Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Day 88 23rd Feb |
Today we'll back out on the bike.... It should be returned to the hire shop for 11 o'clock but we arrive at 10 o'clock and rehire it for the day...
We both really enjoyed having the bike yesterday and with half the island unexplored it was an easy choice to extent the hire... Today we are going to head to the far side of the island from where we travelled yesterday... The islands roads are basically made up in a large U shape with a large central pier in the middle...
As we set off we can see its another beautiful day, the road quickly hugs the west shoreline and we're blessed with the most fantastic ocean views whenever you look out to sea....
Since finding the pineapple tree yesterday I've been on the hunt for more... And as our time on the last island slowly skips by we try to capture some of the things we've long taken for granted on camera... This soon evolves into a search for fruit trees, and high on our list is a banana tree.... It won't take only to find one as there everywhere.....
As we ride along the costal road I notice a ribbon of perfect white sand protruding through the crystal blue waters just off sure, so we stop and leave the bike under a coconut tree and cut through to the beach, wade through knee deep water for 30 foot before the sand bar raises out of the water and your onto the wet sand... A couple of other people are also on the sand bar which has formed a rough T shape where you join at the base of the letter... The bank is obviously exposed on low tide only as there's only a few footprints in the sand... It covers around 100 meters in either direction and large areas of white sand are clearly visible under the shallow water all around... There's a huge amount of sand here, with only a relatively small amount currently exposed, but it enough for us.....
From here we head off towards the south coast main pier town passing the tree we climbed yesterday that leans out over the water...
My fingers and foot are still very tender do I'm taking it easy... I've removed my flip flop on my cut foot as I'm keen to keep my foot dry.... Today I'm thankful for having an automatic as I can just keep my feet on the footrest and forget about it...
We stop off and fill the bike up with 6 bottles of orange petrol from a roadside.... There used whiskey bottles and are all filler with a litre of fuel each.....
Or intention is to travel to the beach that the full moon parties happen on... Haad Rin beach
Since arriving in the main pier town and obtaining fuel we've noticed that this side of the island is more commercial, and a little busier... The traffic is still very light, but we do now occasionally have to share the road with minivans, this is something that we've not have to do until this area.... The road to the full moon beach is crazy... It's made up of concrete square sections and is very very steep... All the vehicles on the road struggle with the gradient and our little old Honda from Vietnam would of never made it to the top with all the bags onboard, but our slightly more powerful Yamaha copes.... Just.... It really is like being on a YoYo.... We arrive into the town of Haad Rinqq
and park up....
We leave the helmets on the bike and wonder off towards the sand that's 50 meters in the distance.... We use the main footpath to the beach, and arrive onto the clean, soft sand with rolling waves in the distance.... The beach is maybe 300 meters wide and has large rocks that rise up to form large cliff sides.... Upon the large rocks there are beach bungalows available for hire.... These are reminiscent of English beach huts, but here you can stay overnight in them.... There all painted the same colour and look like proper little hill side village houses for tiny people that overlook the beach....
I bet the view is fantastic, but it's probably very noisy come full moon night....
We walk out to the water to get our feet wet and get hit my a strange feeling of dejar vu....
The water rolls up the gently slopping soft sand and hits our feet.... It feels colder than we're used to, I guess because it's fast moving, the inch high water hushes passed our feet and continues onto the sand behind us.... for a brief monument we could of been in Cornwall.... Only without the inevitable cornish rain....
We leave the beach, jump back on the bike and head back off along Thailand's most undulating road back towards the central pier.... The bike struggles to carry us both to the top of the hills and then shoots down the other side, much to Shiree's dislike....
We are now heading to the north coast... Shiree's heard of a place called Bottle Bay Beach and it's supposed to be lovely.... As we near the central town pier again we turn off to the right, away from the coast and head inland... We quickly find ourselves travelling amongst a palm tree forest.... A surprisingly large amount of the palm trees have grown straight up towards the sky, and then have suddenly changed direction of growth leaving many with district bends in the trunks...
We pass a sign that points towards a waterfall so turning off the single track road we'd been using we start to follow a track that's no wider than a footpath... It's Tarmac to start with but changes to a stoney dirt trail with many large ruts along the way.... I love the trail, but I can tell by the deadly silence behind me that Shiree's probably not enjoying our little off tossing experience as much is a am.... We soon come across an assortment of buildings that are all built deep within the palm tree forest, set around a dried up river bed... This place was advertised as the waterfall party bar, and with the river flowing in the wet season I'm sure it's great, but judging by the array of colourful swirly paint everywhere I'd hazard a guess that more drugs were consumed here than drinks.....
We travel through a small village which has two large trees in its centre...
The trees are called Yang Na Yai
trees and there the largest tree in Thailand... They really are immense.... We stand side by side with our arms stretched out and only just reach both sides.
Once back on our way we find ourselves travelling up a road that leading us high into the central mountain.... The roads under extensive repair with long sections where the Tarmac road surface has been removed altogether and we travel upon the base layer of red dirt benither.... The earth us so compact it's like riding on a Tarmac road only it's a little more dusty.... We pass a group of road workers pouring new concrete sections, but it's clear to see they have a long way to go....
Travelling around on the bike has really opened up our options on koh Pangang for me it's made it my favourite place so far... There's stunning Forrest and beach scenery all around, combined with a long steep twisty mountain road, than in places is perfectly smooth, and in others is a red dust track... There's hardly any traffic on the roads at all, and there are plenty of places to eat... We both love the place....
We follow the mountain road for around 10km before arriving at the outskirts of the beach village of Panburi Village
It's a small village surrounded by steep hills on all sides and we can see a narrow road on the far side that looks almost vertical from our current position... As we drop down to sea level I can see the start of the steeply climbing road so open the throttle right open and go for it.... The road quickly becomes a path but we keep on going full throttle until we reach a sharp turn to the left which forces us to slow, as we turn the corner the road climbs even higher and we press on, only stopping when we reach a blockage in the road... It's a gateway to a handful of properties that are built high up on the hill... Besides the gate is a lay-by with a huge rock that many people have climbed upon.... From this rocks vantage point your able to see the whole fishing village and beach, all the surrounding forests and the next beach and village further along the coast...
After taking in the views and having a drink we ride through the closest village and head off to the next....
This second village is smaller than the first, and less developed, it's nice, there are fruit and veg stalls and basic shops along with old open fronted shacks that offer cooked food.... They cook there food in a kitchen that's out in the street and us an open BBQ for the meat.... The smell is fantastic as we ride passed, but we've made a decision to eat once we find bottle beach....
The vast majority of the road network here is made up for tarmac or concrete roads so it take us a little while, and a few rides up and down the same road before we decide to head "off road" along an unsealed dirt road that we hope leads us to the beach... The road is really rutted where last years rainfall has washed deep groves into the earth, but it's now a bumpy hard dry road with we travel along slowly for around 3 kms before finding our first "sign" for bottle bay..... It's sprayed onto a large lump of concrete that's almost faded to a point where it's impossible to read, but I've spotted it so press on, happy that we are heading in the correct direction .....
We are deep within a think forest and it's like riding around forestry commission trails... I think its great, but I'm not sure what Shiree thinks.... She is ultra concerned about her ankle knuckles for some reason so the somewhat bumpy, remote, undulating trail we now on is probably not where she'd ideally like to be, dispight her reassurance that she's fine....
Well.. Fine soon changed to "Oh s***" as the road begins to drop..... Steeply.
The brakes are working hard and the surface is loose as we travel down a very steep track down towards the beach that as if yet we have not seen, we are still high up in the trees, but dropping fast, despite our very slow speed.... Our slick road road tyres are somehow managing to find grip, but I doubt for to much longer... If the front wheel slips we'll be sliding down this track for some time before we stop at the bitten somewhere... As the front wheel skips sideways into a rut Shiree's had her fill for off roading for one day and choses to walk... This leaves me with I little issue... I'm happy the bike will make it down to the bottom, and back up again but without Shiree's weight on the back the rear wheel just skids on the loose surface dirt which puts to much reliance on the front wheel for grip... I side and wobble maybe 50 meters further down the trail before stopping to weight for Shiree... She's out of as the trails not completely straight down, and we she appears I decide to turn the bike around and head out... This bike has the power to pull itself up the hill... It might also be able to carry me with it, but there is no way in hell it'll cope with both if us in it so I decide to bale out now as it would involve a long uphill walk for Shiree if we do make it to the bottom... Once Shiree's has helped me turn the bike around I give it full throttle again and in a cloud if dirt from a wheel spinning rear wheel the bike finds grip and I'm off... I keep going till the road surface levels out a little and once Shiree's back on we head back along the track, this time going straight to one of the smokey BBQ restaurants for some lunch...
We Pull up and grab a seat inside.... The Mosquitos and flies are pretty furious here but we do manage to enjoy a really nice meal... Shiree's just ordered meat, trying to satisfy a bbq'ed meat shortage and I opt for massaman curry.... The restaurant owner works the BBQ and the tables and he is followed everywhere we goes by a tiny young piglet that squeals when it's left behind....
It attracts quite a bit of attention and is very cute, but I fair this little piglet may experience a "breach of trust" with the career it follows so faithfully....
Whilst we've been out today the weather has changed... It's become overcast, although it remains hot, and Shiree's has warned that it's going to rain regularly.... Well, whilst we are finishing off our food her weather premonition proves it delve to be correct and it starts to spit lightly, until that is we sit on the bike to ride home.... Then it pisses down....
We have about an hour and a half ride back to the bungalow over muddy mountainous roads on a bike with tyres that are warn smooth... So the sensible thing to do would of been to join the locals that all seen to huddle under any inch of cover they can find until the rain passes, but we press on... It's surprising how painful rain can be when your only waring a T shirt, I can't see I thing as my glasses are ironically covered in sun cream which combined with the rain fall makes then collect water and it simply smears the lens If you wipe it away...
We do ride through the worst of the runs whilst on the mountain road and as we pass the huge tree from earlier and roll into the centrel pier town the rain has pretty much stopped, but the roads are soaker...
The rest of our trip back is done in light drizzle whilst completely soaked, the roads are almost deserted, and the occasional vehicle that does pass usually throws puddle water all over you, but it's warm.... It's actually been good fun in the rain as it's not cold at all.... I've acted as a rain block for Shiree most of the way back.... The front if my clothes are soaked right through, but the back of me is completely dry...
We park the bike up at our bungalow and head straight in for a shower.... Although the rainy ride felt warm you soon chill down when you stop so the warm shower is really nice..
We spend the evening un the hotel restaurant catching up with diaries and blogs.... We can't remember the last time we were hungry so order a light salad for tea... It's nice and refreshing and is very similar to what we'd have at home......
We leave tomorrow so spend a little time packing up something's before heading off to sleep...
- comments