SLIPPING DOWN THAI

I had been relaxing at Leana's condo in Jomtien Thailand for a couple of weeks. During this time I was able to update this blog, as well as work on my bike (fitting new road tyres, packing wheel bearings, and so forth). Leana returned after guiding a bike tour, and then it was time for me to get on the road again. After some uncertainty I had decided on heading down to the NE border of Malaysia, which would take 2 weeks at best.

I had traveled South through Thailand a number of times before, so this time I took a slightly different route along the Gulf of Thailand coast. This also involved taking a small car ferry across the inlet to Songkhla. The pics in this post are along this route, Surat Thani, Ban Lad, and Prachuap Kiri Khan (amongst others).

At a petrol station close to Surat Thani city, these 2 ladies had stands in the on-site food court. They noticed me filling my water bottles from the "unsecured" tap, and decided to "help" me. They fed me from their respective stalls, and went to buy me T/A meal from KFC next door. Truly wonderful people, and I am just as thankful. Just wonder, how terrible did I look? (It was late PM by that time!). A day or 2 after that the monks at a seaside temple close to Nakhon Si Tamarat gave me a small brass Budha, which they saw me looking at when they brought me breakfast. I tied the icon to my front luggage rack with plastic zip ties, but there were times when I noticed people (mainly small village children) trying to rip the thing off from the bike. I was not going to take any chances about losing that Budha, so I removed it from public view. (Now I have properly secured the little statue with a hefty brass pipe clamp, through a cut which I made in the back of the little piece).

My Eastern route also took me through the predominantly Islamic regions of Pattani and Narathiwatt. Then "IT" happened! Cycling in the rain close to Pattani city, my front wheel slipped on a ridge in the road and before I knew it I had gone down rather hard. I immediately knew that I had broken my arm (just below the shoulder), as I could not even bend down to try and pick my bike up. Luckily somebody helped me, probably a policeman as this accident happened at a permanent police check point.

After the crash I somehow managed to make it into Pattani, thinking that I would find a big mosque where I could spend the night and think about my next course of action. Instead I found a very fancy Budhist temple (resembling a shopping mall) where I camped on their covered basketball court. People there could see that I was injured and suggested I go to hospital, but I did not have money for that kind of treatment. (So they gave me some medicine to ease the pain). The following morning I was invited into their fancy dining area for breakfast, and that is when "IT" happened again.

One of the big "temple dogs" probably did not want me sharing his breakfast, so he executed a meaningful bite into my leg just below the knee. Suddenly I was spurting blood all over the polished white tiled floor! It was then that the senior community people in charge rushed me to hospital, as a dog bite can quickly become infected (as far as I know, dogs don't brush their teeth). I had the necessary treatment and injections, and at the same time these people also paid for XRays which confirmed my broken arm (just a "crack" really).

With only a couple of days left of my Thailand visa, and many km still to go, I had no choice. Cycling with a broken arm was extremely uncomfortable, I had to rest very often, and I did not make it all that far in a day, but at least I was moving. I crossed the closest border to Malaysia, via the estuary from Talat by means of a ferry, sharing the ride with lots of motorcycles and commuting merchants pushing their carts/trolleys. I just managed to make the crossing to Malaysia in time (late afternoon on the day my Thai visa expired). In case you were wondering, if you overstay your Thai visa for a short time you get fined, and a long overstay will get you fined and banned from returning to Thailand. In extreme "overstay" cases the foreign offender will be imprisoned until such time as he can raise the money to pay the (by that time) hefty fine, and pay for his own flight out to his home country. Then he will be escorted to the airport, never to return to Thailand. It is crazy to even understand how things could get that bad, but I had met people in Bangkok who had overstayed their tourist visa by as much as 14 years!

Daily distances which I cycled on this leg of my travels are as follows:- Chonburi 74 km; Samut Prakan 80 km; Samut Sakhon 72 km; Bang Lad 100 km; Pranburi 85 km; Prachuap Kiri Khan 76 km; Bang Saphan 76 km; Ta Sae 86 km; Pac Tako 75 km; Chaya 96 km; Kanchanadit 81 km; Nakhon Si Tamarat 107 km; Ranot 105 km; Singhan Nakhon 81 km; Chana 45 km; Pattani 60 km; Police Station 25 km; and Bacho (end of Thailand) 55 km. Total distance up to this stage is 156 993 km. (This leg through the S of Thailand amounted to 1 379 km).