Advertisement
Published: August 5th 2005
Edit Blog Post
Trusty Old Red Steed
a mere 1.3L, but a tough machine that brought us to and back from the worst parts of the mountains...in rain and shine. Alas, a break from all that diving. After a week of pure intensive diving, my ears ache slightly as they try to get use to the huge pressures underwater. During one of my dive trips, I befriended a German guy who has a dry sense of humour and a ready laugh. He revealed that his grandfather was a tank officer under Field Marshal Rommel in N.Africa during WW2 and he himself was an ex- infantry Unterofficer (Sergeant) in the german army.
We decided that we would rent a 1.3L 4x4 Suzuki jeep and do a Tour de Koh Samui, exploring off roads and if possible, going up the mountains. We did lunch at Tescos and soon were hitting the dirt tracks around Lamai area. We whetted our appetites with paved tracks around Diparavan climbing steep slopes that would put roads up to Genting to shame. I got accustomed to the sheer incline of the roads and was soon getting bored of just doing smooth climbs no matter how steep they were.
Soon we were looking for tougher roads to tackle and we were around Maenam area when we decided this particular in road up to the mountains looked rugged
The off road duo
Thomas and yours truly enough for us get more kick and adrenaline. We headed up and followed the trail with eager anticipation and were not disappointed by the roughness of the roads and before long, we were asking each other verbally if the jeep could handle this particular track.
I switched down to the lowest 4x4 gear and took the jeep up meandering dirt holes and impossibly tilted tracks that look only fit for army off road vehicles. The 1.3 suzuki whined and roared, but still stubbornly inched us up higher and higher up the mountain track. Between Thomas and I, we rotated driver and navigator roles as we took turns to enjoy the slow but steady climb up the rocky mountain road up the mountain ranges of Samui. The familiar pressure differences had us equalizing the pressure in our ears with pops audible only to ourselves. We climbed to heights in excess of 500 over metres. As with any rarified atmosphere, the air was cool to our blistered skin and the frequent gusts of wind eliminated any need for aircon as we shut it off to let the jeep have that extra boost of power.
It was when it was 5.30pm
Navigating some of the easier slopes..
it was gentle enough to whip out a cam :) and the sky was the dark and when we had practically no food nor did water and most importantly, have less than a quarter tank of gas when we were faced with an important decision. We wanted to attempt to do a direct bearing cross of the whole country from the north to the south via the mountain ranges. It was a good 15-20 km on mountain roads and we were limited by the amount of gas we had. I, being the typical conservative asian, recommended against it, but Thomas, eager for more thrills, relentlessly pushed for it. I gave in and embarked on our journey down.
We passed major “checkpoints” and were that were reflected on the lousy map and were reasonably assured that we knew where we were. However at 7pm we found ourselves getting lost and were basically rounding up the mountains in the opposite direction. Visibility was getting at a an all time low as well as it the sun continued to set. The turning point came when I drove into a small mountain slope with the ravine by my right and found out that it was a dead end. I couldn’t do a 3
point turn, so I had to reverse to get out. Imagine doing a reverse drive, out of a mountain slope, in poor visibility with the ravine on my right. This no longer became fun, nor an adventure. It became a risk, with serious consequences if anyone of us screwed up. Many thrill seeking tourists like us have lost their lives up in the mountains because of these reasons. Thomas got out of the car and assisted me out of the precarious reverse out of the gully.
After a good 10 mins, we managed to come out with nothing but sweaty bodies and a heightened sense of panic. This was when I put my foot down and told Thomas what I intended to do. I re-analysed the map for him and rationalize that we were on the estimate only 40% through the journey. It was unavoidable that we had to traverse in totally strange and unfamiliar mountain roads in the darkness to get out and I figured that it was better to cover the 40% in roads we traveled before, rather than the other 60% in blindness.
He concurred and we started to make our way back. We past
Lost!
Came across a mountain villager and trying hard to understand his directions in thai familiar checkpoints again and were pretty comforted that we were right on track when at around 8 we figured we were lost again as the roads totally unfamiliar. We figured that we must have missed a few side roads that were in total darkness. We decided against turning back as the myriad of mountain roads will make it hard even to get back to our familiar checkpoints. We wanted to avoid getting desperately lost. What got worse when it started to rain and the roads became slippery, turning dirt tracks into mud tracks.
That was when we saw a small bulb of light higher up in the ranges and a steep dirt road up. We aimed for that road, hoping that it could lead us to civilization and get some help. We finally reached a dilapidated hut and knocked on the door gingerly. We opened to find 5 men and a woman watching tv! I stared in half thai and English to ask where exactly we were, they looked on in total puzzlement and called for another woman outside the hut to handle us.
This amiable thai introduced herself as Walker, having stayed in England the past 10
Look at the Slope!
if u think this is bad....we tackled the same slope the next day....On a BIKE :D years and the only one to speak any English! Before she helped us out with directions, she insisted that we come in to have a drink first! She whipped out a bottle of thai sangsom whiskey and soon toasting. She brought out some food as well, mudfish in thai salad, and insisted that we finish everything before we left. She was so hospitable. At the end of it all, she asked one of men to lead us out of the mountain range. She really was God sent.
We hit the main highway in nathon in half hour and was soon on our way back….we thought we were done with mountains…. That was before we figured that what we attempted to do on jeep today, we could try it on motorcross bikes…….. :D
Advertisement
Tot: 0.118s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0447s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb