Start of something great

Boats waiting in the harbor at Ao Nang beach

We quickly discovered the wonders of southern Thailand, not the islands full of westerners getting drunk and WAY too much sun (like a walking skin cancer ward), but the quiet roads that cut through flooded plains filled with water buffalo, birds of every variety, local fisherman and happy smiling locals.  On the way north toward our next stop, Krabi, we saw all of these things and except for the heat we were enthralled by Thailand.  As it had in the past this good energy gets tested a bit whenever we enter more touristy locations, and Krabi is certainly one of those.  We were lucky enough to have a nice Russian warmshowers host named Andrey allow us to stay at his home while we explored so that we were able to escape paying the usual overpriced rates for substandard accomodation you find in all of these beach resort locals.  Not so fortunately (or so we thought at first) Andrey was "double-booked" foor guests at this time.  Apparently he was also expecting a French family to arrive that evening.  While we were sitting and drinking a local beer of choice (ie Chang, Singha, Leo) they arrived and it turned out this amazing husband and wife were on a similar tour as us only in reverse order AND with a 6 year old son!!  Our figurative jaws dropped as Chiara and I only days before were in the midst of throwing in the towel just short of the 5 month mark on our journey over some petty, insignificant trifle that we could not agree upon and here Albon, Delphine, and their son Vincent had spent the same 5 month period touring eastern Europe with their young son and seemed almost unscathed?!  Seemed these folks had a thing or two to teach us and we were excited to hear more as they had just come through Turkey, the country we plan to start our Europe leg of the tour.  

    

Andrey, Bruce, and Alban, reading to Vincent on Andrey's porch aka our living quarters, Delphine and Vincent cycling

But first the Tetris game of tent accomodation must begin in order to get everyone a place to sleep.  Andrey's place was modest and therefore we figured we would stay on the porch in our tents in order to not completey take over his space.  The next two days we ate, drank, compared tour "notes" and decided that maybe ths was the time for our "Tourist" part of our Thailand trip.  We would team up with the "French Connection" and take a boat trip to a small island to camp and snorkel for a few days.  After a large amount of recon work to discover where was ok to camp and what we would have to bring with us, we finally made our way out to Bamboo Island by long-tail boat with minimal gear and lots of excitement.  Turns out this island is one of many that gets flooded with a daily stream of boat that plop tourists of all shapes and sizes for short visits before scooping them back up and taking them to another island.  Usually 4 in a day, which must be a whirl-wind of chaotic boat travel.  However for us the true enjoyment started around 4pm  when the last of the day boats left the island and we were left to enjoy the peace and beauty of this place with no one but the few national park staff that remained to clean up from the day and prepare for the next days onslaught of sun-reddened, selfie-stick carrying travelers that would make the journey.  But for us a beautiful sunset, meager meal of rice and vegetables, a couple sips of Mekong (local whiskey type drink) and good company of new friends was all we needed.  Until about 10am the next morning this little island was all but ours and early morning swims and stretches on the beach were ours for the taking.  Though to now we are till not sure if anything we did was 'legal' the small family of staff were wonderful to us and we felt like one of their crew.  

Turns out, however, that getting off these islands can be a bit tougher when not pre-arranged.  After 2 nights we decided that it was time to move on so we started searching the seemingly endless line of charter boats for an open spot to hitch back to the mainland.  The only one we found was not exactly heading straight back to the mainland but would be doing the before-mentioned "4 island tour" of which we were the first.  We resigned ourselvess to the fact that we would be in for a long day and boarded the long-tail.  This, to our pleasant surprise, may have been the bet thing that could have happened as we became part pf a tour that took us around to other islands where we swam, hiked, climbed on rocks and were amazed by the beauty that is southern Thailand.  Who needs one of those package trips?!

    

A beautiful beach sunset,climbing and snorkeling around Bs,boo island, the dramatic cliffs around Krabi 

We made our 'triumphant' return to Andrey's house in a horrendous thunderstorm and  torrential downpour.  One that Chiara and I were very familiar with by this time but one that appeared to have spooked our new French companions a bit regarding the weather they would be facing in SE Asia as their trip began in earnest.  Our last night was spent exchanging emails and hopes and plans for visiting each other in the future in our respective home lands.  This burgwoning friendship we hope will be one that carries foward into the future as we truly enjoyed the companionship of this young family and were inspired by their will and determination to live their lives and raise their family in a truly unique way.

Bridging the Malaysia-Thailand Gap

Our last push in our abridged Malaysia tour promised to offer a treat of sorts- the ability to dust off the old nylon and screen home-away-from-home and spend a night in the outdooors, this time at a beauthiful park tucked in the Northwest corner of the country.  The location, Perlis State Park, just happened to be in our path as we made our way toward the Malay-Thai border.  Though it was quite a treat for us to stay in this paleolithic jungle-like environment which showed signs of once being a bustling and popular educational park with gardens, caves, rivers, and animals.  Now in somewhat disrepair, most likely from government defunding (the Malaysian economy has been on a downward trend as a result of falling oil prices) it was still a treat to walk around, set up camp, watch monkeys climb the tree canopy and at dark witness the pyrotechnic wonder of nature as the fireflies (something that Chiara had never seen in her life) flitted about the field.  Truly a fantastic way to end a fantastic tour in Malaysia.

    

Pictures from Perlis.  Doing my best to model pose.

The next day we said a fond fairwell to Malaysia and headed to cycle across the border into Thailand, the first time we crossed a border by bike on the trip.  After a fairly uneventful crossing into Thailand we made an easy pedal into the city of Hat Yai.  Hat Yai is all but unknown to foreigners unless they cross the border it is the third largest city in the country; unlike all the others there is little to no tourist market and is mostly Thai locals. We once again had an awaiting Warmshowers host and Chiara was ready to burst with anticipation over her impending massage (one that she had been thinking about since Taiwan).  Priscille and her husband John were amazing hosts for two nights, Priscille cooked us some wonderful dinners, we shared finally- cheap-again beers, Chiara was able to shop, we both enjoyed a two hour full-body Thai massage for 300 bhat (about eight USD) where the massa, t therapists worked out all our kinks and troubles.

    

Our first temple right in the border, yay, Thai massage! It hurts and feels good at the same time.

Priscille, making serious Prince-eyes 

After our restful time in Hat Yai, we hightailed it north along a flat and trouble-free road that eventually led us to Rangot.  We had intended to find a flat spot somewhere to camp but as the sun began to drop and our search for food was in full swing a nice Thai woman and her husband called out from their passing vehicle and aked us where we were going.  After a bit of conversation, she and her husband led us to a local food market and eventually to there friend's "Resort" which was still under construction.  They introduced us to Will, a lively young guy who spoke quite a bit of English.  His family was doing a "soft opening" (as Portland folks might pretentiously call it) of their new beautiful (and very unpretentious) resort.  Will let us camp in the common area, and that evening we also met Martyn, a recent arrival from Lithuania who was on Rangot to teach Englissh.  Lively converation ensued covering all topics from music, to travel, to politics, and after a few hours and another surprise flat tire (after over 5000km we are starting to notice that this happens a bit too readily and that maybe it is time for that new set of Schwalbe tires we have been talking about), we decided that one day was not enough at the resort.  We needed a little more time to explore the lake next to the resort, paddle around in the kayak that Will kept on the property, and just plain chill out a bit.  Which is exactly what we did the whole next day, save for a very cool kayak paddle at sunset to the main town market 5 km from the property, and a visit to a local bar where we drank Leo beer and listened to wonderfully talented local Thai musicians.  

     

Right outside of Will's resort, rowing to the might market with Martyn

Will is playing guitar here

We went to bed that night unsure about when we might leave this great little spot we had stumbled upon but when we arose the next morning we both knew that the road was calling so we quickly packed up and hit the road.  Sorry to not be able to say goodbye to our new friends as they were still tucked up in bed, we left a note and a surprise for them to find!