Coastal Tour

Continuing from the last post, the spider laid in wait inside the scooter somewhere. I decided that if I was riding quickly, it wouldn't be able to come out to attack. So I jumped on the scooter and took off, locking myself into a version of the movie Speed.

I had decided to take myself on a trip down to Ton Sai beach. I was looking at staying there but decided to stay here instead. The roads were very nice, weaving in between these geological formations (I don't actually know what they are called. They're like islands but on the land. I assume they are limestone, which would make them Karst formations. But who cares right?).

I got down to Ao Nang, which was a fairly decent sized town with a vibe a bit like South West Rocks in summer holidays. Eg. Extremely busy and full of tourists. The beach there was nice but it was low tide. I also discovered that you can't access Ton Sai by road, only boat or foot. I wasn't willing to pay for a boat so I decided to take some quiet country lanes to get to another beach.

Before I could though, I came across a police checkpoint so I turned down a side street and stopped for a drink. The police have apparently been targeting tourists on scooters and asking for international driving permits. I don't have one, nor do I have a motorbike licence. The fine (bribe) is about $5-10 so I decided if they want to fine me I'll just pay it. When I set off again they were gone, and I passed them beginning to set up further down the road.

I had a look at some more beaches and coastal towns. It was all fairly standard stuff. I left to come back and managed to get myself lost. I had a map so it wasn't a big deal. Instead of turning around I decided to go with it and ended up on this muddy dirt path, slipping and sliding and spinning along on this scooter. Definitely not built for dirt!

I did get to see these lovely, quiet, genuine villages out amongst the palm plantations. I was quite a novelty, with the younger people and kids smiling, laughing and waving while the older men would give me the stink eye.

I stopped at one point to take a photo and
when I set off again I noticed a few large black legs coming around the side of the mirror. The battle had resumed.

I couldn't go fast because if he flew off, he'd land on me. So I stopped in the middle of this village and got an 8 ft long stick. Not long enough, but I was trying to be brave. It's hard to aim an 8 ft long stick, so this dance began where the spider would easily dodge and I'd manoeuvre to try again. The locals seemed to understand what I was doing. Eventually the spider went to the top of the mirror and I was able to scrape him onto the road. I didn't kill him as I'm even more afraid of spider ghosts.

Last night I went for a swim in the bioluminescent water. I take back what I said a few posts ago. It is definitely better here than at home. In fact it's quite different. As I'd move my hands dozens of prices of light would fly out light I was a magician. In Turkey it was light a spotlight from heaven shining down,so you couldn't make out the individual lights. Here it was magical in its own way. In Australia you have to splash around. When I got out of the water I rubbed my belly and I'd glow for a few seconds. It was really cool.

I'm about to check out and make my way to Bangkok, most likely on a sleeper train. I'll probably come back to the islands some other time. I'm ready to head to Laos and Cambodia.