My Waterproof Isn't

From Battambang we travelled to Bangkok. On the Cambodian side the road to the border has still not been made and is a bumpy potholed ride, it must get a whole lot more unpleasant when the monsoons hit. The well known rumour that there's an airline involved in keeping it from seeing tarmac must have some truth. With the better quality roads arriving in all corners of the country this one is long overdue. After a few days in Bangkok we took a night bus down to Chumphon, arriving by 3am for a few hours sleeping on the floor of the bus station before the ferry to Ko Tao.


Once on Ko Tao we found a chalet then set straight off to get ourselves mopeds. Only the west coast of the island has made roads so we opted for the more costly knobbly tyres over the standard smooth road tyre. We stayed five days, three on the developed Sairee Beach and two on the other side of the island at the quieter Tanote Bay. Splashing out a bit we kept the bikes the whole of the time on the island, exploring virtually every corner.


The highlight of the biking was the ride to the remote Mango Bay. Curiously we left it until mid afternoon before starting the trip, but made reasonable progress over the difficult terrain to get there by about 5pm. There we only had time for a quick drink before needing to set off back while there was still light. The weather hadn't been too special for the few days before and was in no mood to change, a thunderstorm set in. Drenched from head to toe and with the treacherous uphill sections requiring much pushing off with the feet, flip-flops were useless (not that they've ever been recommended bike footwear) so it was bare feet.


There were a few times when we thought maybe we'd bitten off more than we could chew. The hill we were most stuck on had had banana leaves put down for extra grip, I'd like the person who's grand idea that was to know that a giant wet leaf isn't very grippy. We were lucky that a chap on a passing quad bike (there wasn't anyone else around) stopped and helped with the pushing on that section, it was one of those pushes where the people behind are completely caked in mud by the spinning back wheel.


Not at any point during all of that did either of us drop the bikes. I saved that until the very end of the day on a sandy section 10 metres from our hut going almost no speed at all, I still don't know what happened. It didn't damage me but did put some new scrapes on the mirror and levers of the bike, when I took it back I was sure I'd need to pay for them, but though they spotted them and put a phone call in about them they then just let me off.


I used to be really happy with my waterproof, which screws up into a little bag not much bigger than an apple. But I've come to realise that compromises have been made. When push comes to shove it doesn't even nearly do the job. It's forte is when I'm carrying it round and the rain holds off, then it's smaller, lighter and more practical than any I've seen.


Our favourite spot on the island was at Laem Thien on the eastern side. The track to get there was good fun and once there it had two bays. Both are excellent for snorkelling, with the main one being the place in the area to see sharks, snorkelling trips round the island all go there. Tom saw a shark, I didn't. The one he saw was swimming under my legs at the time, but I chose that moment to look around and see where the person pointing out sharks was pointing. Just round the corner is another bay with good coral and rocks suitable for jumping off into the water.


From Ko Tao we took the short ferry to Ko Phangan. At which point my camera seems to have taken a holiday, I've got almost no pictures of it. Our main reason for being there was the full moon party. We spent two days staying at an out of the way resort at Hat Tien on the west coast before moving down to Hat Rin where the action would be. We found a cheap hut up in the cliffs a 15 minute walk from the beach.


I made it until nearly 5am before going to bed, at that stage things were still going strong. Tom didn't return until after 9am. I'd managed to chip a tooth fairly early on in the proceedings, in an incident involving Tom's shoulder and a bottle of Chang beer. The debate about who moved into who doesn't really matter, the result was a small chunk of front tooth floating around my mouth.


On the ferry from Ko Phangan back to the mainland we saw a pretty spectacular sunset. The captain of the ferry liked it so much he gave the boat a 360 degree spin so that everybody could appreciate it. From Surat Thani it was an overnight sleeper train down to Sungai Kolok on the Malaysian border, heading for the Perhentian Islands, but not before a 6 hour wait at the station for the heavily delayed train. The delay meant it was morning before much sleeping had been done, others lost their beds early as they were returned to day settings as seats at every chance by the overzealous carriage staff. I managed to hold onto mine until about noon, hours after the rest of the carriage had given up and accepted the new day.

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