Riding the Skinny Bit…

This skinny bit....!!

No… I have not left a “ch” off the title, and contrary to popular demand, this is not a posting about a Thai hooker…

Rather, it is about my ride down the narrow bit of the Thailand Peninsula, which touches on Burma and takes one towards Ko Somui and Phuket, and on to Malaysia…

Getting out of Bangkok was a breeze… Only because traffic at 7.30am on a Sunday morning is not as hectic as it is during the week…!!

Once clear of the outer limits, which took almost 80 km of riding, we headed south, through Phetchburi and all along the Bight of Bangkok, down to Hua Hin, where I stopped for a can of cold coffee and no cigarette…

Looked interesting, but after a short lunch, we moved on...

Apart from my ride through Libya, this was the hottest and most uncomfortable trip I have made on the bike… On more than a few occasions I considered stopping to take my heavy jacket off and ride in my t-shirt only…

At Pratchuap Kiri Khan, we stopped to refuel, and I noticed that the Big Fella was using at least 15 to 20% more fuel that was normal… Methinks the boys at Barcelona BMW have messed up the settings on the bike…!!

Huge pool leading to the sandy beach beyond... Bayview looked good...!!

I decided to find somewhere along the coast to have lunch, and perhaps locate a place that was not as busy as Thap Sakae…

Chenty had suggested a place called the Bayview Resort Hotel, and when I punched it into Gi-Gi, the darling girl advised she knew EXACTLY where that establishment was…!!

Only problem was that she must have thought I wanted to see some of the country roads on my way to getting there…!! What started out as a good tarred road, changed into a single lane, strip of concrete, and then that disappeared altogether and became a hard-packed gravel road…!!

Although it presented no hassles, and we took it at a steady clip of 60 km/h, it did have me wondering where the hell I was going to end up…!!

The road eventually came out onto another tarred road, which lead directly to the entrance of the resort…

The price was about double what I was prepared to pay, and only had internet in the public area, so instead of booking in, I ordered a chicken salad, and called Trevor to let him know where I was…

A few kilometres down the drag, I rode into the little beach town of Ban Krut, and found a place that suited my pocket and had all the necessary internet hook-ups…

It also had the necessary beach and view....!!

The place was practically deserted, and for the most part, I think I was the only guest in this very large complex… Later I saw a young Chinese guy who seemed to have the entire 4th floor to himself… I was the only guest on the 2nd floor…!!

The almost deserted hotel made us feel as though I had checked into a hastily evacuated facility...

My room at the Ban Good Beach Resort... Clean, roomy and peaceful...

I called Trevor again, sent him the GPS co-ords and then took a ride down along the seashore to see what Ban Krut was all about…

On the last day of the five day water festival holiday, it was all about stopping every car, scooter and in my case, bike, and pouring water over the occupants…!! By the time I had covered a few hundred metres, I was completely soaked…!!

It was all good fun though and the crowds lining the beach road were in a very happy and relaxed frame of mind, helped along by the large quantities of alcohol that they had managed to swallow along with the water…!!

These small boats are used to catch shrimp and prawns out in the bay at night... They are moored along a narrow creek close to the hotel... The creek runs parallel to the beach, and entrance to the sea is via a narrow inlet...

I located the train station, where Trevor’s son Philip would be arriving the following day, and then headed back to my hotel for some navel contemplation…!!

The beach was completely deserted, so I was only going to have my own navel to contemplate…!!

©GBWT 2011