Last Days in Thailand - Part II

There are tributes to Buddha and Buddahism everywhere in Thailand. Some are simple and others grand. The White Buddaha outside of Muak Lek is memorable both by the setting and the scale. Located on the side of a mountain it can be seen from afar but up close it is majestic. 

Prosinee and Apinya were insistent on taking me to lunch at a special restaurant. Although it was a rather long ride from the house it turned out to be well worth it. It is classified as both a restaurant and museum.

Some dual purpose venues should stick to one or the other of the things they do because they don't seem to do either one very well. The Banmaichaynam Museum does three things very well. It serves excellent food, has great ambience and is an outstanding Museum of American memorabilia. Our table was at the railing next to a quiet stream. Ambience - check.

The scenery you can judge for yourself but the taste of the food you will have to take my word for and I think it was outstanding. Food - check.

I give credit to Prosinee and Apinya because they know their Thai menu and did an excellent job of ordering. After lunch we went into the museum which you can see behind them.  Museum - check.

The owner of the restaurant and museum has traveled the world and specialized in buying American. 

This shot of him and his wife was taken while they were traveling in Switzerland. 

I found some unexpected coincidences in the things that he collected. My father worked for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway - D & R G W but it merged and changed it's name probably 50 years ago. 

I was born and raised in Westminster Colorado. Admittedly there is more than one town named Westminster but read on. 

Against incredible odds this table and chairs were in one section of the museum arranged as you see them. Who engraves the backs of their chairs?

For those who would like, take a stroll down memory lane. 

Pinball machines; the entertainment of the 50s. 

The largest collection of Pez dispensers I have ever seen.

A Vespa 150. When I was in junior high school you could get a license to ride scooters at age 14. The Vespa was the coolest of them all. This is an excellent job of restoration.

Marilyn over the grate.

The in-laws offered to take a picture of Steven and I as we left. 

As we finished these two women who I guess had never seen anyone as tall as Steven at 6'4" asked if he would pose with them. 

Then their father asked for a picture with the two of us. 

There were times as we traveled throughout Thailand that we did not know exactly where we were, or how to get to where we wanted to go but never at any time did we feel lonely. 

Last Days in Thailand - Part I

Once back at Stephen's house in Muak Lek his sisters in law took us on some day trips. Khaoyai National Park has monkeys, deer, alligators and elephants. I did see monkeys and what I thought was a dead monkey on the road but was simply evidence that an elephant had passed.

We spread a blanket in a grassy area to have a picnic lunch before exploring. 

Not far from our blanket this little guy was sitting in a tree having a snack.  

He was a friendly little guy and must have thought if I could take his picture he would come talk to us. The common language between us was the high five.

The park is a great place to explore. There are trails into lush jungle, waterfalls, wild life and scenic vistas. 

I wouldn't classify the deer as wild. I am trying to remember whether I asked him if I could take the selfie or whether he asked me to take it. Nonetheless here it is.

Of course there were monkeys, one wild and one domesticated. 

We had a unique experience at the visitor's center. We were approached by a group of students who politely asked if they could interview us as an assignment for an English class to interview English speaking tourists. Two of them conducted the interview while a videographer recorded.  

They were very nervous in the beginning and we did our best to put them at ease. However after the group photo as they walked away we could hear them giggle nervously and give off a collective sigh of relief.

Final Leg

The five hour bus ride from Trat was our last bus ride and would take us to the start of our last riding segment. The bus stopped at a dusty wide spot in the road close to a town called Wang Nam Khiao and the belly doors of the bus were opened and parts, pieces and bags were hastily put in heaps alongside the road. Unloading is where we must be most vigilant because if a piece doesn't make it off the bus it spells big trouble. 

As we hastily took inventory we spotted an extra suitcase just as the storage doors were being closed. This was a road side stop with no attendant so if we had not returned it, it is unlikely bag and owner would have ever been reunited. 

It was getting late in the day so we felt an urgency to find a room. Needing a room late in the day has a different feel to it when riding a trike that averages 10 mph than when in a car with an engine that doesn't know fatigue, has headlights and as a plan B; reclining seats. 

Unfortunately we were riding through the mountains and there were no guest houses, read that affordable, but lots of resorts, read that budget busting. Just as the sun was kissing the landscape good night we saw a tiny little sign pointing up a long steep hill. We took a gamble and it paid off. The room was just that, a room; the commode, sink and shower were a healthy distance away but it fit our price range. As an added bonus it was clean and in a quite setting. We were told breakfast was included beginning at 7:30. Given the long ride required the next day we needed to start rolling by 6:30. When we mentioned that the desk clerk said a breakfast would be waiting for us before we left. 

We were able to lock our trikes outside our room.

Breakfast was a several course meal includung shrimp rice, egg, soup, toast, coffee and the best papaya on the trip. I did the best I could but had to leave some for the angels or I wouldn't have made it up the first hill. 

Rolling down the big hill with the sun yet to give us it's blessing to our last day of riding we knew we had a hard day ahead. Our goal was to get to Muak Lek where Steven's house is located. Although we were in the mountains there were no killer hills, just normal ups and downs but still 60 miles of riding. 

The map shows Wang Nam Khiao in the lower right and Muak Lek in the upper left as mapped on my cyclometer and showing the mile markers in blue circles. I parked my trike in the direct sun on the break at mile 44 and the system shut down with a "cool me off" message. I really didn't mind taking the extra time for it to cool off because my body was giving me the same message. 

After all systems got cooled off the peddling seemed easier. We were in the foothills going down. The chart shows the elevation profile near the end of the ride. Loved that last eight miles.

We were able to take showers every day on the tour. However, the one on that day felt different, just a little special. Could it have been the soap feeling more silky while taking off the extra road grime? Or may it have been taking some extra moments to rinse off. Or possibly it was the emotion that comes from forming a sly little grin to no one in particular just before turning off the water.

Slow Boat to Trot

If you have read the past few chapters you know how hard we worked to get to Koh Maak. I recommend it to anyone who wants a place to truly decompress. Even the dogs wag their tails slowly. We knew about the island's reputation and that is why we worked so hard to get there. We also knew the island has about eight miles of roads but we were committed to ride round and round until we had our daily mileage logged. What we didn't know is that the road system is shot. Rough, slow and narrow. We found getting around was like a walker race at the old folks home. We decided to leave the island and go some where we could ride. 

We arrived on Koh Maak on a Tuesday and the return boat left on Wednesday and Friday. To stay until Friday meant not riding on four consecutive days. So Wednesday at Oh Rooster Thirty we were packed and on the way to the pier. 

We were told the boat we wanted was the slow boat. Two boats were moored, one a shiny catamaran and the other was being loaded with cans and plastic bottles to be recycled but no signs saying which was going to Trat. This is the one we did not want to be our ride. We were confident it wasn't because we saw no seats. 

There were two women waiting as well and one spoke English. They were mother and daughter (Eva and Eva) on vacation from Slavakia. Since none of us knew what was going on we quickly bonded out of our search for information. We realized we had no food or water for a four hour trip and Eva the daughter volunteered to go the 200 yards to a little store. We gave her money and promised to hold the boat until she returned. We soon learned the trash boat was our ride. 

All of the luggage had been lined up at the edge of the pier. After a second look at the accommodations Eva and Eva decided they would go on a different boat. Just as they started to fish their bags out of the scramble the guy doing the loading reached them first and threw them into the boat. Eva began protesting in all the languages she knew but none of them was one he understood.  With all their bags loaded Eva the daughter looked at me and said, "I guess we will go on this boat." 

Our trikes were passed by hand across the gap between pier and deck as Steven and I nervously watched, expecting the worst.  Despite our misgivings the handoff's were successful and the trikes got nestled next to the recyclables. 

Actually there were seats but we needed to rearrange cargo. The seats were wood with two iron rails for back rests. There were no flotation devices. At this point gallows humor set in and we decided that if the worst happened we would use the bags with plastic bottles as flotation devices because they would float. You will not hear me complain about the little safety chat airlines give. 

It turns out that Eva the daughter anticipated it might be an interesting trip so one of her purchases was a can of beer for each of us. It had been decades since I had beer for breakfast but it tasted great. The seats were hard, the seas were high and rough, the wind cool and unrelenting, the toilet a dangerous ladder climb to get to but the conversation was filled with laughter. We chatted all the way to Trat which made a long trip go quickly. 

Once safely on land we shared one last laugh about the other worldly experience and parted ways.  Steven and I needed to get to a bus station for a bus to Chon Buri so Steven could connect with a friend and avid cyclist. We rode 20 miles to a guest house with the best value we had on the trip. Clean and inexpensive at $18 a night. 

The lady turned the TV on to El Jezerra for us. 

In the map below Koh Maak is the tiny little speck of an island in the lower right corner. The larger is Koh Chang (steep hills) and right above it is where the slow boat off loaded us and the trash. Trat is just to the right and Chon Buri is below Bangkok. 

After a good night's rest we rode a short distance to the bus depot. As we rode the last hundred feet a taxi passed us with Eva and Eva waving at us. Steven and I folded our trikes, supervised loading in the bus cargo space and bid our new friends one last goodbye reflecting that the next leg of our trip could not possibly have as much character as the previous. 

About the Equipment

This chapter is a report card on our trikes. Both Steven and I own ICE trikes (Inspired Cycle Engineering) that are made in Cornwall, England. I bought my first one about four years ago and the only problem has been related to jet lag foggy brain as reported in an earlier blog. Otherwise it has performed flawlessly. 

ICE trikes are well engineered and user friendly. When we take them on a bus It takes us about 15 minutes to fold them and have them ready to load. We remove both mirrors, the seat and both wheels if necessary to fit in smaller storage compartments.   

Our trikes were purchased from Chip Stearn who owns The Recumbent Trike Store in Louisville, Colorado. He sells more ICE trikes than any other dealer in the US and ships trikes,parts and advice nationwide. Because of his vast experience he was able to offer us advice and counseling about equipment and preparation for our trip. The customer service Chip provides is outstanding and it paid off handsomely on our trip so we could focus on the ride and not what we were riding. 

I prefer riding a recumbent trike over other styles for several reasons.  The reclining position is just downright comfortable. Traditional bikes cause fatigue in my hands, arms and butt after a short time. My recumbent is where I sit when I stop to rest. 

Another advantage is the stability. They have a low center of gravity and with three wheels they are a workhorse for carrying gear. That can be a blessing and a curse depending on how much self discipline one shows while choosing what to pack. Even with heavy loads I have no need to put a foot down when stopped. 

I believe my recumbent provides me extra safety in traffic. It may seem counter intuitive but being down low makes me more visible. To any driver approaching from front or back I am eye catching because I am unique. I have had cars pass me with a wide birth and then pass an upright allowing much less clearance. The reason I carry flags is to be visible to cars pulling out of driveways. Being down low makes me invisible if there are parked cars. 

Finally they are fun to ride and that means I am getting exercise while having fun.  Enough said 

How we got in to the Detox Center

When we left the mainland of Thailand our intent was to get to Koh Maak, the red push pin. 

(The descrepency in spelling between the map and my text is not carelessness on my part. There are several translation services resulting in spelling differences. There is no commonly accepted translation so a billboard, brochure, road sign and map may each have unique spellings. I have seen Ko Mak, Koh Maak and Kohmaak.)

We couldn't find anyone who could tell us for sure how to get two people and two trikes to Koh Maak but most people thought if we took the ferry to Koh Chang and went to the other side of the island we could find a boat to Koh Maak. The ferry ride was the easiest of the various forms of transportation we used. Ride on and ride off. No disassembly/reassembly required. 

As we exited the ferry we turned right as instructed and soon encountered the steepest hills of my trike riding experience. They tested the limits of our trike gearing choices. At an information stop we were told the worst hills were between us and where we needed to go. Koh Chang has some of the steepest auto roads I have ever seen. There are grades of 20% and the max I can do on an unloaded trike is maybe half that. The other bad news we got was the motels were also on the other side of the hills. 

We made a hasty retreat back to the ferry landing and went left. There were hotels that way but were steeper (in price) than the hills in the other direction. Some were as much as 6 times the rate we had been paying. After all it is a very popular tourist destination. Each hotel was more expensive then the last. Ten miles stretched into fifteen and thankfully at mile 20 we found a place that by comparison seemed cheap but still the second highest of the trip. 

The place turned out to be a center where rich Europeans go to detoxify their bodies. Any unused rooms are rented to the public. We got their last room. The food was excellent, slanted to European tastes the first non-Thai food on the trip and we finally had a room and in another beautiful setting. This was the view from the restaurant level deck.

These were the bungalows. 

There were flowers everywhere. 

Our transportation dilemma got solved as we were chatting with the main man at the main desk who spoke fluent English and knew the island. He said he could arrange for us and our trikes to be transported to the pier we needed in a van where we would be taken by high speed boat to Koh Maak and that we could pay him for everything. High fives and chest bumps. 

The high speed boat was 30' long sporting twin 250 horsepower Mecury engines. The most notable part of the 45 minute ride was that everyone seated near the back was drenched with sea water each time the bow hit a wave just right. Steven and I were in the next to last row but hey, it was in the 80's and we dried off quickly once off the boat. 

We assembled our bikes right where we were dropped off at the end of the 75 yard long pier and rode them directly into the village. The kind woman at the information desk steered us to the least expensive room on our trip. It proved to be quaint yet situated on a secluded, quite beach. 

The view from the deck.

Up the beach and down the beach.

The closet. 

The air conditioner. Both units. 

Washer. 

And dryer. 

A couple enjoying a romantic sunset.