Wednesday, December 29, 2010

28th Dec, 993.5km. random shower facility in surat thani

started off the day and saw this small shop in a small village selling fried chicken and noodles. hmmm, fried chicken in thailand is really good, much better than KFC or Popeyes or whatever other crap... so stopped to get some food, but turns out the ladies manning the stall are crazily high.

no idea why but she insisted i did this pose... dun ask me why...
they started to ask me my age and this gal suddenly shouted that she was same age as me. started pointing fingers at me and her together and laughing... GG... i better run before anything else happens... nice meeting you!
met this really nice and cool myanmar dude who could speak about 6 languages including english. learnt to speak thai without lessons in only 1 year and english thru reading and newspapers. many other interesting stories but he would get into trouble with the authorities if i told them...
him manning the shower facility. asked me to use it for free though and kept offering me coffee and food...
sian raining night... damn cold with this lousy tent.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Dogs & bicyclists

Dogs in Thailand seem to be really ferocious and they have this "bad hate" with bicyclists. everytime i cycle pass dogs, they will start to bark wildly as if to alert every dog in the neighbourhood that "Hey, there is a prey coming up!" then all the dogs will start to bark together in unison and gather on the main road to see what is coming along. I have been chased by dogs more than 10 separate occassions so far and at least 3 were really close encounters (with the dogs within 3m of me). But today has got to be the worst dog experience so far for me yet...

I was cycling along the road peacefully when this dog from the opposite side of the road started to bark loudly. Er ok... here we go again... started to change my gears to anticipate accelerating if necessary. true enough, the dog started galloping across the road and straight towards me. Like any normal hum ji person, of course i will start to pedal faster when i see a huge dog barking and sprinting in your direction. btw, these dogs arent the cute chihuahuas or gorgeous labradors you see in Singapore. Even the german shepherds/rottweilers/bulldogs etc in Singapore are relatively domesticated and i doubt they can even catch a cat. The dogs in Thailand actually work as guard dogs and are definitely not for show.

Anyway as i started to pedal faster, the dog started to run faster and i could hear its panting beside me as well. After about 50-100m of chasing me, the dog kinda gave up because it prob knew it couldnt catch up with me. Now after giving up on me, of course the dog had to cross the road back to where it originally came from right?

Just as it started to veer away from me, i saw a car approaching at a high speed from the opposite direction. when the car passed me, i turned my head as well and just at this instant, saw the car run over the dog with a "THUD" sound. The sound wasnt very loud but it was definitely unmistakeable. The car was gone in about 2-3 seconds and i could see the dog's white body strewn across the road and i knew without a doubt that the dog had become one of the many roadkills i have seen so far, however this time it will always stick with me in my conscience. All this (from the time the dog started barking to the dog lying on the road) was over in less than 20secs but i thought about it the whole day as i continued cycling, wondering if i could have done things differently.

if only i had stopped, the dog would have caught up with me and mayb bitten me but its life wouldnt be ended just like that... hmmm...

Monday, December 27, 2010

Phra Saeng

hmmm...

waffles done the old sch way with charcoal

min chiang kueh - pandan, peanut, and some werid veggie like popiah?


help me top up the highest grade fuel pls.

saw this beautiful house and went in to talk with the 2 ladies. really nice women who kept smiling LOL

all carved out of wood. no idea what wood though, damn nice

dun run away!

scam them into helping me take photo though their photography sucks!

haha kena conned. couldnt escape in time. somehow they were so afraid of letting me take their photo...

 I went to this small provision shop and asked to borrow the toilet. after using the toilet, i realised that actually the place was pretty nice so i asked for permission to sleep outside the shop. after setting up my tent, i think a dozen or more kids came to play around and started shouting "Singapore! Singapore! hehe. haha" think i make a really good ambassador.
Anyway, the lady manning the shop (owner i presume) started to offer me ice-cream and water and food. refused everything cause i didnt want to impose on her too much. then she started making some calls to a few friends and eventually got to this thai man who could speak chinese. passed the phone to me and asked me to talk. conversation went sth like this... (in chinese of course)
Man : wat are you doing here?
Alvin: er i am planning on staying the night here.
M: (said some other random crap which i forgot) can you reach Surat Thani by today? I have a house there that you can stay in.
A: er not really. its getting late and dark and Surat Thani is pretty far. Dun think i can get there. anyway, dun wanna bother you as well uncle.
M: hmmm ok you go pack up your stuff, my fren stays there. he will come and pick you up and bring you to his house.
A: er ok... Thanks!
notice the 3 guys sitting behind.
 Shortly after, this 3 men arrived and started to drink beer and eat roasted meat. 1 guy came to talk to me a little and i explained to him that i didnt understand thai and i wanted to sleep the night there. the guy in orange-striped shirt had a pistol on the bench beside him and i casually asked if he was a policeman. he looked at his frens and started laughing. in fact they were all laughing though i didnt noe why. he said no but didnt tell me anything else. hmmm... if you are not a policeman, then wat the hell are you doing with a gun? GG... come to think of it, the old man on the phone did sound a little like a triad boss or sth. even had frens over here with guns.
Packed up my stuff anyway and followed a plump man down the hill and made right turn into his house. strangely, i had noticed this house on my way just now and thought it was a really big compound. went in and was asked to set up my tent in some hut.

before.

& after! i hope the thai king protects me from whatever bad guys these ppl are.

His dad invited me for dinner as well. dun worry, he was alot more friendly than this photo.
 Later in the night, saw the lady shop owner and turns out this is her house! so all this while she was trying to invite me to her home but i jus couldnt understand her. had to call her chinese fren to translate for me before i could understand and come to her home.
had free food, shower & lodging...
the man who brought me to his house with his nice white car. i really thought he was from the triad initially because the car was really beautiful. unlike anything in that village i have seen so far.

the lovely lady shop owner.khop kun kup.

haha hes some government worker, though no idea what he does... should be pretty big i guess. his house and car were pretty decent and he nvr even go to work at 8+am when i woke up the next day.

still smoking and slacking around at 9am when i left.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Phatthalung (Wikij) + Thung Song

tea with 3 layers. asked my thai fren but he also dunno haha

typical thai breakfast

his homemade toothpaste! i had aftertaste of it even after 3 days later when i was brushing my teeth... abit salty and sourish

smile for the camera!

banana + nutella + bread = best snack ever
i call this my choco-nana-dog!

some thai kueh his wife bought for me to eat on the way.


the durians here were hugeeee

GG... nobody told me southern thailand was mountaineous. where are my beaches!

Jack and Grace, Thung Song

their humble abode =D

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Thailand

Thailand border!

standard eye power when ambulance arrive

er which way to hat yai??

thai king is everywhere. and i really mean EVERYWHERE

toilet out in the open

my first night in thailand, in a temple

abit messy =S

2 boys who came to play with me

managed to scam 1 boy to take photo for me

good nite!

damn shiok chicken rice in hat yai

tuktuk!

omg! only 60 baht?!

sorry mingyew... but this will be what our bunk will look like =D


3rd largest sleeping buddha in the world


random condiments every thai store has

damn shiok beef noodles = 40 baht

it was raining so i stopped here to chat with them. somehow they wanted to give me their contact details although they will prob nvr meet me again.

offered me this but of course i couldnt drink and drive =D

friendly dudes

er so friendly i almost thought they were gay buddies =P

night at the petrol kiosk

my host in phatthalung. Wikij Langkhong. damn cool dude

beautiful wooden home

2nd floor balcony

my room for the night!

his cute nephews