The final leg to Koh Lanta for Christmas

The final leg to Koh Lanta for Christmas

Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes every night. Zebra mosquitoes, small, fast and you’ll not notice anything about it. When the sun has set and I pitch my tent. They attack me. Not a little bit. The mosquitoes here in the Thai jungle are harsh. How well I spray myself with insect repellent stuff, they will come and find a spot. Tonight they succeed to bite me on my back. It itches. Oh, it itches! Also, another one my bum. On my bum? They get me right through my pants and underpants? Unbelieveable. Hopefully they have no virus. It is indeed a miracle that I’ve not been infected yet with a virus. Dengue or malaria. For dengue there is no prevention, and I take no pills for malaria. These things I have heard so many strange stories. I cycle every day and feel healthy. An infection of malaria I’ll probably survive. But that itch! That itch!

I cycle along beaches. Sometimes, there are tourists, sometimes not. The first beaches are truly authentic and completely empty. I see Thai children playing with a dog. Or are they catching crabs? I don’t see it properly. In Khiri Khan the coast is truly breathtaking. A beautiful white beach with mountains in the horizon showing themselves above the water. I try to creatively save some money. First a shower in one the many beach toilets, then when it’s dark, I pitch my tent at the beach. And wake up in the morning with this amazing view.

Wild camping in Thailand

The freedom of riding without a plan feels good. In Chumphon, I cycle into the city center in the evening. When I stop before a crossroad, I look up. What a mess! The power cables are all run into each other. What a mess! I grab my phone to take a picture. On the other side of the road I hear someone shouting loud. “Hey! What you do?” I shout back that this really is a mess and I just want to have a picture from it. He beckons me to come. I cross the street and sit beside him. He wears an army t-shirt with shorts and flip flops and is drinking whiskey with soda water and ice. “I’m soldier in army Thailand.” Until when later in the evening he brought me on his scooter to a guesthouse, I didn’t understand who he exactly was. His English was poor. We drank together with his friend, whiskey with soda water and ice. We listened Scorpion without talking that much. The music went like this: “Let me take you far away. You’d like a holiday.” The words ‘far away’ and ‘holiday’ we sang out loud between murmur of the other lyrics. They only understood that words. It was funny. The played the song over and over again. We cheered, over and over again.

The guesthouse owner explains me later in the evening in proper English that he is a major in the Thai army. In Thailand that is a high, respectable position.

In Chumphon I take a day off cycling. I need to get things straight. What do I actually do with Christmas and NewYear? Where will I be? I really don’t know yet. Still, I have to make a decision. A destination. I can’t just keep cycling and celebrate all the holidays in my tent. Thailand is just too nice for that. I decide to visit the islands on the west coast of Thailand. There are many. So I will ride from Chumphon through mainland Thailand to the western coast.

Thai farmer fields

The next day I get back on my bicycle. All day waving and smiling to the enthusiastic Thai people in the villages.

In the evening I find a place for my tent. A place among the palm trees. I cycle on a paved road. Every now and then I pass a small village. Scooters pass me. Sometimes one, sometimes four or een five people on a scooter. And sometimes the kids seem to be only 14 years old. They ride fast without helmet. Waving at me. Almost riding off the road while waving at me. I went into the forest to go to sleep somehwere a little out of sight. Animals shoot away from me when I walk into this nature. Wow, wow, wow! What do I see here? I have to stop walking, this looks uuh.. interesting. A spider? But what is this exactly? Would he receive satellite TV in there?

Spider in Thailand

I pitch my tent. Watch out for the ants. The ants! The big red ones and the smaller fast and biting bastards. Don’t put your tent on a nest. They are everywhere. Tonight I will not sit quietly in front of my tent with a campfire. Too many mosquitoes here. They eat me alive and I’ve no idea what other animals are crawling around here. I go into my tent and zip the thing properly. After two hours I get the feeling that I get every now and then a needle in my skin. It’s the little ants, they find out a little hole in my tent and now start to bite me. I decide to declare war. They won’t let me sleep, I’ve to do something. I follow them where they come into my tent. I break the track with my insect repellent stuff. It works, they get confused. I see a small hole in my tent. How can they find it! Ouch! One bites me on my eyelid. Now it’s on. I will do anything to get them out of my tent.

The next morning I set a final sprint to the town of Krabi. Here I take a break for a day. To recover from all that tropical animals that make things sometimes so hard out there in the woods.

The Thai food and the woman who are preparing it. What can I enjoy them! In Krabi they are all over the town. They approach you on the street: “Come, come, sit down. Delicious, number one food for you.”

I just love it!

Thai girls in a restaurant

Woman cooking in downtown Krabi

Food car attached to scooter

After my day rest I start to cycle to the island Koh Lanta. I’m going to have my Christmas holiday here.

Christmas at Koh Lanta

Probably a week off from the bike. Or maybe not? I will see. I hope to discover some other nice islands and meet some nice people out here.

Thank you for reading this post. Thank you for following me all this way. I could not dream of so many people that came this loyal to me. Thank you for being here.

Please consider to make a small donation for endangered animals in Asia through the link down right. You can read more about my fundraising there.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and soon a Happy NewYear!