Steven Raucher's World Tour
2001-08-03 in Ko Phangan, Thailand
Back to Thailand and down South to the Islands
This story begins on a sad note: Ariella has gone back to South Africa. Due to a mixture of logistical nightmares and the amount of time any human can put up with the combination of me and overlanding through Asia, we decided a sabbatical would be best.
We spent our last week together in Bangkok and then on a grey skied day my sister got into a taxi and headed for South Africa. I miss her terribly, it is an amazing thing to share these experiences with family. The good news is that Ariella will be getting her bike licence soon, so who knows!
Surat Thani is the first major city going south from Bangkok and is near the town of Don Sak where the car ferry leaves for Ko Samui and Ko Phangan. Don Sak is about 750 kms from Bangkok. I left Bangkok with my old travelling buddies, Richard and Rachel of the Brit Biker pack, after an hour of finding our way out of Bangkok we stopped for an Oriental overlander brekkie of Coconut fish curry and Chicken Fried Rice. That was the last I saw of them, I sped up to make it to the ferry 700 odd kilometers away.
While I was in Bangkok I finally managed to meet up with Daniel Todd
a veteran overlander who I had been in email tag with for a long time. He had left Bangkok the previous day and was heading to the Islands too. So you can imagine my surprise when he turned up at the ferry 45 minutes after me! Apparently doing 750 kilometers before tea-time isn�t playing fair! The re-union certainly lightened the afternoon which was spent waiting 3 hours for the next ferry as the previous one had left an hour prior to my arrival. In all fairness, I could have made this one if it weren�t for the fact that 200 kilometers away from Surat Thani my battery indicator light came on, as my battery was no longer being charged. A quick pit stop at a �Dynamo� mechanic found the cause to be an alternator belt that looked like spaghetti. Oops. No BMW spare here, no problem says the mechanic and 5 minutes later he is back with a belt made in Japan and I am back on the road in no time.
The following evening we spent our time at the full moon party hopping between bars and dancing in the ocean, well I did anyway, but where did Daniel go? Ahem! The full moon party is as I expected � overrated. Unless you are on pharmaceuticals, you have no real chance of partying too hard. We tried our hardest with buckets of Rum and Red Bull but were ready for bed by 4 am.
After the disappointment of the full moon I decided to head to Ko Tao to relax and follow many friends advice to do my PADI diving certification there. After a week of blissful diving and being isolated from the real world, it was time to leave and head further south. So here I am now in Phuket. A town that will definitely NOT be getting it�s own story. The worst place in Thailand so far. With the exception of Nicky�s HandleBar, a pukka establishment, Nicky himself is a bit of a diamond geezer and organises the Phuket Bike Week every year. Tomorrow I�ll find out if Krabi is any better�
 Is nowhere sacred in the land of the backpacker? |
 howling at the moon and other party tricks |
 one of many island sunsets |
 Seeing off Daniel Todd and his trusty KLR 650 |
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