Lost in the jungle on Koh Samui

OK i know this story may seem a bit ridiculous and i have already posted it on facebook so some of you may have read it already, this is the full version with added photos, For those of you who think i am a psychopath for going on an adventure like this, well your kind of right, but i am glad i went and couldnt have asked for a more in depth and truly challenging tour into the real world of thai island life beyond the neon signs and gift shops.

So the other day i decided to go motorbike around the island once more, covering the main coastal road i stopped in various places and got food, a drink, went into a zoo and even had my picture taken with a bengal tiger!!



all pretty standard touristy stuff, when i arrived in the port village of nathon i consulted my map and found there was a mountain road mapped diagonaly across the map to just about where my bungalow is situated.
so after driving up and down the road like an idiot for 5 minutes i found this tiny laneway paved in concrete that lead uphill.



"excellent" i thought, I've found it now and it'll just be a 10km trip over the mountain pass and i'll be back in time for dinner. So at 6pm i sped off up this little road and moved away from the crowds, so much in fact that not only the locals but even the wildlife seemed surprised to see a tourist up this way, undeterred i forged ahead through sharp corners and steep hills until the concrete turned from smooth to broken, then to just rocks, then just red clay and streams. it was around this point i became aware that i was pretty isolated, no houses, people or traffic.

looking at my compass and judging my position by the mountain peaks i drove on until i came upon 3 mahouts using a small fire and some bells to call in their elephants for the evening, talking to them was an older man in an old 4x4 jeep

View Behind me


In front of me


To my left


To my right


as i asked the mahouts if i was on the right track for the chawee beach the old man beckoned me and they told me i was to follow him, so off we headed into the jungle deep in the valley where the roads just gave up altogether and we were basically driving down streambeds and hills with deep channels zig zagging through the red clay.

It was around this point i became a bit wary.. this didnt look like civilisation... and the surface was getting worse and worse, uphill the bike fishtailed like crazy and down hill i had to keep accelerating gently to stop the piece of crap from stalling, causing my headlight to go out, as i thought about this i became aware how quickly it was getting dark, and we had a big ol mountain in front of us.

Cautious but still enjoying the adventure i drove on and as the bike kept stalling as i braked on 45degree downhill slopes and soon i was judging my descent by the brakelights of the jeep. At some points both brakes and my shoes jammed into the ground did nothing to stop me sliding downhill, crashing through streams at the bottom of hills or even twice having to stop as elephants strolled across our path. by the time we reached the severe downhill section it was pitch black and i was exhausted, finally careening down a hill we arrived... in the middle of nowhere. literally.

my "guide" got out of his jeep, gathered his belongings and strode into the darkness, where i could just barely make out a small bamboo house on stilt legs.

Time to begin freaking out a small bit, Tired and covered in mud i began asking him what was going on, and he told me... in thai. Crap. following him slowly we proceeded into the jungle and stopped at his house, shoes off and onto the flat timber floor in the front he lit a candle and sat down.

"ahm... yeah, so are we stopping here for long?"

"more thai - morning - more thai"

"Ah.. i see. uhm, oh..."

after some more sign language i discovered his name is mr Chia, basically pronounced like a cough.

he's 52 apparently and has lived here for 25 years, has a weak right arm and leg from a stroke but still soldiers on even showing his chest scar from having his heart surgery.

i started to relax as we talked and he even produced a wooden block and bamboo waterpipe which he just calls his thaistyle bong. apparently he had decided that instead of driving me to the main road we would go deeper into the forest so he could have a smoke and some coffee, doing my best i graciously accepted a cup of coffee and sat there trying to explain with my map how we were in the big green section with no roads and i wanted to get to the coast, he seemed to agree but ignored most of my requests until i realised he thought it was going to rain, making the road back impossible to use. Now i was worried i was to sleep the night on the wooden platform and in the morning get someone to come pick up me and the bike.

i knew had little to no chance of making it back up that hill on the bike, let alone know where to go in the pitch black dark. so i sat back, enjoyed the coffee and took in my surroundings, truly in the middle of nowhere with this chilled out old man who takes half an hour to do anything, in the valley beside the house huge crashes and breaking timber freaked me out until he explained it was elephants knocking palm trees, oh thats ok then

The man himself, very dark but there was only one candle



we sat here for over 2 hours


then up he stood and insisted on showing me his garden which is basically a steep hillside with steps cut into the mud by him and a few trees planted here and there. but it was beautiful considering the scienic surroundings and the small waterfall i could hear at the bottom of the hill,
From what i understood he had plans to make the waterfall into a tourist attraction like has been done with many others on the island, but i didnt want to deter him by pointing out how seriously difficult it was to get any vehicle this far into the jungle. i just smiled and nodded and took in the amazing surroundings.
When we returned to the hut i persisted about trying to make a start for the town, still he sat and smoked taking half an hour at least to prepare each smoke. then as we talked more in our basic broken sign language i showed him a picture of me and a bengal tiger. then he talked about dangerous animals... and people in the forest sometimes, and since he was frail and weakened from his surgery he had of course A MASSIVE GUN!! That scared the bejesus out of me as he lifted it and flicked open the chamber, emptying the bullets into his hand, then handing me the gun it turned out to be a 45magnum smith and wesson, chrome and black grip, Serious hardware!! GOOGLE

i nervously handed it back to him and sat there like a cat ready to jump as he loaded it and locked it back into its holster.
He put it away and proceeded to start smoking again, while i finished my coffee and ripped through 2 cigarettes, judging whether he had shown me the gun to scare me or to reassure me we we're safe in the jungle, looking back i think he was genuine.

time was passing us by and i knew i hadnt long left to chance getting out of the valley, so i asked once more, this time sincerely offering to pay for his trouble, so i put on my helmet pulled on my soaked shoes and waited as he gathered his things, (plus gun) and blew out the candle, in complete darkness i walked with him to the jeep and we attempted to put the bike into the back, but soon we realised it was too big and would need to be driven. he laughed at the idea but i told him i had to try, so thankfully he gave in and started up the jeep, motioning for me to lead for the first part i started up the hill, Slipping sliding falling over and losing grip i fought my way up the red mud and rocks until we reached a junction, If it continued like this i would never make it more than a few hundred metres. looking back all i could see was darkness and a layer of fog over the forest, even the moon was hidden tonight.

on we drove for an hour and through some of the worst tracks and trails i thought even an elephant would struggle here, Hell even his 4x4 was slipping now and then, as my bike fishtailed and skidded up and down through rivers and up rocky slopes, there were one or two times when i could see myself almost losing hope and then i just focused on it being a challenge harder and longer than any extreme trek or sport i had ever taken part in, it bloody was, im writing this from my hammock home and safe but i still dont know how i made it,

as the clock neared 9.30 we finally seemed to be getting to slightly better roads, still red dirt but with some flat patches and even some old tire tracks. suddenly CONCRETE!! i have never been so happy to see dull grey concrete!

it was still treacherous and broken up now and then by rivers but it was progressively getting better, when i eventually saw a faint yellow line of paint crossing the junction i started laughing out loud.

stopping at a lay by, still in complete darkness Mr Chia pulled over and i stopped at the window, offering him money he seemed indifferent and just asked me to take his phone number, i took it down, and with a handshake i was away, speeding down the smooth road with the fuel guage at empty i was laughing to myself i didnt know what to think about what had just happened. i reached a viewing point and could see lights in the bay far below me, and around 10pm i finally drove onto a main road and joined the traffic,

im still kind of in shock and had to spend 20 minutes washing the bike and then go for a shower myself, i have a few small cuts and bruises but otherwise i survived unscathed. i will never forget this evening and i couldnt have asked for a more incredible experience delving into the real life of a thai islander. i also realise how risky it was and there were one or two times when i thought i wouldnt be getting out of the jungle until morning. but i feel better for it and can truly say i had an incredible evening. and i am damn tired now

oh and to verify the ordeal i went through, heres the bike..


a honda click citybike. not made to go on anything more cross country than your front lawn.

I am now staying in a nice fresh air conditioned hostel by the port where i will get the ferry to the mainland tomorrow, and 2 days after the event i only have one small graze on my ankle and a memory i will never forget. from now on i'll be sticking to the tourist trail for the most part, at least until Australia!

Talk Cha

Bangkok

Loaded up to walk across the city


Soi Cowboy jfgi


diver in the aquarium



Thousands of paper planes in the siam plaza


Chinatown



Well this journey has certainly kept me on my toes, moving from city to rural village and back into another asian mega-city.
Bangkok has to be seen to be believed it is a sprawling concrete jungle with layer upon layer of public transport ranging from 2 levels of monorail over the 6 lane motorway which in turn sits above the multi-level underground metro system. Walking is definitely the way to see and experience the city, hopping on the odd skytrain to move from one district to another. The first day i arrived in Bangkok i came into the train station at 9am after a 16hr train ride from Trang. I did get some sleep but in that heat and fully loaded with my backpack and frontpack i was tiring fast in the sun.
Wading through the cries of taxi and tuk tuk drivers i have perfected the look of "no i do not want to be ripped off and forced to buy exotic gems or a badly tailored suit"
(the tuk tuk drivers stop off and force you to go inside and buy something so they earn a comission or gasoline coupons) Moving away from them i found the underground station and discovered i could get to the city centre for 40 baht, not the 300baht the taxi drivers were demanding. Security is big in bangkok although it is mostly just for show, i think its the only city i have ever seen OVER-Employment. where each business has people employed simply to bug passers by into buying something
Upon entering the subway station i passed through metal detectors and had to remove my 20 odd kilos of baggage to show the security guard, although just vaguely pointing and saying "computer, books, camera" seemed to make him happy and off i went
The underground and Skytrain system in bangkok runs like clockwork, its spotless and freezing from air conditioning, in the city centre i walked a few streets and asked in a few places until i came upon the perfect hostel Suk11 here i stayed for 2 days as i got my bearings. Day one i started and being wary of the tuk tuk drivers i walked constantly for 8 hours, seeing chinatown, the golden bhudda, a few monuments and then out of nowhere a Massive political rally, the Redshirts as they are known are a pro-democracy group who last year shut down the city with riots and bombings. This year they seemed much calmer and were partying 50,000 strong at the democracy monument. I waded through the madness to the far side in order to find Khao Sahn road, the most famous road amongst backpackers and travellers, it is a non stop spectacle with street vendors, performers and a plethora of travellers from every walk of life, one doesnt know if you are watching the spectacle unfold or are actually part of it by just being there.

myself and paul walking the streets of bangkok







frog in some spices, it was... interesting


aul golden bhudda


After my 2 days in Suk11 i had to move on as they were booked up. So thrown out onto the street with my bags once again i had no idea where i was going next, but a quick trip to an internet cafe brought up an interesting looking hostel on the outskirts of the city, far from the chaotic streets and parties. i booked my first 2 nights once more and found my way there via skytrain. Finally i had found the right kind of place to chill out and take it slow with the option of going into the local markets or just a bit further to the skytrain direct to the city centre. UDEE is the place which means well rested in thai, that is true of this place, the staff are friendly and the atmosphere is clean and relaxed. Here i met some great people, Mandi from oz and Paul from the states who i joined forces with on a few treks through the city. St patricks day was a laugh. after venturing through the city to see some more sights we eventually jumped into a tuk tuk and bargained a dirt cheap price to get to kaoh sahn road. here we met up with harry from london who had been in udee for a short while. joining him was Xavier from chile and a random american couple we got talking to at a streetside restaraunt over noodles and beer. I didnt meet one irish person and i think it suited the evening, we had great fun.

Kaoh Sahn road


Chinatown



Excellent japanese food, basically cooking raw meat in the boiling broth


Underground lagoon, part of the Siam Paragon Aquarium


Watch repair on the street side, 2 watches fixed for 95 baht plus battery Thats(2.50)


I am glad i moved hostels when i did because the more i explored the streets around UDEE i found i was in real local bangkok, tourists were rare and the locals were nice even the food seemed better as they were cooking for themselves rather than catering for drunk farangs on the street corners. I never got a feeling of unease in the city and even the scams and rip offs that bangkok is famous for are pretty easy to avoid with a bit of common sense. As i ventured through the streets i discovered some real gems of traditional thai city life, Food i cant even describe, shops selling things i didnt even know existed and small food carts surrounded by plastic furniture. The smell of the city is something i will never forget and each street had its own special oudor. Far from here the city centre was a whole world apart with towering shopping centres and plazas, most notably the Siam Paragon Plaza, one of asias biggest and to an irish backpacker it was just incredible how on the streets with homeless beggars and streetwalkers through one glass door you suddenly arrive in the most expensive and lavish shopping plaza i have ever seen, 8 floors with whole levels dedicated to food, Fashion, technology, music, jewels and perfumes, etc, even the cineplex was enourmous with 3 seperate cinemas each with 8 screens or more, I spoiled myself and went to see Rango in the big screen. definitely worth it. from here i wandered through window shopping just taking in the madness of it all, like a car dealership on the 3rd floor selling maserati and lamborghini! though when hungry i returned to the streets to get some freshly cooked pad thai with shrimp, or unidentified meat on a stick. not exactly 5 star dining but i never had any stomach upset. City life is tiring though so i decided to move on after 5 days and made my way to the train station with some vague ideas in mind, i met a tour guide who showed me to a small office around the corner and i sceptically reviewed all of my options, Eventually i decided upon a bus trip to surat thani where i would get a ferry to ko samui island and had everything from transport to accomodation sorted in less than half an hour.
So that was Bangkok, in all of its chaos. I am now on Samui island and have been having a truly immersive experience here. more on that later. until then
i leave you with another selection of photos from bangkok and will link to the photo album on facebook once it is uploaded

Talk Cha!

An eel in the Aquarium


tuk tuk transport!


Street Food


Traffic at its usual hectic pace


Paul trying some cricket!


Forget exfoliation creams, St paddys night, we wandered in here and
for 120 baht you dip your feet in this pool for 20 mins and these fish
literally eat the dead skin and whatnot from your feet and legs
its an extremely wierd feeling but its cool

Ko Lao Liang. Island Resort

Banana Beach


My trusty bumblebee as i came to call it, using this i covered most of phuket in my time there


Phuket town


Above are a small snippet of my time in Phuket before i left for Ko Lao Liang

Hello once again, I write this latest update from the UDEE Hostel in Bangkok I have been in the city for 3 days now and I am slowly getting to grips with big city life once again, its hot, noisy and swollen with people from every walk of life. My first two days were spent in probably the most famous Hostel in Bangkok Suk11 after that however they were fully booked so i've moved to a much quieter more residential quarter of the city where life is a bit more relaxed, but more about Bangkok later, this article will be about where i spent the most amazing 11 days on a tiny island in the andeman sea
Well what can i say about paradise, After my time in Kuala Lumpur i booked a flight online to fly to Phuket in thailand. Upon arrival i stayed in the Phuket Backpacker Hostel the place was nice enough but i found it hard to like Phuket town, its centered very much on the flashpacker lifestyle where partying and sunbathing are the primary activities. The longer i spent there the more i wanted to leave. So one evening i began googling the islands of the south and reading about their pro's - con's and attractions. While doing this i began scouting around google earth looking at a map of the east coast of peninsular thailand. All of the major islands were there with reviews and website links talking of how beautiful and accomodating the resorts were, with busses and tuk tuk's to transport people around the beaches and villages. I was tempted but still i wanted something more remote, a bit more like the much sought after but never attained beach from Di Caprio's death knell to the undiscovered island of Ko Phi Phi. As i browsed the map I just clicked on the view button to change from map view to satellite photograph, and pow! there it was this tiny little bump in the ocean with no name, no map markings and no roads. I knew straight away this was the place for me. Some further googling revealed the island to be Ko Lao Liang, twin islands in the andeman sea. HERE you can see what i mean, toggle the button in the top right between 'map' and 'satellite'
Once I had decided that this was my destination i found the contact email, corresponded with Mike Weizman who organised my booking and pickup for the ferry,
Strangely though that morning at 6.30am i was waiting... and waiting for the pickup minibus, which never arrived, confused i rang mike and he discovered that the ferry company had fluffed the details and there was nobody coming to pick me up, Initially i felt this might not bode well for what was to come, how wrong i was.
After talking with Mike on the phone once again he told me that if i could get a public bus from Phuket to Trang he would ensure i would be picked up in trang and transported directly to the island.
5 hours on a bus driving through rural thailand is an experience in itself. Stopping in tiny farming towns to pick up locals at makeshift bus-stops, driving past mile after mile of rubber tree plantations and massive Karst limestone cliffs on the roadside. After all of the little experiences along the way i was tired but feeling good. Immediately upon stepping off the bus i was Greeted by Pon, the co-manager of the island. He was on the mainland doing the supply run and i was the last thing that needed collecting. So into the pickup truck and away we went. As soon as we both lit up a much needed cigarette and the cd player started pumping Master of puppets, I knew we were going to get along just fine.
From trang we drove into basically the middle of nowhere to a small local port about 10k upriver from the bay, here we boarded the Longtail supply boat and began the hour long trip out to sea.


The bus in its neon pink glory that hurtled us down the coast to trang






At the pier moving the supplies from Pickup to Longtail before we headed for the island



So Finally at around 4.30 on the first of march I arrived,
Instantly I felt welcome, not like in phuket where I was just another farang with money that needed spending on stupid boat rides or guided tours, no this place was different. I was shown to my tent and then left to my own devices, The accomodation seems sparse at first but the longer I came to spend there the more I realised I had everything I needed and more. Each tent has two sections to it split by a zip up wall
there is a double mattress provided with a small table, a reading lamp, electrical sockets for when the power comes on and even a large powerful fan in case the heat becomes to much at some point
Outside you step into a dreamworld where you step out of your tent into soft white sand and walk to the communal area, Built entirely from bamboo this is basically a roofed awning protecting diners from rain should it happen. other than that the bar is the next stop, a tiny hexagonal hut built from driftwood and bamboo this became my spot to chill out just meters from the beach lounging in a hammock reading a book and enjoying a Milo chocolate shake prepared so well by Kyoxx, a young burmese boy who genuinely does just live on the island, brought there by Pon on christmas day he's an orphan who has become part of life on the island and you can see he loves it.
The two managers on the island are Pon who i mentioned, a Thai metalhead who was great fun to talk to and he also taught me how to smoke thai tobacco with dried palm leaves instead of rolling papers, Rough smoke but beautiful flavor once you get accustomed to the burn. Then theres Lawrence, an englishman from the lake district who came here 6 years ago and has settled into thai life quite comfortably, the two of us got on like great mates and he and pon made me feel most welcome, so much so my 3 day booking went on, and on to become an 11 day stay.
I met a great group of travellers on the island aswell, Adrien and Lin from Switzerland, Emile and Katrine from Denmark, a gang who when we combined our efforts managed to drink the bar dry on the night before the renewed supplies would arrive!!
That night at high tide (1-2am) we also discovered the incredible phenomenon of Phosphorescent plankton in the sea, running into the pitch black night you crash into the water and like nothing i have ever experienced before. The seemingly inert water comes to life and millions of microscopic plankton light up in an eerie blue glow. Imagine millions of blue LED's filling the water but they only glow when disturbed so each swimmer has an eerie glow of blue surrounding them as they kick and paddle. It was an incredible experience and i will never forget how we were like children giggling and whooping at something unlike which any of us had ever seen.
During my days on the island I was delighted to discover i had time once again to Read! in most hostels here there is a drop off pick up policy so as you finish a book you leave it in the next hostel and pick up something else from the bookshelf.
When not relaxing or reading i was usually to be found in the water, Snorkelling a few meters from the beach you will see coral formations, clownfish, barracuda, Shoals of fish numbering in the tens of thousands, colors like i have never seen.
Then there was the kayaking. It has been years since i picked up a paddle but once i sat down and started to move it was like i had never stopped. On the first day i circumnavigated both islands in a figure 8 taking about 3 hours to do so, and from this i saw a few places i wanted to explore in greater detail. The following day i hit the water again, this time armed with my camera in a drybag, I saw some beautiful scenery, wildlife and even discovered 2 rather large caves, which although slightly risky to enter, were not beyond my capabilities so i bit the bullet and plunged into the headland, and wow am i glad i did. Blue Glowing waters illuminated by the sun bursting in the tiny cave entrance massive echoing caverns filled with the thunder like no noise on earth as the air was trapped and escaped with each wave.

Longtails


The caves!




blue waters and white sands, check!




I also discovered the world of rockclimbing while i was there, Unbeknowst to me the island is actually quite famous amongst rockclimbers as a paradise of great climbing combined with the out of the way venue and beautiful scenery
Laurence not only being a manager at the island is a professional Rockclibmer who has worked on developing climbing routes on not just this island but many other climbing meccas in the area. I worked my way up the first cliff wall which is called the discover climbing route, it was great fun and its bloody hard excercise i'd definitely be interested to try it again. There are so many other stories from that island, Watching lightning storms at night from the beach, or playing frizbee in the sea for hours, never a dull moment because even when i might spend an hour just watching the wildlife of geckos, birds, monitor lizards, the word bored never even occured to me.


The Food!! Fresh fish every day, Giant shrimp, Barracuda, Squid, I wouldnt class myself as a fish eater but every day the food was spectacular



The island was hit by the Tsunami in 2004, thankfully on lao liang nobody was killed but there is still an early warning tower and an escape route at the north end of the beach



from the top of the escape route there is a great view of the beach



Just taking a break



One of the rockclimbers showing us how its really done



So for now thats everything about my amazing time at lao liang island it was an experience i'll never forget and perhaps someday i'll go back there again
I leave you with another small collection of photos and i will update very soon with the bangkok chapter. plus i will be working slowly on a video of all the footage i have taken while travelling. if anyone wants to see more of the photos they are available on my facebook page




No Shoes for two weeks




Laurence and Mr Pon at the bar