Date: 2008-01-25
To: To the North
Miles today: 0.0

Thanks to Vicki for her message, it is good to hear from you all. I read over my last post, and it is full of so many errors and spelling mistakes, I need to get myself an editor. I have not been feeling so well over the last few days, it is an old fashion case of dehydration. I have been walking great distances each day, and even though I am consuming vast amounts of water, it is just not enough. The sweat puring off my large physique is relentless. I am feeling good this morning, the first morning I have had a sleep in, and drank a few litres of water, might have a day off the walking, it has been a bit of a shock to the system, the fitness is not that great. Plus I have some of the worst chaffing of my whole life, so it has slowed me down which might be a good thing, I have been operating at a pretty frenetic pace. Yesterday I charged off at about lunchtime and headed off to the north. Once beyond Pattaya the whole place changes. The streets become narrower, the footpaths become nonexistant. You have to walk on the road, but there is now where near the same level of traffic. There were still some hotels, but also lots of where the locals are living. They have their own markets, and food stalls, and no one was hastling me to buy. The smells were far less toxic, it was interesting to me that it is where the westerners are located that the smells are at their worst. So many hotels have been built in this region, that the sewerage system just cannot cope. In Australia we seperate our grey water, sewerage, and storm water. Here it is all in the one gravity feed drain, and there is the mixture of sewerage and soaps, washing detergents. So the smell has the pungent odour of poo, but also the sweet smell of soaps and detergents, it is a very sickly smell. There are open grates over the footpaths and along the gutters and when you pass over one you go a little week at the knees and stumble from side to side. If you stand over the grids you can feel the warmth of the methane passing upwards, it dries all of your sweat as there is so much air rushing up. Even though i was well beyond the touristy parts of the area, people would still not interact with me in any form, I smile at them and nod my head, but they mostly just look downwards, or just stand and stare. I get the feeling that the locals are repulsed by the sex industry in Pattaya and really try to have as little contact with the tourists as possible. The people seem really flat, and very robotic. In my hotel if you ask a question they always shrug their shoulders as to indicate they do not understand english. When i am typing my entries on the computer I see people booking out, and then their English is perfect, just another indicator that this is not your typical Thai experience, that general friendliness is just not there. I saw where all of the ice is coming from for our drinks. The ice comes out of huge machines and is dumped straight onto a concrete floor, much of it pushing out onto the footpath. People take to it with rusty shovels and break it all up, and shovel it into bags, and then there is the waiting motor bike drivers who whisk it away back to Pattaya, I am asking for no ice in my drinks now. The worst slumps tend to be built out over the water on pilons, similar to the situation in Bangkok. What in Australia would be the most sort after water front property, here is always slums. I walked along a number of beaches till after about 4 hours I came to a large pier, run down of course and delapidated. Further to the north I could see a major port (containers) with many ships waiting out to see, that explains why there were so many trucks on the drive up between here and Pattaya.I came to a massive compound, and it was full of huge temples. Three of them atleast would have been on a grandeur scale than the Catholic Church in the centre of Geelong. Yet most of them had the super structure and a massive gleaming red roof, but some of the walls were missing. So many things here are unfinished, and then it looks like they have been stripped back to built the neighbouring structure. The other question of interest is when they are surronded by such poverty how can they rationalise builidng such massive temples. There were many monks dressed in bright orange wandering around the complex, but no one seem to bothered by my presence. To travel back home I always try to take a different path, so I walked along the major highway, it atleast had a footpath, it is an 8 lane highway, and by the amount of traffic on it, it could do with a few more lanes. Watching the traffic streaming past is always very entertaining. It always seems like it is just one small incident from a major accident. At the lights all the motor bikes weave through the cars and trucks to take up the front few rows. Once the lights change it is like the charge of the light brigade as 100 scooters all charge off at once fighting for road position, it looks so much like the beginning of a grande prix. The thickness of the pollution from the vehicles and the smell was overwhelming, but it was a welocme relief from my constant companion of sewerage smells. I had my first Thai meal, I have been living on toast for breakfast and whaterver I can pick up at the 7 11. Finally I needed something more substantial, the food always smells and looks delicious, it is just the food perperation that turns my stomach inside out. I had a lovely dish of chicken and cashew nuts, and I am still alive this morning. On my way home the drains must have been blocked and there was raw sewerage running over the footpath, my dinner came within an inch of being regurgitated. I got lost coming home, or should I say more disoriented. I leave in daylight hours but always get back beyond sunset, and the streets are unrecognizable as the are lite up like a christmas tree. I had been walking for about 8 hours and when I got back to the hotel I collapsed on my bed totally exhausted. Today might be a day of recovery, and over the next few days I am going to check at all the islands. I can see why no one swims in the water, the other night when I was watching the sunset out over the ocean I could see a massive slick, pretty easy to guess what it was. I have a rash at the moment all over my feet, backs of my calves, and bit over my belly. It is pretty ugly and raised, came up last night, calmed down a bit this morning when I woke up, think it is just a heat rash. I am not going to mention the state of my two ingrown toe nails. Hope everyone is well, Thailand is starting to grow on me