Thailand part 2

Jeremy and I went to the Patpong district after the jazz club. He has written a detailed mass email about that night , and I will post it later. It lacks my thoughts about that evening. I'll move on to the next day, the day I left for Ayuthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand.

I arrived at the train station, Hualamphur (sp?) in the morning and bought a very cheap train ticket. I had sometime before my train left, so I walked around the station and found a Coffeebucks. Getting a big kick out of seeing Coffeebucks, I took a picture, and thought Matt and Tim would enjoy seeing it. (Mental note: send that pic to Matt and Tim). Time passed, and I left for the train.

Jumped on the train, and didn't know where to sit. I asked the conductor, and he sat me in a group of backpackers. I sat down next a backpacker who was traveling alone. I struck up a conversation with her, and we talked for the entire time of the train trip (1.5 hours). Gillian is her name, and she and I became traveling buddies for the day. We stayed at the same hostel, one recommended in the Lonely Planet, and traveled the sites on a motorbike. The weather was perfect for traveling by bike, even though it was hot. First we went to the ancient palace grounds. There we saw the remains of the palace and a huge golden Buddha statue. I'll post the pics when I get the chance. After the palace, we traveled a little out of the way to another Buddhist shrine, one in which all of the Buddhist statues were wrapped in orange linen robes. Unfortunately, we did not get the chance to find out why they the statues had clothing, so we enjoyed for the aesthetic purposes. After working up a thirst, we found a woman selling large, green coconuts lying in a ice-filled chest. The woman chopped the coconuts open and stuck a straw in them. They were fantastic! After drinking them, we had the coconut meat!

We called it a day, and took a rest at the hostel. The next day, Gillian and I parted. She has a lot more traveling to do (Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, China, etc.). I myself did not, and had to get back to Bangkok to catch a bus to Trat, a small city that is close to Lgem Ngop, a launching point to Ko Chang. I spent the night in Trat, and got an early start in the morning to Lgem Ngop. Once I arrived there, I booked a bungalow on the western side of the island. It was a good thing I did... I had a place to go to once I arrived on the island, and there was virtually no other tourists at the place I stayed at. It was deserted and peaceful. I got a bungalow with private bath and within a 20 second walk to the beach. I also had access to a hammock overlooking the beach and ocean. It was very quiet and peaceful. I relaxed once I put my stuff in the bungalow. I went for a swim, walked along the sand, and read my book in the hammock.

The second day, I decided to rent a motorbike and venture around the island, but that was probably not the best idea. Ko Chang's paved roads, like most of Thailand's islands have steep hills and sharp corners. Considering that I am a beginner the semi-automatic motorbike, I only had enough information as to how to ride the motorbike on flat surfaces. When I was climbing a sharp hill in 4th gear, I began to realize that I was doing something wrong. I was slowing down, coming to a stop, and then rolling backwards a little. Workers on the side of the road indicated that I needed to put the bike into a lower gear, and silly me did that quickly, causing the bike to pop up onto its back wheel. I slid off the seat, and still held onto the bike's accelerator and was able to swing the bike back down onto its front tire to minimize damage. The only damage was a back piece of the bike's frame broke off while its front tire was airborne. Fortunately, I had the help of the Thai workers to get the bike under control. I got back on the bike, and was on my way again. I was still shaking from the experience and decided to stop at the nearest shopping strip to rest my nerves. That was the only accident I got into that day. Soon after, I decided to call it a day with my adventure with the bike... I came to the island to relax, not injure myself.

Its getting late again... I'll post again soon.