Thailand Day 7 – Motor Bike Adventures
Saturday Oct 18th, Day 7 – Motor Bike Adventures
Today we spent the entire day riding around on motor bikes. Motor bikes are absolutely the best way to see the countryside. It’s both exhilarating and absolutely terrifying. Allow me to explain. Of course you remember in my previous blogs, I gave you the staggering statistics of people killed on motor bikes in Thailand.
In the U.S., we normally would use the side of the road to change a flat tire. Here, the shoulder of the road (which happens to be paved) is primarily used by motor bike operators to drive. If there is no shoulder or there aren’t very many people driving on the road itself, you use the regular lane of traffic. But the majority of the time, Thai’s use the shoulder strip to drive on. All the while you are driving on the shoulder, cars are whizzing past you mere inches away, as well as other motor bikes who want to drive faster that are passing you on the shoulder! Then also consider the occasional pothole or the teeming dog population you have to worry about stepping out in front of you.
If there are speed limits, I don’t think anyone obeys them. Even better…Thailand law says only the driver of the motor bike has to wear a helmet. So when you pick up the motor bike, they only give you one helmet. Which basically means, if Joe makes a mistake, I will be the one cracking my skull open. To top it all off, ambulance availability is sketchy (no ambulances in Phanat Nikhom; but there are a few in Krabi). Yes there are hospitals, but no reliable ambulances. If we were to get in an accident, you’d have to flag down a car to drive you. Now you understand the adrenaline rush — partly due to the amazing scenery and partly due to sheer terror of an impending crash. No wonder Becky says it will be a matter of time til she becomes a crash statistic. Every time we get on the motor bike I am praying for our safety. No really – I literally prayed every time we got on it.
We stopped at a typical roadside Thai gas station to gas up the motor bikes
Having said that, riding was an amazing experience. In the U.S., certain highways are named a “Scenic By-Way”. But every road in Thailand is scenic. The view is absolutely stunning. When we aren’t driving along the coast line looking at the water, we are driving by lush jungle foilage with mountainous rock outcroppings. We sometimes even pass water buffalo grazing peacefully in the ditch.
We drove to Fossil Beach first. This is the only shell cemetery in Thailand; there are only 3 shell cemeteries in the entire world. Sandy beaches do not line this shoreline; slabs and slabs of rock instead. Rock slabs were formed by petrified sea shells, also known as “shelly limestone” (this is the geological term). Due to the geological change, this place is supposed to be the “big pond” where lots of shells lived during that period. They determined these slabs are 40 million years old. Literally billions of shells make up each slab of rock and go down the entire coastline. It was truly unique.
Fossil beach consists of fossilized shells in slabs of rock that line the coast; they are 40 million years old
We saw several monks out walking along the shopping area at Fossil Beach. I imagine they are quite happy to be out from being cooped up so long. The Buddhist Lent ended just a few days ago. Every morning, the monks walk the streets between 5-6am, hitting their big bowl with a stick as they walk. Then the people and shopkeepers come out and give them food (this the only way the monks eat). However during the rainy season which just ended, the monks would step on worms and snails and since it is against their beliefs to hurt or kill another living thing, this was unacceptable to them. So they have the Buddhist Lent that starts during the rainy season that solves this problem. During these 3 months, the monks stay in the temple and do not come outside.
Monks at Fossil Beach
At the beginning of the Buddhist Lent, a big party is thrown and all the people come and bring huge gift baskets of food and supplies. And even throughout the Lent, the people still bring food/supplies to the temple. They also have a big celebration when Lent is over (which just occurred a few days ago).
A peculiar note for female tourists — women are forbidden to touch monks. If a woman wants to offer a monk something, she would have to do so thru a third medium. This is one of the reasons that monks always carry a piece of cloth so they can accept gifts from women. They will place the cloth on the table or ground and hold onto one end. After the woman puts the offering on the cloth, the monk will be able to pull it back.
I desperately wanted to get my picture taken with the monks but since I am female, it is not allowed. I can’t even talk to them. If I wanted to give them a tithe, I would have to put it down in front of them within their reach. But I could not hand it to them directly because I am a girl. For now, I will have to settle with Joe taking a picture of me with a monk strategically placed in the background.
We did a bit of shopping at Fossil Beach and I bought a nice bracelet for my mom here. While 95% of Thailand is Buddhist; 40% of the population of Krabi is actually Muslim. So most of the shop owners here are Muslim women. We also saw a mosque in the town of Ao Nang.
We continued our ride to Ao Nang beach where we had lunch. Erik and Becky cannot get Western food in Phanat Nikhom and were dying for some hamburgers and French Fries. So we joined them and departed from our Thai diet and had pizza and pasta for both lunch and supper today. We’ll return to eating Thai food tomorrow. Normally, we’ve been eating a lot of noodles, fried rice, fish, chicken, shrimp, and fresh fruit. All our Thai food is incredibly tasty and a lot healthier than our American diet.
After lunch we continued our scenic journey and stopped at a snake farm where they specialized in King Cobras. We walked thru the farm and got to hold some of the non-poisonous snakes.
We held a variety of non-poisonous snakes – for all I know, they caught them out back in the jungle
Then we enjoyed our own personal snake show since we were the only people there! This was quite something. The snake show ring had an 18-inch wall around it with bleachers placed around the ring. Honestly, I don’t think that little wall would have kept any snake contained or even slow it down that much. Even so, I sat on the bottom bleacher poised for some great pictures while Becky, Erik and Joe felt comforted by the upper deck of bleachers a safer distance away from the snake action.
My front row seat to the King Cobra Show – there’s not a lot of real estate between me and these cobras
I can’t even describe some of the crazy things these snake handlers did with their snakes (you’ll have to see the pictures below to truly appreciate it). Becky had a King Cobra living underneath the first house she lived in, in Phanat Nikhom. She came home one evening to see it holding a rat in its mouth, with its hood raised up and slink beneath her house. She also had all her chickens/eggs disappear from that house so it’s fairly obvious where they went. I’m glad to hear her second house does not have any cobras….yet. These snakes are sizeable, very scary and extremely poisonous.
There was lots of excitement at today’s Snake Show
The show was unbelievable. Several of the handlers were missing fingers from being bitten, even with the anti-venom administered. I guess they are lucky they didn’t lose their life. The cobra tends to mimic movements right in front of its line of vision. So if you can come in from above the snake, it’s almost like they don’t see you.
The jumping snake, which is not poisonous, was also quite entertaining and it would jump up off the ground at the snake handlers when provoked. We got a pretty exciting video of the snake laying flat on the ground and in an instant, it jumped several feet snapping at the snake handler’s groin! This jumping snake certainly reminded me of something out of a recent nightmare I’ve probably had. After the show concluded, the handlers took turn milking the venom out of the cobra’s fangs to be used to make anti-venom. All of this was done right in front of us. I was even offered a turn to help in the milking process which I politely declined.
Its not uncommon to lose fingers as a result of a Cobra bite
They use plastic to keep the Cobra’s jaw open while exposing the fangs as they prepared a collection jar to milk the venom
After the snake farm, we visited the local monkey school. I didn’t even know there was such a place. But yes, people who have monkeys can take them here and they will train them to pick your coconuts for you which is traditionally how the Thai’s would get the coconuts down. The monkeys were very funny to watch and we offered them treats into their grabby little hands. These were obviously quite tame compared to the wild monkeys we encountered earlier in the trip.
They had an adorable baby monkey at the school that would hold onto our legs and climb all over us like a jungle gym. Besides learning how to pick coconuts, the monkeys showed us their basketball skills and dove into a nearby swimming pool to retrieve our motor bike keys. Thank goodness because I didn’t really feel like going down into the pool to get them.
We received a warm monkey welcome — apparently he was a spiritual monkey
This monkey is running a training exercise to remove coconuts
The monkeys displayed impressive dunking skills on the basketball court
After a few lessons at the monkey school, we drove to the local catfish farm. The giant catfish were impressive but just as interesting were the winding jungle paths thru all the exotic flowers, bamboo, lagoons, and insects. A lady from Ohio living here for 23 years owns the catfish farm. I saw several unusual centipedes on the jungle path. These are the ones that will make you very sick if they bite you. Yes, Thailand can be a beautiful but dangerous place.
No shortage of catfish at the Catfish Farm
The winding paths and bridges thru the catfish farm offered surprises around every corner
Some of the centipedes in Thailand can grow up to 15 inches long and have a venomous bite; they are considered dangerous
Tr
anquil surroundings at the Catfish Farm
The ride home was magical. We got some beautiful shots along the beach of low tide and the sunset. We stopped at a roadside stand to get a few skewers of grilled meat snacks to tie us over. But darkness snuck up on us quickly and we drove part of the way home in the dark. Now imagine for a minute all those obstacles I spoke at the beginning of this blog and adding the absence of light to that list. I think that was one long prayer the whole way home.
We stopped to take pictures of the sunset along the beach and picked up a roadside snack
What a day! There was motor bike danger and adventure, King Cobras performed only a few feet away, a funny Monkey School, a beautiful catfish farm and a spectacular beach sunset. Yes, I am truly on the other side of the world and everything I am experiencing confirms that. Tomorrow’s adventures include island hopping in a speed boat. Zoom Zoom!
Low tide tonight at sunset allowed the locals to scavenge for treasures left uncovered by the sea
