Bangkok - Phetchaburi - Chaam -Hua Hin - Prachuap Khiri Khan - Chumphon - Ko Tao - Bangkok
Once my sister, Verena, got used to the hot Thailand weather, we took the train to head south. Getting on the train was a bit tricky. The luggage wagon was at one end, the second class wagons at the other end of the super long train. Suddenly half of the train was gone - 1 hour prior to the scheduled departure time - while we were buying the tickets for our bicycles. But it came back after a while. It was very confusing. Anyway, we took the slow train only for a short distance because we didn't want to cycle out of Bangkok. Not on the first day on the road for my sister! When we arrived in Phetchaburi, we initially wanted to cycle directly to the beach, but the train was late and by the time we got there, it was dark already. So we just decided to stay one night in town. While we were having dinner at the riverside, something long sneaked through the shallow water. In the beginning we thought it would be a plastic bag but it was a crocodile! Much better than live TV!
The next morning we started early and thus we could have our lunch break on the beach. This day we cycled until Cha-am, a smaller town on the beach, where we easily found a hotel. There were many tourists, but mainly Thai and it wasn't really crowded. The next day we cycled to Hua Hin and were really shocked when we arrived. The guidebook only said that this was one of Thailand's first beach destinations, but it was nowhere mentioned the millions of mainly older tourists, many of them in tour groups, the huge hotels all along the beach, the many many night bars, all just for one purpose: bringing together old ugly western men with young Thai girls. Well, all this to say that we didn't like it here and were a bit afraid that it would continue like this for the rest of our trip along the coast.
But we worried for no reason. Once we left Hua Hin, the nice part of our journey started. This day we cycled until the beginning of Khao Sam Roi Yot national park, where we stayed our first night in a 'beach resort'. It was already a bit worn out, but the bungalows were rather nice, cheap and had free Wi-fi. The beach was great. It was really wide, sandy and almost nobody there. The only problem was a very strong wind which would continue for a good part of our journey. Luckily it blew in the right direction, so that it really facilitated cycling. However, on our rest day at the beach, it just meant that our first swim in the sea had to wait a little longer.
Prachuap Kiri Khan, the next stop on our way was a really nice little town. Almost no tourists here anymore and they had a great night market. We ate so much that night - fried noodles, squid, papaya salad, sticky rice with mango, Thai pancakes, fruit shakes and much more - that we had problems cycling back to our hotel, which was just a few kilometers away from the market. From here it took us four days to get to Chumphon. Four nice days with a lot of cycling along the beaches, through pineapple plantations, under coconut palms, with nights in nice bungalows by the sea and the tailwind always accompanying us. Chumphon is mainly a jump-off to get to the island of Ko Tao - one of the main diving spots in Thailand - and this is what we wanted to do as well. The day ferry however wouldn't take our bicycles because they couldn't load them onto the boat. Heavy wind and waves made it impossible. So we had to take the car ferry that only goes at nights. It was a rather comfortable journey. They even had beds on the ferry and early next morning we arrived on Ko Tao.
Finding a bungalow was a bit tricky, as prices are rather high and most of them wouldn't allow three people staying in a bungalow for two, which we did most of the nights before. After looking at several places, we finally found a bungalow, looking on a nice garden with coconuts, instead of the sea, but big enough and within our price range. The days on Ko Tao were really relaxing: one day we rented a kayak and snorkeling masks and were amazed by what we saw. The water was so clear, it was easy to see some meters ahead and there were tons of corals, anemones and all kinds of fish. So one day we decided to go with one of the tour boats which take you all around the island to the most interesting snorkel spots. They even advertised that you would see sharks, but we didn't really believe them. I mean how big are the chances? Our first stop in the morning was the shark bay. Our guide told us to jump in quickly and pointed to the direction were the sharks were. He told us to swim there quickly because the sharks would go away when there were too many people. With a last warning 'don't bite the sharks' he sent us into the water. I paddled into the direction he pointed to quickly, and indeed, there they were. First I saw one, which I followed for a bit and suddenly there was a whole group of them, one even with a baby at its side. Before I had thought that seeing sharks and being close to them must be scary, but actually I really enjoyed it. They were swimming very calm and they were so beautiful. Not scary at all!
Our time there went by so quickly. Suddenly we had to take the ferry back to Chumphon already. And from there we took the night train back to Bangkok. We spent one more day together in Bangkok and then my sister had to leave back home already. The three weeks went by so quickly ... we had such a good time!
