The Young Man Odyssey

Sorry Mom.

While you silly Americans were sleeping, I took a train from Hua Hin to Chumphon, planning on catching a boat to Ko Tao. However, the boats were done for the day until 11 o’clock, and I had 8 glorious hours to spare.

I had met a buddy named Will at the train station, and we went to buy our train tickets when outside the travel agent sat a few motorcycles that were screaming to be rented.

I had to play the ugly American on this one. The bartender laughed in my face when I told her I had never ridden one, and she took my passport as collateral, a normal practice. I made somewhat of a scene, having a british lady help me start it, and off I went.

Flashbacks of my boating days came back to me, when cleary I had no idea what the hell I was doing. To further complicate things, the Thais drive on the left hand side of the road. I had only one close call, in a side alley with a fellow cyclist. I promised to bring the tank home full, and after skidding back to the hotel, happy to be alive, I had to set out once again to get the gas full, 90 cents a gallon.

I proceeded to get very lost, and after a half hour of terror, wandering, I sit next to Will at a cafe in the sweltering heat.

My ferry leaves at 11pm.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 2nd, 2006 at 8:25 am and is filed under Thailand, Laos, Vietnam 2006. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.