Biking South East Asia Archives - Page 8 of 17

A long day from Phrasaeng to Khlong Dao on Geoff’s SE Asia tour

Posted on March 17, 2014June 8, 2014

I thought today was going to be a ton up day. However, it turned into an only 97 mile day 🙂 but given the heat & weight still a good day.

It’s still totally amazing to me the sharp contrast between tourist & non tourist areas both in pricing, availability of stuff in shops & getting understood. It would be really interesting to see how the transition works & what is the catalyst that flips the switch.

The roads today were filled with huge trucks carting the fruit of palm trees to be rendered into palm oil, the road was strewn with the bunches that had fallen of the trucks, fortunately non hit me..

The hottest part of the day is awful and I just felt like giving up as it’s impossible to stay hydrated & motivated. However, after 4pm I had managed to buy yet another, about the 4th I think, smart new Lightning connector for the iPhone so I managed to talk to Sally on Facetime for close on half an hour (82MB of data) & then Nick for 7 minutes (22MB of data) both with unbroken connections whilst pedalling along at 15 mph. Truly amazing really to have live video conferencing on a push bike essentially for free whilst mobile & with a 7 hour time difference. Very James Bond 🙂

I managed to make both the small ferries to get on Koh Lanta with no waiting, a great advantage of bike touring! You just bike past the big queue and jump on board 🙂

The Bee Garden, although it should be called The Beer Garden given all the German accents here, Had a room for me and a great view of the setting sun with a beer in my hand.

So i did the 97 miles between sunrise and sunset ! The Strava is here:

Todays pictures are here

Geoff’s SE Asia tour – Don Sak to Phrasaeng

Posted on March 16, 2014

With a cock crowing away outside my door it was obviously time to be on the move! so after dutifully doing my emails etc I was back on the road at 6.45am ready to cross from the East coast of Thailand to the West coast.

The wind was behind me and with smooth roads I made good time stopping for a Thai breakfast followed by a Amazon smoothie. I was pounding along quite merrily when suddenly I was bumping along with a flat rear tyre. 🙁 So after taking the luggage off and upending the bike I discovered a 2 inch nail had embedded itself in my brand new tyre & innertube :-(( I quickly extracted the nail, changed the tube and was on my way again.

On the way I met a Scottish guy who had made a contraption to fix his road bike onto his moped. I guess in Vietnam they would just have strapped it on with some bungees 🙂 In Puang Promkhon I found a shop where they expertly fixed the punctures caused by the nail going right through the tube 🙁 So I now have a spare again. It’s amazing that I did the 3000 miles to The Black Sea with no punctures whereas in the 1800 miles cycled so far I have had 4 punctures 🙁

After 80 miles I called it a day in the city that has a bulldozer on a pedestal in the central square, Phrasaeng. I really struggled finding the hotel which everyone was sure in the town. At one point a guy had me following him on his motorbike, only to take me to his house! I turned tail & escaped. Eventually someone in a smart car showed me where it was – I would never had found it as the sign was totally in Thai.

So by the time I stopped cycling it was 83.9miles when I arrived at โรงแรมพรทิพย์. (Hotel Porntip according to Google translate). Here is the Strava:

Todays pictures are here

Koh Tao to Donsak on Geoff’s SE Asia adventure

Posted on March 15, 2014

I left Koh Tao on the 9.45 Catamaran to Koh Samui with a brief stop , to disgorge hundreds of folk, at Koh Phangan. Last night was the full moon festival so i was treated to loud bangs from some humungous bangers in the street below. Fascinating how the kids like this island, a bit like bees around a honey pot & yet I can travel hundreds of miles without seeing any Westerners. I’m fascinated by what makes a place popular and others not..

It started raining at the first stop which was unfortunate as I was sat with my bike on the back deck reading my latest John Grisham download The Racketeer (excellent btw). Interestingly I find it as easy to read on the iPhone5 s as on my Kindle paper white and a hell of a lot easier to hold! With my 10Ah battery I can have the screen & GPS on all day long 🙂 although the Lightening connector is once again on its last legs, this time through corrosion on the ‘gold’ contacts.

On arrival at Koh Samui I didn’t take to the place, it has no real island feel, just seems like the mainland , there was no hope of finding Howard from the Grasshoppers tour so, after the major cloudburst finished, I just cycled around the coast to Nathon where I could get the ferry back to the mainland at Donsak, a hell of a lot cheaper than the Lomprayah Cats as well! just 200 Baht for me & the bike!

I stopped at the first motel place of the ferry, Donsak Resort and a snip at 500 Baht per night. The elderly lady cooked me some egg fried rice in her roadside diner with its smart outdoor bamboo shelters with table & seats.

Tomorrow it’s back on the road crossing over to the middle where at Wiang Sa I have to decide whether to go to the West coast at Krabi or the East coast at Ko Kham

Here is my little ride on Koh Samui

and the photos are here

Chumpon Beach to KohTao Island

Posted on March 15, 2014March 15, 2014

The lovely folks at Grasshopper tours let me hitch a 40minute ride with my bike to the ferry terminal at Chumpon. We made it for the 7am Catamaran service to the East coast islands, their group went to the big island Koh Samui. I opted for the first small island Koh Tao thinking I could then catch the afternoon ferry to Koh Samui

The bike went on the very full Cat OK although taking it almost doubles the price from 600 to 1100 baht! 100minutes later we made a brief stop at Ko Hang Tao to drop of a whole group of folks and there fresh fruit & veg supplies. A quick 12 minute spin across the bay and we were at Koh Tao (Turtle Island). Once I disembarked I bumped into a Brazilian guy who is biking from Hong Kong to Singapore, he recommended avoiding Phuket & going via Krabi down the West coast to Singapore. So many choices, .

Once on the island I decided to bike across to Ao Leuk to get some brunch, Wow what a steep hill! On the way back I struggled to push the bike up the hill! However, I had lovely Thai vegetable green soup & rice. Arriving back in the town I went to book my ticket to be told the afternoon ferry was full 🙁 So I’m leaving on the 9.00am today

I ended up, after a fruitless hour searching for the Jom Thong Guesthouse, including falling off the bike in the fine sand 🙁 In the end I decided on the Cafe del Sol Guesthouse in the village centre run by one the many French people on the island. Nice room but the usual dodgy internet connection.

I treated myself to another pedicure, manicure & foot massage, with the lady using a stick for the first time over here. Not the best but OK for £12

The pictures of the day are here

and the Strava for the short hop over the island is on Strava here: