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Published: November 3rd 2008
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As we entered back into the motherland, Carl was in his element as we were greeted by smiling border guards and the smells of the all the different food stalls filling our noses with Thai music playing in the background. We completed our visas and crossed back over onto the left hand side of the road ... well me and Carl did, Neil tried to take on the oncoming traffic!!!
It was bliss being able to pull up wherever we wanted and buy cold drinks from a fridge and sit down on a bench in the shade and enjoy them... This basic bliss we had left behind 2 & half months previous when we crossed into Lao. The joy we felt when we saw our first proper cold fridge was unbelievable. In Vietnam and Camdodia just because a shop has a fridge does not mean that it is plugged in!!!!
The road was rolling and we felt secure as we did not have overloaded scooters, trucks or mini-buses overtaking us or coming straight for us. We had the Gulf of Thialnd to our left and the distant hills of Ko Chang looming closer with every peddle stoke.
We had a quick lunch in Trat then headed to the ferry terminal to cross to the island, little did we know what would be waiting for us when we docked. We had nearly 80 miles in our legs, a border crossing and a ferry crossing as we hit the island, what we did not realise was that we had another 15 miles to do and it was going dark, but most of all we were about to experience the same steep hills as we experienced on the Thai/Myanmar border!! Truthfully I don't think it was the brightest thing we have done, as the roads around Ko Chang are twisty, steep and narrow.... Finally we got to Lonely beach by about 7.30pm in the dark with 95 miles in our legs and thankfully found a nice quiet beach hut area to stay in. We decided to have a something to eat and go to the local 'Treehouse Bar' for a quick look ... 5 beers later and a good couple of hours on the dancefloor we got back to the beach hut at 3am!!! Now that is fitness coming through!!
Next morning we all felt the
beer and the miles as we relaxed, ate and appreciated the gorgeous sea view. As Carters big 30th was coming up, we decided to treat him to a day on the 'scooters' to explore around Ko Chang. He was talking about doing his CBT when he got back to Blighty, so we thought we would give him a little taster!!! We hired 2 deep red Honda Clicks 110cc automatics.. God we had some fun on them. I actually think Carl enjoyed being chauffered around on the back of ours. Yes thats right fellow Vespa riders, I learnt to ride with a pillion behind me!! It was quiet hard at first and took some getting use to, especially the slow maneuvers like a turn in the road and attacking 1 in 4 steep hills and corners. Not bad to say I've only got a CBT!!!
We then hit the beach where Carl tried to perfect the typical 'British' look, by standing in the sea with his belly sticking out, sunglasses on and a bottle of Leo Beer in his hand... He was basically copying a man we saw the previous day who was doing the same, but had a
cigarette in his other hand, a Rab C Nesbitt vest top on and a massive cowboy hat!!!! Neil was then treated to a special birthday pancake and fresh fruit made by the local resturant, as we told them it was his birthday (a week early).
We left Ko Chang in the biggest downpour we've had in ages, as even the local traffic stopped due to the heaviness of the rain. Unluckily for us we were halfway up one of the steep climbs on the way to the ferry (remember 1 in 4). We thought sod it and carried on and had to walk down the other side of the climb or our brakes and bikes would have disintergrated!!!
The next few days were spent riding around the coast to the trainline to catch the train into Bangkok, unfortnately we had to catch it from Pattaya!! The 60 mins we spent riding into it to find the train station was enough to put us of it for life!!! We arrived in Bangkok with the bright lights shining and the tuk-tuks motoring around on their 2-strokes. We also celebrated our last night out and Neil's birthday again, enjoying
drinks on a street stall in the big fancy area (amazingly the cheapest beer and rum in town!!)before we headed to Patpong for a bit of entertainment, which included me pole dancing with the go-go girls.(Penzance part 2)
We have now parted from Neil Carter, who now goes on to explore the beaches and mountains of Southern Thailand; Malaysia; Singapore and the Phillipeans. Good luck Neil and enjoy, we've had an interesting and enjoyable 3 and half months together.
We have then spent the last week sorting ourselves out and getting ready to move onto Malaysia and Singapore before we fly to the country of 100mph's worth of mayhem ... INDIA!!
After being away a year, I can't believe how fresh and eager I still feel towards travelling. We think that we have done a good split of riding the bike and having days off. As Carl informed me from his 'Stat & Ideas book'(he never stops), we have had a massive 150 days of the bike and we mean not touching the bike at all, but when we have touched the bike we have averaged a nice steady pace of over 50 miles
a day.
With my dream of going to India in december, it feels like we are strating another big trip. Once we get there we have just under a month to get to Kollam in Kerala from Chennai, where we will start our 3 months voluntray work in a local school on the 1st Jan. We will be doing anything and everything from helping the pupils improve their english to gardening, house parent to bus driving. It's going to be well different. The area looks really interesting and mega for exploring, especially the back waters and the mountain chain.
The school website is www.sjia.org.in
Merry Christmas Love Sarah & Carlos xx
(Doing this now as it has took me 4 months to update the blog since last time, plus Carl is a tight arse and wont pay for a lot of internet)
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Jose and Ulli
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we missed Asia a lot in South America!
....now we know why!? We can´t wait to host you in Germany!!! It´s my first winter though after 3 years.... Liam and Sporty Spice!!!!! Enjoy and enjoy! Yours Jose and Ulli - still thinking about you and the wonderful way to travel by bike a lot - what an experience!!!!!!!!!!