FiddleheadTravels

I posted ways to save money before here but came up with some new ones for the new decade since the recession has seemed to turn into a depression and jobs and money continue to be a challenge for us all.   So, there is more desperation which calls for MORE DESPERATE MEASURES!    Here are some ideas that will hopefully help you.  (Many of them are probably much healthier than the life you lead now also.)

Walk more or ride a bike to work

Collect soda cans you find along the road.  They are worth money.

Learn to fish.  I’m sure you heard the saying: “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day,  Teach a man to fish and you feed him for the rest of his life.  (In Thailand, they eat the guts, head, and everything except the bones which they feed to the dog).

Get rid of your tv (you don’t need tv AND  internet) get rid of the more destructive one

Get a motorcycle and a good set of long underwear, a facemask, helmet liner, warm socks and gloves.

Don’t eat snacks at night  (I’m hungry but there’s no way i am going to eat right now at 4AM)

My neighbor is cheap: she has a fire going everynight outside to cook her dinner.   She picks up every scrap of cardboard, every newspaper she finds, and saves and sells them to the scrap dealer,   she finds old thrown out, ripped up tarps and sews covers out of them to cover her junk that she is saving for the scrap man to come around.

Take up hobbies that don’t cost much: hiking, back country skiing, bicycle, jogging, swimming (lakes), volleyball, badminton, tennis, yard-sale-ing (especially selling, not necessarily buying)

Switch to instant coffee or lipton black tea

Join the library, read more (for free) learn something in the process.

Take up photography (instead of watching tv perhaps?) it’s almost a free hobby anymore  (unless you obsess with the newest cameras/software)

Learn to ebay (it’s a sellers market, especially now in the recession)

Buy all your clothes at thrift stores

Drink more water

Plant a garden (start a compost pile to give it a boost)

Plant a fruit tree for the future (it can become your breakfast)

My wife told me a new one today: When you think you finally have ALL the toothpaste out of the tube, then cut it in half and squeeze another brushing out of it.

More to come.

 

After looking at the map, we decided to head upriver to the famous “Bridge Over the River Kwai” where over one hundred thousand soldiers and Thai coolies died during WW II building this railroad bridge to Burma.     First we went to the cemetery which was immaculately groomed and well kept about a half mile from the famous bridge.   

There were lots of tourists there although that is not our scene.    We shopped a little and then walked across the bridge which is somewhat dangerous as it is only for trains and it would be easy to fall through the holes to the river far below.    I guess most of the people who worked and died on the bridge were from Holland and there seemed to be many blonde Dutch people around.
On the other side was a Thai violin player busking who we talked to as he had worked in Phuket at the Meridian hotel there.    Then Simon fed another elephant (the 3^rd on this trip already)

We continued north on a liesurly drive stopping to eat and rest following the river northward.     Our destination for the day was Erawain National Park which boasts Thailand’s biggest waterfall.    So, we got to the park where we got a campsite with a big tent that we rented for 130 baht after paying the 200 baht for me and 30 baht for Thum entrance fee to the park.   Yes, farangs must pay almost 10 times more for park entry.

We bought food at the market outside the park ( a bit of a ripoff) and ate sitting around our campfire after dark.     Camping by the river was nice with the moon about 2 days away from full. 

Jan 09, 2009:   In the morning, Simon and I got up early and built the fire back up to make hot water for coffee and had some doughnuts I had bought.     After Mommy woke up, we got ready and put on our hiking clothes and headed up to the waterfalls.    Many Farangs from Europe were wearing their skimpy thong bathing suits (men) only and that brought out a comment from Thum about strange behavior of Farangs.    They should cover up a bit IMO.  

The falls were beautiful and not too many people were there yet at that early hour.     We walked up to 5 or 6 of the 7 different levels.  There were many seemingly perfect swimming holes along the way and at most of the falls but it was too cold for us southern Thailand folk.    Also, there were many big fish in the pools below each waterfall.

When we got back to the bottom, and our truck, Simon and Thum went to a restaurant and I headed to park HeadQuarters where I had noticed there was internet signal and did my work for the day.

We then tried to get some cold showers but did a half-assed job and headed north along the river to the big (biggest in Thailand) dam named after the King’s mother.     We headed up to a small town called Si Sawat which our 15 year old Lonely Planet book said had many resorts along the lake.     It was a long, winding drive and on the way, we saw a fire that seemed to be burning a bit out of control possibly from someone throwing a cigarette butt out the window.    Since it was such a beautiful area, we stopped and attempted to put out the fire but to no avail.  The wind was too strong and it kept getting bigger.   Finally some people came along and said “Mai Belai”  (Don’t worry, no problem) as they often burn the brush off this way, although this was the first we’d seen it this year.    So, we ate a little and talked to some locals.
Finally we arrived at the small town of Si Sawat and found there were no rooms in the very small, remote town there so we looked at the map and headed north and northeast over a pass to the next province over.   
This was a very long drive with nothing but jungle along the way and sometimes the road was washed out from landslides but left enough room for us to get through.  
Finally after about 2 hours of this, we came to some settlements and asked about rooms.   We had to drive another 30 minutes to a town called (Something) Phieu.      We got a room for 400 baht a night with cable tv and aircon and headed out to a restaurant.

Jan 10, 2009      Walked around in the morning through this town after our first hot shower since 3 or 4 days ago. (nice)    Couldn’t find any pla tong goh (doughnuts) and so, headed north without.

Drove most of the day through farmland mixed with eucalyptus and teak plantations.   Most of the farmland was either sugar cane, rice or, what Thum calls MSG which is a 4 foot tall plant that looks like papaya and they seem to harvest to root which gets crushed and spread out on concrete to dry.   Very white.  We also saw many people making charcoal here in mud huts about 5 feet high.   I think they make it from teak but am not sure about that. 

One of the highlights of our day was stopping at a so-called “waterfall” where we tested out the fishing gear we bought.   There were a bunch of kids swimming and drinking there and we went upstream from them and Simon had a good swim and I had a bite while showing him how to fish.   When we left, after about 2 hours, the kids (about 13-15 years old) were really drunk now and trying to get on their motorbikes to drive home.    They could barely stand up and it looked like big trouble.   I think possibly they had never been drunk like this before and just kept drinking whiskey until they would smash the bottles.   Very scary sight for us.

Continued into the evening when we came to a town called Hung Lan near Nakon Sawan.   We were escorted to a resort where the owners were unbelievably friendly.   They ended up giving us the 2 room suite that was really nice, complete with 200 channels on the satellite tv, and let me use their motorbike to go to the internet.      All this for 300 baht (about $8.00)    

Funny but most of the tv stations were Indian, Nepali, Cambodian, Chinese and Lao and of course Thai.   No English speaking stations at all and no sports.   We would’ve possibly stayed for the Eagles game as the people were so nice to us.     In the morning, I went back to the internet place owned by a Thai guy named Sam who had spent time in California.    He let me hook up my own computer to his network and I got a lot of work done.  

 

Now, all pictures from this trip have been uploaded and can be seen online here.

After hiking the first part of the trail 2 weeks ago from the southern tip of Phuket at Prom Thep to the top of the mountain at Big Buddha, today we continued the walk on what i will call section B from Big Buddha to Patong.

Since our trail is being designed as a “high trail” of the peaks of Phuket, it will NOT go into Patong although a side trail (dirt road) goes down from our end point aproximately 500 meters to the town where everything is available.  Patong being the premiere tourist attraction on the whole island.

Getting started a little later than we wanted to this morning, first we had to set up a shuttle by dropping off one motorbike at the east side of the mountain near what I call “yellow gate” on my GPS’s waypoint.

Driving back up to Big Buddha, we started walking about 9 AM.  The Buddha statue was very picturesque this morning with the morning sun shining on it brightly. Also, we noticed the scaffolding has finally been removed as it is almost near completion.  I have been going up here for 5 years now and remember when the road was dirt all the way up and they were just working on the base.  Now, it is all but complete and shiny with small squares of white sparkly marble covering the whole statue.

 Clear blue skies today for a change make for very scenic but probably hot day for the hike.

We headed up the steps at the tourist attraction but at this hour it was still pretty quiet. There are great views from the top, especially from a small lookout to the left before you get to the stature right at the top of the steps.    Then from the top, we head to the left (west) side of the statue and go around and down on a dirt road that is used for construction vehicles.   

At this time, we are going to have to walk the concrete road for a few hundred meters to a junction with a good sized dirt road on your left that I have marked “motorbike”

Take the dirt road heading northwest, then it immedietly turns due east for a bit.   Coming up on some great views of Chalong bay to your right then watch for a smaller dirt road and take it left and up instead of the road you were on turns right and goes downhill.

It is a pleasant walk along the dirt road with rubber tree and banana tree plantations on both sides of the road with the occasional abandoned shack that the workers had lived in.  Some of these are very beautiful and in picturesque spots.  Sometimes they have a great view also.

Continueing along the road winds around so much that when I first explored this section, I thought i was headed towards the highest point on the island, which is a mountain called Sip Song (means #12 in Thai) that has a huge “golf ball” looking thing on top.  This is a Navy radar station and restricted area that I’ll talk more about later as the restrictions are causing me problems.    Back to my story, I was heading towards the golf ball mountain when i topped a rise and saw directly in front of me was Big Buddha again!    I got completely turned around because i wasn’t watching the compass and hadn’t gotten my new Garmin 60 CSX GPS yet.    The new Garmin is amazing as it can see through the trees and i never lose signal now.    Before, i would have to search for a clearing and wait.

So, I eventually came to this scenic spot with Big Buddha in front of me and had to go back and look at Google Earth again. I noticed some young children playing in the jungle with an old tire on that first day and marked the point “kids”.   After i went back to Google Earth, i knew i had to turn right where i saw those kids and sure enough there is a decent road there to make the right.  It has since been widened as there is a house in about another 500 meters that I have marked “manu housu” (Ok, my glasses were fogged that day and i thought i wrote something else but it stayed in there that way so that is what we now call it)    
At “Manu Housu” you will notice one of the finest panoramic views of the whole trail so far.    That first time i was here, so was the owner and although he spoke no English, he seemed to understand that i really enjoyed the view and he did too.    From his house, you can look east and see Chalong Bay and you can also look west without moving (except your head) and see Karon Beach, the 3 mile long beautiful white sand beach between Kata and Patong.
From the 1st house you come to, continue up to the higher house on top and then there is a barbed wire fence in your way.  Follow it to the right and you will eventually come to an opening at the corner of a field or newly planted trees.  Stay to the right side of that field for about 50 meters and you will see a small path to the right that is really beaten down grass to a very short bushwhack thru some thick brush to an older rubber tree (working) plantation on the other side.    I have seen people working this plantation 3 of the 4 times i have hiked this section.   They even posed for a picture on this last time for us.    

From here, turn left through the trees to the border of the woods (jungle) and follow it to the right until you can see another freshly planted field to your right (north).
It is now best to use the waypoint marked “4 points” and basically follow this new field on it’s left (west) side downhill until you come to a small decent road. The road get’s better as you go down.      
This road turns into one of the 4 points where there is an intersection going down to the right to Choafa West road near Wat Chalong.

Continue straight ahead on the lesser used road that goes up the hill.  Follow this road for a few hundred meters and pass a point where you will see good views ahead of the Sip Song Mountain with the “golf ball” looking radar station on top.     Then turn right on a smaller track that is a motorcycle track that leads to a hut with a family living that works the rubber trees.   

  These are friendly 

people with a dog and it’s best to announce your arrival so as not to scare anyone.   You must walk just to the very left of their house and around the back is a good place to refresh yourself from their water barrel.

    The 2nd time I was through here, Ricky our drummer, came along with me and I found out he was afraid of snakes.   Although I have yet to see a snake in the jungle, I have seen two on a road that we were walking and both times they were traveling as fast as they possibly could away from me.    I have found that people who don’t spend a lot of time in the jungle think there’s snakes all over.   Yet, I have been out at least 15 days so far and still haven’t seen one in the jungle.

You only get to walk through this very nice, small path through the woods, or jungle for about 400 meters and you will come to another small road.   Turn left on this road for a few hundred more meters and you will come up to a clearing.   Turn right after the clearing and continue on a better and better road now descending down to a waypoint I have marked “Water Tank”, passing a few picturesque rubber tree worker’s huts along the way.    Great views to the right of Chalong Bay and Cape Panwa can be seen here.

From the water tank which can be seen as a big square metal boxtype container, our trail goes to the left heading west.    From this junction, if you go right, you will go down following the road steeply at times to a yellow gate (another waypoint).  This is a spot where i often park my motorbike for exploration and from here an excellent blacktop road goes down to the east towards Wat Chalong.   They are building a golf course in this beautiful valley and there is another Wat along here where supposedly the head monk is 115 years old!    So, this is access for resupply or possibly a hotel nearby along Choafa West road between the two Wats and a major thoroughfare for southern Phuket. 

But, our trail heads east at the watertanks and maintains it’s altitude instead of dropping down.  Follow this small track as it contours some alluvials along it’s way with beautiful views of the

 terraced newer planted rubber trees to the north on the foothills of “Sip Song” mountain.   (the one with the golf ball looking radar station on top)

You will eventually (after about 700 meters?) come to a point where we head down steeply through some switchbacks.    I must continue some exploring here as i have a hunch that if you go straight, you can eventually meet up with our trail further along.   But for now, we will head to the right (north ) and go down these switchbacks.   (picture at right)

Continue heading west on the road below.  This road was built a few years ago as a connecting bypass between Wat Chalong and Patong.   But they seemed to have built it way too steep and made it dangerous.   There are no switchbacks at the steep parts and it washes out quickly so it has since been abandoned and I even saw some enduro motorcycle riders getting stuck trying to go up amongst some of the huge gullies that have formed in the roadbed.  

But, we don’t have to walk that part and our trail contours at a level elevation here towards Patong on the west with views of the hills of “sip song mtn” to the right. 

At one point, the road descends steeply down to a junction.   We turn left here although I am working on the next section trying to get around the big mountain, “Sip Song”.    The problem here is that this mountain, being the highest point on the whole island of Phuket, is a military base and is restricted area.    So, I have already spent 5 days trying to find a route around this big mountain.    A friend from the local running club: The Phuket Hash House Harriers, told me that the west side is the best to try as there are steep drop offs on the east side.    Well, i have tried and tried and just can’t get through the thick brush and steep ravines.   So, the trail will either have to drop in elevation on the west side, or I am going to start looking on the east side for a route that doesn’t drop down too far.    I learned a long time ago to try to maintain your elevation rather than dropping way down, just to come back up again.  I  will try my best to find a good contour and come back and edit this section if i find one.   

So, the road we are walking along continues along until it comes to a junction that i have marked “Turn Left”.    At this junction, our section ends and will continue to the right and up the hill.  By turning left here, you descend down to the town of Patong which is the biggest tourist town on the island of Phuket with it’s 1500+ bars, 100’s of hotels and guesthouses, many discos, dance clubs, Caberet shows, jet ski rentals, literally thousands of restaurants and every thing most people come to Phuket for.

 

 

As you can see from the above screen shots from the GPS, this section B is a fairly easy section that only took us 3 hours to walk with a 30 minute break. And is only 9.26 km long

Click HERE to download the .kmz file for this section.  Complete with all the waypoints and different routes from my exploring. 

Click here for a link to a basic map shown in Google maps:

Last week we had the annual water festival here in Phuket called “Songkran”. It is actually the Thai new year and probably the countries biggest holiday. It is a lot of fun with everyone out on the streets throwing water at each other and thousands of pickup trucks full of people of all ages driving around throwing water back.

Well, the next day, i had a blocked ear from all the water. ( I assume that’s caused it?)

Now, I play in a band and we had practice and i found out it was very tough playing with a blocked ear. If you ever hold your ear shut and sing, you’ll find that you can hear yourself fine, but not anyone else. Since we were working on harmonies, I was no help at practice. We had some gigs lined up so I knew i had to get this ear problem sorted out. Rob, our guitar player told me that he heard some beauty shops in Thailand know a technique where they pour hot oil in your ear and it loosens the wax and it just pours out. He did say that you need a good beauty shop and possibly one with men working there.

So, I drove around asking at beauty shops and they said, no I had to see a doctor or a male barber. I went to 3 doctor’s clinics and 2 barber shops and they were all closed as many people take off the whole week for Songkran Festival.

Finally I found a barber shop open. I went in and there were 2 barbers there (both men) and of course they spoke no English. My Thai is limited but i conveyed to them my problem and they seemed to be aware of it and one of them led me to the chair and proceeded to open a long skinny case he had. After putting a towel on my chest (I was now in a lay down position on the barber chair) he laid out about 4 or 5 different tools. They were all long and skinny and i couldn’t see them too good but a lot like dentist tools only longer. He grabbed the longest one and proceeded to start poking it in my bad ear.

Almost immediately I felt pain deep inside my ear, about where i expect that my eardrum is. He kept poking and once in a while he would grunt or say something that i took to mean that things were going well. But in my mind they weren’t! Looking around and trying to get my mind off the pain, I started thinking about how dirty the place looked. Not the neatest barber shop I’ve been in that’s for sure.

There was hair all over the floor, along with the dirt and things piled up on his little counter there.  Things like empty cups from drinks, with cigerette butts in them, etc.    As a matter of fact, his partner was smoking one as i was thinking about the dirt.

So, he kept poking and showing me little tiny dots of wax he was getting out but each time it hurt more and i kept thinking about all the times i read that you shouldn’t put anything in your ear except your elbow.  Finially, i couldn’t take it any longer and held up my hands and stopped him.    I don’t speak Thai very well but knew the word “yoot” meaning “Stop”.     I said, “hurt too much”  how much i owe you?  stop now.    He said i owed him the equivelant of 50 cents (US)  I gladly gave him a dollar to get out of there.     I then noticed that he simply put the sticks back in their holder without even wiping them off or anything.

So, i still had the problem.   What to do?   So, i asked around again and now my friends looked at me in horror after hearing the story and said they’d go nowhere except the hospital.   And not the common hospital that Thai’s go to but the fancy modern one.

Ok, I got on my motorcycle and headed over there.    Checked in and they then told me that the “ear, nose and throat specialist” comes around every Friday for an hour and i’d have to make an appointment.  Which i did.

Friday came and i went and waited in line for about an hour until the Thai specialist shows up.   Finally it gets to be my turn and he hears my story and looks in my ear.    He then proceeds to bring out a case and opens it up and pulls out about 4 or 5 long skinny tools very similar to the ones from the barber shop except this time they appeared to be clean and shiny.

So, he starts poking in my ear and all the pain came back.   He would stop every 15 seconds or so and show me a little piece of wax that he got out.     I didn’t know if i should stop him as the pain was pretty bad, or just let him do his thing.   Finally he was finished and gave me some drops.     I went to check out and got a bill for aprox $50.00 US.        Lesson learned?     Next time i will take some alcohol to clean the barber’s tools and try to learn the word for “gentle”.

 

This whole horror started for me when i was having a nice holiday with my family over at Railay Beach near Krabi and our good friend Jah, came to our room holding her stomach and crying saying she needed to go to the hospital. Now Railay is like an island in that you need to go or arrive by boat as there are no roads. So, since i drove the truck, i volunteered and off we went in the dark and the rain. About 2 hours later, we got to the hospital which was a huge, old, not too clean, and very full hospital. She got checked out, got some medicine and just as it was time to get the truck and head back, the torrent started and it was raining so hard you could barely see. So, i told Jah to wait and went off to find the truck myself.

The hospital was really a maze of hallways, buildings, clinics and dorm rooms. Most were full including the hallways with people’s (patients) beds in the hallways too. Many eyes followed me as i was trying to figure out how to get to the parking lot without going into the rain. Finally, i got to where i had to go out in it but only for about 40 yards and there was my truck. I hit the tile walking very fast and immedietly my feet went out from under me and i went down hard. It was like a skating rink in both how slippery it was and how hard the fall was. I fell in about 4 inches of oozing brown mud and it hurt. I was mad. I lost my temper, i started screaming: “This is a frickin hospital” “How can they be so stupid”. Many Thai places don’t seem to care and use the slippery, smooth tile outside where the weather can make them like this, but usually not a hospital! Anyway, i figured my shoulder was broken.

I couldn’t see myself yet but got in my truck and drove around to the front to tell Jah. When i got out, she looked at me in horror. Now that i could see myself, i was totally covered (including some of my hair) in this brown mud. I told her i think i broke my shoulder and she said i had to go clean up first in the bathroom. I didn’t have any clothes with me so used my shirt to clean up the rest. Then i went through the process of getting registered. People were coming around to take a look at me as the word must’ve been spreading about the stupid farang who was covered in mud.

They sent me to an examination room where a young doctor (seemed like he was in his teens?) proceeded to put my x-ray up on the lit up reader “upside down”.   The nurses started laughing and went over and turned it around.
He then said i didn’t have any broken bones and put me in a sling which yanked my shoulder into a position that really hurt.

Anyway, drove back to Phuket with my brother shifting for me.   A lesson to remember: Try not to get hurt over near Krabi town as the hospital is in dire need of an addition and some doctors.