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Published: February 18th 2007
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Thailand---or land of freedom directly translated. Also called “the land of smiles” which may sound a little cheesy, but it’s true.
For your information: The Kingdom of Thailand lies in Southeast Asia, with Laos and Cambodia to its east, the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia to its south, and the Andaman Sea and Myanmar to its west. Was formerly called Siam until 1939. The king is Bhumibol Adulyadej, the currency is the baht, it’s the 49th largest country and has a population of 65million.
Bumped into a friend in Bangkok(Marcos who we met in Guatemala earlier this year) who knew a good place to stay while recovering from the jetlag. Our bikes had a safe place to stay there too and the small room had a ceiling fan, bonus!
We hit the fruit markets, found a little vegetarian place, had Thai coffee (which rivals Turkish) from street vendors, saw tourists getting dreadlocks installed on Khao San road, giant cockroaches, cats no dogs and 200 people exercising to techno music in the park. Spent an afternoon dipping our feet in a turtle filled moat at a Buddhist temple.
Thailands financial wealth as a country is fully
apparent in Bangkok. Huge skyscrapers made of glass, a sky train, an outrageous new airport and a “first world” type freeway system. Most people seem very well off. These things are all new in the last ten years.
Sufficiently rested and prepared for the 600km ride to the world rainbow gathering we set out to leave Bangkok. It took a full afternoon to get out of the city. Got onto a highway that was headed west for about 100 km. where we then took a turn to the south down the southern peninsula.
Been getting up before sunrise to get some riding done while it’s still cool and taking a “siesta” (I think they call it something different here) during the heat of the day, riding some more and then just before sunset asking around for a good place to set up a tent for the night.
Got a flat in front of a roadside military surplus store. The sun set as I was fixing the
tire and so Sudham, the owner, had us stay for the night. He turned out to be an ex-CIA Vipassanna master. We got a camouflage mosquito net from him.
One morning, about 5am, woke up to the sound of an industrial air ratchet rhythmically whirring away. I looked out the tent window and here was a woman, wearing all pink no less, casually pulling the wheel off a semi truck. She proceeded to fix the blown out tire while the truck driver looked on. Have seen Thai women in a lot of such positions, truck driving, pumping gas, construction work, tree trimming. This stands out to me as something you wouldn’t see in Central America.
We’ve encountered so many friendly people as we pedal along. Kids run out to the road to see us go by shouting “thank you” or “hello” or whatever English phrase they know. Some kids just point and say “falang, falang” which means guava and also “person with light skin“. Anyone you show a hint of a smile, will return the favor with a big smile.
I got a second flat at one point and was unable to repair it ,(problem at the
valve stem), so I had to hitch 30km back to town to track down a bit of an unusual size inner tube. I met a guy at a roadside scooter repair shop who didn’t speak a word of English but was determined to help me find the tube I needed. I got on the back of his motorcycle and we went to all the bike shops in town until we found the right inner tube. Through a translator he learned that my bike and Nikki were waiting 30km down the road. Immediately he offered to take me there. I filled his tank with gas and we were off. What would have been an all day search and a lot of walking was made so easy by his kindness. It was fun being the passenger on a motorcycle too.
We crossed from the east to the west side of the peninsula through a small mountain range. Rode along the Myanmar, (formally Burma), boarder until we hit the northernmost west coast of Thailand. This is where we are now, in a town called Ranong, rounding up supplies for the rainbow gathering (again bumped into Marcos and some other folks). It’s about a hundred km south of here which will be an easy two day ride. I think we’ll leave town in the morning.
Once we get to the gathering we’ll probably be staying there for a while though we will have to leave at some point in order to renew our visas (Thailand only gives 28 days at a time but if you cross a boarder then return you get another 28 days. This is called a “visa run”. We can do this 3 times before we have to stay out for at least 6 months).
We are happy and healthy living our dream and guided by the Great Spirit.
-Simon
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