Scooting around Thailand

We love Thailand! It was great to move on from Malaysia and to trade in the roti for the spicy Thai curries. And they are delicious!

We had a great start coming into Thailand. As soon as we got off the boat, a bus left for Krabi, our first stop in Thailand. We got chucked on a motorbike and brought straight to the departing bus. A few hours later we got to Krabi, a very crowded touristy town. Despite the crowds, Krabi was great. Initially we only wanted to stay two nights, but we stayed for six! We just couldn’t get enough of the food and beaches. Krabi also made us a bit greedy. There are so many market stalls there with so much stuff you don’t need, but it’s all so cheap… We splurged out on tailor-made suits and they turned out really nice. We sent them straight home, so hopefully the ship will make it to Melbourne in three months.

Ko Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh (where ‘the Beach’ was shot) are only a short boat ride away from Krabi, so we decided to go there for the day. The ‘the beach’ beach didn’t quite look like the beach in the movie and was packed with people! The water was beautiful though and the rock formations were quite spectacular so no wonder they shot the movie there. We got the opportunity to snorkel a bit around the islands, but this wasn’t too exciting. It was just gorgeous to see all the huge rocks sticking out from the sea. The water was so clear and so blue, it was really nice. Though we won’t go on an organised day tour again…

Again we rented a scooter for a couple of days and we happened to ride past a Honda shop. We were curious about the price of a new scooter and the cheapest was only about $1200, new. That got us thinking and we ended up shopping around for a scooter the whole day. Just as we were about to buy one, we found out that, as travelers, we’re not actually allowed to just buy a vehicle. We needed some papers from the Thai immigration. We had to wait for them to open again on Monday, so we had a bit of time to ponder over the possible scooter purchase.

We got to the immigration office early on Monday morning. We wanted at least try to obtain this permit to be able to buy a bike. The immigration office told us we needed our hotel to sign some papers (to proof we stayed there) and to come back once the papers were signed. The immigration office was located half an hour’s ride away from our hotel, so we got on our scooter and left the office to get the papers signed. They were a bit hesitant and the hotel to sign the papers for us and wanted us to check in for another night (we had just checked out, thinking we might be on our way that day with our new scooter, how naïve!). Eventually we got the papers signed without having to pay for another night, so off we went to the immigration office again. Once we got there, they told us the papers we just got the hotel to sign weren’t enough; we needed to obtain some photocopies of the owner’s ID as well as some other receipt… We got the immigration officer to write it down for us in Thai, and off we went again for that half an hour ride back to our hotel. Once there, the staff were again a bit hesitant to give us the paperwork and told us to go back to the immigration office to meet the owner of the hotel there. We found this a bit strange, but OK, off we went again for a half hour ride to the immigration office. Of course the hotel owner wasn’t there. After we asked the immigration officer some more questions and told him we really only wanted to purchase a motorbike, he got onto it for us and found the documents needed. Apparently they were already in the office when we were asked to get them from the hotel! Anyway, the paperwork was prepared, the money paid and after only 5,5 hours we had the permit to buy a scooter!

Because we had already looked around on Saturday we knew what we wanted and where to get it. Eventually we bought a second hand Honda Click scooter (110 cc), dubbed ‘Eleanor’. Buying Eleanor wasn’t as straight forward as we had hoped, but with lots of giggles, hands, feet and a calculator we agreed on a price, a new front tyre and a different seat. If we’re going to travel around this country by bike it may as well be comfortable.

Eventually we stayed at our hotel for another night. While we had bought the scooter, it wasn’t registered in our name yet. On Tuesday we headed for the land and transport department, where no one seemed to speak English. We got there at 8.30am with all our stuff and Jenny had to sit and wait with the bags while David was going to arrange the paperwork. The shop we bought the scooter from was happy to arrange this for us, but it was going to take a couple of weeks. We eventually arranged all our paperwork and at 11am we were on our way! By the way, our motorbike is registered until the year 2553 - Thailand is a few hundred years ahead of our western time.

The first day on the bike was an experience. We got so sore after only 30 km! We pushed through though and ended up about 140 km further north, at Kao Sok national park. Stunning rock formations and rivers were part of the scenery and we were very happy that Eleanor brought us all the way there. We stayed at a lovely and cheap guesthouse (we paid a lot in Krabi, compared!) and got a bit drunk from the Chang beer, probably to soothe our stiff muscles.

The next morning we took off for Ranong, another 260km away. This time, the ride was much smoother and more comfortable, we were already getting used to it! Saw some elephants on the way, eat nice food from a local market and just putted along the highway. Eleanor can do about 100 kph with the two of us plus luggage. Not a bad little bike. We got to Ranong, stayed the night and moved on to Ko Phayam (after storing Eleanor away safely for a couple of days), a little island just off the coast where Thailand and Myanmar meet. It’s very laid back here with a nice beach and a few little places to eat. After Ko Phayam, we push on to the north, after a visa run to Myanmar first.

So far Thailand has impressed us a lot. The people are nice, the food is delicious, the beaches are beautiful, the roads are good, the temperature is pleasant, and so on. We love Thailand!