Wednesday, 1 October; Day 27 and after completing just 8 km this morning to get to where I am now, I decided that Ros should take Rosie back to Lamphun. Consequently, I now find myself sitting in a very nice 300 baht-a-night motel opposite Khlong Khlung service station on Route 1 until Ros gets back here either this evening or early doors tomorrow and then we'll resume our journey. We also have a problem with a slow puncture in one of our tyres and no spare nor sufficient funds to pay for a relacement! I tried to get money out of the small sub-branch of Ayudhya bank at the services when it opened at 9.30 this morning but they don't have a swipe machine to process a cash advance on my Visa card and I've forgotten the PIN number so I can't use the ATM either! So Ros will have to withdraw cash from our bank in Lamphun today and then go and get the tyre replaced this afternoon up there. It's a 4-5 hour drive from here I reckon so she'll get in to Lamphun around 3 and could even get back here tonight though that's a fair bit of driving in one day so we'll see how she feels when she's finished running around.
Having Rosie with us for a couple of days has been enjoyable in some ways but this is not the kind of thing you should be doing and having a toddler in tow unless you've got more back-up than we have. The last two nights have been difficult to say the least as we've been plagued by mosqitos in the car both nights and we've been unable to utilise the tent so there's been virtually no room to even turn over in the back of the car with the three of us being there. Sleep deprivation may be a useful tool if you want to get someone to talk but it ain't much use if you need them to walk! And a long way at that! She's been fine in the car with Ros while I've been on the road but once we've stopped, even just for a meal break, she's put her 'difficult' head on and made life more difficult than it is already. Hopefully, with the tyre sorted out today and Ros rejoining me at a reasonable time tomorrow morning if not tonight, we can get ourselves back on track though our Sunday 'rest' day has already been used up for this week.
We managed to get May on an earlier bus on Monday morning and she got back to Lamphun OK in the afternoon. We decided to go down to Nakhon Sawan bus station early doors and see if we could get her on another bus and change the ticket and we got lucky so she was on her way at 8am. She's now finished for the school term and can help Yai with Rosie and keeping the Foundation looking as it should; clean and tidy. That allowed us to get back to and check out of the hotel earlier than previously anticipated and get on the road at a more reasonable hour but it was still after 9 before I started walking from the city limits. It's 117 km from Nakhon Sawan to Kampaeng Phet and, with this morning's effort, we've covered around 70 km so far. If the weather is kind to us, and it rained a fair bit last night and a little this morning, we could get to Kampaeng Phet some time Friday afternoon, but again, we'll be about 24 hours behind schedule.
On another negative note, I've started to experience some niggles in both my right calf and the back of my left thigh since leaving Nakhon Sawan. Touch wood it's nothing serious and I've been able to walk through it these last two days but injuries are the last thing I need right now given the time restraints we're working under and the time already lost. Perhaps a day laid up in bed today will do the trick. A couple of hours of uninterupted sleep this afternoon wouldn't go amiss, I know that! Someone advised me to listen to my body while I'm doing this walk and not push it if I start to encounter problems. It's sound enough advice but I don't really know what the root of the problem is. Certainly, being squashed up in the back of the car at night fighting off the attentions of the mossies won't be doing me any good. Hopefully, the rest today will do the trick and a good nights sleep after a hot shower will set me up for the advance on Kampaeng Phet tomorrow.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Singburi to Nakhon Sawan in pictures
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Making friends; Big Ultraman meets Little Ultraman!
Ros by one of the many pictures of The King and Queen on the highway.
The Big Bottle; a familiar landmark on the road to Nakhon Sawan.
The moment the CAT connector finally kicked in at Chai Nat Services.
If you have any comments about the site, please feel free to get in touch at g_croston@yahoo.com. Please click HERE to go to the official Croston House Children's Home website. Click HERE to go to my personal website. Phone (66) 086-3857118 or leave a comment here.
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Making friends; Big Ultraman meets Little Ultraman!
Ros by one of the many pictures of The King and Queen on the highway.
The Big Bottle; a familiar landmark on the road to Nakhon Sawan.
The moment the CAT connector finally kicked in at Chai Nat Services. If you have any comments about the site, please feel free to get in touch at g_croston@yahoo.com. Please click HERE to go to the official Croston House Children's Home website. Click HERE to go to my personal website. Phone (66) 086-3857118 or leave a comment here.
Check out some more sites that are following us
http://this-is-chiangmai.info/
http://siam-chiangmai.co.cc/#Glenn
Akha Silver
http://siam-chiangmai.blogspot.com/
http://akha-hill.blogspot.com/
http://this-is-chiangmai-info.blogspot.com/
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Remember to lock your door! And then there were three of us!
Saturday, 27 September; We rolled into Nakhon Sawan in the early afternoon yesterday and booked in for a couple of nights at the Lelawadee Home Hotel. I mentioned in one of the previous posts that Ros was not keen to go back to the hotel we had stayed at last time we were in town so I did a search during a break in the morning yesterday and found this place courtesy of ThaiVisa.com. Ros then got their number through directory enquiries and we did the rest over the phone. It wasn't the easiest of places to find but it's more than adequate for our needs and we got one of the VIP rooms for less than 600 baht thought there was no food included in the price. Not long after checking in however, and after I'd stripped off to have a shower but hadn't actually made it to the bathroom, when having been occupied with making sure that the CAT connector was picking up a signal and checking out my e-mail, the door suddenly opened and a lady, who I assumed was a hotel employee, walked in and said something to Ros about the room and how to work the aircon. She seemed completely oblivious to the fact that I was sitting at the computer in the buff and that Ros was also half naked having just come out of the shower! Fortunately, I had a t-shirt hanging over the back of the chair so I tried to cover myself up as best I could but why the hell didn't she knock?
Not quite believing what had just just happened, I got cleaned up and we then ordered the hotel tuk-tuk to take us into town where we had a wander around in the early evening and eventually found a roadside place near the big lake in the centre of town that served chilled beer at regular prices (40 baht for a large Chang) and pork, amongst other things, cooked to order. Even though it started to rain while we were out, there were plenty of people rolling up to the place as we left and we headed back to the hotel for an early night, so I assume that it's one of the more popular places to hang out downtown that's not actually a restaurant or bar. On checking-in earlier in the day, the hotel manager told us that they showed English football matches at the weekend so I assumed that I could enjoy the games in the comfort of our own room rather than in the communal area of the lobby which was empty when we got back . Unfortunately, that wasn't to be the case and after some considerable time spent surfing all the channels while Ros slept off the beer and the pork, I eventually gave up and went to bed.
Sunday, 28 September; Unfortunately, Ros inadvertantly left the alarm clock switched on from the day before and we were both rudely awakened at 5am on our rest day! Not what either of us wanted but once awake, I found it hard to get to sleep again. It was freeezing in the room too! I don't know what temperature the hotel management had set the air-con to but it felt like I was lying in a freezer! Even after I'd switched off the air-con it was still cold in the room so I got up, got dressed and had a look at yesterday's football results from the UK. When she did eventually wake up, Ros shared with me her great idea of getting someone to bring Rosie down to Nakhon Sawan for the remainder of the walk. Rosie is only two years old and it's been hard enough at times during the trip with just me and Ros to think about without having a very young child to consider as well. I was not very happy about this and tried to talk Ros out of it but I do understand that she has been away from Rosie for a month now and perhaps I can accept being away from my kids for lengthy periods of time more readily than she can. I personally don't consider a month to be a long time away from home having spent much longer periods away from my first wife and child back in the 80's when I was in the Army. However, I eventually relented, somewhat reluctantly I have to say, and Ros then made arrangements with Yai for one of the older girls to bring Rosie down on the bus. It's been hard work getting to this stage and I, for one, don't want anything to get in the way of us finishing what we have started and I've personally, as the walker, put in a lot of physical effort over 600 km to get this far. I'm not being selfish but I don't plan on doing something like this again in the immediate future and I don't want anything stopping us from reaching our objective which is to complete the walk on time and raise as much money for the Foundation as we can. Once it was confirmed that they were on their way (Yai had assigned May to escort Rosie on the bus), we had to find out what time they were going to arrive and then make arrangements to meet them. We headed into town for some lunch and a wander around Big C of all places until it was time to make our way over to the bus station and meet the bus May and Rosie had taken from Lamphun.
Rosie and May arrived in Nakhorn Sawan safely at around 4.30 this afternoon and we have made arrangements for May to get the bus back to Lamphun tomorrow lunchtime. Unfortunately, there were no earlier buses avalailable so we will be late in leaving here tomorrow to start the next leg of our journey to Kampaeng Phet. Summarizing, we are at the halfway point in our journey, or at least that's how we normally see it when we arrive in Nakhon Sawan either by car or on the night bus to Lamphun from Banglamung. Looking ahead over the next three weeks, there are going to be some very hard days between Thoen and Lampang and then Lampang and Lamphun where there is really no way that we'll get 30 km done in a day given the very steep inclines that we will have to contend with and the very slow moving HGVs that will pose a safety risk for both the walker and the support vehicle. If we are to make our objective of arriving back at the Foundation on 19 October, we'll need all the breaks we can get. Although we'll play it by ear as it were from now on in this is, in all likelihood, our last rest rest day. I'm hoping for a good night's sleep tonight though because of the late bus departure for May, we can actually have another lie-in tomorrow. The air-con in the room will not be as cold as it was last night though!
Not quite believing what had just just happened, I got cleaned up and we then ordered the hotel tuk-tuk to take us into town where we had a wander around in the early evening and eventually found a roadside place near the big lake in the centre of town that served chilled beer at regular prices (40 baht for a large Chang) and pork, amongst other things, cooked to order. Even though it started to rain while we were out, there were plenty of people rolling up to the place as we left and we headed back to the hotel for an early night, so I assume that it's one of the more popular places to hang out downtown that's not actually a restaurant or bar. On checking-in earlier in the day, the hotel manager told us that they showed English football matches at the weekend so I assumed that I could enjoy the games in the comfort of our own room rather than in the communal area of the lobby which was empty when we got back . Unfortunately, that wasn't to be the case and after some considerable time spent surfing all the channels while Ros slept off the beer and the pork, I eventually gave up and went to bed.
Sunday, 28 September; Unfortunately, Ros inadvertantly left the alarm clock switched on from the day before and we were both rudely awakened at 5am on our rest day! Not what either of us wanted but once awake, I found it hard to get to sleep again. It was freeezing in the room too! I don't know what temperature the hotel management had set the air-con to but it felt like I was lying in a freezer! Even after I'd switched off the air-con it was still cold in the room so I got up, got dressed and had a look at yesterday's football results from the UK. When she did eventually wake up, Ros shared with me her great idea of getting someone to bring Rosie down to Nakhon Sawan for the remainder of the walk. Rosie is only two years old and it's been hard enough at times during the trip with just me and Ros to think about without having a very young child to consider as well. I was not very happy about this and tried to talk Ros out of it but I do understand that she has been away from Rosie for a month now and perhaps I can accept being away from my kids for lengthy periods of time more readily than she can. I personally don't consider a month to be a long time away from home having spent much longer periods away from my first wife and child back in the 80's when I was in the Army. However, I eventually relented, somewhat reluctantly I have to say, and Ros then made arrangements with Yai for one of the older girls to bring Rosie down on the bus. It's been hard work getting to this stage and I, for one, don't want anything to get in the way of us finishing what we have started and I've personally, as the walker, put in a lot of physical effort over 600 km to get this far. I'm not being selfish but I don't plan on doing something like this again in the immediate future and I don't want anything stopping us from reaching our objective which is to complete the walk on time and raise as much money for the Foundation as we can. Once it was confirmed that they were on their way (Yai had assigned May to escort Rosie on the bus), we had to find out what time they were going to arrive and then make arrangements to meet them. We headed into town for some lunch and a wander around Big C of all places until it was time to make our way over to the bus station and meet the bus May and Rosie had taken from Lamphun.
Rosie and May arrived in Nakhorn Sawan safely at around 4.30 this afternoon and we have made arrangements for May to get the bus back to Lamphun tomorrow lunchtime. Unfortunately, there were no earlier buses avalailable so we will be late in leaving here tomorrow to start the next leg of our journey to Kampaeng Phet. Summarizing, we are at the halfway point in our journey, or at least that's how we normally see it when we arrive in Nakhon Sawan either by car or on the night bus to Lamphun from Banglamung. Looking ahead over the next three weeks, there are going to be some very hard days between Thoen and Lampang and then Lampang and Lamphun where there is really no way that we'll get 30 km done in a day given the very steep inclines that we will have to contend with and the very slow moving HGVs that will pose a safety risk for both the walker and the support vehicle. If we are to make our objective of arriving back at the Foundation on 19 October, we'll need all the breaks we can get. Although we'll play it by ear as it were from now on in this is, in all likelihood, our last rest rest day. I'm hoping for a good night's sleep tonight though because of the late bus departure for May, we can actually have another lie-in tomorrow. The air-con in the room will not be as cold as it was last night though!
Friday, September 26, 2008
Roadkill #2...... that wasn't!! And the one that was!
A couple of incidents that Ros and I witnessed last night and I wanted to get them down in print. I did the blog yesterday late afternoon and at that time I was serious about getting back on the road and shortening my journey to Nakhon Sawan today. However, Ros got chatting to some people who had also decided to take a break at the service station and before I knew it, it was gone 6 and food was becoming more important than trying to get my now stiff ankles to do some more work. The place we were at was being refurbished and it didn't even have a shop let alone a restaurant so we had to have to look around for somewhere to get dinner. The staff suggested a place 'not far' back down in the direction we'd come from earlier in the afternoon and off we set on foot. We'd gone about 500 meters down the road and crossed the highway to walk along the hard shoulder of the south-bound lanes. I looked down the road and noticed something in the middle lane of the highway and, as I got closer, I could see that it was quite a large dog.
The traffic was quite heavy and we could see drivers steering their vehicle around what we assumed was the carcass of a life-expired canine. Two vehicles actually ran 'over' it but did not actually appear to make any contact with it. Within seconds of the second vehicle doing so, something quite unbelievable happened. The dog got to its feet and ambled over to the side of the road we were walking along and disappeared into the long grass there. I actually stopped walking. I couldn't believe what I'd just witnessed! Wanting to make sure that we really had seen what we thought we'd seen, we started walking towards where it had disappeared from sight. We were a bit wary of what condition the dog might actually be in so we approached it with some caution. But it was there, lying on all fours in the long grass with its head facing the highway. Ros, who was able to get a better look at it than I was, said that there was blood on its head so we have to assume that it had suffered concussion when it was hit and that's why it was lying motionless in the middle of the road. There was nothing we could do for it really but had we been local we'd have been quite happy to try and get it fixed up, if we could have gotten near it. It certainly had its fair share of luck last night though!
Unfortunately, the crab that Ros spotted further down the same stretch of road didn't. She pointed out it to me as it crossed our path and I thought it strange that a crab, and it was quite large, should be walking across the hard shoulder of a motorway and no water in sight. Now, Ros actually stopped and made a move towards it as it started to cross the first lane. Apparently, and this what she told me later, she was worried about what might happen to it and it was her intention to pick it up and put it somewhere away from the road. There were a number of vehicles coming towards us and so she waited for them to pass. Unfortunately, for our fearless crustacean, one of the said vehicles drove straight over the back of it and Ros' good intentions proved to be of no avail. I'd never seen a crab's inners spread over such a wide area before but the look on Ros' face was priceless! When we evenually got to the restaurant for dinner, I did ask if they had crab on the menu but, unfortunately, they didn't.
The traffic was quite heavy and we could see drivers steering their vehicle around what we assumed was the carcass of a life-expired canine. Two vehicles actually ran 'over' it but did not actually appear to make any contact with it. Within seconds of the second vehicle doing so, something quite unbelievable happened. The dog got to its feet and ambled over to the side of the road we were walking along and disappeared into the long grass there. I actually stopped walking. I couldn't believe what I'd just witnessed! Wanting to make sure that we really had seen what we thought we'd seen, we started walking towards where it had disappeared from sight. We were a bit wary of what condition the dog might actually be in so we approached it with some caution. But it was there, lying on all fours in the long grass with its head facing the highway. Ros, who was able to get a better look at it than I was, said that there was blood on its head so we have to assume that it had suffered concussion when it was hit and that's why it was lying motionless in the middle of the road. There was nothing we could do for it really but had we been local we'd have been quite happy to try and get it fixed up, if we could have gotten near it. It certainly had its fair share of luck last night though!
Unfortunately, the crab that Ros spotted further down the same stretch of road didn't. She pointed out it to me as it crossed our path and I thought it strange that a crab, and it was quite large, should be walking across the hard shoulder of a motorway and no water in sight. Now, Ros actually stopped and made a move towards it as it started to cross the first lane. Apparently, and this what she told me later, she was worried about what might happen to it and it was her intention to pick it up and put it somewhere away from the road. There were a number of vehicles coming towards us and so she waited for them to pass. Unfortunately, for our fearless crustacean, one of the said vehicles drove straight over the back of it and Ros' good intentions proved to be of no avail. I'd never seen a crab's inners spread over such a wide area before but the look on Ros' face was priceless! When we evenually got to the restaurant for dinner, I did ask if they had crab on the menu but, unfortunately, they didn't.
The long and not-so-winding road.
It's the 22nd day of our long and, hopefully, fruitfull journey back to the Foundation in Lamphun. As I write this, we are in the forecourt of yet another service station about 24 km south of Nakhon Sawan. I will do another hour or so this evening and the rest tomorrow morning. Sunday will be another rest day though I don't have anything in particular that I want to see there. We stopped off there for a night on our way down to Banglamung and while I was sleeping like a baby, Ros had a run-in with someone from the 'spirit world' apparently so she's keen to find some alternative accomodation this time.
Since we left Singburi on Wednesday morning, it's been pretty much a case of putting one foot in front of the other and trying to enjoy the view on my left as I clock up the milage. The sun has managed to break out from behind the clouds from time to time though it's been fairly overcast, if not warm, today. Traffic's often been heavy as you'd imagine, it being the main road to the north from Bangkok, yet sometimes there's been a silence that's quite eerie. It doesn't last that long but you do get breaks in the traffic and you notice them. And, from time to time, the view has been pretty impressive with miles and miles of rice fields and the odd temple thrown in. With time on your side, you notice all the different shades of green, brown and even yellow that there are out there. Never given it much thought before but we're usually flying along at whatever speed we're doing and not taking it all in. You notice the birds as well, particularly the larger ones such as the white herons. On the downside, and I've mentioned this before I know, but there's so much rubbish left on the side of the road. I don't understand why people throw stuff out of car windows like they obviously do. Having said that, Ros told me this morning that she woke up last night in the tent and noticed one of the truck drivers sitting on the grass near our car eating noodles. This morning, he'd gone but all the rubbish including a load of noodles he hadn't finished was still there and there was a bin not ten meters away from where he had been sitting!
This morning got off to a great start as I was preparing the coffee in the back of the car. I heard someone say "Khun Glenn." Now, Ros has lots of things she likes to call me but unless she's talking about me in the third person to someone either important or who she doesn't know very well, that's not one of them. So I had a look out the back of the car and there's a Thai guy standing there. "Khun Glenn?" I noticed that he had a 500 baht note in one hand so I said "Yes, that's me." He then went into one in Thai and thankfully Ros showed up and bailed me out. Anyway, he donated the money to the roadside donations fund, which now stands at 660 baht, and wished us all the best for the remainder of the walk. Looking ahead, I'm looking at an alternative route from Nakhon Sawan to Kampaeng Phet so that I don't have to spend all my time on the highway, though it might actually be a tad longer. I will have to use the highway eventually to get to Tak and then up to Lampang, but if there are alternatives available, I'll look at them too. I understand that there's been a fair bit of flooding over in the north-west and hopefully that will have been sorted out by the time we get there. I'll keep you posted.
Since we left Singburi on Wednesday morning, it's been pretty much a case of putting one foot in front of the other and trying to enjoy the view on my left as I clock up the milage. The sun has managed to break out from behind the clouds from time to time though it's been fairly overcast, if not warm, today. Traffic's often been heavy as you'd imagine, it being the main road to the north from Bangkok, yet sometimes there's been a silence that's quite eerie. It doesn't last that long but you do get breaks in the traffic and you notice them. And, from time to time, the view has been pretty impressive with miles and miles of rice fields and the odd temple thrown in. With time on your side, you notice all the different shades of green, brown and even yellow that there are out there. Never given it much thought before but we're usually flying along at whatever speed we're doing and not taking it all in. You notice the birds as well, particularly the larger ones such as the white herons. On the downside, and I've mentioned this before I know, but there's so much rubbish left on the side of the road. I don't understand why people throw stuff out of car windows like they obviously do. Having said that, Ros told me this morning that she woke up last night in the tent and noticed one of the truck drivers sitting on the grass near our car eating noodles. This morning, he'd gone but all the rubbish including a load of noodles he hadn't finished was still there and there was a bin not ten meters away from where he had been sitting!
This morning got off to a great start as I was preparing the coffee in the back of the car. I heard someone say "Khun Glenn." Now, Ros has lots of things she likes to call me but unless she's talking about me in the third person to someone either important or who she doesn't know very well, that's not one of them. So I had a look out the back of the car and there's a Thai guy standing there. "Khun Glenn?" I noticed that he had a 500 baht note in one hand so I said "Yes, that's me." He then went into one in Thai and thankfully Ros showed up and bailed me out. Anyway, he donated the money to the roadside donations fund, which now stands at 660 baht, and wished us all the best for the remainder of the walk. Looking ahead, I'm looking at an alternative route from Nakhon Sawan to Kampaeng Phet so that I don't have to spend all my time on the highway, though it might actually be a tad longer. I will have to use the highway eventually to get to Tak and then up to Lampang, but if there are alternatives available, I'll look at them too. I understand that there's been a fair bit of flooding over in the north-west and hopefully that will have been sorted out by the time we get there. I'll keep you posted.
If you have any comments about the site, please feel free to get in touch at g_croston@yahoo.com. Please click HERE to go to the official Croston House Children's Home website. Click HERE to go to my personal web site.Phone (66) 086-3857118.Or leave a comment here.
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Thursday, September 25, 2008
Ros's Birthday
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Ros enjoying her birthday cake. She appreciated the thought, anyway!
Well, looks like somebody is on the wrong side of the road.
Glenn "I've picked up a few dogs in my time but never 4 at once!" Croston.
If you have any comments about the site, please feel free to get in touch at g_croston@yahoo.com. Please click HERE to go to the official Croston House Children's Home website. Click HERE to go to my personal website.
Phone (66) 086-3857118 or leave a comment here.
Well, looks like somebody is on the wrong side of the road.
Glenn "I've picked up a few dogs in my time but never 4 at once!" Croston.If you have any comments about the site, please feel free to get in touch at g_croston@yahoo.com. Please click HERE to go to the official Croston House Children's Home website. Click HERE to go to my personal website.
Phone (66) 086-3857118 or leave a comment here.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
500 km up for me and 29 (years) for Ros!
Day 20 it is and we've just touched down in a place called Inburi which is in Singburi province and Ros actually managed to park up right next to an Internet shop instead of doing her usual trick of forcing me to walk another couple of km in order to find one. And yes, the CAT connector is STILL not working! Here's a review of the last couple of days;
Monday, 22 September; Up early to make sure we got our fair share of the free breakfast (well, toast and coffee as it turned out!) but we needn't have bothered as apparently almost everyone else in the place had checked out the day before and we had the restaurant all to ourselves. Unfortunately, our stay at the Preuksasiri Hotel ended on a sour note when the manager, Khun Bor, first informed me that the 'machine' he needed to process my Visa card so that I could pay the bill was "no good" and that the bill for two nights accomodation and two evening meals was 2,900 baht. Now the first bit of bad news was BAD as it then meant that our early off was off and that I had to go find a bank that would give me a cash advance on the card and that can be rather tricky when off the beaten track. And the same guy had told me that it would be "no problem" to pay with my visa card when we checked out on checking in on Saturday evening. The second bit of bad news was worse than bad. It was outragous! Anyway, I got Ros to go through the bills with him and, what do you know? "Sorry, 2,700 baht." "Check it again!" "Sorry, 2,070 baht" "That'll do!" So off we went to find a bank and we cleared our stuffand checked out of the hotel as soon as we got back. Nice place, good value for money re the rooms, good food and service in the restaurant but that was as blatant an attempt to rip people off as I've come across for a long time. Beware if you use this place; best pay as you go I suppose. Having got that out of the way, it was time to start pounding the tarmac again and head for Lopburi city, still about 15 km away. When the motor cycle lane became part of the main road, it got a bit hairy and as we got into the more built-up part of the city it was time for me to get off the road altogether. Now Lopburi really does look like it's a nice place to visit when we have more time to spend there and I'll definately head back through there and stop somewhere overnight, though probably not at the Preuksasiri Hotel, when I go back down to Chonburi at the beginning of November. I found an internet shop easily enough to do the blog during the afternoon break when it really did get quite warm. Finding the road we wanted to use to get to Singburi was more difficult than we thought it would be as every road we went down seemed to lead to either Bangkok, back down to Saraburi or north to Nakhon Sawan. But we found it eventually and there was plenty of time once the sun had gone down a tad to get another 7 or 8 km in before I found Ros parked up in what was to be our base for the night.
Tuesday, 23 September; A good night's sleep for a change as the service station we slept at closed up at 10 and almost all the lights were switched off. There was a security guard on site as well. Up around 6.30 after it re-opened and a big thanks to the lady in the shop for the hot water for our coffee even though she hadn't even opened up for business! A couple of important numbers came into play today; 500 being the number of km I'd clocked up so far on the sponsored walk by the time I got into Singburi just after 11am and 29, as it was Ros' birthday and in just 3 years time, I'll be able to trade her in for a couple of 16 year-olds. I wish!! Now, because of the latter, I decided that we should have half the day off and try and find somewhere to celebrate. I must point out at this stage that Ros did not object! Unfortunately, easier said than done in Singburi town centre apparently so, having had a look around and sent some more photos to Grant in Chiang Mai to process and publish on the sites during the afternoon, we went back in the direction of the main highway to Nakhon Sawan and found a place that was just opening up for the evening and was, most conveniently, next to a rather large service station off the north-bound highway that we could park up for the night in. So, having parked up and locked up, off we went to celebrate and if we hadn't have shown up they'd have had no customers at all! Not one soul showed up in the 3 hours or so that we were there and I think it unlikely anyone would have turned up after we left given its location. Still, we had a good time and thanks to the two guys in the place for looking after us. I'm sure that they'll be able to replenish their stock of Chang and Leo before they open up for business later today. Ros put in some calls back to Lamphun to speak to the kids during the evening though she'll have to wait a month or so before she can get her hands on her birthday cards and any presents she might have waiting for her. I did buy her a cake for which she was truly grateful as you'll see for yourselves and there'll be a picture of that on one of the sites shortly. Doing the maths, we've covered 500 km in 17 walking days so we're just under our target of 30 km a day. The road we're on takes all the way to Nakhon Sawan and is both flat and fairly straight. If the sun is out as it has been the last couple of days, it'll be a challenge to get into Nakhon Sawan some time on Saturday afternoon.
Monday, 22 September; Up early to make sure we got our fair share of the free breakfast (well, toast and coffee as it turned out!) but we needn't have bothered as apparently almost everyone else in the place had checked out the day before and we had the restaurant all to ourselves. Unfortunately, our stay at the Preuksasiri Hotel ended on a sour note when the manager, Khun Bor, first informed me that the 'machine' he needed to process my Visa card so that I could pay the bill was "no good" and that the bill for two nights accomodation and two evening meals was 2,900 baht. Now the first bit of bad news was BAD as it then meant that our early off was off and that I had to go find a bank that would give me a cash advance on the card and that can be rather tricky when off the beaten track. And the same guy had told me that it would be "no problem" to pay with my visa card when we checked out on checking in on Saturday evening. The second bit of bad news was worse than bad. It was outragous! Anyway, I got Ros to go through the bills with him and, what do you know? "Sorry, 2,700 baht." "Check it again!" "Sorry, 2,070 baht" "That'll do!" So off we went to find a bank and we cleared our stuffand checked out of the hotel as soon as we got back. Nice place, good value for money re the rooms, good food and service in the restaurant but that was as blatant an attempt to rip people off as I've come across for a long time. Beware if you use this place; best pay as you go I suppose. Having got that out of the way, it was time to start pounding the tarmac again and head for Lopburi city, still about 15 km away. When the motor cycle lane became part of the main road, it got a bit hairy and as we got into the more built-up part of the city it was time for me to get off the road altogether. Now Lopburi really does look like it's a nice place to visit when we have more time to spend there and I'll definately head back through there and stop somewhere overnight, though probably not at the Preuksasiri Hotel, when I go back down to Chonburi at the beginning of November. I found an internet shop easily enough to do the blog during the afternoon break when it really did get quite warm. Finding the road we wanted to use to get to Singburi was more difficult than we thought it would be as every road we went down seemed to lead to either Bangkok, back down to Saraburi or north to Nakhon Sawan. But we found it eventually and there was plenty of time once the sun had gone down a tad to get another 7 or 8 km in before I found Ros parked up in what was to be our base for the night.
Tuesday, 23 September; A good night's sleep for a change as the service station we slept at closed up at 10 and almost all the lights were switched off. There was a security guard on site as well. Up around 6.30 after it re-opened and a big thanks to the lady in the shop for the hot water for our coffee even though she hadn't even opened up for business! A couple of important numbers came into play today; 500 being the number of km I'd clocked up so far on the sponsored walk by the time I got into Singburi just after 11am and 29, as it was Ros' birthday and in just 3 years time, I'll be able to trade her in for a couple of 16 year-olds. I wish!! Now, because of the latter, I decided that we should have half the day off and try and find somewhere to celebrate. I must point out at this stage that Ros did not object! Unfortunately, easier said than done in Singburi town centre apparently so, having had a look around and sent some more photos to Grant in Chiang Mai to process and publish on the sites during the afternoon, we went back in the direction of the main highway to Nakhon Sawan and found a place that was just opening up for the evening and was, most conveniently, next to a rather large service station off the north-bound highway that we could park up for the night in. So, having parked up and locked up, off we went to celebrate and if we hadn't have shown up they'd have had no customers at all! Not one soul showed up in the 3 hours or so that we were there and I think it unlikely anyone would have turned up after we left given its location. Still, we had a good time and thanks to the two guys in the place for looking after us. I'm sure that they'll be able to replenish their stock of Chang and Leo before they open up for business later today. Ros put in some calls back to Lamphun to speak to the kids during the evening though she'll have to wait a month or so before she can get her hands on her birthday cards and any presents she might have waiting for her. I did buy her a cake for which she was truly grateful as you'll see for yourselves and there'll be a picture of that on one of the sites shortly. Doing the maths, we've covered 500 km in 17 walking days so we're just under our target of 30 km a day. The road we're on takes all the way to Nakhon Sawan and is both flat and fairly straight. If the sun is out as it has been the last couple of days, it'll be a challenge to get into Nakhon Sawan some time on Saturday afternoon.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Saraburi Girls' Home and Thamkrabok Monastery.
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Glenn and Ros with some of the younger girls at Saraburi Girls' Home.
With Nong May (right) and one of her friends before leaving.
Some of the many impressive Buddha images at Thamkrabok Monastery.
Glenn and Ros with some of the younger girls at Saraburi Girls' Home. 
With Nong May (right) and one of her friends before leaving.
Some of the many impressive Buddha images at Thamkrabok Monastery.
Glenn and Phra Gordon by the support vehicle.
Patients, both foreign and Thai, undergoing the water treatment.
If you have any comments about the site, please feel free to get in touch at g_croston@yahoo.com. Please click HERE to go to the official Croston House Children's Home website. Click HERE to go to my personal website or phone (66) 086-3857118.
Thamkrabok Monastry and Wat Ngampoo.
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Glenn by the entrance to the road that leads to Thamkrabok Monastery
Ros in one of the Monastery's gardens.
Phra Gordon, formerly of New York City, with Glenn and Ros.
The preserved remains of a former ladyboy at Wat Ngampoo AIDS hospital.
The uncollected bones of some of those who have died at Wat Ngampoo.Monday, September 22, 2008
Sleep, sightseeing and some sunshine!
We're now around 10 km on the northern side of Lopburi and I still can't pick up a signal with the CAT mobile connector so it's yet more time and money spent using an internet shop in order to check our mail and keep the blog updated. After the second rest day yesterday and the benefit of two nights on a proper bed in an air-conditioned room, I feel a lot better today than I did on Saturday when I left Saraburi and we hope to be able to put in some decent milage over the next few days, the weather permitting. Here's a review of the last couple of days:
Saturday, 20 September; Most people would be forgiven for thinking that a temple would be an idyllic spot to get a good night's sleep but we either picked the wrong temple or they can be as busy at night as some of them are during the day. When I got back to the temple Ros had parked up in in Saraburi after finishing the blog on Friday evening, the car park was chocka and there were even a couple of military policemen patrolling the place and controlling the traffic. I woke Ros up to see if she knew what was happening and all I got was "Khun die laew" or "Someone has died" and sure enough, a small army of people in black started to drift from one of the buildings at the back of the temple grounds towards the car park. But judging by the cars (BMs, Audis and the like) and their occupants (3-foot beehives, shiny shoes and tailored clobber), these were from the higher echelons of Saraburi society. Anyway, I had a couple of tinnies and made some bologna sarnies and observed from the back of the car. Once the car park had cleared I settled down for the night but just could not sleep. Temple dogs barking at whatever, motor bikes cutting through the temple grounds, the noise of the traffic from outside; just about as bad as the night before and 2 consecutive nights like that wasn't what was needed.
So, we were up early but couldn't move on until we'd retrieved the DVD player from the repair shop. I had a walk down to see what all the fuss was about the evening before and saw the individual concerned, a female government official by the looks of the white uniform, all boxed up on a stand with her photo next to it and dozens of wreaths against the walls of the chapel. Looks like she was either well-liked or she was well-connected. The guy in the repair shop hadn't called Ros by 10 so we walked down to see him and he was just putting it all back together when we got there. A quick test to see all was well and we were back in business for the princely sum of 300 baht. Back to the car and out to the city limits where I got back onto the hard shoulder and started walking again. It was during this leg that I received my third roadside donation, bringing that total up to 160 baht. Not much, but it does show that some people have been taking notice of the boards on the car whenever Ros pulls up. Progress was slow but I think it would have been asking a lot to keep up a fast pace given the lack of decent sleep over the previous two nights. Some very impressive rock formations on the left that they were obviously mining for commercial use as I heard a number of small explosions from that direction and could see the clouds of dust rising.
I remember at some point mentioning to Ros about looking for a hotel en route so that we had the option of a rest day if we wanted it next day. One particularly long incline to negotiate before it levelled off and I spotted the impressive archway at the entrance to Thamkrabok Monastery; two elephants holding up the earth. Now I didn't know this but this place has got a reputation around the world for it's treatment of addictions, be it drug or alcohol related. It was while Ros was talking to the three ladies that run the shop on the corner of the junction that I remembered seeing a documentary a while back about a temple in Thailand that treated addicts using a potion of herbs and large amounts of water that made them throw up and where there were a large number of foreign monks and foreign patients. It was just before 5, but we decided to go and have a look. An amazing place with some amazing people doing a great job. I now know that there a couple of websites about the place and I'd highly recommend that you visit them and have a look. Even better, if there's anyone reading this who's in Thailand, go and visit the place yourself; it's well worth the effort. One of the foreign monks, Phra Gordon, an American ex-Vietnam vet, gave me a brochure for a new hotel a couple of km down the road if we were looking for something to stay. It was now after 6 and getting dark so we headed off down the road to check the place out. 400 baht a night for a room with a double bed and aircon seemed good to me so we checked in and got cleaned up. Just after we'd checked in, another expat approached me and said something about the sponsored walk. It turned out that his son, who was with him, had done the 8 km leg with St. Andrews on the first day! That seems like a long time ago now! Anyway, a nice meal in the garden restaurant with a couple of beers and I was dead on my feet so I started to get my money's worth out of the bedsheets.
Sunday, 21 September; We both felt better for the comfy bed, aircon and hot shower and decided to have a look around rather than spend all day in the hotel but not too much walking. One of the waitresses had let it slip the evening before that the hotel offered a free breakfast between 7 and 10 so we went down to the restaurant to check it out at just before 9. There was nothing left! Well, some coffee and a bit of rice soup. But nothing else. Lots of our Chinese-Thai friends sitting around chewing the fat but nothing left for us. Decided there and then that we would get up much earlier today.
There's a temple in Saraburi province on the way to Lopburi called Wat Ngampoo that we decided to visit in the morning. It's well-known across Thailand because a monk opened a place in the temple grounds to treat people suffering from AIDS when other monks elsewhere across the country were shunning them. In the past, it was a place where people simply went to die with a bit of dignity but now, thanks to the drugs that are available and the donations that the project has received over the years that allows the temple to be able to afford them, people live much longer and some of those suffering from AIDS or HIV can actually stay there in small hut-like houses. I have to say however, that it has become very commercial with bus-loads of tourists wandering around gawping at the patients and the preserved bodies and body parts of some of those who have lost their fight against the disease over the years that are on display. Don't think I've ever seen an ATM machine in a temple's grounds before either or a convenience store; doubt that they were put there for the benefit of the patients though. There was a gift shop come bookshop and you can't help but notice the construction going on at the back of the place. A big Buddha image, maybe? Some school kids were being entertained by a katoey cabaret troupe in one of the buildings. I'm assuming that the artistes are patients as I saw a couple of others wandering around the grounds. Don't know whether the show is for entertainment or educational purposes but the kids seemed to be having a good time.
I read an interesting article, in English, in one of the display rooms that seemed to mirror my own thoughts about the place. If there's so much money coming in to the place, why does the main ward look like an overcrowded government hospital ward? Everything seemed to be geared for visitors and not for the patients and their families. Surely, if places such as these are open to members of the public then the emphasis should be on education and any exhibits should have an educational value rather than anything else. What's the purpose of exhibiting severed body parts, including male genitals, in jars? And whose body parts were they? That's my opinion anyway and Wat Ngampoo joins a long and growing list of Thai-run projects that I suspect have become more about making money, that doesn't need to be accounted for, ( surely a monk wouldn't misappropriate donations, right?) rather than on the worthy cause itself and its beneficiaries. When I read that English-language article earlier, I was reminded of the old Thai song which goes something like "Half for the temple; half for the temple committee." Only half for the committee?
After lunch, we headed back towards the hotel and stopped off at Saraburi Home for Girls, a government-run establishment looking after some 150 girls from across the country. One of the nicer such establishments with staff who were considerably friendlier than I've experienced at similar places such as Banglamung Boys' Home and a couple in Chiang mai and Chiang Rai. When I visit these places, government or Foundation-run, I look at how they're laid out and if there's anything we can learn from them in terms of the best use of space should we one day be in a position to build a place of our own. This one had quite a lot of open spaces with buildings dotted across the back and by the footpaths. The kids we met seemed happy enough and were at least clean, unlike in other places I've visited. We didn't go into any of the buildings but the young lady we met who worked there told us that the two-storey accomodation blocks each housed up to 5o girls and their "house parents" and that there were some 20-odd members of staff, all employed at the home by the government full-time.
Had time to head back to the monastery for another hour or so. Met Gordon again and we were fortunate enough to be able to tag on to a group of kids from Udonthani who were involved in a drugs-related project with the local authority up there and had come down to visit Thamkrabok. I watched some of the patients do a question and answer session with them and the kids witnessed some of the patients take their medicine with water and its subsequent effects! We also had the chance to speak to a couple of the other foreign monks, both of whom had first come to the monastery and stayed on to work with those who were going through what they had gone through before and a couple of the Western patients. We had a look at one of the caves at the site and took some more pictures for the blog and said our goodbyes and then headed back to the hotel for dinner.
Saturday, 20 September; Most people would be forgiven for thinking that a temple would be an idyllic spot to get a good night's sleep but we either picked the wrong temple or they can be as busy at night as some of them are during the day. When I got back to the temple Ros had parked up in in Saraburi after finishing the blog on Friday evening, the car park was chocka and there were even a couple of military policemen patrolling the place and controlling the traffic. I woke Ros up to see if she knew what was happening and all I got was "Khun die laew" or "Someone has died" and sure enough, a small army of people in black started to drift from one of the buildings at the back of the temple grounds towards the car park. But judging by the cars (BMs, Audis and the like) and their occupants (3-foot beehives, shiny shoes and tailored clobber), these were from the higher echelons of Saraburi society. Anyway, I had a couple of tinnies and made some bologna sarnies and observed from the back of the car. Once the car park had cleared I settled down for the night but just could not sleep. Temple dogs barking at whatever, motor bikes cutting through the temple grounds, the noise of the traffic from outside; just about as bad as the night before and 2 consecutive nights like that wasn't what was needed.
So, we were up early but couldn't move on until we'd retrieved the DVD player from the repair shop. I had a walk down to see what all the fuss was about the evening before and saw the individual concerned, a female government official by the looks of the white uniform, all boxed up on a stand with her photo next to it and dozens of wreaths against the walls of the chapel. Looks like she was either well-liked or she was well-connected. The guy in the repair shop hadn't called Ros by 10 so we walked down to see him and he was just putting it all back together when we got there. A quick test to see all was well and we were back in business for the princely sum of 300 baht. Back to the car and out to the city limits where I got back onto the hard shoulder and started walking again. It was during this leg that I received my third roadside donation, bringing that total up to 160 baht. Not much, but it does show that some people have been taking notice of the boards on the car whenever Ros pulls up. Progress was slow but I think it would have been asking a lot to keep up a fast pace given the lack of decent sleep over the previous two nights. Some very impressive rock formations on the left that they were obviously mining for commercial use as I heard a number of small explosions from that direction and could see the clouds of dust rising.
I remember at some point mentioning to Ros about looking for a hotel en route so that we had the option of a rest day if we wanted it next day. One particularly long incline to negotiate before it levelled off and I spotted the impressive archway at the entrance to Thamkrabok Monastery; two elephants holding up the earth. Now I didn't know this but this place has got a reputation around the world for it's treatment of addictions, be it drug or alcohol related. It was while Ros was talking to the three ladies that run the shop on the corner of the junction that I remembered seeing a documentary a while back about a temple in Thailand that treated addicts using a potion of herbs and large amounts of water that made them throw up and where there were a large number of foreign monks and foreign patients. It was just before 5, but we decided to go and have a look. An amazing place with some amazing people doing a great job. I now know that there a couple of websites about the place and I'd highly recommend that you visit them and have a look. Even better, if there's anyone reading this who's in Thailand, go and visit the place yourself; it's well worth the effort. One of the foreign monks, Phra Gordon, an American ex-Vietnam vet, gave me a brochure for a new hotel a couple of km down the road if we were looking for something to stay. It was now after 6 and getting dark so we headed off down the road to check the place out. 400 baht a night for a room with a double bed and aircon seemed good to me so we checked in and got cleaned up. Just after we'd checked in, another expat approached me and said something about the sponsored walk. It turned out that his son, who was with him, had done the 8 km leg with St. Andrews on the first day! That seems like a long time ago now! Anyway, a nice meal in the garden restaurant with a couple of beers and I was dead on my feet so I started to get my money's worth out of the bedsheets.
Sunday, 21 September; We both felt better for the comfy bed, aircon and hot shower and decided to have a look around rather than spend all day in the hotel but not too much walking. One of the waitresses had let it slip the evening before that the hotel offered a free breakfast between 7 and 10 so we went down to the restaurant to check it out at just before 9. There was nothing left! Well, some coffee and a bit of rice soup. But nothing else. Lots of our Chinese-Thai friends sitting around chewing the fat but nothing left for us. Decided there and then that we would get up much earlier today.
There's a temple in Saraburi province on the way to Lopburi called Wat Ngampoo that we decided to visit in the morning. It's well-known across Thailand because a monk opened a place in the temple grounds to treat people suffering from AIDS when other monks elsewhere across the country were shunning them. In the past, it was a place where people simply went to die with a bit of dignity but now, thanks to the drugs that are available and the donations that the project has received over the years that allows the temple to be able to afford them, people live much longer and some of those suffering from AIDS or HIV can actually stay there in small hut-like houses. I have to say however, that it has become very commercial with bus-loads of tourists wandering around gawping at the patients and the preserved bodies and body parts of some of those who have lost their fight against the disease over the years that are on display. Don't think I've ever seen an ATM machine in a temple's grounds before either or a convenience store; doubt that they were put there for the benefit of the patients though. There was a gift shop come bookshop and you can't help but notice the construction going on at the back of the place. A big Buddha image, maybe? Some school kids were being entertained by a katoey cabaret troupe in one of the buildings. I'm assuming that the artistes are patients as I saw a couple of others wandering around the grounds. Don't know whether the show is for entertainment or educational purposes but the kids seemed to be having a good time.
I read an interesting article, in English, in one of the display rooms that seemed to mirror my own thoughts about the place. If there's so much money coming in to the place, why does the main ward look like an overcrowded government hospital ward? Everything seemed to be geared for visitors and not for the patients and their families. Surely, if places such as these are open to members of the public then the emphasis should be on education and any exhibits should have an educational value rather than anything else. What's the purpose of exhibiting severed body parts, including male genitals, in jars? And whose body parts were they? That's my opinion anyway and Wat Ngampoo joins a long and growing list of Thai-run projects that I suspect have become more about making money, that doesn't need to be accounted for, ( surely a monk wouldn't misappropriate donations, right?) rather than on the worthy cause itself and its beneficiaries. When I read that English-language article earlier, I was reminded of the old Thai song which goes something like "Half for the temple; half for the temple committee." Only half for the committee?
After lunch, we headed back towards the hotel and stopped off at Saraburi Home for Girls, a government-run establishment looking after some 150 girls from across the country. One of the nicer such establishments with staff who were considerably friendlier than I've experienced at similar places such as Banglamung Boys' Home and a couple in Chiang mai and Chiang Rai. When I visit these places, government or Foundation-run, I look at how they're laid out and if there's anything we can learn from them in terms of the best use of space should we one day be in a position to build a place of our own. This one had quite a lot of open spaces with buildings dotted across the back and by the footpaths. The kids we met seemed happy enough and were at least clean, unlike in other places I've visited. We didn't go into any of the buildings but the young lady we met who worked there told us that the two-storey accomodation blocks each housed up to 5o girls and their "house parents" and that there were some 20-odd members of staff, all employed at the home by the government full-time.
Had time to head back to the monastery for another hour or so. Met Gordon again and we were fortunate enough to be able to tag on to a group of kids from Udonthani who were involved in a drugs-related project with the local authority up there and had come down to visit Thamkrabok. I watched some of the patients do a question and answer session with them and the kids witnessed some of the patients take their medicine with water and its subsequent effects! We also had the chance to speak to a couple of the other foreign monks, both of whom had first come to the monastery and stayed on to work with those who were going through what they had gone through before and a couple of the Western patients. We had a look at one of the caves at the site and took some more pictures for the blog and said our goodbyes and then headed back to the hotel for dinner.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Nakhorn Ratchasima city centre & the A12 back to Saraburi
Ros by the main statue in Nakhorn Ratchasima city centre.
Glenn by a roadside Buddha image on the A12.
A huge temple complex under construction a little further down the A12.
Clowning around in our Akha headgear. 
This camping lark isn't what it's made out to be!.
If you have any comments about the site, please feel free to get in touch at g_croston@yahoo.com. Please click HERE to go to the official Croston House Children's Home website. Click HERE to go to my personal website or phone (66) 086-3857118.
Day 15: Sick.......or just tired?
We've managed to get back to Saraburi albeit 24 hours behind schedule and feeling a lot less energetic than when we left here last Saturday afternoon for the joys of Korat. We couldn't get a signal with the CAT mobile connector yesterday which meant that I couldn't post the blog when we pitched up at Muak Lek Plaza for the night yesterday and it's not working now so here's a review of the last two days;
Thursday, 18 September; Despite the new blisters, it was a good day's walking only interupted for an hour or so in the afternoon though it was yet another heavy downpour that left a fair bit of local flooding for me to pick my way through once I got going again. The road took me past Chokchai Farm amongst other things and, if we'd have had the time, I wouldn't have minded going in and doing a tour. It looks like it covers a fair old area of land and the restaurants and other attractions looked like it would be worth spending a couple of hours at. Unfortunately, time wasn't on our side but it's a place I've marked down for a visit in the future. A few more steep climbs to negotiate but there's usually a downhill section afterwards to compensate for them. Our destination was a place called Muak Lek and Ros spotted a place called Muak Lek Plaza that looked like it could have been a night market or similar. I think it was intended to be something like a market but it's become like so many other things we've seen in Thailand; somebody's dream that never became a reality. Some of the facilities on the big billboard outside it are in place though and we were able to clear nearly a week's worth of laundry in the toilets area and get cleaned up ourselves. Pitched the tent up for just the third time to date on the journey after a couple of locals said that it was a safe place to stay. Should have been with a police patrol car parked out there as well! Not much choice when it came to an evening meal though; just the one small place on the corner of a row of fruit vendors that the local boys in brown from the police box on the opposite corner seemed to have commandeered and were working their way through a bottle of whisky. They didn't seem too interested in us though and we headed back to the tent for an early night after another 33 km clocked up earlier in the day.
Friday, 19 September; Whist I appreciated the extra room that using the tent afforded us both, I didn't appreciate the noise from the highway or the fact the someone switched on the security lights above the tent not long after we went to bed. Although we were at least 100 meters from the main road, it felt like I was lying right next to it and those trucks just kept coming right through the night. Throw in some dogs barking at someone or something at regular intervals and a couple of people shouting at each other late on from either side of the tent, then I didn't get much sleep last night and I wasn't in the best of moods this morning. Oh, and the local old bill must have run out of whisky as their car had been moved during the night as well! Then we discovered that almost all our washing had been blown onto the floor during the night and, subsequently, it was still wet. Not much sun out early doors so we had to put it all on hangers in the car again so that we could get on our way without wasting time waiting for it to dry. I stopped at a couple of places on route for half an hour or so once the sun was out and we managed to get most of it dried out during the course of the day. The highway was busy and Ros got concerned a couple of times stopping on the hard shoulder for me with large trucks creeping up behind her and then seemingly pulling out and overtaking her at the last second. It's been mainly dry today with just a few drizzly showers but not heavy enough to drive us off the road and looking for cover. We looked at the map first thing this morning and discussed going around Saraburi and taking another highway to Lopburi, our next major destination. This appealed to me at 7 in the morning but by the time we reached the turn-off after another nearly 30 km day, I decided to keep going till we reached Saraburi city limits and then Ros found a temple with a large parking area to pitch up for the evening at just before 5pm. At least we've been here before and know what's available to us rather than taking a chance on us not finding what we wanted on a stretch of road neither of us know. I wanted to get the blog updated and also find someone who would have a look at our portable DVD player that's not been working properly since we brought it down from Lamphun. Ros reckons it's my fault that it doesn't work as I haven't been using it regularly since I bought it last year. I personally don't see how you can cause something not to work if you don't use it regularly but there you go. Thai logic? Maybe. At the time of writing it's in a shop here in Saraburi and I'm hopeful that it'll be ready for collection early doors. Having nothing to do other than having a chilled Chang or two in the evening has become a problem for me. The walking has been tiring for sure but once we've decided to call it quits for the day, cleaned up and had dinner, what then? Nearly all of the places we've stayed at have had TV sets blaring away for the people working there and Ros has been welcome to pull up a chair and watch. That doesn't do anything for me though as that's not what I call entertainment and that's why I packed the DVD player. I didn't have internet access via the laptop for the first nine days so I had to dig out internet shops wherever I could find them and since then I've needed somewhere to plug it into once the battery has died and that's not always been easy to find. Hopefully, if we get the DVD player sorted, I'll at least be able to listen to the CDs we brought down and I'll get some movies as and where I can find them in English. Tomorrow, it's onwards and northbound to Lopburi once we get the DVD player back. Looks like another early night tonight though.
Thursday, 18 September; Despite the new blisters, it was a good day's walking only interupted for an hour or so in the afternoon though it was yet another heavy downpour that left a fair bit of local flooding for me to pick my way through once I got going again. The road took me past Chokchai Farm amongst other things and, if we'd have had the time, I wouldn't have minded going in and doing a tour. It looks like it covers a fair old area of land and the restaurants and other attractions looked like it would be worth spending a couple of hours at. Unfortunately, time wasn't on our side but it's a place I've marked down for a visit in the future. A few more steep climbs to negotiate but there's usually a downhill section afterwards to compensate for them. Our destination was a place called Muak Lek and Ros spotted a place called Muak Lek Plaza that looked like it could have been a night market or similar. I think it was intended to be something like a market but it's become like so many other things we've seen in Thailand; somebody's dream that never became a reality. Some of the facilities on the big billboard outside it are in place though and we were able to clear nearly a week's worth of laundry in the toilets area and get cleaned up ourselves. Pitched the tent up for just the third time to date on the journey after a couple of locals said that it was a safe place to stay. Should have been with a police patrol car parked out there as well! Not much choice when it came to an evening meal though; just the one small place on the corner of a row of fruit vendors that the local boys in brown from the police box on the opposite corner seemed to have commandeered and were working their way through a bottle of whisky. They didn't seem too interested in us though and we headed back to the tent for an early night after another 33 km clocked up earlier in the day.
Friday, 19 September; Whist I appreciated the extra room that using the tent afforded us both, I didn't appreciate the noise from the highway or the fact the someone switched on the security lights above the tent not long after we went to bed. Although we were at least 100 meters from the main road, it felt like I was lying right next to it and those trucks just kept coming right through the night. Throw in some dogs barking at someone or something at regular intervals and a couple of people shouting at each other late on from either side of the tent, then I didn't get much sleep last night and I wasn't in the best of moods this morning. Oh, and the local old bill must have run out of whisky as their car had been moved during the night as well! Then we discovered that almost all our washing had been blown onto the floor during the night and, subsequently, it was still wet. Not much sun out early doors so we had to put it all on hangers in the car again so that we could get on our way without wasting time waiting for it to dry. I stopped at a couple of places on route for half an hour or so once the sun was out and we managed to get most of it dried out during the course of the day. The highway was busy and Ros got concerned a couple of times stopping on the hard shoulder for me with large trucks creeping up behind her and then seemingly pulling out and overtaking her at the last second. It's been mainly dry today with just a few drizzly showers but not heavy enough to drive us off the road and looking for cover. We looked at the map first thing this morning and discussed going around Saraburi and taking another highway to Lopburi, our next major destination. This appealed to me at 7 in the morning but by the time we reached the turn-off after another nearly 30 km day, I decided to keep going till we reached Saraburi city limits and then Ros found a temple with a large parking area to pitch up for the evening at just before 5pm. At least we've been here before and know what's available to us rather than taking a chance on us not finding what we wanted on a stretch of road neither of us know. I wanted to get the blog updated and also find someone who would have a look at our portable DVD player that's not been working properly since we brought it down from Lamphun. Ros reckons it's my fault that it doesn't work as I haven't been using it regularly since I bought it last year. I personally don't see how you can cause something not to work if you don't use it regularly but there you go. Thai logic? Maybe. At the time of writing it's in a shop here in Saraburi and I'm hopeful that it'll be ready for collection early doors. Having nothing to do other than having a chilled Chang or two in the evening has become a problem for me. The walking has been tiring for sure but once we've decided to call it quits for the day, cleaned up and had dinner, what then? Nearly all of the places we've stayed at have had TV sets blaring away for the people working there and Ros has been welcome to pull up a chair and watch. That doesn't do anything for me though as that's not what I call entertainment and that's why I packed the DVD player. I didn't have internet access via the laptop for the first nine days so I had to dig out internet shops wherever I could find them and since then I've needed somewhere to plug it into once the battery has died and that's not always been easy to find. Hopefully, if we get the DVD player sorted, I'll at least be able to listen to the CDs we brought down and I'll get some movies as and where I can find them in English. Tomorrow, it's onwards and northbound to Lopburi once we get the DVD player back. Looks like another early night tonight though.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Another long hard day... and I've lost all of a kg!
Ok, so it's just after 7pm and we've touched base at a petrol station come rest area near a place called Pak Chong on the A2. According to Ros, we've done 33 km today and my feet probably wouldn't disagree with that. lIt looks like I've picked up a couple of new blisters during the course of the day and with the number of showers we've had today that I've been caught up in, I'll be lucky if I don't come down with a cold over the next day or so. Quite a few steep inclines to deal with today though getting my first proper view of Lam Ta Khong Dam when I came over the hill was something else. Wish I could have taken some photos but Ros had the camera and she wouldn't come back. I also had my second brush with the boys in brown today overlooking the dam though they seemed to be pretty pre-occupied checking the contents of lorry driver's wallets and they just waved me through their check-point. When it rained today, it really rained and I'm finding it hard going sitting these downpours out. We are definately at least 24 hours now behind schedule now and things could get worse if the elements are against us tomorrow and Friday. Arriving back in Saraburi by Friday evening could become a big ask the way things are going. If there's anything positive to come from today other than the milage I've been able to put in, it's that I weighed myself earlier today and I now weigh 97.2 kg. As I've been at least 98 kg for as long as I can remember, I've managed to lose some weight even if I feel as if I've been eating more than I usually do and drinking less (beer, anyway!). Guess I'll have to monitor things during the rest of the journey now and I'll keep you posted.
Going stir crazy...........and then freedom!
After about 20 hours of being cooped-up in that Castrol service station on the A2 near Sung Noen, the rain actually stopped just after 2pm yesterday and we were able to make tracks out of there. The place was driving me nuts even though they allowed us to plug the laptop into the mains so that I could check my mail and update the blog. And there was nothing to eat. Beer yes, but as much as I like it, I don't live on the stuff. The weather was that bad in the morning that even the somtam lady didn't show up for work and we had to go back a couple of kilometers towards Korat to find somewhere that offered a semblance of a choice of dishes for the farang other than somtam or Mama noodles! Considering how much rain fall there had been over the last 24 hours or so, most of it had run off the road by the time I was on it and done the first 7 km before I took a break for a meal. If anyone can tell me how a bowl of Mama, which costs 5 baht to buy per packet, can then be flogged on for 40 baht with a little bit of hot water and a few pieces of veg added to it, in the so-called impoverished north-east region of this country, I'm all ears! And they didn't rip me off; they did it to to Ros! Thai rak Thai, eh? If anybody in Korat is reading this and wants to avoid it, it's the place about 300 meters east of the big, new temple they're working on next to the Korat-bound lane (there may be a picture of that on the blogsite) but on the opposite side. Anyway, having been fleeced there, we set off again though it wasn't to be long before I got waylaid again with more rain and that was the pattern for the rest of the afternoon. Despite the stop-start nature of things, some 17 km was knocked out in just under 4 hours. I must point out that one of the sections of the slip road that I was walking along, just after I'd crossed the flyover over the 201/24 roads, was inpassable for about a kilometer and I had to jump in the back of the back-up vehicle to get through it. The police and local volunteers had coned off the road and then were re-directing traffic onto the east-bound lane which became two-way. There was a fair amount of water there too and the traffic was backed-up in both directions but we got through it and about another 500 meters further on, we turned back onto the slip road which was now clear of water and pulled into the large service station along there which became our home for the night. 17 km is way below what I was hoping to do as that's now two consecutive days that we've fallen well short of our target and I reckon that, unless we can get a full day in today, and that's also looking unlikely considering what we've done so far today and the way the weather is at the moment, then we are a full day behind schedule and we're now looking at getting back to Saraburi by Friday evening at this rate.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
George & Dragon Pub | Charity night | Korat
MC Steve at the mike for the jungle racing.
Dave with the winners of the mixed-pairs pool knockout tournament.
The hosts at The George & Dragon, Phil and Mam.
Seems like the ladies of Korat were out to enjoy themselves!
If you have any comments about the site, please feel free to get in touch at g_croston@yahoo.com. Please click HERE to go to the official Croston House Children's Home website. Click HERE to go to my personal website. Phone (66) 086-3857118.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Rest day in Korat then back on the road and the rain!
Got in to Nakhon Ratchasima, also known here in Thailand as Korat, at around 6 after the drive from Saraburi and met up with Dave Kearns and Steve Willet, who had been organising the charity night at The George and Dragon for us. Steve had booked Ros and I in at The Srivichai Hotel and we went and checked in and we had the opportunity of a hot shower for the first time in more than a week and a change of clothes. On to the charity night; excellent turn out and a good time was had by all. Over 20,000 baht raised during the evening at the pub and a further donation of 5,000 baht from Derek Levitt in Korat, who couldn't make it on the night. A great response from the expat community in Nakhon Ratchasima and thanks in particular to Dave, Steve and our hosts at The George & Dragon, Phil and Mam. Don't actually remember leaving though Ros assured me that I did pay my bar bill before we left and if it really was only about 450 baht for the pair of us then I must have spent most of the evening drinking other people's beer!
Sunday, 14 September; This was our first scheduled rest day and a late lie-in after all the Chang the night before was called for. I hadn't eaten anything the previous evening so we were back at The George shortly after it opened at midday for a couple of bacon and egg banjos. We then spent a couple of hours exploring the centre of Korat before we met up with Steve and his missus and we were driven over to Dave's place for a Sunday dinner (something else I couldn't recall talking about the night before!). Back to the hotel to put the finishing touches to the Foundation's second e-newsletter and then the rest of the evening sending it out to the 350+ names on our mailing list and answering my own e-mail while Ros crashed out around 8! It was after midnight by the time I'd finished so not much sleep for me before we got back on the road the following morning.
Monday, 15 September; We got an early morning call (5.30!!) from Yai in Lamphun asking us to send some money up for school fees and a couple of other things that had come up since we'd left so we had to hang around in Korat city until the banks opened at 8.30. This was not what we'd wanted as it was dry early doors and quite cool so we could have made some progress there. Added to that, I had some difficulty getting a cash advance on my Visa card (third time lucky with the banks) and it was gone 10 before we were finally able to check out and make our way to the city limits on the A2 and a stretch of road that was both safe enough for me to walk along and for Ros to stop by the side of without causing problems for ourselves or anyone else. I felt fine once I'd gotten into my stride though those dark clouds were beginning to gather and less than three hours after we'd started, we had our first shower and we were into a service station for the next couple of hours. At around 4, I set off again and managed to keep up a decent pace while the rain held off until around 5.30 and this time, it was serious stuff! I'd just past a service station on the Korat-bound side of the road so Ros did a u-turn and we went back and parked up there. It got dark very quickly and the rain kept coming. Clearly, this was in for the night and so we set the back of the car up for sleeping in. I did get Ros to ask the staff if we could put the tent up on a tiled area that looked like it had been a dining area at some point in the past, but for some reason they weren't happy about that so the back of the car it was. And the rain kept falling. All night!
Tuesday, 16 September; It's now almost 10am, and we've yet to get on the road. It's been raining since I got up at 6.30 and it shows little sign of abating. The people at the service station have at least allowed me to plug the laptop into the mains so that I can do the blog and check my mail. Don't particularly want to be here all day though. If this is in for the day then apparently there is a hotel a couple of kilometers back in the direction of Korat where we can hole up and probably get some decent food as the only thing on offer here at the moment is somtam, which I don't personally class as proper food; just a smelly, spicy salad! It'll be a big set back if we can't make any progess today given yesterday's poor return with the late start at the banks and then the weather turning against us later on.
Sunday, 14 September; This was our first scheduled rest day and a late lie-in after all the Chang the night before was called for. I hadn't eaten anything the previous evening so we were back at The George shortly after it opened at midday for a couple of bacon and egg banjos. We then spent a couple of hours exploring the centre of Korat before we met up with Steve and his missus and we were driven over to Dave's place for a Sunday dinner (something else I couldn't recall talking about the night before!). Back to the hotel to put the finishing touches to the Foundation's second e-newsletter and then the rest of the evening sending it out to the 350+ names on our mailing list and answering my own e-mail while Ros crashed out around 8! It was after midnight by the time I'd finished so not much sleep for me before we got back on the road the following morning.
Monday, 15 September; We got an early morning call (5.30!!) from Yai in Lamphun asking us to send some money up for school fees and a couple of other things that had come up since we'd left so we had to hang around in Korat city until the banks opened at 8.30. This was not what we'd wanted as it was dry early doors and quite cool so we could have made some progress there. Added to that, I had some difficulty getting a cash advance on my Visa card (third time lucky with the banks) and it was gone 10 before we were finally able to check out and make our way to the city limits on the A2 and a stretch of road that was both safe enough for me to walk along and for Ros to stop by the side of without causing problems for ourselves or anyone else. I felt fine once I'd gotten into my stride though those dark clouds were beginning to gather and less than three hours after we'd started, we had our first shower and we were into a service station for the next couple of hours. At around 4, I set off again and managed to keep up a decent pace while the rain held off until around 5.30 and this time, it was serious stuff! I'd just past a service station on the Korat-bound side of the road so Ros did a u-turn and we went back and parked up there. It got dark very quickly and the rain kept coming. Clearly, this was in for the night and so we set the back of the car up for sleeping in. I did get Ros to ask the staff if we could put the tent up on a tiled area that looked like it had been a dining area at some point in the past, but for some reason they weren't happy about that so the back of the car it was. And the rain kept falling. All night!
Tuesday, 16 September; It's now almost 10am, and we've yet to get on the road. It's been raining since I got up at 6.30 and it shows little sign of abating. The people at the service station have at least allowed me to plug the laptop into the mains so that I can do the blog and check my mail. Don't particularly want to be here all day though. If this is in for the day then apparently there is a hotel a couple of kilometers back in the direction of Korat where we can hole up and probably get some decent food as the only thing on offer here at the moment is somtam, which I don't personally class as proper food; just a smelly, spicy salad! It'll be a big set back if we can't make any progess today given yesterday's poor return with the late start at the banks and then the weather turning against us later on.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Glenn's Walkabout | Rest Day
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Ros looking pretty in the same temple gardens.
Ros preparing the som-o.
Ros putting the stand-down time to good use.
Our intrepid duo posing by the river next to Wat Nakhon Nayok.
Ros looking pretty in the same temple gardens.It's not much, but we call it home!
If you have any comments about the site, please feel free to get in touch at g_croston@yahoo.com.Please click HERE to go to the official Croston House Children's Home website.Click HERE to go to my personal web site.Phone (66) 086-3857118.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Arrival in Saraburi and thoughts on the trip so far.
Completed the leg from Wihan Daeng to Saraburi earlier this afternoon and can now look forward to the trip to Korat in a short while. Paul asked me yesterday on the phone whether I was happy with the progress made to date and on reflection, I have to be. We've covered around 270 km in 9 days, an average of 30 km a day, which puts us about half a day's walk behind schedule but I'm happy overall with that. I overcooked things on the first day down to Banchang when the adrenalin was flowing and paid for it on days two and three when it was also extremely humid. The blisters, all 12 of them, have also played a part in our lack of progress on some days, as has the rain. But we've kept going and, where I've had to put a few 5 km an hour spells together to keep the pace up, I've managed to. I also know that I can do it again if I have to but how long I could sustain it for I don't know. Ros has now got the distancing between herself in the support vehicle and myself about right and if the weather turns ugly quickly, she's there to collect me. Tomorrow will be our first rest day and a chance to clean the car out and stock up on supplies like medical kit. I'm looking forward to a hot shower tonight and a few beers to follow with a lie-in and a big full English breakfast tomorrow.
Croston House | Photos of Glenn's Walkabout September 11
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When the going gets tough, the tough get going. But only when it stops raining!
Drink beer. IT'S GREAT!!
When in Pratchinburi, do as the locals do. But do it discreetly!
Going native; an afternoon siesta with a few luxuries thrown in.
Somewhere under that lot is our back-up vehicle!
If you have any comments about the site, please feel free to get in touch at g_croston@yahoo.com Please click HERE to go to the official Croston House Children's Home website.Click HERE to go to my personal web site.Phone (66) 086-3857118.
Making slow progress/Roadkill #1
Eventually got moving yesterday after I posted the last blog and there he was, lying by the side of the road just a couple of hundred meters up from where Ros had parked up in the service station; Roadkill #1. Chunky little thing it was, some kind of mastiff maybe and almost certainly someone's pet but they won't have to worry about him getting out on the main road any more, will they? Unlucky for him; shame on them. Anyway, within an hour we'd ground to another halt as yet more heavy rain descended upon us. Fortunately, Ros had pulled over by the side of the road next to a Mom & Pop-run roadside eatery ahead of me which served as our shelter for the next couple of hours! Feeling a tad down by our lack of progress, and not seeing any likelihood of any in the next hour or so, I decided to cheer myself up by ordering a beer to go with my late lunch. However, they didn't have any in the ice box but the old guy was willing to cycle up the road, in the rain, to accomodate me. Well, I couldn't let him risk getting ill on my account for the sake of a bottle of cold Chang, could I? So I ordered 3 and off he went! He was back in next to no time and I chilled out on the Chang and Ros got her knitting out. It did stop raining and off I went again making pretty good progress which may or may not have had something to do with the beer. I called it quits at around half six, just inside the Nakhon Nayok city limits and Ros parked up. We wanted to put the tent up so that there would be more room and we wouldn't have to sleep in the car with all the damp washing that we still hadn't been able to dry out properly. However, it was quite a busy place and we agreed that it would be unlikely that the owners would OK us putting the tent up in another parking space so we found somewhere for dinner, cleared the car out and, despite more rain throughout the night, made the best of it. Didn't help matters when I knocked over a nigh-on full can of Chang inside the car. Gutted! Not because the mattress was wet; it was anyway! But I only bought the one can!
Friday, 12 September; Up at the usual time, and it was dry out, but I wanted to post some mail that I've been holding on to for the last week and Ros wanted to get some bits and pieces so we went in to Nakhon Nayok early doors and parked up in the grounds of what appeared to be the main temple in the city. The post office didn't open until half eight so we hung around and I got shot of that as soon as the doors opened. Checked my e-mail at probably the worst internet shop I've been in for some time; used two computers in the space of fifteen minutes and then gave up, paid-up and left! Ros got what she wanted and we went back to the car where we took some photos for the blog. The river that runs between the temple and another one on the other side was swollen with all the heavy rain and there was a very strong current that was pulling large amounts of foliage along with it. Definately not for swimming in! Back to the A33 and time to get pounding the concrete again. Overcast, with a bit of drizzle here and there, but definately better conditions than the day before and we started to get back on track. Then the inevitable happened and after a short sprint to catch up with Ros in the car, we pulled over by a fairly large convenience store come restaurant and sat it out. Tried my laptop to see if the CAT connector was picking up a signal but to no avail. Set off again when the sun reappeared and put in another 3-4 km before calling Ros in for a break at one of those yellow/orange rest stops you see at the side of the highways but seldom, if ever, use. As the sun was out, we saw an opportunityto get to grips with the damp clothing and bedding and we cleared the car out good and proper draping the car with a collection of shirts, shorts, socks, underwear, beach towels and the quilt. That done, I made myself comfortable on the mat and using both the big pillow and the comforter we brought down from Lamphun, crashed out for an hour by the side of the road. Apparently, Ros had just nodded off on one of the benches when the phone rang and Paul Crouch from the Regents School down in Pattaya informed us that they had already collected in 50% more than their total target figure for the sponsored walk which the staff and the kids did with us last Friday. Great news. Re-packed the car after the sun had done the business and off I went again. We've stopped about 18 km short of Saraburi, which means about 4 hours on the road for me tomorrow morning if the weather's kind to us. Looking forward to the trip to Korat tomorrow afternoon for the charity night at The George & Dragon after Dave Kearns up there told me that everything was set and our accomodation for the night booked. A bed. A real bed. Not a car or a tent. A bed. It'll be great. Anyone reading this up in or around Korat is more than welcome to join us for what we hope will be an enjoyable evening.
Friday, 12 September; Up at the usual time, and it was dry out, but I wanted to post some mail that I've been holding on to for the last week and Ros wanted to get some bits and pieces so we went in to Nakhon Nayok early doors and parked up in the grounds of what appeared to be the main temple in the city. The post office didn't open until half eight so we hung around and I got shot of that as soon as the doors opened. Checked my e-mail at probably the worst internet shop I've been in for some time; used two computers in the space of fifteen minutes and then gave up, paid-up and left! Ros got what she wanted and we went back to the car where we took some photos for the blog. The river that runs between the temple and another one on the other side was swollen with all the heavy rain and there was a very strong current that was pulling large amounts of foliage along with it. Definately not for swimming in! Back to the A33 and time to get pounding the concrete again. Overcast, with a bit of drizzle here and there, but definately better conditions than the day before and we started to get back on track. Then the inevitable happened and after a short sprint to catch up with Ros in the car, we pulled over by a fairly large convenience store come restaurant and sat it out. Tried my laptop to see if the CAT connector was picking up a signal but to no avail. Set off again when the sun reappeared and put in another 3-4 km before calling Ros in for a break at one of those yellow/orange rest stops you see at the side of the highways but seldom, if ever, use. As the sun was out, we saw an opportunityto get to grips with the damp clothing and bedding and we cleared the car out good and proper draping the car with a collection of shirts, shorts, socks, underwear, beach towels and the quilt. That done, I made myself comfortable on the mat and using both the big pillow and the comforter we brought down from Lamphun, crashed out for an hour by the side of the road. Apparently, Ros had just nodded off on one of the benches when the phone rang and Paul Crouch from the Regents School down in Pattaya informed us that they had already collected in 50% more than their total target figure for the sponsored walk which the staff and the kids did with us last Friday. Great news. Re-packed the car after the sun had done the business and off I went again. We've stopped about 18 km short of Saraburi, which means about 4 hours on the road for me tomorrow morning if the weather's kind to us. Looking forward to the trip to Korat tomorrow afternoon for the charity night at The George & Dragon after Dave Kearns up there told me that everything was set and our accomodation for the night booked. A bed. A real bed. Not a car or a tent. A bed. It'll be great. Anyone reading this up in or around Korat is more than welcome to join us for what we hope will be an enjoyable evening.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Day 7; The weather's now holding us up.
We're stuck in the rain in Prachinburi and the 25 km stroll up the A33 to Nakhon Nayok today is now looking pretty iffy as I type this. It rained pretty much throughout the night and kept us both awake as we lay in the tent though some early progress was possible when we left the service station shortly after 7 this morning. Ros has a car full of wet clothing as the laundry she did yesterday didn't dry out properly so the car doesn't smell too good and I'm glad that I don't have to sit in it today. However, the dry weather was short-lived and shelter was sought on the side of the road about 5 km into the leg when we were hit by another heavy shower. Another couple of km down the road and the rain came again and that's pretty much been the story since then. So, a lot of walking to be done later in the day if and when the sun finally comes out or at least it stops raining! Fortunately, finding a place to do this post was quite easy. The blog was cut short yesterday as the lady who ran the shop wanted to close up at 10pm and she had a shop full of kids playing games who didn't want to go home. I find internet shops generally to be very noisy places if the owners allow their customers to play games and download music, which seems to be the norm. Most of the kids in the shops are teenage boys and I'm pretty sure thats ome of them who were in the shop I used yesterday afternoon should have been at school. It's not expensive, I know, but I do wonder sometimes where they get the money from and how long they spend in these places. Of course, the shop owners don't ask too many questions as long as the kids pay up when they've finished. Got some news from the Foundation in Lamphun yesterday from some of our expat volunteer visitors. Although they were basically happy with what they saw, there were a few points that need addressing and we're trying to arrange for some of our regular Thai visitors to go there today and straighten out one or two individuals who appear to be letting us down while Ros and I are away. I'll be glad when the CAT connector kicks in and I'll be able to post from my own laptop from the back of the car wherever we happen to find ourselves. But it's not picking up a signal to allow me to access the internet down here and if I want to keep on top of the blog and feed Grant more photos to publish, I need to find an internet shop wherever we stop. For those of you following our route who are wondering why we didn't go straight up the A304 to Korat for the fund-raiser up there on Saturday evening, I'll explain. We were advised by someone who knows the area well that going there via Kao Yai national park, which the A304 goes through, would slow us down considerably due to the steep hills up there and the amount of traffic that we would have to contend with and therefore make reaching there by Saturday evening quite unrealistic. So, Plan B was drawn up and we are now heading north-west towards Saraburi, which we hope to reach by Saturday afternoon. That too may be a tall order given the current weather situation. The sole purpose of going to Korat is for the event at The George and Dragon that Dave Kearns is organising on our behalf just as going down to Banchang on the first night was for the fundraiser at The Offshore Bar. However, we will get there though it'll be in the car and not on foot as originally planned. We'll be stopping in Korat overnight and then getting back to wherever we left off in or around Saraburi and resuming the walk from there on Sunday afternoon. Looking outside, it's still quite grey but the rain has abated so I'll post this and return to Ros and the car and see if we can make tracks so that we don't have it all to do this afternoon.
Days 5 & 6; through rain or shine - which one is it to be?
We have now reached Prachinburi after a late afternoon stroll up the 319 and have pitched up our tent at yet another service station, about 25 km short of tomoprrow's target destination of Nakhon Nayok. Here's a summary of how things have gone over the last two days;
Tuesday, 9 September; I remember posting something sbout Monday's progress being the best so far and it was until we got back to the car from the internet shop and found that SOMEONE, and IT WASN'T ME, had left the side lights on while we were away for an hour or so doing the blog and the car's battery was as dead as a dodo. Fortunately, there was no shortage of willing volunteers to give it a push start and it didn't take long to get the battery charged up againso that it was all systems go first thing in the morning. We said goodbye to the 331 about 3 km north of Plaeng Yao (correct spelling this time, I think) and turned off onto the road that would take us eventually to Phanom Sarakam. Again, overcast in the morning, and I was able to make reasonable progress with Ros stopping the car about a km in front. Two people to thank at this stage; the guy in the internet shop who would not take my money after I spent over an hour in his shop sending pictures to Grant and checking my mail and the lady who stopped me after I turned off the 331 and handed me a bottle of Gatorade, or whatever it was. Both much appreciated! Small things to some people, perhaps, but I didn't know either of them from Adam (or Eve!) and they didn't have to do that. Managed to put in just over 4 hours on the road in the morning and than another hour and a half in the evening before we reached our target destination of Phanom Sarakam. At that stage, I wanted to find another internet shop so that I could update the blog, but shortly after we left the car in a PTT service station, yet another deluge of rain appeared and we ended up doubling back to the safety of the 7/11 in the service station and an evening meal of hot dogs and noodles. Being a service station, the people who work there are not allowed to sell alcohol but there always seems to be a Mom and Pop store round the corner that sells beer 24/7 and I'm very grateful to them for doing so. So, no blog update yesterday but a carry out of nicely chilled Chang to see us through the evening.
Wednesday, 10 September; On the road again shortly after 6 and managed to get to the southern end of Prachinburi's southern city limits by 11 and find somewhere to hang out while the temperature rose. Found another internet shop to send some more bits and pieces to Grant while Ros did three days worth of laundry. And guess what? The heavens opened again! And hard! Sat it out for nearly two hours until it was all over and then rejoined her at the petrol station. Lots of wet clothes in the car and nowhere to take them to get them dried out properly. Quite a miserable afternoon and as I didn't want to take a chance on getting another soaking, no further progress has been made today, which won't do my feet any harm if nothing else. Will be up early in the morning to push on after only our second night in the tent so at least we should both get a good night's sleep tonight.
Tuesday, 9 September; I remember posting something sbout Monday's progress being the best so far and it was until we got back to the car from the internet shop and found that SOMEONE, and IT WASN'T ME, had left the side lights on while we were away for an hour or so doing the blog and the car's battery was as dead as a dodo. Fortunately, there was no shortage of willing volunteers to give it a push start and it didn't take long to get the battery charged up againso that it was all systems go first thing in the morning. We said goodbye to the 331 about 3 km north of Plaeng Yao (correct spelling this time, I think) and turned off onto the road that would take us eventually to Phanom Sarakam. Again, overcast in the morning, and I was able to make reasonable progress with Ros stopping the car about a km in front. Two people to thank at this stage; the guy in the internet shop who would not take my money after I spent over an hour in his shop sending pictures to Grant and checking my mail and the lady who stopped me after I turned off the 331 and handed me a bottle of Gatorade, or whatever it was. Both much appreciated! Small things to some people, perhaps, but I didn't know either of them from Adam (or Eve!) and they didn't have to do that. Managed to put in just over 4 hours on the road in the morning and than another hour and a half in the evening before we reached our target destination of Phanom Sarakam. At that stage, I wanted to find another internet shop so that I could update the blog, but shortly after we left the car in a PTT service station, yet another deluge of rain appeared and we ended up doubling back to the safety of the 7/11 in the service station and an evening meal of hot dogs and noodles. Being a service station, the people who work there are not allowed to sell alcohol but there always seems to be a Mom and Pop store round the corner that sells beer 24/7 and I'm very grateful to them for doing so. So, no blog update yesterday but a carry out of nicely chilled Chang to see us through the evening.
Wednesday, 10 September; On the road again shortly after 6 and managed to get to the southern end of Prachinburi's southern city limits by 11 and find somewhere to hang out while the temperature rose. Found another internet shop to send some more bits and pieces to Grant while Ros did three days worth of laundry. And guess what? The heavens opened again! And hard! Sat it out for nearly two hours until it was all over and then rejoined her at the petrol station. Lots of wet clothes in the car and nowhere to take them to get them dried out properly. Quite a miserable afternoon and as I didn't want to take a chance on getting another soaking, no further progress has been made today, which won't do my feet any harm if nothing else. Will be up early in the morning to push on after only our second night in the tent so at least we should both get a good night's sleep tonight.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Croston House Children's Home | Glenn's Walkabout | More Photos
The Photos are running slightly behind Glenn's Articles
Glenn emails them to me in Chiang Mai from one of the many Internet shops
in every village in Thailand. I optimise them for the web and upload them.
Such is the power of the Web.
Looks like someone is enjoying himself!
The car is NOT moving, OK?
Just like walking along the East Lancs Road to Manchester!
And again; this time without the hat.
Putting on a brave face for the camera.
If you have any comments about the site, please feel free to get in touch at g_croston@yahoo.com.Please click HERE to go to the official Croston House Children's Home website.Click HERE to go to my personal web site.
Phone (66) 086-3857118.
Croston House | Walkabout Photos | Day 1
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Our own support vehicle bannered up and ready to go.
Students and staff of The Regents School ready for their briefing.
Students taking a break at Khun John's Restaurant by Lake Mabprachan.
An impromptu teacher's meeting at Khun John's.
Glenn arriving ahead of the pack at Siam Country Club.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Croston House Walkabout Start Photos
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Glenn being interviewed by Micky the Hammer for Pattaya People TV re the sponsored walk during the charity night at Tropical Bert's.
Glenn drawing the first winning ticket during the Grand Draw at Nicky's Bar & Guest House in Pattaya.
Glenn presenting a prize to one of the lucky Draw winners at Ryan's Irish Bar in Naklua.
Chandra Hickox of Mermaid Offshore Services Ltd. presenting Glenn with a cheque for 221,240 Baht during the charity night at The Offshore Bar in Banchang.
Sylvain Delhommeau of The Regents School (Pattaya Campus) and Glenn lead the way on the first leg of their 15 km sponsored walk in aid of Croston House Children's Home.
If you have any comments about the site, please feel free to get in touch at g_croston@yahoo.com.Please click HERE to go to the official Croston House Children's Home website.
Click HERE to go to my personal web site.
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