Tuesday 31st Jan, 8pm, Pai

Today was one of those days when i should have got up at 6am, and been riding with the sunrise.

Today was one of those days when i shouldn't have had a large bottle of beer the night before.

Today was neither of these.

Today was one of those days that started with a big four-egg scrambled egg and pot of green tea reading the paper, followed by a big mug of delicious coffee at another place, only hitting the road at 9.

Today was one of those days where I resorted to caffeine and sugary junk food to get me over the four high passes and 110 km/70 miles.

Today was wonderful.

The first four miles were along a beautiful valley with steep jungled cliffs rising up through the morning mist. There was an amazing view at one opint of the sun just peeping over the cliff - it's rays spreading through a palm tree out onto the mist. I was completely unable to photograph it.

From there I started up the first pass with a stunning view back to the mist-filled valley past a pretty Burmese-style Wat. That first pass wasn't too tough, and at the bottom I stopped for my 11 o'clock egg fried rice & veg.

The second pass was a bit tougher - quite like yesterday's. On the descent I actually braked despite the great road - the views over the mountains was breathtaking! Breathtaking views on the descent, after a breathtaking, lung-bursting ascent. It got me thinking that cycling is rather like Thai massage - painful, but you know that it's worth it. Slightly (only slightly!?) masochistic. I met a German couple there going in the opposite direction having cycled through Laos (and like everyone else they gave it a glowing recommendation for cycling). Very friendly folk. We exchanged route advice, then carried along on our separate ways.

The third pass was the killer - high, steep, hot. I made it, and stopped for a delicious local arabica coffee at the top to the sound of the beautiful bamboo pipes that they play here. Met another German couple on the descent and chatted. They'd cycled Cambodia & Laos. Their altimeter was showing 750m well below the summit.

Stopped for lunch in Soppong in a rather seedy, fly-infested cafe. It was market day, so the village was busy with rather poverty-stricken looking folk from the local mountain villages.

As I left the village looking at the mountains ahead I really wasn't sure whether I should carry on and try to reach Pai in one day. I knwe that there was one big pass ahead, and the 2nd Germans had told me that Pai was at the top of a 1400 m pass, and that i wouldn't make it. They were wrong on both counts.

But the pass was a struggle with my tiring legs. But once I got into the rhythm of it all I had a great time - the views, the steep switchbacks, and the regular waves and beeps and shouts of encouragement from passing mopeds and pickups. But from 2km before the top, and for the majority of the descent they were doing resurfacing work (levening the road according to the sign - apparently unleavened roads are not very practical), and the riding was horrible. At one point I was riding through mud - it flying up covering my bike and me. For the descent I couldn't even think of releasing my back brake as I crawled at 7mph down the steep loose sand and gravel, the dust from two aggregate lorries spewing up into my face and eyes, making me even more filthy than I already was. i was so sure that I was going to come off that I stopped and put my T-shirt back on so that the gravel rash wouldn't be quite so bad.

But I made it, and even managed to overtake the two horrible lorries. And when i reached the completed road, the riding was fabulous - fast 40mph roads, swooping bends, stunning views, and an excellent surface. And then I passed the 15 km marker - the point in the day when i know I can make it. And at sunset I arrived in Pai - the hippy capital of Thailand.

I've got a lovely room down next to the river. I'm dressed in my swimming shorts and spare cycling top as every single other item of clothing is being washed for the first time in rather too long. I've arranged to have a vegetarian thai cooking course tomorrow (a REST day!) and I have a beer full of belly (can't believe I just typed that). Sorry. I have a belly full of beer and pad see-ew (delicious flat noodles cooked in soy sauce with veg & tofu) and am feeling rather sleepy, but really want to make the most of being in a lively town with no cycling to do tomorrow.

And for once the internet cafe isn't full of testosterone-fuelled teenage boys shooting each other screaming with excitement thanks to the wonders of online gaming. Instead every internet cafe in town is full of farang checking emails and football results, and in the case of the chap sitting next to me, looking at porn.

This time tomorrow I shall be a culinary master...

Oh. A few folk have said that I should include a map of where I am. I would, but it's rather a hassle. OK I'll try. but in case it doesn't work - find a map of thailand. If you look at it there's a big lump at the top, and a tail going south. I spent the first three weeks cycling down the east side of that tail from Bangkok to an unmarked town, then got the boat to an unmarked island just next to Ko Pha-Ngan (diving), crossed it from Surat Thani to near Krabi (rock climbing), went to an island half way between Krabi and Phuket (partying) then got the bus to half way up the big lump from Phuket via Bangkok to Sukhothai. I then cycled west to the border with Burma (just north of Mae Sot), then cycled all the way up that border to the north, and I've now just reached the top and started cycling east (I'm just north west of Chiang Mai). My vague plan is to head north some more following the border to where Laos, Burma & Thailand meet (the golden triangle), then head down the Laos border until I run out of time - then popping back to Chiang Mai and cycling up Doi Inthanon (yes, rather high and steep) then bussing it back to Bangkok and then to Cambodia for a couple of days in Angkor Wat. But my plans are rather susceptible to change.

And here, hopefully, is a map of thailand...

Monday 30th Jan, Mae Hong Son

What a wonderfully relaxing day!

Was awoken by the music from the town loudspeakers at 6.30, and dozed 'til 7, then went to a friendly little cafe in a beautiful teak building for a breakfast of egg fried rice & veg. After a bit of discussion I gota good pot of green tea - she called it Chaa Chiang Mai.

Said goodbye to the Israelis I met last night at the guesthouse, and set off at 8.30 in the cool morning sun. From looking at my dreadful 1:1,500,000 scale map I was expecting a tough hilly day, so I'd only planned to do 70km to the next big town. But actually it turned out to be a really easy day with one gentle pass and lots of pleasant up and down through quiet valleys and pretty jungle. I stopped after a couple of hours for a second breakfast of fried rice. Saw a group of organ donors touring on their motorbikes - one almost crashed into a police pickup on a corner passing me. Saw the Israelis three times as tehy diverted up to see villages in teh mountains. Stopped again at a very friendly place advertising fresh coffee, where they fed me bananas (and coffee of course) and the old man who spoke excellent English told me how corrupt Prime Minister Thaksin is. They have beautiful looking bungalows there is anyone is ever in the area.

(Songvitthaya Siang-Arom, Waleekarn Garden, 53 Moo 6, Huaynamoon-Ban Huay Pong Karn Nok, Tambol Pabong Amphur Muang, Mae Hong Sorn Province 58000, tel 0-9073-9337. The phone connection can be a bit dodgy at night due to Prime Minister Thaksin's corrupt plundering and privatisation of the telecom sector, so if you can't get through his daughter in Bangkok takes bookings on 0-2427-4827).

Soon after that I came to a stunning viewpoint that I almost missed as I zoomed down the beautiful hill. The view was down to a steep valley that was just widening out with a small teak house down in the distance, with bright paddy fields surrounded by dark jungle above. Some Thai tourists took my photo there.

After that wonderful descent I passed three Brits on bikes doing a day trip going in the opposite direction, who shouted that the noodle shop a few hundred metres along the road was good, so I pulled in for lunch at a beautiful quiet cafe among the paddy fields and watched the women rolling cigars. After I finished eating I spoke to the women, mostly in sign language, and worked out that the cigars are rolled in banana leaves, and mixed in with the shells of a nut that has a shell like a huge peanut and grows on the trees here. I bought a bag of 5 cigars for 5 B. Not sure quite what I'll do with them.

The women were really friendly and chatty. They gave me something that they were eating - hopefully the the most foul thing I will ever eat. They were a solid soggy ball of dark green leaves, that were extremely bitter and tasted like concentrated sweat. I managed to eat half by leaving it in my cheek for five minutes waiting for the taste to subside, and then slowly chewing it until I was able to swallow.

One of the women told me that there were hot springs nearby where I could get a massage, and I replied enthusiastically, so she got me to turn around on teh bench and gave me an amazing back massage - it made my whole body tingle.

I said goodbye and cycled a couple of km to the hot springs, where for 150B I got a rather unglamorous room with a huge tiled bath, where I soaked my tired body in the deep hot sulphurous water.

I went to chat to the women at the massage area and shared some food and spoke what little Thai I could, then had my first ever full body massage. It was amazing. At first I found the Thai massage extremely painful - lying there on my back with the muscles in my left leg being pressed and squeezed - my other limbs feeling grateful that they were being spared. But after a while I appreciated the pain led to a good feeling and grew to love it. Having her walk her palms up the back of my aching legs was wonderful, and the hand and foot massage was phenomenal. I'd really like to learn how to do that.

I felt amazing. And one whole hour of massage for 150B! Two pounds! Incredible! I'm going to struggle adjusting to UK prices again.

I sailed the last 10km to Mae Hong Son, pausing only to visit a heavily advertised village of one of the hill tribes. But it looked exactly the same as many of teh other villages I've passed through over the last few days, except that the villagers were less friendly and seemed a bit fed up of all the tourists passing through staring to consume their culture. It left me feeling quite bad about the way these people are packaged for tourism as hill tribes to be consumed and ticked off a list, like bird-spotting or stamp collecting.

Mae Hong Son is a very busy place - quite touristy, but probably more Thai tourists than farang. I'm in a lovely cheap (100B) guesthouse next to a pretty lake surrounded by a few temples, food stalls, and old women doing some sort of yoga or Thai Chi. I wandered around town aimlessly looking at the temples and food market. At one pretty, quiet old wooden temple some boys were playing a game I'd seen most evenings in the villages and towns, and they invited me to join in. It's a sort of group keepy-uppy, but played with a small wicker ball. I'm absolutely crap at football, but gave it a go. The ball was surprisingly heavy, and extremely painful on my unprotected flip-flopped foot. The boys laughed pleasantly when I missed or kicked it in a random direction, and cheered when I managed a good header or knee kick. A great laugh.

I then hit a pleasantly run down cafe to watch the latest episode of Chanel 7's Thai soap that I've been following since Bangkok (tonight bumfluff boy's lost his memory and has been stolen from his girlfriend by the evil straight-haired girl). There I had a lovely fruit shake and painfully hot red curry. I bought the Thai English language paper, which had lots of interesting stuff about all the current scandal with the prime minister selling off their media to foreign companies.

One thing I forgot to write yesterday - I saw my first live snake (previous ones were all squashed). It was about a foot away from my wheel as I cycled slowly up a hill - about 3 feet long, dark green. I got quite a fright as it slithered away through the rustling leaves.

Sunday 29th Jan, Khun Yuam

Today's ride was only 65 miles, but my legs were really tired from yesterday. I got up at 7 and had breakfast at the guesthouse - omlette and toast. I then set off, but quickly stopped at a couple of roadside stalls - one selling the tasty small round chewy banana and coconut fried things, the other selling yams deep fried in batter (not v. tasty, but I'd never tried them before). A few miles later outside town I stopped at a really friendly woman's stall selling sliced banana deep fried in a batter with sesame seeds. Delicious. I saved most for snacking on the road.

The morning's ride was rolling along the valley, and not particularly interesting with my tired legs. I stopped after 20 miles for another breakfast of Kaa Pad Kai (egg fried rice with veg) then carried on, stopping an hour or so later at a beautiful cafe in amongst vast 300 year old trees. And from there the ride began to get really beautiful. It went up over the one pass of the day into a beautiful narrow winding quiet valley in the hills.

I noticed the Japanese guy from the guesthouse stopped at the side of the road, so pulled over to say hi. He really is touring on that trial bike! He's got a 30 litre rucksack balanced on his handlebars, with his beautiful panama hat balanced on top of that. We chatted a bit. He's been basically on the same route as me, but he took the main road through the mountains where I went via the more northern road with the police and the teachers and scouts. I stopped to get water and he carried on. He didn't seem to into riding together, which was a pity.

A few beautiful miles after that, feeling tired, three guys at the side of the road shouted something in Thai, I think they were asking where I was going. I decided to stop and chat, and they poured me a glass of ice cold Chang beer in the warm afternoon, and that was me for the next hour or so. They were three Karen farmers. One spoke pretty good English, so we chatted lots. He farms up in the hills towards the Burmese border. His main crop is peanuts and garlic, but he also has water buffalo, pigs, bananas, etc. He isn't religious, one friend was Christian, and the other Buddhist. Interesting to see such a mix. In the non-tribal area of Thailand pretty much everyone's Buddhist, except in the south (like where I was in Krabi/Ko Phi Phi) where there are a lot of Muslims. Another of his friends joined us for beer - he drives elephants for logging. They were a great bunch - so friendly and generous and fun. They were constantly joking and punching each other. They taught me that Karen word for fun - Law Ni, as well as a few other useful Thai and Karen phrases. And every time my glass was more than an inch from the top it was topped up again. Eventually I said 'no more' (po law) and wobbled my way down the absolutely amazing 10 mile descent into the town of Khun Yuam.

It's strange. Although the Lonely Planet talks quite a lot of rubbish (for example it says that Thai people don't use chopsticks) and some of it's maps are pretty horrendous, usually its descriptions of places are pretty accurate. But it's description of this town is completely off the mark. I'd expected a tiny place like I was in two nights ago in Mae Salit - one or two cafes that closed at sunset, a couple of small guesthouses. But actually it's a big town stretching about 3 km along the road with loads of shops, cafes, two or three fairly classy places to stay, and the internet cafe where I'm writing this.

I've had a very hearty supper - a plate of pad thai (fried noodles & egg) at one tiny wee place, and a plate of some very spicey veg and rice at another.

I seem to write about food a lot... Sorry. But I eat so much and it's such an important part of my day. And it's so tasty!

Sat 28th Jan, Mae Sariang

Today has been exhausting.

I woke at 6.30 to the sound of firecrackers marking the last day of the Chineese year, to the sound of cockerels crowing, and the guesthouse owner singing and playing his guitar. I ignored these sounds and tried to sleep longer. It had been a rather cold night.

I enquired about breakfast and he pu tme on the back of his bike again and drove me down the river road to a wee cafe where we drank coffee sweetened with condensed milk and eat deep fried dough, then drank endless cups of delicious green tea, while he told me about the political situation in Burma (like most people in this area he is Karen). He's got a green card because he's been here a long time. He says there's been a ceasefire for two years, but did not seem particularly positive about the military democracy. He then drove me to a little shop where I bought a 5 baht packet of biscuits for the road - six very tasty custard-cream style biscuits. The cream was flavoured with the bizarre Thai fruit (I think it's called Rambutan) - I quite like it.

The first 15 miles was fairly flat along the river, and pleasantly cool in the morning's mysterious mist. With the big river and the jungle and mountains it felt like something from Apocalypse Now. And there's something about being on the border that reminds me of last year in the south of the USA.

I stopped after the first 15 miles for breakfast in a confusing Karen village. But for some stupid reason I forgot to buy water or replace the junk/emergency food I eat last night when all the cafes were closed... And over the following hours I realised how badly I'd underestimated the day's ride.

There was a really gruelling unrelenting climb to a high pass, I'm sure it must have been 1000m or so. It was 4 - 5 mph in 1st gear most of the way, with the occasional super-steep bits - sometimes I powered up them - feeling every muscle in my legs, arms and back. And sometimes I just gave in and pushed, especially in the patches where the road surface deteriorated. And all the while my small stash of food was running lower and lower. By the time I reached a shop at 1.30 I had one biscuit, a few sweets and a chocolate bar from the plane left, and I had started on my emergency half litre bottle of green tea from Hong Kong airport.

I had a junkfood lunch at the shop, of coke, biscuits and one of the foul tasteless white long-life rolls filled with fluorescent goo that seem to be so popular here.

The shop was pretty much at the top of the pass, but it didn't stop being demanding. If anything it was worse. From there it was 20 or 30 miles of steep up and down, with very little flat ground. And it wasn't even as if I could rest on the downhill - it was so steep and windy, and most of the time the road surface was dodgy. On the first descent soon after my lunchbreak I relaxed and went too fast and hit a pebble - immediate snakebite (double puncture). So I had to spend half an hour fixing that and putting on my one spare tube.

So after that, on every descent I was raised up out of the saddle so my legs could absorb the shock of any impact over pebbles or potholes, concentrating really hard trying to spot the loose stones and potholes amongst the dappled shadows of the jungle, and also trying to read the road ahead for bends, super-steep descents, oncoming traffic (rare) and animals, all the time feathering the brakes so I didn't go too fast, but trying not to overheat the brakes or rims and putting myself at risk of another puncture, or crashing and damaging my bike or my self.

While fixing my puncture I got pretty worried that I wasn't going to make it. It had taken six hours from 8am to do just 35 of the 75 miles! Although my legs were coping with the mountains it was very slow going.

I stopped briefly at a few small Karen villages for a bag of delicious tangerines, or water, smiling to the old ladies with red saliva running down their chin from chewing something (Khat?) and waving to the kids.

Despite the difficulty it was actually a great day - so beautiful up high in the mountains, so little traffic, so many friendly people smiling and waving at the roadside or on passing mopeds or sawngthaew. And although most of the descents were slow and tough, there were a few where the roa surface was good, and they were magical - finally I could let go and fly. Swooping down through the jungle around the soaring bends - I felt amazing.

And finally I reached the flat valley, and after 15 miles I pulled into town as the sun was setting and after some confusion with the Lonely Planet's dreadful map I found a nice guesthouse with a hot shower. I showered then had a rather unpleasant meal of soya meat substitute and 'holy' basil. I found a wee bike shop and bought a spare 700 Presta bike tube! That made me happy. I went to an internet cafe where I blogged 'til it closed. I got hungry again, but everything was closed, but I managed to get a big bag of crisps and a small bag of nuts.

I saw a few farang (foriegners) in the town - the first I'd seen for over 3 days - but none were at all chatty. There's a Japanese guy staying in the same hotel, but he didn't say much. I guess his English probably isn't that great. He's got a Trek trials bike with him. The owner of the guesthouse seems to think that he's touring, but it seems unlikely on a bike like that (small frame for doing stunts and huge fat chunky tyres, and no racks to put panniers on).

I've changed my plans for the next few days. I'd planned to go east from here to Doi Inthanon, the highest mountain in Thailand. And although the road sounds great, I can't be bothered coming back the same way, and the one alternative road looks too difficult. So I'm just going to carry on North along this beautiful road, and hopefully do Doi Inthanon from Chiang Mai.

Today's been the toughest day's cycling of my life, except perhaps the first long ride I ever did, which was with Mum aged 6 or 7 cycling the 12 mile round trip to Sanquahar (the village near where I grew up). For some reason I'd only had one weetabix that morning instead of my usual two. So on the way home, never having cycled beyond the end of my drive before, and completely out of energy I flaked out. I don't know how mum managed to get me home. Thankfully that didn't happen today...

Friday 27th Jan, Mae Salit

What an incredible three days it's been! The task of attempting to capture the experiences in words is seriously indimidating...

The conversation with the drunk Slovakian on Tuesday night was fascinating, especially his time in Bangkok. It was as if someone had given him a list of every way to get ripped off. He'd asked at teh airport about a place to stay, and had been told he couldn't get anywhere for less than 1000B a night (250 - 300 is reasonable). He ended up in a hotel for 800B. The taxi there cost him 500B (he didn't make them use the meter - it should have been 250 - 300B). At teh hotel he drained the bar in his room (1000B) then went to teh first bar he came to outside his hotel. He was right in the red light district, so as soon as he sat down a beautiful girl came and sat with him telling him how beautiful he was, smiling at him, and putting his hand on her leg. He had to pay her 1000B for her company. When he came to leave he discovered that the bill for his coke and beer was 400B (100B would be reasonable)! As he walked past the next bar they persuaded him to go in - they said beer was only 100B. But it was an exact repeat - girl & ego 1000B, and beer 400B!

The next day, feeling skint, he took his last cigarette and decided just to sit and watch the world go bye. As he flicked away his cigarette but a policeman stopped and fined him 2000B! Feeling very unhappyp he decided to treat himself to a massage at teh hotel for 300B - teh only thing he didn't get ripped off for. But the pretty girl and the physical contact made him horny, and he persuaded the masseuse to sleep with him for 2000B. All in he spent 20,000B in 2 days! So he fled to Sukhothai where prices are good and scams are rare.

The following morning, Wednesday, I got up at 5am and rode the first hour or so in darkness. Mostly I was on the same road as to old Sukhothai, which was populated and well lit, but for 20 or 30 mins after leaving that road I was cycling in pitch darkness relying on my lights and the white line at teh edge of the road. It was fun to watch the colour of the sky change behind me - I've not watched a sunrise properly since I was in the States last year.

I couldn't find a cafe for breakfast, so stopped to buy a big bag of crisps. The kind shopkeeper gave me a bottle of water too, free. Soon after that I came to a town and stopped for a proper breakfast - rice & veg. By lunchtime I reached the large town of Tak. I stopped at the not particularly useful tourist info, then hunted for some veggie food, which involved following a friendly guy in his car half a kilometer across town to a lovely 100% veggie cafe where I had two plates of very tasty food and chatted to a Belgian guy - the last Farang I saw.

I set off through town a bit confused because the roads bore no resemblance to teh map - an extra bridge - wasted a few km in the hot sun. I was getting a bit stressed because I knew I wasn't going to make it over the mountains to the next place with a guesthouse. And I wasn't really sure about getting food or water - there was only 1 town marked on teh map for the next 100km. But for the 1st 20 km as I headed north up the quiet valley from Tak there were a few shops and cafes in among the beautiful stilted teak houses.

And then I turned west into the mountains.

I'd been watching the mountains slowly appear through the haze all morning - at first thinking they must just be a big line of clouds. And I went up, and up. Exhausting but beautiful. It was a really quiet road - the main road over the mountains was 25 km south. Near the top of the first 970m pass I was getting exhausted, so stopped to talk to a friendly guy, and we walked together for 20 minutes or so chatting. His name was Chokla, and he was a Karen refugee from Burma. 20 years ago the Burmese army had attacked his village burning many houses and killing many people, and afterwards there was nothing to eat. So he came here. Now he spends his days hauling 100 kg baskets on foot around the mountains. At first I couldn't understand what fruit or vegetable it was that he collected, but then we turned a corner in the road - and there were huge piles of cabbages! Very unexpected! And there were lots of Karen hill people there cutting them and taking off the outer leaves. They all dress so beautifully. The women in long blue silk skirts. Chokla was wearing dark loose trousers, a long blue top, tied with a pink cloth, and a beautiful cloth square bag with tassels. When we reached the village at the top of the hill we stopped for me to get some food. I tried to explain I was veggie, but ended up with rice and some kind of mince. Not nice, but I eat it. I bougth Chokla a beer. The owner of the cafe was teasing me mercilessly, trying to set me up with her beautiful daughter. They offered that I could share her mosquito net that night. I was tempted - it was turning into a very cold evening up there in the mountains - but remembering my friend George's experience with 'joke' offers of marriage I decided not to risk it.

Chokla pointed me in the direction of the police station where I would be able to sleep, and there we parted ways. He doesn't have a passport, so has to run and hide when he sees the police.

I saw a policeman at the village shop, and he threw my bike in the back of his pickup and drove me the last half a km to the police box at the top of the pass and showed me a concrete-floored pavilion where I could roll out my bivvy bag. As I started to put on my warmest clothes another policeman asked if I would like some Thai shisky, and there began a wonderful night.

I joined them at their table on the hillside and the Thai whisky was passed around in an old Jonny Walker bottle filled with herbs. Delicious. Drunk straight in small shots. They also gave me lots of rice and an omlette, and some of the delicious local cabbage - very fiery and peppery.

They were such a friendly bunch. One of the younger ones spoke pretty good English and we chatted lots. They work there for 3 weeks at a time, then get 3 days off. Tough. He lives with his very beautiful wife and son and daughter on teh other side of Sukhothai. Last year they had to work in the south in the 3 provinces where there has been a lot of trouble (the area is predominantly Muslim, and they want independence). And he very kindly let me share his room in the police station. I had a wooden platform bed with a thin mat and a very welcome warm blanket. I slept very well, waking occasionally with a dead arm.

I rose with them at 7 and they cooked breakfast for us all - rice, omlette, cabbage, and a vegetable that my phrasebook translates as jackfruit.

Chawang, the policeman I got friendly with, was a bit worried because a zip on his bumbag was open and he'd dropped a few bullets. They all have guns - pistols. Though when I went to get some water I noticed that one guy had a rifle next to his bed too.

I was sad to say goodbye. They were the friendliest, most chilled out group of police I'd ever met. One of them was on the whisky again already at 9!

I started the day with a wonderful 10 mile descent through the beautiful mist-topped mountains and jungle. I noticed that there was a shop at the bottom of the pass (I'm including a few tips for other cyclists who may be reading this). There was another at the top of the second pass after another steep 10 miles or so. While cycling along the ridge of the second pass I saw a sign to a national park and waterfall, so I decided to take a look. As I got to the park I saw that a scout camp was in residence. I got chatting to a friendly teacher, who invited me to walk to the waterfall with them all. So I watched their drill, then followed behind chatting to a teacher who spoke good English. He and most of the kids are Karen from Burma (though at first with his accent I though he said they were Korean).

The waterfall was a long tough steep walk, and I was exhausted by that day's 25 steep miles and the 95 miles I'd done the day before. The waterfall was pretty, in amongst the jungle in the mountains. Amid the amused stares of a hundred scouts I stripped down to my pants and waded in the waterfall - very refreshing after two sweaty days of mountains.

It is funny being around Thai people, or at least these ones. They are much more touchy-feely that I'm used to. The teacher I was speaking to on the walk was always taking my arm or hand to talk to me or show me something. And one guy was really stroking my arm and leg hair - it's bleached blonde by the sun.

Back at the camp they offered me lunch, and whisky, and there went my plans to cycle further that day, and there began another fantastic night!

I was drinking shots of Thai and Karen whisky all afternoon and evenig with the teachers, being poured from a big petrol can, while all around ran scouts, playing in the river, fighting with bamboo poles, cooking. Again - it's great to see how chilled out everyone and everything is. In the UK you'd never get teachers getting drunk infront of the kids, you'd never have openly gay teachers (including one very handsome young man with his eyelashes tinted violet!) We all had fun drinking - them teaching me little bits of Thai and Karen. And they let me share one of their tents. I was a bit chilly with just my bivvy bag on the ground in the mountains, but slept well with very vivid dreams, including one about being on a huge boat going through Amsterdam. And I keep dreaming that I'm home again.

In the morning I hung around feeling very hungover drinking sweet coffee and eating a breakfast of sticky rice dipped in something hot and spicey. It was so beautiful with the sunrise and the jungle, and the mysterious smoke from all the campires, and the scouts running around.

I set off at nine but was quickly overtaken by two of the teachers in their pickup, who offered me a lift. For some reason I accepted, despite the fact that it was downhill all the way. At Mae Ramat I bought some water and put on some suncream watching two beautiful Karen girls in their blue silk skirts with their babies hung infront of them in red slings.

Then I set off North up the valley along the Burmese border on a pleasantly hilly and quiet road amont the mountains, teak forest, banana tress, terraced fields, pigs, goats, chickens, cows with their big sharp curved horns. I passed a huge refugee camp - it stretched for 2 or 3 km - thousands and thousands of small bamboo shacks crammed into the beautiful valley nestled among the limestone cliffs. I found out afterwards that there's about 40,000 Karen refugees living there! At one gate I tried to go in, but wasn't allowed. Perhaps a good thing. Even just at the gate I felt like I was really invading - hundreds of people staring at me. But a little further along I stopped at a shop selling beautiful handwoven traditional Karen clothing. I was tempted to buy a bag like they all carry, but didn't.

I stopped at a town after 30 miles or so for 2 bowls of tasty noodles. I passed a guesthouse and resort there that weren't in the guidbook or tourist info. I did a diversion a couple of km over a super-steep hill to a cave where the river ran straight into the limestone mountain. Two young boys with torches guided me as we waded through the river and looked at the glittering dry waterfalls of stalagtites, and the bats. Not particularly outstanding, but it was worth it just for the amazingly beautiful valley that it is in. Absolutely superb - a small green valley among the steep jungle covered limestone mountains, with a quiet village of teak houses on stilts with Karen hilltribe folk sitting around, and water buffalo wandering in the fields plastered in damp mud to keep cool.

I finished the day at 60 miles (max speed 42.7 mph - fastest yet on this trip) in Mae Salit - a quiet village with a guesthouse listed in the Lonely Planet. It's very basic, but friendly and cheap - 80 B - cheapest yet! I got a plate of rice and veg across the road and showered. Well not a shower - I sluiced some cold water across myself and got fairly clean.

The owner of the guesthouse drove me down to the river on his moped (scary! I'm not a good passenger) and I walked back up. The border guard at the river had sandbags protecting his lookout - first time I'd seen that.

The owner of the guesthouse said that a Japanese couple on bikes were here last night, and 5 Australians the night before. The police in the mountains mentioned the Australians too. I'd hoped to get some more food, but the restaurant had closed, so I had to raid my emergency crappy junk food. Not sure what I'll do ain the morning if it's not open. Late start I guess. I'm very tired.

Tuesday 24th Jan, Ancient Sukhothai

It's amazing. I sat writing this in my journal in the ruins of a thirteenth century Wat, the rough pockmarked laterite columns glowing red in teh evening sun, a 12m high Buddha standing behind me warding off fear, and a 1 and a half metre high gold-flecked buddha sitting cross legged beside me holding a tangerine on his lap. This was up on a hillside a few miles from the main area of ruins, which were visible pushing up through the distant trees.

I set off at 6am this morning to cycle to the old city. I'd intended to set off at 5 to catch the sunrise, but couldn't get out of bed. But there wasn't much of a sunrise. I stopped at a very surprising market in the grounds of a modern wat beside the road and got a grilled corn on the cob and some deep fried dough for breakfast.

Despite arriving before 7am there were two tour buses there already, but it was such a big place that it didn't matter. I spent a couple of hours exploring the main ruins, and to be honest I was a bit dissapointed. It was just a big flat area with lots of nice moats and ponds, and ruined brick buildings and columns and lots of brick stupas.

At 9 I stopped for a really delicious coffee - Thai Arabica beans - and watched the tour buses roll into town.

I then spent a few hours cycling around teh outlying ruins, and as the day progressed the place really grew on me. The ruins are so charming in their tumbled-down-ness and overgrown-ness. Mostly I was alone, except for a few cows and the occasional farmer. The tour groups don't seem to venture away from the main area of ruins. The highlights have to be the place that I wrote my diary (Wat Saphan Hin) and Wat Si Chum - which had a beautiful 15m Buddha squeezed into a tall square building.

I had to get the minibus back because I was cycling around all the rundown, over-grown Wats with a little too much disregard for the thorns, and I did not have my pump or puncture repair kit with me, and despite there being a million bikes for hire in the village next to the ruins, they'd never come across a Presta valve before. So I hired a beat up single speed tiny mountain bike for 20 Baht, and used it for the rest of the day. I spent a while in the moderately good museum too. But sunset on the wat on the hillside was very special.

Getting the Sawngthaew (pickup converted into a minibus) was fine - that was the first time I'd used one. They just put the bike in the back beside me and charged me 30 Baht.

As I pushed my crippled bike into the guesthouse a middle aged couple smiled and asked if I was cycle touring. They were too. They'd just spent four weeks or so cycling in Burma! It sounded pretty unenjoyable - bad roads, and regular hassle from police and immigration because there's strict limits on where you're allowed to stay. They are Peter and Sally Blommer - www.ridetheroad.com.

After a good chat about plans (basically we've got the same route, though they've got 60 days; I've got 20) we went to the guesthouse where they're staying and had a chat to the Belgian owner who is a local cycle tour guide. He was very friendly and basically confirmed that my planned route was a good one. He gave me a longer, quieter alternative route for tomorrow, and said that if I'm ever stuck for a place to stay, just to go to the police box in town and string up my mozzie net and lay out my bivvy bag.

I got a plate of something unrelated to what I ordered on the tatty English-language menu at a stall on the night market, then spent half an hour or so fixing the two thorn punctures in my front tyre with the enthusiastic help of two Thai guys from the guesthouse. One repair leaks a bit, but seems to be holding out. Had a big bowl of Masaman curry (a Muslim dish from S. Thailand), which they kindly put Tofu in, as did the woman who made me an amazingly delicious noodle soup at lunchtime - but actually I hate tofu. Am I the only vegetarian that feels this way?

Had a big chat with the lovely guy at the guesthouse. He used to be a pharmacist. I then got chatting to a friendly drunk Slovakian. One thing I've noticed is that there's loads of French people here - there's not been many in other places.

Transition to the North

I've been in transit for the last 27 hours, and it's been surprisingly pleasant and painless.

I got a very relaxing ferry with hundreds of other farang to the rather grim party town of Phuket. Boat is such a civilised way to travel in Thailand - I just sat on the deck sunbathing, reading and dozing. From there I unloaded my bike and set off rather vaguelly following the minibuses and motorbike taxis to find the bus terminal in Phuket. This was the first time I'd tried to take my bike on the bus, but they were absolutely lovely about it. They tried to charge me double the fare to take the bike (an extra 12 pounds) but I smiled and lauged and said paeng in my best Thai (it means expensive) so they knocked half of that price off and there I was in a 'VIP' bus on a 13 hour ride to Bangkok, back up the road I'd cycled down a week or two earlier. The VIP bus is the size of a standard 52 seat coach, but only has three seats per row, and only about 10 rows. You have tonnes of leg room, even a lanky farang like me, and the seats recline almost to horizontal. And the air conditioning! Whooo. Too much for me - I was freezing in my hot-weather gear - even with the complimentary tartan blanket. It was only in the last hour of my journey that I figured out how to turn off the blast of icy air. But despite that I slept really well on the overnight journey.

I arrived at the south bus terminal in Bangkok mid rush hour, and had to cycle right across the city to the northern bus terminal. Quite an adventure. Partly because I didn't really know where I was going, and party just because I was back amid the pollution, the swarms of mopeds, and the roaring buses, trucks and tuk-tuks. It was great fun! I found my way there after 10 miles, with a pleasant finale through a calm park full of ponds and joggers.

Getting my bike on the next bus proved a little trickier. At two identical ticket windows they smiled and shook their head pointing at the bike. But for some reason I wasn't worried. I knew somehow it would work out. I tried a third window back next to the first one I'd tried, smiled a lot, and got my ticket! And after a quick plate of rice and noodles and glass of something strange and sweet and icy cold, I got on the bus to Sukhothai. Only 1st class this time, so normal seats. But that was fine - it was daytime now and I didn't particularly want to sleep.

The journey was easy and uneventful, other than a pleasant old lady infront of me talking to herself in Thai the entire way. And now after a final short bike ride from the bus terminal to the town centre, I've got a lovely little room in a teak-built guest house next to the river. I've had a very relaxing evening going to the night market for a plate of noodles, and will make an early start tomorrow to cycle to the ruins of Sukhothai, then the following day I'll set off for some serious cycling for a couple of weeks around the border between Thailand and Burma. There looks to be some pretty exciting mountains around there...

I've just uploaded a few photos - mostly of the family I stayed with between Bangkok and Chumphon - http://www.flickr.com/photos/80637765@N00/

Partying on Pi Pi

Sorry for the radio silence - been a busy few days.

Climbing on Railey was amazing. It's such a beautiful location - a small bay nestled in amongst the vast limestone cliffs with the jungle spilling down into the bay. And it had a really great atmosphere - everyone climbing all day, then towards evening up on the cliffs you hear the reggae music starting up in the rasta bars and everyone heads down to eat and drink.

I tore myself away from there and got a boat to Ko Phi Phi. It was really badly devestated by the tsunami, but you wouldn't really know it now. I think they rebuilt the bars first, now the accommodation's almost back to normal (though still in pretty short supply and relatively expensive). The only thing I've noticed is that when you get off the main drag you see where a lot of the Thai folk are staying - basically sheds made of corrougated aluminium and a few beams. Pretty tough.

I've been staying in a dorm in the Rock Backpackers with a great bunch of folk. I didn't realise how much of a party town this is. I went out last night with a Croatian/South African, a Jewish Chilean, an Israeli, an Irish guy from Cork, an Australian and a Dutch guy. We watched a couple of Muay Thai boxing matches (completely staged) then they have a thing here where tourists fight - really bizarre and funny. No serious injuries last night. Though during the Muay Thai tagteam fight they had a staged ruckus where all four fighters came out of the ring and were brawling with a group of Thai guys. A metal tray was being used as a weapon, and at some point it flew across and smacked me on the head. Nothing too serious though.

Anyway, a hungover morning this morning - I didn't make it snorkelling - so climbed up a hill on the island over the cliffs to admire the view and sweat out the alcohol.

I'm now about to catch a ferry back to the mainland and try to get myself and my bike on a bus to Bangkok to start cycling north...

Wed 18th Jan, Ao Leuk

I enjoyed the boat ride yesterday from Koh Tao to Surath Thani on the mainland. I wrote my diary and postcards, but every time I touched the paper with my sweaty, sun-cream-covered fingers my pen stopped working. I chatted to two nice Americans - one is a manager type in TV in Hollywood, the other works in a camera shop in Vegas and recommended me a good camera to buy in Tokyo (a Pentax Optio WPI).

I cycled the 4km from the pier past the sunken ferry to the town of Surath Thani. I'd been dreading it thanks to a negative report from the Norwegians I met a week or so ago, but actually I liked it. It's a nice untouristy town. Stayed in a rather grim concrete hotel, but had a big room. I eat at teh night market, but felt really out of it and tired, so went back to the hotel and realised that I was really sunburned after a day topless on the boat (idiot). So I drank lots and went to sleep at 8.

I got up at 6 today and had a crappy breakfast from the 24 hour shop, and set off at 6.45 through the cool morning mist. The mist only lasted until 8, when I stopped for a proper breakfast of rice and fried veg. And after that it turned into the hottest, hilliest and longest day yet. I'm heading to a beach near Krabi for some rock climbing, which is on the west coast and I needed to cross Thailand in one day as I wasn't sure of any accommodation half way. Some bits were very hard work, it was so hot and hilly. I mostly survived on bananas - some I bought, others were given to me for free at a lovely friendly roadside market.

It was a relatively quiet road through beautiful limestone hills, and at one point the road turned into gravel for a couple of miles, where they were resurfacing. That was horrible - really dusty. But generally the road was good - so many people waving and smiling and saying hello.

I stopped at one small slightly hidden market. I think I was probably the only farang ever to go there. Everyone smiled curiously. I had fried bananas. Just as I was leaving a girl on a moped invited me to come to her house to rest, so I did, and it was great. Her mother was sitting there on the porch at her sewing machine, and a crowd of neighbours and family arrived, then slowly disperesed as teh usual questions were asked and answered - age, family, travelling alone, where from/to, how long for, did I think the girl was beautiful (her older sister asked that), how much my bike cost (I always get a bit awkward with that as I'm aware that it is the equivalent of about 6 months wages for a typical Thai).

It was really pleasant to sit and chat and drink a coke among such friendly, happy, generous people. The only wierd thing was that they offered me something that looked like a lolly, and turned out to be a frankfurter on a stick. I made a quick decision to eat it and not be rude, and I still consider myself veggie!

I finally made the 90 mile journey and arrived at the town of Ao Leuk, a rather non-descript town nestled amongst beautiful jungle-clad limestone spikes. I checked into a rather swanky resort at the base of a limestone lump with a hole through the centre. Most expensive yet - 600 baht - aircon, pool, ensuite, comfy bed, breakfast.

I dumped my stuff and cycled to the nearby national park and walked about 1km around a beautiful series of gentle waterfalls emerging from teh limestone gorge, among beautiful soaring trees with stunning buttress roots. I'd read in teh Lonely Planet that it was possible to swim there, but in the shade of the trees and cliffs at 5.30pm I'd cooled off and didn't fancy it, but then I saw a father and his two boys in one pool and it looked so much fun that I put on my swimming trunks and swam in another beautiful pool. It was wonderful to clean off the day's grime and sweat in such a magical setting. I was worried about leeches, but didn't see any. Saw two big spiders though. Saw lots of dead snakes on the road today, two about 3 feet long!

After some food I went back to the hotel where I chatted to a rather confused Canadian who's the only other farang here - he was hoping to do a wildlife tour, but no one here speaks English.

Then I went for a swim in the dark in the pool, watching the stars come out with the bats skimming the water around me, then had my first hot shower in Thailand - two weeks! I almost don't smell! I got pretty sunburned again today, despite the factor 30.

Later on in the evening I heard some singing coming from the hotel restaurant, so decided to take a look. In the restaurant I got a rather large beer and sat watching girl after girl take to teh stage in various combinations of stripper shoes, fmb's and miniskirkts. But they weren't strippers or anything, they just stood there looking miserable singing melancholy cheesy Thai pop songs, tugging at their ill-fitting clothes and running off as soon as the last chorus finished.

The place was filled with Thai men, each one accompanied by one of the girls as soon as he'd sat down and ordered a drink. For some reason they didn't even try to sit with me. Maybe my shower hadn't been as effective as I thought...

It was a very bizarre event in this slightly seedy 80s resort.

Island Exploration

I finished my diving course yesterday, and am now a PADI certified open water diver. It was a brilliant morning of diving. I began to get slightly more in control of my buoyancy, so could enjoy all the fish and views a lot more. I can't really say much more about it, other than to encourage anyone who's never done it before to try. It is fabulous. I am so seriously tempted to do the advanced course. But I know that although it seems like i have a really long holiday, time is slipping by and there is much more that I want to see.

April, one of the people on the course, is staying on to do advanced though. Sadly last night she and her Catalan boyfriend David broke up and today went their separate ways through Thailand. But despite that David brought out a delicious bottle of Catalan white wine that he'd brought all the way from Barcelona and shared it with the group to celebrate completing the course. The celebrations continued late last night as me and the two Germans on the course finally got to take full advantage of the wonderful bars lining the beach now that we didn't have to dive the following day.

There are some lovely bars here - they put rugs out on the sand with really comfy cushions and have candles in the sand and fire jugglers on the beach. After some relaxing cocktails and seriously strong jugs of Beer Chang we danced to some ultra-cheesy techno, then paddled home under the (almost) full moon.

This morning was a bit of a struggle - getting out of bed, making decisions about where to go. In the end I decided to spend an extra day on the island because I've seen nothing but one beach and the ocean floor. I unlocked my bike after four days on un-use, and set off along the one concrete single track road, which quickly turned up into the hills, and became a super-steep, gullied, windy track surfaced with an inch or so of sand and dust. It was lethal. When I could cycle I could barely go faster than 6mph incase I hit a puddle of sand and fell off, or came round a corner to a steep hill unable to stop, and fell off. And when I was cycling I was sweating like mad. And even pushing up and down the worst was a real struggle. But at the end of each section of tortorous track I would come to a beautiful quiet beach lined with palms rising up into the jungle, dotted with huge limestone boulders, the sea as calm as a lake. The miles of struggle would be forgotten as I took of my shoes and t-shirt and walked into the 28 degree water, then swam among the shoals of beautiful tropical fish above the coral. It really was a magical day.

At one cafe conveniently located at a hillside viewpoint I got chatting to a couple from Inverkeithing (just across the Forth Road Bridge). They were really friendly and interesting - she's a photographer and had come here to learn underwater photography, he does care work and has just moved up from London. It was good to talk to people who know about Buckfast. They were watching Trainspotting in the same restuarant as me the other night (all the restuarants show films in the evening - it's very relaxing after a hard day's diving). I bumped into them at a beach later in the day by chance, and we're meeting up soon for a few drinks.

I also bumped into a German couple that I spent an evening with about five or six days ago at the Youth Hostel - that was very strange. I passed them on their moped, and for some reason recognising them gave me a real shiver. I kindof assumed that in a place like this you see someone, and they're gone - a very ephemeral connection. But actually people seem to drift in the same sort of direction. A lot of people I've met start off heading south like me from Bangkok to these islands, then back north to Chiang Mai.

I'm leaving the island tomorrow for the mainland, then the following day I'll cycle coast to coast (rather easier than this time last year in the states!) to Krabi for some rock climbing.

The only other thing that's new is a rather dreadful haircut. But it was worth the three pounds just for the amazing head massage that I got at the same time. And it's better than getting a haircut when I get home and having a daft tanline across my forehead. My T-shirt and shorts tan looks ridiculous enough already!

Oh, and also, I've gone deaf in my left ear after the diving, but the folk at the dive shop say that's pretty normal and it should be back to normal in a couple of days. But it makes conversation really quite difficult, and doesn't help my balance cycling on the crazy tracks!

Bye for now,

T

Learning to dive on Friday the 13th...

Learning to dive has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

It didn't start too promisingly, being friday the thirteenth. One of the first things that you have to do, standing up to your waist just off the beach, is breath from the tank of air with your mask on and stick your head under water. That was wierd, but good.

One of the next things you have to do is do the same but without your mask on. I completely freaked! It took me ages to force myself to breath like that.

And after that everything was amazing. The first day was mostly just practicing in shallow water things like what to do if the air runs out, or you loose your mask. But today we went out in the boat to a proper dive site and we were diving at 14 metres in fantastic conditions - the sea was flat and still, it was sunny, the visibility was fantastic. It is an amazing feeling to be swimming around underwater past the beautiful coral, surrounded by beautiful fish that just don't care that you're there - seeing some incredible things like moray eels and bizarre brightly coloured fish and things growing on the coral.

Time passes so quickly. We did two forty minute dives and they felt like 10 minutes.

The one slight fright we had was when one of the pipes on one person's equipment burst (apparently a very rare thing) but it was fine - she didn't panick, and followed the proper procedures to share air with the dive master, and surfaced without any problems.

The place I'm staying is great. At first I was a bit dubious about it. It was quite a shock to the system coming to a busy beach resort after cycling through really quiet un-touristy areas for a week. I spent the first afternoon before the course on the beach swimming and writing, and felt kindof out of place surrounded by all the beautiful tanned people. But actually now that I've been here three days I really like the atmosphere. It's not a big party place because everyone is on the island to dive. People are just really chilled out and happy.

And because it's full moon party tonight there are hardly any people on the diving course at the moment. On the open water PADI course that I'm doing there are two German girls, and a woman from San Fransisco and her boyfriend from Barcelona. We're all getting on really well, and it's great having one instructor for so few people.

But one bad thing did happen on friday the 13th. I got ill for the first time. I'll not go into detail, but it was not at all pleasant. But thankfully it only lasted from after diving yesterday until early this morning, so I was able to dive again today as normal. April (the San Fransiscan) was pretty ill too, and David (the Barcelonan) was feeling weak and tired, and I heard quite a few other people at this resort saying they were ill too, so I suspect one of the restaurants was serving something a bit iffy.

But because of that I decided not to go to the full moon party on the neighbouring island. I just don't have the energy or motivation to stay up all night dancing. Seems a pity to miss out on one of the world's biggest parties, but I don't actually care.

I'm going to take an underwater camera with me tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to make some attempt at capturing how it feels.

11th Jan. Chumphon

I have had an exhausting days cycling, my longest yet. I had a rather small breakfast at the youth hostel, then set off back to the main highway and headed south. By 10am I was hungry again, so stopped for rice and fried veg at a roadside stall. I was really hungry today, I seem to struggle to eat enough despite eating about five meals a day. And I am drinking so much water and coke. I am wondering if coke and pepsi and suchlike are good things to drink when cycling. Is the caffeine in them bad for exercise? Perhaps one of my cycling friends can do some research and let me know.

The culinary excitement of today was when one woman offered me a big round fruit, about eight inches in diameter. I have no idea what it was, but it had a green skin, with lots of white pith and large pale yellow segments a bit like a big grapefruit. It was a citrus, but was much less acidic than a grapefruit or tangerine.

It is really interesting how they sell things at the roadside here. Rather than having a mix of stall selling different stuff, they will have a row of stalls all selling exactly the same thing. Two days ago it was pineapples. Today I went along a stretch of half a mile with about 50 stalls on both sides of the road all selling small bananas. They were very delicious, but I have no idea how they make a living. I also went along a mile where they were all selling beautiful hand woven baskets. And it is the same with food. For five miles they will all sell whole roast chickens, then 20 miles later for five miles they will all sell dried fish, then 30 miles later it will all be something roast inside bamboo.

But getting food and drink is so easy. I rarely go 5 km without passing a roadside cafe where I can get rice and fried veg, and maybe a fried egg if I can explain well. Twice they have put chunks of meat in, but I have just picked them out. I am going to stick to being veggie.

The scenery today was much the same as the last few days, two lane highway lined with miles of palm forest. So I dedicated my ride to memorising how to say all the numbers up to 99 by putting my notepad from last night in the map section on top of my handlebar bag, and then practicing by trying to say the numbers on the milestones before I passed them. I have pretty much got all the numbers now.

I cycled about 130 km today, and actually felt much better with it than previous shorter days. Maybe I am finally getting a bit fitter. But the tail wind helps!

I am staying in a really nice guest house tonight, and the owner has arranged a ticket on the boat to the island of Koh Tao first thing tomorrow, and also booked me onto a four day diving course to get my Padi certificate (which means I can dive anywhere in the world) and arranged five days accommodation at the dive school. she has also checked that I can take a day off during the dive course to go to the full moon party on Ko Pha Ngan, the neighbouring island.

So it should be a fun few days!

Time to hit the night market now and hunt out some veggie food...

10th Jan - Bankrud Beach Youth Hostel

Today's been relatively uneventful and fairly pleasant. Cycling's still rather hard work and i'm beginning to hurt in various places that I won't go into detail about. I cycled about 65 km and ended up at an amazing HI Youth Hostel - one of their flagship hostels. It's relatively expensive (300 B) but very luxurious. I strung up my mozzie net relatively successfully in my bamboo beach hut then went to the beautiful long empty beach, lined with palms and punctuated by a steep wat-topped hill. It was about 5pm by then and I swam for the first time in the dying sunshine. The sea wasn't cold, but it was very windy, so the waves were a bit big for a wussy swimmer like me. I messed around for a bit, then got out and swam in the pool.

While I was eating I was reading my phrase book, attempting to begin to make sense of the Thai language. One of the chefs saw this and seemed to appreciate me making the effor to learn Thai, so spent about an hour or so teaching me most of the letters (how to write, say and what they mean) and all the numbers up to 9,999,999. It was hard work, but I really appreciated it. He made me write out the pronunciation for every single number up to 100. I tried to skip and just do 50, 60, 70, etc, but he was very firm with me!

After that I chatted to two nice young German couples. Most people I have met so far have been Germans.

When I went to bed I saw two wierd white lizards in the bathroom. This morning I got a real fright when I was fiddling with my bags. A cockroach came out of the lid. Other than that the only scary stuff I have seen has been dead snakes on the road.

Monday 9th Jan, Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park

I got pretty exhausted yesterday afternoon. A fresh pineapple helped revive me a bit, but I struggled. I left the main highway and headed towards teh national park. Route finding was a bit tricky, but I followed signs for a reort near teh beach.

I got to the town near the beach and national park campground, but it was dark by then and I couldn't find the campsite. I caused lots of interest and amusement cycling around the village at dusk among everyone out on the street. I asked about a place to sleep and one boy got me to follow him on his moped out of the village to the beach in the dark (me getting a bit nervous). We rode along the beach, then he stopped and pointed at a dark building and drove off.

I approached two guys who were drinking outside a hut nearby. They made a phonecall, then took me to the dark building and turned on the lights. It was a super-plush resort. They called the owner who spoke a little English. He wanted 3,000 Baht! 42 pounds!

I retraced my steps along the beach and went back to the edge of the village. There were a few teenagers sitting around in a very informal cafe, so I went in. I said I was veggie to the girl who seemed to work there. this caused much debate. Luckily I remembered the word for egg thta the German taught me the night before (kai), so I had that and rice.

I became a big object of curiosity. By the end there must have been 12 or so folk there. The really like to joke. They joked about one guy not being Thai. They joked about me being tall and they short. So I joked in sign language about me being tall but no muscles, and them being short but strong. The asked where I was staying, and I explained that the hotel was too expensive, and learned the word for expensive (paeng). One boy was the most chatty offered to have me sleep at his mother and uncle's next door. They were brought along and said OK. I gave the uncle one of the whisky miniatures that I'd brought with me.

I brought out my phrasebook and we spent the evening chatting slowly. The boy, Kabpon, and his uncle, Banlu, are fishermen. We sat around on the veranda of their house with their neighbours on the bamboo deck outside. They had a cute wee rabbit running around, and three fish tanks.

I had a wash - very interesting system. There's one small square cement basin about a foot deep and two feet square with dirty water that I stood in. That same water is then used with a tub to flush the toilet. There's a big tank of clean water next to it with a fish in (to keep it clean?) I used a tub to pour clean water over myself. It felt a little chilly at first, but it was actually much better than any of the showers I've used so far in the guest houses. I even washed my hair!

They put out a mattress for me and I hung my mozzie net over it. The mother and youngest female cousin slept on one bed near me. The oldest female cousin and another guy slept in the only room with walls, and the uncle slept on the porch in a chair. I guess I had his bed. The son slept on his boat. It's amazing that they live in houses without many walls like that. I've been thinking for a couple of days how interesting the blurring between public and private space is here. It would make a very interesting geography essay.

I slept well (the night before I had a dream that I was in a really smokey remote jungle village where everyone was riding around on elephants. A tiger came out and roared, but it was just a noisy moped going past my window). I got up at 6.30 and breakfasted on rice and eggs. The grandfather offered to take me out on his boat. But just as we were about to set off guy came along and the grandfather had to go to the bank. They told meto wait until two o'clock. I didn't really understand what was going on. Also, while I was having breakfast a guy who lives next door came and sat with his back to me and was angry with the people I'd been staying with. I didn't understand why. I hope I've not got them in trouble.

I walked over the headland to the beach and national park campsite, and up the hill to a big limestone cave complex. It is stunning. I was in one big cav with a collapsed roof, when I saw a gap through to another similar cave with light streaming through. And there, bathed in sunshine, was a beautiful gold pagoda. I saw quite a few other farang (foreigners) there - 6 Germans, two russians, 2 English and 4 Swedish. I racked my brains for the few words I know in German ("that is beautiful") and Swedish ("sorry, I don't speak Swedish" - the only other phrase I know is how to ask someone to dance thanks to going to a swing dancing festival in Lund with Annika. I didn't think that would be particularly useful in a cave in thailand).

I went out on the boat for half an hour with the grandfather. it was really beautiful to see all the fishing boats along the river. I saw a crocodile! Or perhaps an alligator, I can never remember which. I didn't even realise they had them here!

After that I said goodbye, despite their offer for me to stay another night.

And again I slightly over-estimated how quickly I could cover the ground, and only just made it to my destination for the night at dusk. I don't know if it's the heat, or because I'm not used to working in kilometres. Most likely it's because since I was really fit after my ride in the States last year I have done very little exercise and drank too much beer. I got chatting to a nice Norwegian couple who said that it's remarkably cool weather at the moment this year - so actually I'm very lucky.

There's another german on a bike staying in the guesthouse, but I didn't really get to speak to him. But it seems like cycle touring is more common here than I 'd expected. The Norwegians said that they'd seen four farang on bikes in the last week.

I'm now in a place called Prachuap Khiri Khan, but I don't think I'll hang around. I'll cycle about 60 km south tomorrow and hopefully get there in time to go to the beach. The next day I'll go another 80 or 90 km and get the ferry to Ko Pha Ngan or one of the other islands around there and hang around for the full moon party.

The Royal Palace, Bangkok

The Royal Palace, Bangkok
Originally uploaded by Thomas Turnbull.

Vegetarian Voyages

Being veggie here is interesting. This morning I left the guest house in search of something to eat for breakfast. I tried some delicious but unsubstantial rice pancakes stuffed with ground coconut and something spicey. At the next stall I attempted to explain that I was veggie in Thai. A friendly woman who spoke English said that there wasn't anything, but that she thought there was somewhere else, but she wasn't sure if it was open and it was far away, so she put me on the back of her moped and drove me about a kilometre east. Sure enough it was closed, so she proceeded to drive me a couple of kilometres south to the edge of the town. I was getting rather nervous about what she was up to at this point, but she was really friendly and unthreatening, so I went with it. She then drove me through a military base to a tourist attraction - a german-built palace. She then drove a bit further north and we tried another roadside food place which didn't have anything. She then said that she needed to go home and pick up her car to drive me back to the centre of town because I was too heavy for the moped. At this point I got quite seriously suspicious - the bike was fine. I'd managed to keep track of where we were using the sun and a few temples and knew that I was within walking distance of the centre of town, so I hopped off the moped at a junction and set off. But before I left the lady gave me a bag of something she'd bought earlier that was veggie - very sweet soy milk with strange black beans and transparent vegetables.

After the five minute walk back to the guesthouse I decided to give up on my hunt for a nice breakfast and settled for the 50 Baht American breakfast at the guest house - toast, marmalade, fried egg, pineapple, papaya and watermelon.

I set off south under the cloudless sky through much the same terrain as yesterday - nothing particularly beautiful or spectacular. The highlight of the morning's ride was noticing a sign in English at the side of the road saying vegetarian food. It was only about 10.30 but I was hungry and amazed to see this sign, so I went into the courtyard where some rather surprised and excited ladies produced an extremely delicious meal of white rice, delicious fresh crispy stir fried vegetables, amazing mushrooms, and a strange really delicious meat-like substance, tofu perhaps. I couldn't believe that it wasn't meat and left it at the side, but they noticed me doing that and assured me that it was vegetarian - they were all vegetarian. I think the place was some sort of buddhist temple. In the end they wouldn't even let me pay, and sent me off with four delicious papaya. They said that their son was coming to Scotland in may and gave me his email address, so I'll offer him a place to stay if he needs it.

The other culinary highlight of the morning was fried bananas from an old lady at a roadside stall. The bananas are tiny here - less than two inches long - but really tasty.

I'm now at a rather grim beach resort full of fat sunbathers and Burger Kings, so I think I'm going to attempt another 40km this afternoon to a national park further down the coast. I'm slightly concerned about finding it and getting accommodation, but I'm sure it will be fine.

Last night I met a German guy at the night market while we were both getting some food. He's cycling around the south of Thailand too. We got a couple of beers from the 7/11 and drank them on the street and watched the world go bye and chatted. He's been to Thailand eight times since 1999 and speaks and reads a lot of Thai. He tought me a bit about the language. There's over 40 letters, each of which has a meaning on its own, as well as a meaning when combined with other letters to make a word. I've started trying to recognise words in Thai script. After cycling past the millions of roadside signs for all the tourist condominiums and hotels I can now recognise the word for hotel pretty quickly.

Well I'd better get going if I'm going to make it to this beach at the national park before dark...

7th Jan - Petchburi and some nasty news

This will be a brief entry as the internet cafe's about to close.

I had my first proper day's cycling after managing to catch the first train a little further West. The roads are basically dual carriageway, but the traffic's slow and the hard shoulder is wide. The heat hasn't been too bad, but i stopped cycling at midday because I got to my destination and wanted to see some sights.

I visited a beautiful set of limestone caves with gold buddhas, and climbed a hill with lots of monkeys.

Got an email from a guy I know from Edinburgh who's out here. He's had a horrible experience on Koh Samui - one of the resort islands a bit further south. He made friends with a couple of girls at new year, and one of them was raped and murdered. It's really difficult to understand how something that horrible can happen in such a wonderful place.

Callum's blog's at http://www.callum-macdonald.com/ if you're interested.

6th Jan - Mahachai - Random City

I'm in a really crazy place tonight. I decided to leave Bangkok today despite not actually having enough time. I was really nervous about starting - especially cycling through Bangkok. I had to get to a rather random train station. I gritted my teeth and coated myself in luminous clothing adn set off. Actually it was fine! Mental, polluted, some scary moments, but fun! There's almost always one lane which i smostly just the tu-tuks (3 wheel motorbike taxi) and mopeds. People are actually much more aware and considerate than in Edinburgh, and the roads are definately more bike-friendly than a lot of US cities. I made it to the station without incident. The worst decision was probably right at the end when I needed to cross a road and I decided to carry my bike over a footbridge = exhausting in the heat. Otherwise the heat was OK.

The station was funny - it's just a single track that runs for an hour to where I am now. Very informal. It cost 20 Baht for me and 20 for the bike. The train was mostly being used by school kids in their matching white and yellow polo shirts. There was so much to see. Going through the outskirsts of Bangkok was interesting - so many clusters of food vendors with people eating. Thai folk seem to have such a great sociable attitude to eating. It was interesting to see teh houses in the countryside. Perhaps it's because they were next to the railway tracks, but there were lots of really ramshackle shacks.

I was the only westerner on the whole train. THere were times like that yesterday with Ashna, but it was even more intense today knowing that I wasn't going back to Khao San Road. It really hit me sitting on the train that this was it!

People were friendly enough, but didn't interact except one wee girl - she was doing funny frog impressions and silly dances.

At the end of the trainline was Mahachai. I walked through the market selling all sorts of fish and welly boots to the ferry across the river. I was pretty sure I'd missed the next train, but I thought I'd check it out. The ferry ride was cool - very beautiful wider river surrounded by ramshackle houses, old fishing boats, and a few big new fishing boats and factories. The river was quite choked with weeds, with lots of small white crane-like birds perched on them.

The boat was full of mopeds and people in white and pink outfits and wellies going to work in the fish factories. I followed the lonely planet's instructions along some very unlikely back alleys past a school and temple and navigated round a flood which seemed to merge with peoples houses with kids paddling, and found the station. It was another end-of-the-line single track place with a few families hanging around who seemed to live there. As far as I could tell by sign language the last train had left.

I cycled around that side of the river for a while. People were quite amused by me. Lots said hi.

I stopped at a lovely little food vendor place and had pat thai (noodles and veg and egg). I asked one of the other customers about a guest house and she said to cross back over the river. So I got back on the ferry (only 3 Baht - 4 pence). I asked lots of people and eventually found a rather smart hotel, which would have been 900 Baht (about 13 pounds). But the girls there were really nice and directed me to a rather hidden appartment complex on the other side of the road, and I've got a rather plush double room with ensuite, air con and cable TV for 450B.

I went straight back out and cycled back to the centre of town and wandered around looking at the stalls. Bought a really nice strange starchy kind of pancake covered with condensed milk and sugar. Continued to have lots of people laughing and commenting about me, but in a nice way. Didn't see a single westerner, but it is a very industrial fishing place.

It was lovely seeing so many people out eating on the streets. I cycled back towards my appartment, but stopped to get some more food at a quiet roadside cafe. Couldn't really communicate, so just took soup. They put a few chunks of meat in, but I just left them to the side. Despite this it was really delicious soup.

I was writing my diary a bit, but then I got chatting to the people who owned the cafe - two sisters and their husbands and kids. They gave me advice about getting the train. Then a girl about my age came along. She spoke really good English, so we chatted lots and she interpreted for the others. She'd been studying interior design in Chicago. One of the other sisters did purchasing for packaging for frozen shrimp for export to the EU & US. They were so friendly and smiley and chatty. I made on faux pas which was to 'sa wat dee' (put my hands together and bow slightly) to one of the children - but the mother advised me in a nice way that that wasn't the right thing to do.

The girl who spoke good English gave me a really nie book she'd just bought - a cartoon book about the Tsunami.

An elephant was brought bye to be fed by the kids, so I took a photo.

Back at the apartment there was a knock at the door and the attendant ame in to bring me another towel and clean the phone. He took ages cleaning the phone, then turned on the TV to show porn and proceeded to ask me by sign language if I wanted a girl. He then asked if I wanted a hand job or blow job, or massage, or to have my legs pinched (I think I may have misinterpreted that one). I showed him out. Very bizarre. And pretty grim. Obviously enough westerners come for that sort of stuff that it's worth them trying to offer it to guests.

Other than that I've really enjoyed being in this town - unlike Bangkok no one's tried to sell me anything or rip me off.

Leaving Bangkok

Well I made it to Bangkok and found myself a place to stay. First thought on entering the room: prison cell. First thought on sitting on the bed: brick. First thought on seeing the price: fantastic! About four pounds (don't ask me to try and find the pound sterling key on this thai keyboard).

I'm staying in tourist central - Khao San Road. It's bearable, but I've spent as little time in this area as possible. I've managed to cram in a fair amount of tourism- the highlight being the gold reclining buddha at Wat Pho. I've been hanging about with a fantastic young woman I bumped into on the river boat on the first day, and after we were both exhausted with Wats (temples) we did loads of random wanderings and shopping. The shopping is amazing here. Chinatown has been my favourite - miles of alleyways crammed with crazy little stalls dedicated to selling the most random stuff - coat hangers, giant stuffed toys, pencils, stickers. And so many food stalls selling unrecognisable stuff.

Yesterday after some touristy stuff in the morning we went to the main shopping district, but not before finding a fantastic little alleyway full of delicious food vendors. the food here is incredible - so cheap (about 40 pence for a dish of curry with rice) and so tasty. I'm eating really well. The shopping mall we went to was vast - millions of small shops selling DVDs, belts, bags, jeans, mobiles, cameras, t shirts, shoes, suits, sunglasses, etc. etc. ad nauseum. It was great fun, but extremely frustrating because I couldn't buy anything - I have to carry all my stuff around the country for the next five weeks on the back of my bike.

After the mall we went to the night market at Patpong- which was more of the same, but with fake designer brands and even more ludicrous bartering. One belt that Ashna was looking at started off at 1200 Baht, and ended at 200.

So now I'm about to leave all this behind. I've got to brave the manic Bangkok traffic to get across town to the station, then I'll get the train about 70km to thewest to Samut Songkhram, and then start cycling southaround the gulf of Thailand. I'm pretty nervous again - the traffic, the heat, etc. And I hope I've not left it too late in the day with all this messing around on the internet. But it will be nice to get out of the city - it's so polluted here - I'm coughing far too much!

I've put a dozen of my photos of hong kong and bangkok online on my flickr account - http://www.flickr.com/photos/80637765@N00/sets/1769827/

Bye for now,

Thomas