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Published: March 17th 2013
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Nice bird
No idea what this bird is but I liked it. Pataya is another dump but nowhere near as extreme as BKK . It has a nice( ish) beach but is rather dirty . I got there about 3 or 4 hours with the mega cheap taxi , driver wearing sunglasses black tie and leather gloves Im sure he had been watching the Blues Brothers the night before but was a great laugh , never got a tip though as he spent most of the journey driving at mach2 whilst texting or talking on his mobile which sort of unnerved me a little , I dont have much faith in Thai taxi drivers after the last one from BKK airport did a U turn on the motorway after a truck caught on fire some way in front of us , pretty hairy doing that I thnk they call them a " Ghost driver in Europe but even as we reached the exit ( which was in fact the entrance ) to get off the motorway there was a freindly cop guiiding us off , what a weird country !
Anyway I got to the Hotel , dumped my stuff and met Rosie to go and meet her mates. We arranged to
Mai Nam
Just like a postcard meet at some restaurant in a back street organised by her friends and had the most amazing food and being the only white faces made it more fun .
Now Rosie had booked into a 4 star mega Hotel but I was in el cheapo opposite which was ok but had no breakfast , hers did but for 2 people ! So I used to wander over and take advantage and breakfast with her . One day I went across and she was at reception checking out because the restaurant staff had packed up breakfast 20 mins too early and refused to serve her so she threatend to check out if they did nt serve her which they never , so she checked out ! The manager was going mad with apologies but Rosie was hard and stood by her guns , that was funny ! So she moved next door into a better Hotel
But after a few days here it was enough . We sort of looked at a map of Thailand to orientate ourselves , my geography is piss poor so I had no idea exactly where we were and we saw a little Island
The waterfall
Found it after 1 hour through the jungle near to where I was going diving called Koh Samui so we decied to go there , it looked nice enough !
Now to get there was a nightmare with overnight trains and buses , ferries etc so I looked for flights and got an amazing deal with the local airline to fly in with a light aircraft , quick look on Trivago and Hotel booked and off we went .
After a 2 hour flight we landed in Koh S. and got a cab to the hotel we of course had seperate huts , I call them huts because that is what they are .. little wooden huts with no windows but electricity and hot water.But no aircon which does not bother me .
Now this was middle in the jungle and having no windows means anything or indeed anyone can just hop in through a window , god knows why they had keys for the flimsy wooden doors but they did ! It was so dark in the jungle and getting to the huts was a nightmare but we managed it , theses huts were by the way very cheap ! about 6US$ a night
Mean machine
Got quite attached to the bike without breakfast though . In the middle of the night I was oft woken by strange noises only to find the largest of weird animals running up the walls , type of lizard things but werent lizards ! Good job the bed a mosquito net though ! I remember the next morning going for a shower and putting my hand in my washbag only to grab a massive beetle ! that freaked me a little I then rememberd my german doctor who is in fact Indian telling me to shut all bags and suticases at night time as things do tend to crawl in ! and when I said to the owner about the huge ants everywhere he replied he would put a sign up saying " no entry " but was sure the ants or insects could not read ! I do love Thai humor ! The humming birds that hummed outside my windows at dawn were precious to watch .
Luckily the hotel guy said we could hire a motorbike for our time there " very cheap price sir !" oh wel that sounds good then Ill have one ! checked on the internet and it was
Posh meal
Well about 10$ for 2 but amazing food at the waters edge cheap , just hope I can trust him , you hear horror stories of people getting ripped off when handing the bikes back in .
So off we go around this Island , map in hand and riding in shorts and shades , just about breaking all rules of saftey but what the hell ! The island was amazing at the North end , go down South to the mega tourist area and it is horrible, totally ruined but by pure fortune we had landed up north in Mai nam which was largely unspoilt hence the cheap hotel .
These were beautiful beaches and the best of food . We rode all week exploring tracks , going were your not meant to go , hiding the bike and going walking through the jungle to explore , we actually went about 1 hour into the jungle to find a waterfall which we did but damn nearly died of dehydration finding it , actually drunk the water because we were so thirsty , dont knw if that was a good idea but to jump in that icey water and drink and drink was pure heaven ! Just the thought of
Paradise
More people die from coconuts falling on their heads then from shark attacks, silly place to stand really . trekking back was not nice .
We would just stop at any food hall and eat and drink , often too much but no one seemed to care , cant even remember seeing a police car north of the island , just a bit scary riding at night time half cut in that darkness , its amazing how dark a place can be and it is amazing we never got lost but I have Rosie to thank for that as she always seemed to be orientered and barked orders at me as a pillion.Running out of petrol was always a laugh as well but every 500 meters or so on the main roads were people selling petrol in milk bottles, funny that its as if they knew !
The days went on and I was getting itchy feet to go diving I had mailed the school a few times to delay and they were getting assy as well , so I made the decision to finally go . Rosie had had enough of Islands for now and would go up North to Ching chan or something and we meet up again on KOh S. when her mate from
Jungle
Love the trees in the jungles SA came across in a week or so after my diving course.
I handed the motorbike back in , it was in shit state and looked as if it had done the Paris to Dakar rally ! But the guy never even looked at it which was good . We checked into a hotel near the ferry port as I was going via ferry direct from Koh S and she was going to the mainland and had the nicest of meal on the beach with the sea water lapping at our feet and the chairs sinking into the white sands, absolout paradise watching the sun go down there , and then the darkness lit up only by the candles . this was heaven and the next day I was going diving, wow happy times !
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