After another 7Eleven breakfast, we unrolled the tarp and got to work repairing my rear hub. We went through the now too familiar process of removing the rear wheel and rear hub. A quick inspection showed that two of the bolts had backed off by several threads, one was starting to loosen, leaving only one still snugly fastened. We once again, put it back together with Loctite and as much torque as I could put on it. I received an email from an experience mechanic who suggested that our problem now was probably due to the threading being overstretched, and that replacing the bolts and nuts is next step. If I had access to a drill and a couple of 1/16” high-carbon bits, I would safety wire the bolt heads. I actually brought several feet of safety wire with us and should have brought the matching drill bits. Until I can do one of those two things, I will just have to be sure to inspect the bolts every thousand miles or so. Both Re and I seem to be infected with a bit of forgetfulness, since I got the rear wheel completely installed without reinstalling the chain (!) and Re reattached the brake rod without the spring (double !). We should be able to do this in our sleep by now. After putting everything right (or so we thought), we packed up the tools and got cleaned up.

About 10:30, we jumped in the water for a quick swim and a little sun before grabbing some books and spending the rest of the morning reading in one of the berugas (a beruga is a raised platform with a roof, usually thatched, to protect you from the sun and rain). Since we're both still pretty pale, we wanted to stay out of the direct sun during peak hours. We were comfortable where we were and ordered lunch from the kitchen and ate in the beruga as well. In the middle of the afternoon, we went back to our bungalow to work on some ride reports. At around 4:15 pm, Re headed back to the beach, and I followed about fifteen minutes later. After a quick dip, we were walking along the beach picking up shells, when we slowly noticed that we were just about the only people on the beach. Huh. Re walked up the steps from the beach in time to see the managers of the bungalows and their daughter heading out the front gate with suitcases and their pet rabbit. Double huh. Obviously slow on the uptake, we returned to our shell collecting on the beach. About ten minutes later, we were joined on the beach by another woman, who had just waded into the water, when the owner of the bungalows one row back from the water motioned for all of us to come talk to him. Mr Hutyee does not speak a lot of English, but he was able to explain to us that there had been a big earthquake off of Indonesia, and that there was now a tsunami warning for Koh Lanta. I guess that's where everyone went. We asked him if it was dangerous and if we should leave for higher ground with everybody else, and he said we would know when it was time to leave. Unlike the people managing our bungalows, he was a local guy and seemed a bit smarter too. Re and I went to our bungalow, packed the essential stuff, and placed it by the front door. The rest of the stuff, we put up on the furniture or hung on hooks on the wall. The floor of our bungalow was about five feet off the ground, and that ground was probably another five feet above the beach level. Feeling as prepared as we wanted to be, we walked back down to our beruga and waited for something to happen.

After a while, Mr Hutyee joined us in our beruga, and with his limited English, told us the story of the 2004 tsunami. He witnessed it from this exact beach, and told us that the water receded between a quarter and a half mile before the wave appeared. He said people were actually out on the sand, picking up the fish that were left behind when the water receded so rapidly. Then about 20 to 30 minutes later, he could see a large, black wall out on the water, heading north and west towards Phuket and Phang-Nga. He said that on Koh Lanta, which was partially spared a direct hit, the wave crashed on the beach, and then the water rose to the level of the ground we were sitting on, and that area was covered with one to two feet of water. He told us that if we saw the water recede quickly, it would be a very good time to leave. Awesome! Fleeing the incoming water with the waves lapping at our little wheels would be an awesome story. So we sat and waited, and waited, and since it was low tide, the water did go out farther than we'd seen so far, but nothing ever happened. We sat and watched for about two hours, until the sun set, and then decided to go get some dinner.

When we went back to our bungalow, there was still no one to be seen anywhere, except for Mr Hutyee and his son. We took a quick shower and got dressed for dinner. In the shower we both discovered that we were a little sunburned. Apparently we didn't account for the angle of the setting sun and the fact that the beruga was no longer protecting us. When we rode out to get some dinner, we found that most of the restaurants on the main road, which has another hundred feet of elevation from the beach, were closed. One of the few places that was open was the Jumrat, which we'd looked at last night. They were packed, and we ended up waiting for nearly an hour for our food to arrive. But it was very good. We hit the 7Eleven for and cookies and made the short ride back to the bungalow. The managers had still not returned, and we were the only people here again. All in all, a strange day.

While we were eating our 7Eleven breakfast on our porch, we saw that the managers had returned and were now standing in Reception and eyeing us. In a couple of the online reviews of the Nautilus Bungalows, one thing mentioned is the odd and not exactly friendly attitude of the hosts. They are a Swedish couple who have been managing the property for the last two years. On arrival, they seemed polite but reserved. I commented to Re how they were looking at us this morning, and then they started walking over to our bungalow. For all the world, they looked like they had done something bad, and their mom had sent them over to apologize. While they walked slowly toward us, they were looking at the ground and only occasionally glancing up at us. We said hello when they neared the porch and what followed was a rather odd conversation in which they more or less apologized for leaving without us yesterday. The husband seemed especially shocked when we told them we were right on the beach and saw them leave. The wife looked kind of appalled and gave him a hard stare, especially when we could describe what they were carrying when they left. Just so you understand, we were not upset at all about them leaving without us, but it was funny to see their reactions now. After this short exchange, they simply stood there, silently, looking between the ground and us, as if they were waiting to be yelled at or forgiven. Uncomfortable with the situation, we told them about what we saw and experienced while we waited and related Mr Hutyee's story to them also. They looked even more surprised that we hadn't evacuated when we heard about the tsunami warning and said as much. We explained that we aren't very bright. We told them of times we've gone to the beach in North Carolina during hurricanes and snuck into the water while the beaches were closed. They looked even more confused, and after spending some more time silently looking at the ground and each other, they left. Very strange.

Our biggest concern of the morning was that Turbo, the little kitten, was nowhere to be seen. (We decided that WFO was not such a good name, after all) Hopefully he's okay, but we missed seeing him at breakfast. The big plans for the day were to ride around the island and see some of the other beaches. We also wanted to check out one of the bars that was advertising a big Songkran (Thai New Year) party for tomorrow.



We first headed south along the west coast of the island, all the way to the national park at the end. The first few miles of the ride were relatively level, but then the road became twisty and went dramatically up and down hill. Some of the uphill sections required second or even first gear, but it was a beautiful ride.



We stopped and walked on several of the beaches to see if there was a place we liked better, but all the beaches seemed to have their pros and cons. Since the road didn't continue around to the east side of the island, we had to head back north, then turn east, and then south again. Before we headed east, we stopped to look at the Mong Bar to find out what was up for tomorrow. While we stopped to look, we noticed that while they did have and alcohol, the prominent items on the menu were a couple of different kinds of mushroom milkshakes and some “special” brownies. I don't know what they put in those milkshakes, but it must be good, since the milkshakes are 400 baht (13 USD). Maybe we'll need to find a different place to celebrate Songkran tomorrow...

Since it was after noon, we decided to stop for lunch at a small roadside restaurant, where we both had excellent Thai dishes and petted the first and only neutered male cat we've seen in southeast Asia. Apparently, there is a low cost spay and neuter clinic on the island. After lunch, I noticed my rear brake pedal didn't feel right. Normally, when you release the rear brake, the pedal snaps firmly back up. Mine now seemed to be returning slowly. Since we had the rear wheel off yesterday, I assumed this was simply down to a different adjustment on the rear brake free play. However, once we started climbing and descending hills again on the southeast side of the island, I began to notice that it felt like my rear brake was dragging. We stopped on the side of the road, got out the 14mm wrench, and I backed off on the brake free play adjuster a few times. With both bikes on the centerstand, I spun the rear wheels, and while Re's seemed to turn a little bit more freely, mine seemed okay. We continued south as far as we could go on the east side of the island, but then, I heard and felt my clutch slip a couple of times when we climbed some of the steep hills. We pulled over again, popped the bike on the center stand, and spun the rear wheel, only to find again that it wasn't turning very freely.



We rolled the bike to a shady spot under a cashew tree, got out the tarp and tools, and pulled the rear wheel off. I couldn't find anything wrong with the way it was assembled, but once it was reinstalled, it spun freely. I still have no idea what was causing the drag, but after reassembly, the brake pedal felt normal and the bike also felt normal when accelerating and decelerating. The bad news is, I have now ridden the bike for 15 to 20 miles with this condition, and I hope I haven't damaged my clutch. A clutch pack was one of the spares that I tried to get before we left on this trip, but I was unable to get one. Hopefully, it won't be a problem.

We continued our ride north along the east side of the island until the road turned west again. On the way back to the bungalows, we picked up some fruit and some water. Back at the bungalows, we headed out into the water for a swim and spent some time, once again, trying to figure out what comes next after this trip. While we were floating and bobbing in the water, I turned my right knee very wrong and felt a tendon or something pop in it. It was very painful, and my knee immediately swelled up, so I limped out of the water and back to the bungalow for a shower. After watching the sunset, I walked gingerly up the hill for dinner at Jumrat again. Re was kind enough to act as my crutch when I had to step over barriers. After dinner, we stopped for and ice cream before limping back down the hill for the night.

41 miles in many hours.

After a snuggly morning (yet another NSFW link) and breakfast on the porch, we spent the whole morning talking about the future, the past, and paths not taken. Turbo the kitten is still missing. Hopefully, he is okay. After a while, we realized it was lunchtime, so we ordered lunch from the kitchen and ate it in the beruga on the beach. After some swimming and sunbathing, we hopped on the bikes in the mid-afternoon and rode out to find some Songkran festivities. There were a number of bars advertising that they had parties with deejays starting as early as 11:00 am, so we figured that by mid-afternoon, we should find something going on. But no. None of the three places we checked had anything going on. But we did get wet. One of the principal activities during Songkran is the waterfights. Sure, there's cleaning your house, bathing the monks at the local temple, respecting your elders, but most people know Songkran for the squirt guns and 55 gallon drums of ice water. There was some traditional reason for splashing water and smearing people's faces with powder, but it has evolved into an all day, water and powder throwing fest. In some parts of Thailand, it's a three to four day long waterfight, but on Koh Lanta it is just one day. As soon as we pulled out onto the main road, we came upon scooters whose passengers acted as tail gunners with outlandishly huge, super soaker-type squirt guns. These were fun to dodge and weave, and we only got a little wet. The real menace on the roads are the pickup trucks. These trucks ride around with several people in the bed crowded around a 55 gallon drum full of water and usually ice. The people in the bed use large bowls to scoop out the water on whoever they happen to pass. We managed to avoid most of these icy dousings, but Re did get splashed directly one time. One motorbike ahead of us that had two large farang on it decided to overtake one of these trucks on an uphill stretch of road, and it was not pretty. The rider and passenger each shared four to five large bowls full of what appeared to be very cold water as they slowly passed the truck. We, on the other hand, waited for a downhill section and were able to nip by, while the water throwers were still celebrating the previous dousing. Then we got wet in earnest, as the clouds decided to take part in the festivities. We pulled over to the side of the road and put on our rain jackets for the wet ride back to the bungalow. It seemed funny that the rain would put a damper on the water celebration, but most of the revelers seemed to disappear when the rain began.

Back at the bungalow, we were a little chilly, so we decided to walk up to the 7Eleven for some hot coffee. The shortcut by foot to the main road cuts through Mr Hutyee's (our friend from the tsunami watching party) bungalows. As we were passing by one of his bungalows, we spotted Turbo on the porch! Except that it wasn't Turbo, unless somebody had cut off his tail in the past day. Re then spied another small kitten that looked sort of like Turbo but wasn't him either, and then, snoozing on the porch, was the real deal.



It was Turbo. While we were petting all three of them, Mr Hutyee appeared and asked where we were going. We told him we were heading up for coffee, and he insisted that we join him, his son, and his grandson for coffee. A short while later, some of the guests staying at the Hutyee Boat bungalows showed up, wet and cold from Songkran, and joined us all for coffee. It turns out that Turbo and his siblings were the kittens of one of Mr Hutyee's cats, but that recently, the daughter of our Swedish hosts had absconded with Turbo. A couple days ago, the residents of the bungalow where the other kittens lived, spotted Turbo on their way to the beach and brought him back home. As it should be, since he looked too young to leave his mother. We spent the rest of the afternoon and into the evening talking with the other Hutyee residents. In retrospect, we should have stayed at the Hutyee bungalows, since, while basic, they were only 350 baht (12 USD) per night, and only 100 meters from the water. The atmosphere was certainly more friendly and lively, and the hosts are a lot more personable, even with limited English. The downside to the location of the Hutyee Boat bungalows is that it is farther back in the jungle, and there were plenty of mosquitoes. Then more Thai food for dinner before heading back to the bungalow for the evening.

12 miles and a couple of gallons of water. My knee is feeling better, it just feels a little swollen.

After another breakfast on the porch, we spent the morning working on ride reports in the shade. We both got too much sun a couple days ago, and our shoulders are still pink. We walked up to the main road to pick up fried chicken and sticky rice for lunch, and then went back to the bungalow, where Re worked on some blogging. We put on some sunscreen for a swim and some sun. Mid-afternoon, we returned to our porch to do some more writing and to wait for the sun to go down a bit. We hit the water around 5:00 pm, in time for the threatening afternoon sky to release a deluge. We've had some rain each afternoon, but nothing like this. It simply poured. We stayed in the water for a while, but eventually headed back to the room to get cleaned up for dinner. The bathroom on our bungalow is open air, and while the toilet itself is somewhat protected by the roof overhang, the shower and sink are open to the sky. For some reason, it's very odd to shower in a rainstorm (sexy, too). We returned to the Jumrat for dinner before picking up ice cream and for a nightcap. Tomorrow we ride!

On her walk back form the 7Eleven this morning, Re saw a snake in her path that had a dark body with a distinct red head. She Googled this later and is fairly certain it was a Red-headed Krait, which is a highly venomous species. Good thing she didn't try to pick this one up or pet it as it slithered across her path! After eating, we loaded up the bikes and showered. Before we left, we walked over to the Hutyee Boat bungalows to bid farewell to Turbo and his siblings.



We gave them a quick cuddle before thanking Mr. Hutyee for his hospitality and wishing them all well. Back at the Nautilus, we settled our bill and hit the road around 9:15.

The ride back to ferry and the ferry rides themselves were unremarkable except for the beauty of the water and the one slight slip of my clutch when going over the spine of Koh Lanta Noi. Back on the mainland, we rejoined Highway 4 for the short ride to Krabi Town. The land here is surprisingly hilly and green, the dramatic limestone faces make a nice backdrop to the good roads. We arrived at the turnoff to Krabi around 11:30 and decided to give it a look. The guidebooks don't say much about Krabi, other than it is a ferry port for boats to some of the Andaman islands, so we didn't expect much. We were prepared to continue on to Phuket if we didn't like what we saw, but we were pleasantly surprised and decided to spend the night.



The town itself is set along the water and there are many limestone karst islands in the bay/river that runs along the main road. There was also a sign for a mangrove trail at the edge of town, which looked interesting as well. But the real attraction was the market set up along the main road and all the good looking food stalls! One drawback to Krabi Town is that accommodations seemed fairly expensive. There were some very posh places aimed at farang, all in the 20 to 25 USD range. I stayed with the bikes, while Re went in search of something more in our price range. She shortly returned with our choice for the evening.

After unloading the bikes, we walked out to the market we saw earlier for lunch, where we picked up some fried chicken and sticky rice and some little deep-fried sausages wrapped in dough.



We ate them on the riverfront promenade before walking back to the sign for the mangrove walk. The sky was getting increasingly dark as we walked, and we didn't bring our rain jackets with us, but we were feeling optimistic. The mangrove walk itself was actually quite interesting, since we saw a variety of different colored, small crabs.



Some of them were turquoise, some were bright red, some butter yellow, and others were multicolored. The canopy of the mangroves hid the rapidly darkening skies, and it was only when the thunder and lightning started that we realized we were now about a mile from our hotel, and the sky was very black.

We started walking quickly back toward town, but no luck. The rain started gently at first, but soon turned into a downpour. Not realizing quite how far we'd walked out, we tried to make it back in the rain, but eventually stopped because we were soaked and the rain was falling even harder. After hiding out for 30 minutes or so, the rain slacked off enough for us to try to get back to our room. For the last five or six blocks, we were able to run between awnings and made it back to the room. Since we were thoroughly soaked, we pulled off our clothes and jumped in the shower to warm up. We hung all our wet stuff under the A/C and took advantage of the wifi to post some of our writings. Later, I saw that my parents were on Skype, so I talked to them for a while before we headed out for dinner.

We'd hoped that our clothes would dry by dinnertime, but they didn't. We ended up pulling on our still damp clothes and headed back out to the market. The rain had stopped by now, and many, many more food stalls had popped up. I've never seen so many varieties of little clams and shellfish, all steamed and for sale in one place, but after a bad reaction to a cockle omelet I ate on our last trip, I skipped the bivalves. Instead, we bought an assortment of small, grilled squid on sticks, different noodle dishes, and some more of those deep-fried, dough-wrapped sausages. We picked up some soda waters and cookies to round out the meal. Later, we went back to the room and spent the rest of the evening catching up on emails, news, and snake identification.


65 miles in about 2 hours. My rear brake is acting normally, but I am a little concerned about my clutch. We are overdue for an oil change, so hopefully, that will fix it.

A peek out the window this morning revealed that the sky was still overcast and a bit threatening, so we decided to push on to Phuket Town today. After breakfast, we started loading the bikes, where I was again cornered by an interested passerby. Consequently, our 9:00 am departure was delayed until 9:30. When we pulled out, we were happy to see that the sky had begun to clear.



Today's ride was very much like yesterday's, scenery wise, with jungle covered hills and the occasional exposed limestone face. The bad news is that my clutch is slipping more frequently. Come on, oil change. As we passed Phang-Nga, the sky grew rapidly darker, the humidity increased, and inevitably, it began to rain. The rain quickly gathered strength to become a pretty steady downpour. The rain continued on and off, all the way to the bridge to the island of Phuket. Once we crossed the bridge, the sky became a mixture of dark clouds and patches of blue. My clutch continued to slip either when I tried to exceed 42 mph or when climbing hills at more than three-quarters throttle. I elected to baby it as much as I could, since right now, I really don't have a Plan B.

Once we got into Phuket Town, we found our way to the Nanachart Mansion. We stayed at the Nanachart on our last visit here, and remembered it to be a cheap and clean option. We were glad to find that it still is and has secure, gated motorcycle parking as well. The rate is still 350 baht (12 USD), but one new feature is wifi in the room for an additional 50 baht (2 bucks). We walked down to the market for a late lunch of noodle soup with pork and then into the mall for a Blizzard at the Dairy Queen. There really isn't much to do in Phuket Town proper, so we spent the rest of the afternoon planning on which beaches to visit tomorrow and after discovering that there is indeed ferry access, decided on the island of Koh Phangan as our next destination.



One other reason we returned to the Nanachart is because it's located less than a block from an excellent little restaurant we discovered on our last trip. We headed there for dinner tonight, and it was as good as we remembered. My favorite from the last visit was the “fired grums and crispy pork.” I liked the Engrish so much last time that I ordered it on a whim, and I was pleasantly surprised when I received a plate of fried morning glory leaves, and some really delicious crispy pork. The chef here is also a treat to watch, since everything is cooked in a wok over a single burner, with one hand he's flipping, mixing, and adding ingredients, and the other hand is on the valve of the gas cylinder, regulating the heat. Re had the fried tofu with minced pork, and we both thoroughly enjoyed our meals. Due to the rain earlier in the day, it was a very humid evening, so we cut our postprandial walk around the town short and headed back to the A/C comfort of our room.

115 miles in about 3 hours. I really hope an oil change will fix my clutch.

I woke up with a bad “dehydration headache” today, and Re was feeling very achy. After breakfast, we put on our swimsuits under our clothes, grabbed sunscreen and towels, jumped on the bikes, and headed south. We attempted to follow the coast as closely as possible around the southern tip of the island and and back up around the west coast. We visited Phuket island once before and really didn't care for the popular beaches like Patong and Karon. Too many old, fat, European guys in too small Speedos spread out on lounge chairs next to their “Oh my god, Grandma, put your top on,” wives. Somehow, they've all gotten enough sun to turn their skin into something resembling the leather on a well broken in baseball glove (honestly, the topless women look like they have two Coach leather duffel bags laying on their stomachs). Not a pretty sight. Instead, today we were searching for some of the other less populated beaches.



The ride wasn't much fun since the vast majority of where we rode was one long urban strip. The amount of development on this island is astounding. We stopped for lunch as Rawang Beach, where we found a woman selling fried chicken and sticky rice next to the 7Eleven. We picked up some soda waters next door and ate our picnic at the beach. Re does not appear to be feeling well. She seems a bit listless, and says she's feeling very achy, but she wanted to continue, so we hopped back on the Symbas and rode north.



Poking around on the southwest coast, we did find a couple of nice beaches, which I marked in my GPS for us to return to over the next couple of days. All day, the sky was a mix of black and blue, and we finally ran into the black in Patong. Patong is the epicenter of what is wrong with Phuket. You can literally see the next McDonald's from the front door of the first McDonald's. We were here because a friend of ours from our last trip was supposed to be renting an apartment for a year at the north end of Patong Beach. Bernie is a creature of habit, and his habit has been to be at a certain spot in the water after lunch. We didn't get a reply to our email, so we decided to try to catch him by chance. Unfortunately, as we entered the south end of Patong, the thunder started to roll, and it began to sprinkle. As we slowly made our way to the north end, the beach was clearing. By the time we reached Bernie's little spot, there was nobody on the sand. At about this time, the sky opened up and began dumping buckets of rain on us. This was our cue to end our tour and head back to Phuket Town. As we rode up the hill out of Patong, the road was crisscrossed by two inch deep puddles of water, and when we started descending back down the hill toward Phuket Town, we passed through several areas of equally deep standing water.

Back in the room, we changed out of our wet clothes and took a quick shower. Re had spied an honest to goodness laundromat a block away, so she took our dirty clothes down for a wash. When she got back, she wasn't looking or feeling very well, so she laid down for a nap while the clothes washed. Later, we walked out for dinner at the market. We did finally stop and buy some sunscreen since we are down to less than one tube. At the market, we looked at several seafood restaurants and ran into the worst case of “farang pricing” that we've seen so far. At one place, we picked up a menu, flipped it open, saw that it was in Thai, and that all the prices were all between 80 and 120 baht. The waiter quickly snatched the menu out of our hands and replaced it with one in English. Funnily enough, all the prices in this menu were 200 baht or more... We laughed and politely declined. A little further on, Re spied a familiar pile of yellow rice and baked chicken that is khao mok khai. Expecting to get the farang price treatment again, Re asked “How much?” The lady smiled and said 50 baht, which is about right, so we sat down to have two delicious plates of our favorite southern Thai Muslim meal. After dinner, Re still felt achy and was now feeling less well in general, so we called it an early night and headed back to the room.


55 miles in about 6 hours