hot) can of tonic water. Lush - just what I felt like after the mighty trek!!! To cap it all off, Mango bay itself was crap.
Pretty Steep
This is one of the steepest ones I could photograph. It went steeper, but I couldn't stop as I'd just start sliding right back down again! One weird thing I did come across on the journeys was a GIANT dam. It was pretty surreal - more like a James Bond Secret Lair....
Anyways, I've been blathering on for far too long now, so I'll skip to the end. Finally made it back home and then moved town. I'm now staying in Sairee, the main town (if you can really call it that). It's much more lively up here, but more importantly I'm staying at a Dive resort as I've enrolled myself into a Rescue Diver course (cool!).
I finished the quad bnike adventure with some cocktails at vibe bar, this time listening to some house music and .... wait for it ... yep ... watching the sun set. LOVERLY!!!!
So up next - the trials and tribulations of becomming a fully qualified PADI Rescue Diver...
Take care
xxxx
P.S. A Beer for whoever names the crazy bug pictured. X
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