Thailand – for many people, this is one of their favourite countries to visit. For me it probably wasn’t my all-time favourite, but don’t get me wrong – travelling around here is fun and easy. In a change to my usual “Solitary Man” approach, my sister Nicola joined me for a month, with her husband also coming along for a bit over a week.
They do love the King here – everywhere you go, there are huge pictures of the King.
Plenty of temples of course in Thailand.
Riding around Bangkok was a bit of a challenge – Nic is surrounded my motorbikes here.
Waking up in Phetchaburi, we were wondering what all the banging was about. It was monkeys running around on cars and roofs nearby of course.
Interesting old royal palace on top of the hill next to Phetchaburi too.
Some really tough stuff in Thailand, stopping in bungalows beside beaches like this one at Phu Noi
We ventured off into a large cave – I would have taken photos inside, but didn’t want to wake up the bats…
Just another random temple off the side on the road in Thailand
Nic coming up a hill, followed by a German couple we met, riding from Germany on a tandem.
Monkeys monkeys…playing in Prachuap Khiri Khan
Plenty of fishing boats along the coast – check out how long the typical propshaft is
We stayed on Ko Tao for a few days – there’s the place we stayed at, viewed from the water, and a couple of shots from our snorkelling trip.
Just another brand new resort we stayed at on the way south…
Nakhon Si Thammarat was a nice little stop – check the old city walls.
A 3km uphill slog off the main road got us to this jungle waterfall – just as well it was pretty, the ride was tough.
Hmm, a bit unusual this…Nic racing off ahead of me…must have been dogs chasing her.
Trang was a nice little town, with rather funky tuk-tuks. These two are for sale, if you’re interested.
Dave joined us there – check out these photos of him purchasing a commuter bike, and doubling Nicola around town.
Riding out of Trang, we were joined by the local cycling club. Great bunch of guys, very relaxed, no worries about speed – put the slowest guy at the front, everyone goes at that speed. Apparently even they get all the shouts from the children. Sadly the photos they posted are no longer online 🙁
Southern Thailand is culturally different to the rest of Thailand – suddenly everyone is Muslim, and I’m hearing the call to prayer again. Still all smiles though, no trouble in the parts of southern Thailand we were in.
Helpfully they have now put up signs telling us to go inland if there is a tsunami. Good to know that.
Ko Lipe was a nice stop for a few days – wide white beaches, usually with many topless European women sunbathing. Tough times. I did like the little bar out in the water. No need to swim out there though, there were plenty of bars on the beach.
My bike shorts were looking pretty bad by the end of Thailand – patched and repaired multiple times, one part was even sewn up with dental floss. Time to let them go, now I’ve moved on to NZO Dobies. Supporting New Zealand made and all that.
After getting to Singapore, I went back to Thailand, to Ko Tao, to complete a PADI Open Water course. Always meant to do some diving, now I have. But of course sitting around at beach bars was required too.
Some random diving shots – that’s Sally in the foreground of some of the shots, a fellow cyclist, who did the dive course with me.
It was St Patrick’s Day while on the island – sadly these are the sorts of scenes – men dressed in skirts, and behaving badly. Like much of the world really.
