The next day takes us further through wooded, undulating areas along the border. The area offers little variety. Rubber plantations alternate with palm oil plantations alternate with dense forest. The settlements we pass through are small and simple and probably house mainly the cultivators of these plantations. It remains hot and humid and we drip along the kilometers. Despite my numerous pee breaks, we make progress and arrive in a larger town in the evening. This town is also not located directly at the nearby sea, but is connected to it by various river mouths. This means: Hardly a cooling breeze, also the evening remains hot and humid and the prospect of a sticky night in the hammocks is not very tempting. Once again we treat ourselves to a cooled room. Such we find mostly very short term via booking.com at fortunately low prices: Here in Thailand cheap means around 10 francs. AC is included in this price and most of the time it is a very decent room including wet room and fresh terry towels (a wonderful change to our stuffy microfiber things). Despite the pleasant luxury, we long for nights outside under the stars. In this climate, however, they are currently only somewhat pleasant at the sea with the cooling wind.
Also the next driving day offers little new. Fried rice with egg or fried rice with tofu, fried bananas as a snack in between, once a day a completely oversweetened, iced green tea, which we easily double with water.
Today, however, we have an exciting goal: we get to stop by Alex’s, another Warm Shower host. We always read what the hosts tell about themselves on the website and it is always highly interesting what exciting people and stories we then meet. Alex lives a little off the main road in a small jungle village. Wild looking young men on their motorcycles greet us in amazement as we chug along the small road on our bikes. Thanks to the photo Alex sent us, we eventually find the right house and after some knocking, a tall, white-haired man with alert eyes opens the door for us. His passion for bicycles is already clear to us when knocking. Two touring bikes with various self-made special features are standing in front of the front door. As Alex leads us inside the house, we are amazed to see more touring bikes and folding bikes standing around. A lot of talking shop is the order of the day over the next few hours. Alex waves us through the closely assembled houses – outside and inside are hardly to be distinguished – and invites us first of all to a small tea ceremony. He has already experienced a lot in his 70 years of life. It seems that he has been a globetrotter since his twenties. School attendance in France, spiritual rituals in the Andes, years of life in the USA, Kandersteg and a marriage in Mexico. Sometime in this exstence. How he ended up in this remote place in the middle of the Thai jungle remains a mystery to us. Here he lives with the family of his Thai business partner Fai door to door in this huge open house, together with countless mosquitoes, geckos, giant spiders and all kinds of other creatures. Alex and Fai run a massage parlor in Phuket and own land here on which coconut palms and fruit trees grow in addition to the usual two products (palm oil and rubber). Alex shows little enthusiasm for the first two products. “They suck out the soil and after twenty years, you have to cut them all down,” he states dryly. Life here is simple and very close to nature. People still know the wild plants and their useful properties, fish dinner in the river, and care for their old ones themselves until the end, if possible. Fai stops by and puts a plate of fresh guavas, a star fruit and fresh bananas in front of us. There are wild elephants that sometimes come by and eat the bananas. There are poisonous bats, but rarely anyone is bitten, she reports. In the morning, we hear the monkey clans that live on the surrounding hills calling.
Alex not only has a passion for great bikes. Ukuleles and guitars are also able to attract his attention. Full of confidence he hands us his precious pieces made of mango and acacia wood and we joyfully strum away. What a joy to be able to sing with accompaniment again after all the Akapella songs while driving!
After a delicious dinner of fresh fish, sticky rice, dahl and soup, we set up a comfortable sleeping cave with two sofas, a huge fan and our mosquito net.
After more exciting talks about meditation techniques, body drugs, breathing exercises and folding bikes, we say goodbye to Alex the next morning and cycle back to the main road, spontaneously changing our route and now heading for Phuket. Actually we wanted to cycle around this island. Too touristy, we thought. In the meantime, however, some arguments have accumulated that motivate us to change direction. I need to do a decent ultrasound, near Phuket there is a Decathlon (Exactly- it is international and has become a pretty reliable friend) and we hope to get back to the mainland with ferries via two more islands towards Krabi. Besides, the trip to Phuket promises significantly more beach access than the alternative along the coast.
The island of Phuket can be easily reached via a bridge and we immediately take the island to our hearts. “Welcome to Phuket”, an old man on a bicycle calls out to us. A delicious papaya salad stand and an inviting bay are also found immediately and finally we can cool off a bit in the salty water. This part of Phuket is anything but touristy and after the unpleasant acquaintance with the nasty little sand flies, which chase us very efficiently from the deserted bathing bay, we pedal a bit further to find a rain-safe place to spend the night. At a small temple we find what we are looking for and fortunately the nightly rain cools the air pleasantly.
On the way to Phuket we get to know the hilly side of the island. The road along the west coast is partly so incredibly steep that Louie even has to help me push. On our break day, we exceptionally rent a scooter and explore magnificent beaches with wild waves, cross absurd resort areas, visit the doctor (all good!) and despair at the inexistent street food offer of the city.
Little sad, we leave Phuket town and board a small local ferry chugging to Ko Yao Yai island. The island is inhabited by Muslim fishermen and we almost feel a bit transported back to Iran. Families sit on blankets they brought with them on the shaded deck, playing with their children or with their cell phones. The men wear sarongs and prayer caps, the women are very stylishly veiled and everyone smiles at us in a friendly way. Who would have thought: Thailand’s south is home to countless Muslim Thais. Here, the call to prayer wakes us up in the morning again, the pork in the cookshops makes room for even more chicken and it seems to us that the people learn English a little better in the schools than the Buddhist Thais. In the villages we keep coming across small, cute mosques and the people show a lot of friendly interest in us. We like it and are curious to see what awaits us on the small island.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)