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Hot spring on my bike step
If you are my friend on Facebook, I posted these 2 pictures on there months ago. I was on my way to somewhere, all happy and singing, and then on my way back, miserable, and not feeling well.
On the left happy, and singing. On the right, hot, tired and miserable. And yes, that's my singing face...I think.
A friend asked me at the time, where I was going TO. But I never answered, since I thought that it should have been its own blog post. It took me 7 months, but finally here I am. Since I know my friends back home are dealing with snow, why not tell them about one of my hottest day of my trip. Warm them up by proxy.
After my successful bike ride with Emma and Cass the previous day, I decided to try my luck a second day in a row on 2 wheels. Em and Cass had other plans so I was flying solo and set my eyes towards a natural hot spring.
I looked online and the hot springs were about 30km away from my hostel. Now, while I love biking, I do it for leisure, never really for distances. But all I thought was, well, 30km turns to be around 20 miles. I have done 30 miles, dying by the end, but 20 miles is right in my wheelhouse. Never accounting for the fact that I have to bike BACK to my hostel. Idiot. Add to this, that the I’m doing this in 40 C (95 F) humid weather and is really a miracle that I haven’t killed myself in any of my trips. Since obviously planning is not my strength.
Head out of my hostel early to try to beat some of the heat of the day. I eat breakfast along the way. The person asked me where I’m going to, and I tell them. I still remember them telling me “Oh, far.”
Again, driving/biking in Thailand is fairly safe. In fact is probably the Asian country where is the safest, in my opinion, to drive. The only problem I have with biking is the fumes from the car and motorbikes can get to you pretty quickly. About half of my ride was in highway so it wasn’t the most pleasant part of my experience. But the next half of your ride is taken in this small roads. You can see some of it in the first picture. There might be some motorcycles on them, and maybe even a few farmer’s pickups, but not much else. You go through alleyways looking at houses, churches, temples, fields and farms. It’s a pleasant ride, and it’s worth it once you make it this far.
Once you reach the area of the hot springs there’s different resorts you can choose from. I settled for this one. The Royal Sankampaeng Hot Spring.
There’s a stream of hot spring that visitors can dip their feet in.
Families dipping their feet in. One woman caught me taking the pic.
Dipping my feet in.
You can also buy and boil your own eggs, Asian people love boil eggs, not an opinion, a fact.
Eggs in net being boiled in the hot spring. Different area than where you dip your feet in, if you are wondering that.
There’s also a spring pool that you can buy time in.
Also private hot spring tubs for couples, and hot springs tub for males or females separately. I chose the latter one.
I took pictures of me in the tub, but none came out PG, so, use your imagination.
I love this picture, I asked them if they could take my picture in front of the sign, instead they understood that I wanted to take a picture of them. I never took a picture in front of the sign. I couldn’t top that moment.
Random Thai family posing instead of me.
Since I wasn’t hungry I drank a pineapple frosty juice before leaving and realizing that now I have to bike back in the middle of the afternoon with the sun beating down on me. I would sleep very well this night.
Fruit juices of Asia are awesome. Highly recommend it.
P.S. What is this? Two post in two days? Am I getting better at this blogging thing? No, don’t delusion yourself. But I will try to update more often. Unfortunately tomorrow I’ll be traveling to another city, so I doubt I’ll get to the website, but I plan to write at least one more post this week.
Going on my own Motorcycle Diaries adventures
I hope this is not my last post.
When I was first thinking about this round the world trip, I imagine some of the countries I NEEDED to visit. A “must see” in my list of countries to visit. First in that list was Thailand. It was a beautiful country, different from what I imagined, but still with plenty of charm for me. It always called me from far away, I always saw it as such a mysterious country growing up that it became a must see country.
Another country (city really) that I wanted to visit is Sydney, Australia. For some reason, viewing all of those aerial shots of the Opera House in the Sydney bay just called me, as if destiny is calling me there. I’m not sure when I’ll get there, but you can bet, is on my list of places to be.
Lastly, there was a country, so remote, so desolate, and so vast that it called me. Is a country that gave birth to one of the most important people in the last thousand years. A harsh country that only the determined live there. Where kids learn to ride horses before they can properly walk. A country that almost conquer the world, yet now is almost an after thought for most.
So far in my travels when I mentioned going to Mongolia, even other backpackers were taken aback. Is not high on most people’s list, but for me it was a must see country. The idea of a nomad culture was able to raise Genghis Khan and be the closest to conquer the world it’s just amazing for me. I wanted to see what the people from this country are made out of.
I’ve been in Mongolia for 13 days. I spent a week volunteering in a northern city, in there I herded sheeps and goats. I saw how vodka was made from fermented cheese. I scooped and dig goat shit. I cooked for the people living there. I used an outhouse for the first time in my life. I helped milking cows. I slept in a ger. I met the character that runs this farm.
In Mongolia there’s 3 million people living there. And 1.6 million of those live in the capital city of Ulaan Baatar. To give some comparison: The size of Mongolia is over 2 times the size of Texas, yet Texas is home to 26 million people.
This country is home to beautiful landscapes and backgrounds. Green fields as far as the eye can see. Once you leave the city, almost no real buildings to talk about. It’s like being transported to another century. The wild west alive and strong in this country. Specially with the train running in the horizon. The stars seem to be a mile closer than anywhere else.
In the farm you learn that the job you are doing is not meaningless, this people are preparing for the winter. Where temperatures of -40 C (-40 F) is not uncommon. Winter can last 6 months here by the time the ground is ready to be farm again. So every day farm day is precious. So you take your responsibilities very seriously.
The goats and sheeps are dumb animals. There’s no other way to describe them. You have to keep them in a pack to eat, if 40% of the pack is moving in one direction the other 60% will follow, which is nice, but it meant in keeping them away from other goats, because they will cross, and you can’t get your goats back. You do herd them under the sun and the day is long. You hope the goats will stay put eating like cows do, but they eat and walk, so you can’t keep still either. While someone is herding the sheep another person needs to shovel the goats shit. Which is used for burning once it has been dried out. It becomes layered like cake. So you have to use your hands (gloves are highly recommended) and neatly stack it in another area for safekeeping for its later use as fuel.
I didn’t get to milk cows cause the mother and daughter of the farm will do it faster than I can, but I would help in pushing the calves away from the cows. The calves are kept in a pen overnight. You wake up a 5am and let one calf out at a time. The calf will find its mother and the mama cow will get excited and start producing milk. Once Minjee (the farm lady) decides the cow has enough milk I come in and push the calf away from the cow’s teat and with a rope tied the calf to a nearby tree, so that the mom can keep producing milk. Minjee does the milking. You keep letting calves out, one at a time, until Minjee and her daughter have enough milk for the day’s needs. The milk will be used for drinking, the fermented milk will be used to create vodka or its most famous use at this farm, to create cheese that will be sold all the way into Russia and China.
Depending on the season, you might eat sheep, goat, cow or even horse meat at this farm. All the meals were very good and very authentic of what Mongolian people eat. It really is the place where I have felt with the deepest connection to the country’s way of life.
Unfortunately after almost a week at this farm, my back was hurting too much, too much manual labor, and since I have so much more to see, I decided that it was best for me to move on, and leave farm life behind. This will lead me into yet another adventure, an adventure that will start tomorrow.
When I came back into the capital to regroup myself and figure out what my next move will be, I met a Spaniard man (Antonio) and his Japanese wife (Yoko). We started talking, and after realizing that a Tour would be too expensive, Antonio decided to buy a motorcycle and he would go to visit the Gobi desert that way. He invited me to rent my own motorcycle and join them in this new endeavor. While planning for this, we met an Uruguayan guy and his Argentinian friend, and they too will be joining. There will be 6 of us total Antonio’s friend coming from Spain for this trip is the last person.
I’m scared and I’m excited, I’ve never driven a motorcycle so I have a lot to learn on the go. The closest was a few scooters I have rented in Laos and Malaysia, but this is the next step. We will be on the road for 12 days. 3 to get there, 4 exploring the Gobi desert and it’s surrounding, and 5 days coming back a different route to see more of the country. This offers a very unique experience, and many things can go right or wrong. Let’s hope for the best.
These moments are why you travel without an itinerary. I love it, whatever may come.
Moving around Bangkok and Thailand
Before I continue on telling my stories, I wanted to put this out there, hopefully it helps others that are doing the same thing as me, and some of this information is scattered across many websites, here I’m trying to compile it all.
There’s official cabs. They have a licensed number by the Thai government. This taxis are hard to spot, and to be truthful I don’t think I can tell the difference between the legal ones and not. Besides getting inside and see the meter working, I really can’t tell. On the illegal ones there’s a meter, but is conveniently turned off. For the latter ones, you want to settle on a price before you get in. Since you are a foreigner, they will try to take more from you, so bargain hard. If you think you can’t reach an agreement, let them go, there’s plenty of other taxis around. Taxis are better if you are in a group. It keeps you together, and you can split the already cheap price among yourselves. To give you an idea of price, from the Grand Palace area, back to the hostel, 10km or so away, it was 100 baht (around $3). Divide that among 3 or 4 of you, and you got a good thing going.
Besides taxis, there’s also Tuk-Tuks, this are motorcycles with an open air cabin, if you want to think about it that way. They look like this:
Like taxis, they are everywhere touristy. The drivers will ask any non-local “Tuk-Tuk? Tuk-Tuk?” so much so, to the point of annoyance and just for defiance, you will make a pledge to yourself to not get in one. I got in one. There were 3 of us, and through happenstance, we made a deal to go to 4 different places, with the one Tuk-Tuk for 100 baht. Cheap and easy, specially among groups. Not necessarily my first option, but it works in emergencies. Again, if there’s something I have a hatred of, is Tuk Tuks. I know, and understand, they are trying to make a living, but if I’m walking down the street, and there’s 7 of you in a row, and already pass 6 without asking for a ride, you better believe, I’m not asking the 7th either. In order to avoid their constant asking, I try to go against traffic in one way streets. It helps, but doesn’t eliminate the problem.
In Bangkok there’s also Subway lines, I could tell there’s 3 of them. There’s the SKYTRAIN. This one helped me get to/from the Airport and other areas. MRT and SRT. Both of them go through the city. All of them are in good shape, and very well kept. Only quirky thing, is how you pay for them. In most cities I’ve been, you pay one price and now you have access to the whole subway system. In Bangkok however you pay from Point A to Point B one price, and from Point A to Point C a different price. Even if is just the next stop. You pay for this with a rechargeable card, or with a one-time token. So you need to plan ahead as to where you going and be precise about your stop.
In Bangkok, there’s a healthy supply of public buses, and with Google Maps, it helps you plan your best bus ride. They are plentiful, and some of them have A/C. They run in about 10 minute intervals, so if you miss one, another is not far behind. Once you enter the bus a person will go around picking up the fare. Few things to have in mind: Since this is not the preferred method of transportation for foreigners, a lot of bus fare ladies don’t know a lot of English. It becomes a little harder for you, because not all buses charges the same. I paid between 6.5 bath to 11 baht. Also, they’ll try to help you get to where you want, but with their limited English and my non-existent Thai, it becomes a little stressful figuring it out. GPS and Google Maps are needed for you to know where to drop off to make your connection, again, Google Maps is pretty accurate about this.
In Chiang Mai however, it’s a little harder to move around. There’s no public transportation available. So you are at the mercy of your legs (my preferred method), taxis/buses, or the dreaded Tuk-Tuks. Did I mention how much I hate Tuk-Tuks? Can’t say it enough. The taxi/buses are modified pickup trucks that will take you to your desire destination. I say taxi/buses, because if a stranger is going the same route, they will go on the vehicle with you, and you pay per person when you reach your destination. I saw a lot of locals using this method. They are not as annoyingly harassing as Tuk-Tuks.
Picture of taxi/bus
Another option, almost all hostels/hotels will have a connection for you to rent a motorcycle/scooter or a bicycle if you wish. Prices for bikes are around 50 baht for the whole day, and scooters from 99 baht and up, depending on location and model. You will need to give your passport as collateral while using this modes of transportation.
While I haven’t run into any problems renting anything, be aware of certain places that will try to run a scam, where they claim of damage to the motor vehicles when you return them, and they will want more money. Again, I haven’t seen it, but I have always rented through my hostel, that offers very similar rates (or better) as other places.
Moving from city to city, is also not that big of a problem. There’s train rides that connect the country, along with buses. Buses come mainly in two ways, VIP buses, and XBUS. The VIP, as the name suggested, do less stops, thus faster, air conditioned, and the one from Bangkok to Chiang Mai included snacks, water, and a free meal with your ticket at one designated stop. XBUS, I’ll find out tomorrow when I move from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong on my way to Laos. Is cheaper than the VIP buses, but also a longer ride. I’ll update once I completed my first XBUS experience.
Another note to make, with buses, you can pay online and with credit cards, but there’s different websites, I went through 12goAsia, and Green Bus Thailand, there probably are others, which makes keeping track of them, not as easy as you would think. Or take your chances and pay at the Bus Terminal before the bus depart, plenty of people do that.
Don't Follow My Lead 