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I knew I was supposed to blog every day but ive just been caught up. Well where to start ended up just staying at Lenny and Juzzy’s for an extra few days was good just chillin was really nice. Just did a few walks around Bronte and Clovelly and just basically hung out with Juzzy and Lily while Lenny worked on Monday and Tuesday so was very relaxing. Was all set to leave on the wednesday Day 17 of my trip and thought i’d ring about my motorbike and see what had happened with the rear shock and see if it was ready or how it was progressing. Well the boys at Image hadnt heard anything so i thought id ring the crew at IKon in Albury who are rebuilding my custom shock for me, my first phone call to the lady there was cut off but before it was I asked her how it was going she wasnt sure then when she went to look I heard in the background her saying “I cant even find the invoice for it” ahahahah not a good sign for me hoping it might be nearly ready to go after week, but thats cool im not in any rush on this trip and im sure there will be more occassions this will happen, I rang them back and the guy answered and I asked him about the shock he just told me it will take 10 working days to do then if TNT are on time it will be back on the coast a few days later for the guys to put back together. I must admit I was a bit disapointed as much as I love my friends on the central coast I wasnt expecting to spend 3 or so weeks there when I left Byron Bay the other week.
I sat there with Juzzy and was thinking about where I could go and chill while I waited and I thought the Sunshine Coast to a party with Kim or go and get my tent and gear and go camping in The Blue Mountains, I was sitting there undecided and Juzzy was just in the other room and when she walked out I jokingly said I should go to Thailand and she just straight away said thats a great idea you should. That was how impulsive it was we immediately got online and started checking out flights and prices etc and realised it was going to cost about a 1000 dollars and looked at the hotels and that and thought it was feasible but would take all the money I had in reserve for the ferry to Tassie and tyres I was looking at buying. Juzzy dropped me at Bondi Junction to get the train back up the coast and at that stage I still hadnt booked anything but got on the net at the Bondi Macca’s and saw there was a flight the next day cheaps and rang Juzzy and she did all the booking for me and that was it, I was going to Thailand on Thursday the 10th. i have been known to some impulsive things before but this one was pretty extreme especially how I am these days. It did cross my mind what have I just done am I going to be able to do this ahahah i know silly question when Im a motorbike ride through Africa but I have planned that for 2 years and done alot of research and was going to do more before I left and wasnt going to just up and leave in a day.
i only doubted myself briefly but thought if it f*&ks up the worst that can happen is I dont go, I got back to Sandra’s on the Central Coast where my passport and gear was and started packing, well that didnt take long all i packed was a pair of shorts, a shirt, 2 pairs of undies, a tooth brush, tooth paste, my netbook and its charger, camera and its cable my phone and its cable, my flash drives, passport and papers and that was it done and done. Oh of course I was wearing thongs and shorts and a shirt so was fully equipped, it all fit into one of Jacks old school bags to funny going overseas for a month with basically one change of clothes and a tooth brush, ok I over packed I could of left the toothbrush and paste at home.
I left Sandy’s at 9 am to get my flight at 3:15 I just didnt want to be rushed at all so left myself heaps of time to travel back down to Sydney Airport by train.Got to Woy Woy station around 9:30 and thought id drop into the bank to see how I went about gettign any money or Thai Baht travellers cheques or whatever they do. The first bank I walked to wasnt even there any more so I thought thats a good start lol but the St George was just down the road so walked down there. I got served only to be told they need 48 hours notice to give me anything and werent able to give me any advice on what to do, oh well I thought ill try at the airport. Got down to the airport at 11:45 so still had plenty of time to get all my itinary printed out and sort the money situation out before checking in, I kept telling myself as long as I’m not in a rush i’ll be sweet, still didnt take away from the what have I done feeling I had. Anyway walked through the airport and was just going oh im not going to find anywhere I might as well ask someone so I did that and the guy pointed me to a service desk right opposite where I was to use a printer, that was handy Met a nice bloke and had a chat from Scotland sorting out something to do with his Visa his flight was pretty much the same time as mine so we had a fair bit of time up out sleeves. Got my itinary printed out great, slugged me 36 bucks for the privelegde, they certainly dont miss you at the aiport do they.
Walked up to the ATM got some cash out and headed for the cash
Patong by Night
exchange and that was sorted for now wasnt sure how it was going to work over here in Thailand but I had a few thousand Baht to get me started anyway.
Got through Customs and all that relatively unscathed only stuffed up a few times but nothing to serious I missed a few things on a form but I had forgotten my reading glasses or so I thought so was doing it in the blind almost. Im glad I didnt go and buy some reading glasses at the airport as they were expensive and I actually had mine in the back pack, I dont know maybe when I was looking for them I forgot what I was looking for, generally thats the case with that sort of stuff.
Got into the duty free section and had a look around wasnt interested in anything really but it was nice to look. The grog is cheap but I thought im not interested in getting pissed so I’ll leave that.
Jetstar to Phuket
The flight over was ok got sat next to a pommy girl, the flight wasnt fully booked so we seperated so we could stretch out which was good two seats each so pretty comfortable actually.
Arrived at Phuket airport at 8:30 local time so 12:30 Aus time so was getting a bit tired didnt get much sleep on the plane maybe 30 minutes.
Getting through immigration was a little slow I think I got the trainee as every other line was well and truely going quicker than the one I was in but I thought well no rush I’ll get there eventually. I’d made a point of telling myself before when I had been planning this trip through Africa if I have any issues just to relax and take my time and not getting stressed about it so that was exactly what I did. I Hadn’t booked any transport from the airport but sort of knew how these things worked in Asia from my travels to Bali in the old days so I knew someone would grab me and wisk me off to a taxi or something and thats exactly what happened.
Got into Patong Beach and thought I saw my motel well I did, two of the names where the same but alas it wasnt mine one important missing word. I had got out of the taxi so here I was in the middle of nowhere no idea where I was other than apparently near Patong Beach and I was rooted. I thought oh well I’ll just walk on down the street and see where if I can find my hotel.
I walked for about 30 minutes and was getting totally exhausted and as I’d been asked for a massage and a taxi a thousand times I thought im just going to have to ask someone to help me and sure enough to easy a few bucks and and a phone call from the taxi driver and I was at my hotel. I arrived totally exhausted but nothing that im not used to these days withg that lack of sleep i’ve had over such along period of time but it was just so good to walk in and lay down. By the time I rolled over I think it was about 4am aussie time so a massive day but some nights im sitting at home at that hour in pain so i thought well its no different to being at home.
Had two days accomadation booked so wasnt in any hurry to get up but you guessed it my back and neck were so sore I woke up after a few hours and couldnt get back to sleep so thought i’ll just got for a walk. I walked about 10 minutes down the road as I had some idea where I was as I had looked on the map before I left to see where the hotel was in relation to the beach. I got to the beach and it was pretty quiet but row after row of chairs set up on the beach, sat down and had a rest for awhile then just walked back to my hotel.
I went back and had a rest for awhile in the air conditioninbg as it was already getting hot, the funny thing is i’m really enjoying the hot weather and the feeling of being hot its just so good to be feeling anything I guess who knows but I certainly am enjoying the feeling of all the different weather how can I complain anyway.
Later on I walked down the beach again and thought i’d have a swim I put my gear on one of the chairs and some Thai bloke came running over saying hundred baht hundred baht, I felty like saying f*&k off I just want to go for a quick swim but instead just said no worries and walked on off. The beach at Patong is all chairs from one end to the other so I thought are they going to do that all the way along or not, in the end I thought f&*k it and just chucked my gear on the ground and went for a quick swim and came out. The water was nice and warm not to warm just right about 23 or 24 degrees celsius I’d guess.
Thought I’d go for a bit of a walk through Patong to suss out other accomadation for the next few days and came across a aussie bloke Col sitting on a verandah of a motel having a smoke so thought id mosey on over and say hi. He actually ran the place so I had a chat to him and eneded up booking in for a few days when my accomadation ran out up the road. On my walk I was on the lookout for a charger converter to fit my gear and I asked Col if he knew where I could get one and just by chance he had one sitting on the counter he bought for another guy that hadnt taken it so that was another problem solved, accomodation and charger to easy. Came down here this morning to book in and sat around Col cooked me some bacon and eggs actually my first cooked meal in Thailand, i’d been eating out of the seven eleven for the last two days , some things just never change hey, i miss my Brunswick Heads Caltex servo meat pie and sausage rolls lol Met a guy Gary from Port St Francis in South Africa looking to teach over here, (hey Gary if you drop by again) I hired a bike off Col him and went up dumped my gear and came down and took off on a ride. Rode for a few hours to some really nice spots found a really nice little fishing village down some winding dirt road off the main highway with absolutely no tourist was great to just stop and be the only person there, just the way I like it.
From there I could see this tower up on the hill and I thought I’d try aand get up to it and took a few little detours but found myself winding up this little road through some villages and came out to this amazing place Kao-Khad views Tower i think its called, to be honest I’m to stuffed to log back into my photos to even check up on the spelling .
I dont know what the deal is there but there was noone around but it was spectacular to say the least, I’ve posted a video on my facebook page if you want to have a look. Met a Scottish bloke and his mate up there originally from Glasgow (hey John) but living in Spain but here all the time and was here when the tsunami hit and was just by chance not on the beach that morning, lucky.
From up there you have a 360 degree view of Phuket it really is fantastic, I could see the giant Buddha on a far away hill and thought i’d go see if I could check that out on my way back. Was getting pretty tired by that stage and somehow had found my way to right underneath it but must of missed the turn off or something and ended up loosing site of it and thought oh well tomorrow. Got to Ru Wai beach I think it was i’ll double check it tomorrow and if it wasnt change it but stopped to get a drink as I just needed a break. Walked into a restaraunt and bought a coke and there was this bloke sitting there and thought i’d say hi and he was actually from Coffs Harbour small world ( hows it going Matt, if i’m wrong if you drop by maybe you could correct me where we were and safe3 travels), sat and talked to Matt for about half and hour then got back on the road to come home to Patong Beach.
Had a little sleep as I was pretty stuffed probably rode for 4 hours today funny stuff I’m on a motorcycle adventure so its fantastic to be riding around in another country even if it isnt the one I thought id been in.
So there you go up to date here in Thailand who would of thought I’d be here a week ago but i’m just going to go with the flow of this whole adventure and see where it takes me, I’ve been trying to pick up some Thai phrases its just so hard I get them only to forget them almost immediately just one of the things that makes me realise things arent what they were but the positives certainly outweigh not being able to memorise a few phrases of Thai but ill keep trying. Im sitting here in the foyer of the My Thai Guest house all the restaraunts out the front are starting to pack up and im starting to feel sore as Sh*t from sitting here blogging all what has happened in the last week, I guess I could walk 10 metres and get a massage but nahh im going to walk 10 metres the other way to my room and relax up there.
I’ve written a fair bit tonigt sorry if its jibberish and i’ve lost the plot at times at but im to stuffed to worry about it and will read through it later to see what i’ve written and fix it up and add some pictures.
In the washup what a week its been, full off new experiences a week of pushing myself mentally physically and emotionally and i feel absolutey stuffed but absolutely stoked in myself for what I have acheived this week.
Just had a Russian couple come up and use my PC to copy their photos onto their flash drive we had a little trouble understanding each other but got it sorted in the end, actually talked to another Russian guy earlier today the weather over there is -19 it’s no wonder they are here in their droves. People from all over the world very interesting a melting pot of cultures but I must asdmit there seems to be heaps of euros here more than aussies which I was expecting. anyway adios amigos, esventenure or what ever the hell it is in Russian lol
Paton g Beach
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