The trip from Bangkok to Cambodia was supposed to take about 4 days and it’s taken me… 8? 9?  I can’t even keep track anymore.  But alas, I’m here, just a few km outside the Thai-Cambodia border and have eaten monsterous quantities of Thai street food.  My stomach protests audibly but I’ll ignore it for now in order to give all y’all an update.

Let’s see - the first day and a half was pretty uneventful and kinda crappy.  Took a train to just outside Pattaya (to avoid the suburbs of Bangkok) and biked along a busy highway with lots of exhaust fumes.  Second day was much more of the same but I was able to turn off the main road onto this beautiful tree-lined path that skirts the coast and on to Ban Phe.  Stopped to have lunch and talk to this old Thai man.  Our conversation consisted of pointing to our tattoos and explaining what they meant.  We didn’t understand a word the other person spoke, but it made my day.

Next day I woke up bright and early after getting no sleep because of a crazy thunderstorm the night before.  The air was cool and I hoped to get some good riding in before the sun got too intense.  I had to get back on the main road for a couple hours, but quickly darted onto the next available small road and in a few minutes, I was blissfully lost.  The sounds of traffic died down, and I finally was able to look up and enjoy the scenery.  I rolled into a small foodstand and used one of the only useful phrases from my Thai book.  “I’m hungry!  Anything will do.”  Everyone laughed and I got to eat a delicious bowl of noodles.  Next thing I know, the local English teacher from the nearby elementary school is asking me if I want to speak to her students and stay with her for a couple of days.  “Sure, why not!” I say.  We go to her place to drop off my gear and am followed by group of boys laughing and yelling, and trying to race me there! 

I spent the next few days there speaking to the students during in their classrooms.  It was really hard and a little discouraging at first, because I was trying to teach them something but couldn’t get any points across.  I was talking to my Mom about it after the first day and she said it was mostly important that the kids got a feel for speaking to a native English speaker, and see that “Hey, this language that I’m learning I can ACTUALLY use to speak to other people”.  So with that in mind, the  next day was much easier.  The English teacher, Pe Pe, was amazingly kind and generous.  She gave me a place to stay, fed me, helped me find a place to stay in Ko Chang…  She wanted to build a coffee house outside the school so the evenings were spent with many of the teachers, eating food (prepared at school) and drinking with the construction workers putting up the coffee house.  I really liked that slowed-down pace of things.

Anyway, went to Ko Chang afterwards. The 10km ride along the coast of the island has some of the most grueling hills I’ve ever climbed… the pictures say it all, really.  I did them the first time near dusk, and tourists and locals would be cheering for me as I huffed it up the hills, and look in awe as I screamed pass the buses on the downhills.  I couldn’t help but smile the whole way.  I was only going to stay 2 nights but ended up spending 6.  Yikes!  I blame it on a combination of beatiful beaches, heat stroke, exhaustion, Swedish and Norwegian girls, and not knowing which way I would travel.  Met some great people, and the beaches are truly fantastic.

Today the first 50km or so were depressing.  Rather, I was slightly depressed.  I can’t place a finger on it but I suspect it’s from being too long on Ko Chang (essentially one big tourist island) and the crappy traffic I had to deal with.  It’s odd, but the only times I’ve ever  been lonely are in Bangkok and Ko Chang, both tourist hot spots.  When I’m alone on my bike or in a small little city, not at all.  Anwyay.. after passing through the town of Trat the traffic dwindled and the roads turned to rolling hills, with the ocean to my right and lush jungle to my left.  I was back in my groove and smiling all the way!  Buddhist monks would smile and wave, and kids on scooters would holler and (I suspect) cheer me on.

Tomorrow morning I cross over into Cambodia where I believe my Thai phone will cease to work, so it’ll be email/blog from here on in.