Motoadventures2up: Two Week Visa in Thailand

When crossing into Thailand by land tourists are only offered a 2 week visa, 14 days, that is really not very long...at least by our standards. The crossing from Cambodia into Thailand was very easy, after our taxi ride from Battambang we had only to stand in line for a few minutes to obtain our free 2 week tourist visa, just long enough to meet Bill (lets call him that for lack of understanding or remembering his real Cambodian name). Bill offered us a ride from the border to a small town about 2 hours away, he was generous and we felt very bad when he had to endure a bit of a hassle when some taxi drives decided that Bill had stolen a fare that was rightfully theirs. When we finally got on the road Bill told us his story of life growing up in Cambodia and the struggles he endured during the Kumar Rouge war as his family and he snuck across the Cambodian border into Thailand and eventually to the U.S.A.. Now in his 50's he has moved back to Cambodia and is rebuilding a better life for himself there. Incredible!

With only 2 weeks in Thailand we had to decide what exactly we needed to see in the south, the #1 thing was Pattaya and our friend Tony, who spends most for his winters in Thailand. It was great to see him, he played tour-guide for 4 days showing us what he does with his time. We visited the Walking Street and checked out all the lady-boys, bars and that whole scene...what a mess. We spent an afternoon at a private club where we swam and soaked up the steam in the sauna and later that day had our last massage in Thailand, 200 Bt for an hour ($7 :). One day he took us to a waterski park where people waterski around a small manmade lake being towed by a rope on a cable overhead (very cool but Ken and I decided not to try it and remained spectators...we are too out of shape-we would hurt too much the next day or two after all that excursion!). Tony made it look way to easy!

We said goodbye to Tony after 4 days and moved farther down the coast to Hua Hin. The recommended form of transportation was minibus, we were leery but went for it! The minibus driver racked up the hour and 20 minute drive at 140 km/hr and dropped us off at the Victory Monument in the middle of Bangkok where we picked up another (somewhat slower) minivan for the 3 hour drive to Hua Hin...easy. Hua Hin, where we were told to visit by a guy in Cambodia, should have been a nice quite beach but it was mostly the same thing as Pattaya...lots of bars, Thai ladies looking for a Farang to take them away and more lady-boys. Not our scene, we stayed for 3 nights thinking that we were missing something and surely there was more to the place than met the eye...not! We visited a viewpoint, a temple or two then we were out of there. One of our sightseeing stops was at the train station, here we decided to take the train on the next leg of our trip...3 hours and 120 km on the train to Prachuap Khiri Khan cost us 19 Bt, about 60 cents each. The train was good to travel on, the views were great and the people were nice.

We arrived in Prachuap Khiri Khan (PKK) on a Saturday and at the beginning on a 10 day music festival, great for our entertainment but not good for finding a room...once again, everything was full. We eventually got the last room in town (I'm sure of it!), a very small single bed room with barely enough space to walk through to the bathroom, well at least it had a bathroom, even with a Western toilet. Oh, and it was over the only bar in town, The Small World Bar run by some Thai hippies. Ken and I spent a cozy somewhat sleepless night, next morning we were out it find a new room...someone must have checked out somewhere! We eventually found a great small hotel with a/c and a pool, we were starting to like this town. PKK is a "Thai" city with only a few tourists and ex-pats living there, a long beach with a nice walkway along it, and on this week lots of entertainment with the music festival and market that went with it. What a nice surprise! Tony decided to take a break from Pattaya and joined us in PKK for a few days, so we had fun renting scooters, eating, visiting the market, eating, swimming in the pool, playing cards and eating!

Five days in PKK and holy crap our Thai visa is running out and we have to head for Malaysia. After the previous pleasant experiences on the train from Hue Hin and then to PKK, we decided to take the overnight sleeper-train to Butterworth in Malaysia. I guess it is a popular way to travel this route because we tried booking our berths 4 days in advance and had to settle for 2 of the last 4 upper berth beds (we were told to take the lower berth because the beds were much bigger but actually, and it was a good thing, the upper berths ended up to be quite comfortable). So once again we said goodbye to Tony, he headed north again to Pattaya via Bangkok and we head south to Malaysia, a new country for us. One last stop, switching trains in Bang Sapan gave us enough time to visit with Greg, who we met in Laos, and to see what he and Guylaine had been up to in the past 3 months since we had last seen them. It is so cool running into fellow travelers time and time again along the road. I wonder who we will met up with in Malaysia????Gary?

Pattaya, from Buddha mountian.

You just don't know which way is up on the sleezy Walking Street in Pattaya.

Tony gets ready for take-off at the waterski park, notice his little shoe-boards he is wearing...the next best thing to barefoot skiing!

This guy took his jackrussell terrier on the board with him. After getting off on his board he put the dog down to ride it out...and the dog loved it!

Good thing I'm not a big shopper, I wouldn't trust the gals at this bar.

Just a little street food at Hua Hin.

The old time train stain in Hua Hin.

Ken finds a new friend at the view point overlooking Hua Hin.

We don't know the name of this game but it was good entertainment. Each 7 player team tries to put the leather ball into the 3 sided basketballish net overhead. Doesn't sound too hard but...they can't use their hands. They must use their heads, feet, knees, or shoulders and...they get more points if they hit the ball from behind their heads.