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Published: February 7th 2009
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Local long tails
This is where local fisherman on the west coast anchor their boats during the day,once the sun starts going down everyone goes to the sea, fishing. The people without boats are seen fishing off the rocky coast. Since our beach days all blend in together I have decided to not bother with comments about them .You have all been there at one time or another ,soft rolling surf ,crystal waters ,lots of sand and hot ,hot, hot.
But I well expand on our adventures.
We travelled south this time to National Marine Park,a spectacular 28km drive along the coast. The brochures indicate the careful driving is recommended as there is a section that is unpaved. After travelling halfway,we stopped at a little bar on the beach for a beer before we got to the unpaved section,I needed some liquid courage. While we were sitting there enjoying the scenery we heard screaming screehing tires and something rolling into the forest. The bar owner ran up the hill right away to see what happened, I am sure this happens regularly as he did not seem surprised. When he returned he mimed a woman crying and said "driving too fast,very bad road,steep". Okay ,now I am worried again maybe I need another Chang. No, I think I want Ron sober for this.
Nothing can prepare you for our trip ahead.
The road to
beach
This beautiful beach was ravaed by the tsunami.It is the beginning of the tsunami hazard zone the park is unpaved and narrow. As you all know I have trouble in a car on paved roads in the mountains,these roads are high and looking over the edge to the sea below can make you dizzy. This road is steep,with sudden deep and sharp slopes,sharp bends and bumps. It is so dusty that we were covered with fine yellow dust. Some of the slopes had runoff from the mountains which created several small dips in the road. At one point our bike just spunout on dust alone trying to get up .I got off and walked for a piece as we could not get up with both of us on the bike. But the views are amazing with rainforest and mountains on one side and rocky cliffs down to sandy beaches on the other.
At last we reached the park entrance. This is where we found a little road that took us to quiet beach. Since we were so dirty from our trip we strippped down to our bathing suits and swam here for another about 2hours. There is hardly any people here,no wonder who would want to take that road on a regular basis.
Map
The map here was displayed to show tsunami hazards ,which is the area in red. It also marks all the escape routes to higher ground and safe atations in the 500m mountains which are covered in rain forest. Paved road at last.
I was happy to get out of the dust ,however the road continued with extremely steep climbs with our motorcycle on full throttle we just made it up. Oh but that is not the worst part now we have to go down. Ron actually rode the brake all the way down to the park and sometimes he just put his feet down to stop us from propelling down the road at top speeds. The worst part was when we had an approaching vehicle on these roads as they are so narrow you almost have to go into the jungle to miss them.
Here we are at last.After the ride the park itself was anticlimatic. We were very surprised to run into a tribe of monkeys which were great fun to watch on the beach. Hermit crabs gave the babies a good run for their money.
We climbed up to the lighthouse ,the views here were incredible.Pictures just do not even begin to capture the beauty of this place.
Oh, my god !!!!It is time to go back over that road .I tried stalling as long as I could ,but we
Ship
Owen we found a real pirate ship anchored just off the coast. I hid in the trees to get this picture for you. wanted to get back on a safe road before dark.
Same story on the way back. In short we all made it back safe and sound to concrete and a really nice spot on the beach. The restaurant we stopped at was called Same Same but Different and has been written up in several places for being an excellent place to eat. After our trip who cares about food just bring us a beer.
We did decide to eat here the food was excellent,service very slow (which is typical of Thailand) .We ended up staying here until sundown and took some fun and beautiful pictures.
Tired,dusty and still wet we went the last 14km back to our apartment in the dark. My butt was sore,but I really did enjoy our adventure and looking forward to sharing it with Jim and Yvonne when they get here.
Lorrie has come a long way on her bike, riding from the time we got here, from keeping her eyes tightly closed flailing around on the back of the bike ,thinking we are going to die ,to a more relaxed state. The traffic here drives on both sides of the
Beer stop
This beautiful beach is Ba kan Tieng Bay,and houses some of the most expensive resorts on the island,rooms are $1000 a night. I guess that is why you see yachts and sailboats anchored off its beautiful shore. We stopped at a little bar on the beach for a cool beer before we hit the unpaved roads up into the mountains. road has no regard for signal lights ,and passes on either side it just doesn't matter. So most days it is just swerving around cars, trucks ,motorcycles and people walking on the road, no problem.
But after our trip down the coast she did remarkabley well ,even opening her eyes to take in the sights. All went well, so well, we went twice. The roads here are as she stated , bad loose gravel and dust. The bikes are only 125cc ,so not a lot of power and at times you wondered if you could make it up the hills, as a matter of fact you couldn't .The bike would spin out and not enough power to carry us both to the top ,so Lorrie walked, and was happy to do so. ( AS a matter of fact I said many times let me off I will walk.)
But we are alive and well so it must of went okay.
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iwillbe
Lorrie
Hello
Thank you for the comment never thought about the Hwy # etc some of the locations we were in just did not have them. Enjoy