5. Phang Na Bay, Andaman Sea, Malay Peninsula

I survived.

Yesterday I passed the most dangerous challenge on my journey so far: I took a mini-bus!

The young driver undoubtedly had a death wish which he, maybe, also needed to communicate to close relatives and friends since he operated two cell phones while driving at insane speeds on these curvy roads.

One passenger, a young lad from India, managed to work his way up to the driver and asked him to slow down and take it easy. The reply was: "Theeeeze eeez eeeh miiini-buzzzz!" I am not certain what the driver wanted to express by pointing this out; maybe he wanted to assure us that we are indeed in a mini-bus, and not in a death-trap, what most of us had assume quietly.

I have not issues at all with the code of standards on board of the mini bus.
Its good to be clear about it, though. I like that.

Two eyes on the phone, one eye on the road. 

The driver Nong, nickname "Fangio".

At the end we made it to the fishing pier from where I took a boat to cruise all day some of the stunning islands of the archipelago of islands in the Malay Bay.

Beautiful, fierce and fast raptors: The sea eagles (Brahmani Kites (Haliastur Indus)
put on quiet an air show while circling the boat. They have excellent eye sight and spot fish close to the water's surface; however they also like chicken skin. It is amazing that you can hear them fly. Sorry, humans, no aircraft capability can even come close.

I am holding my Loi Krathong ("Floating Crown", "Floating Decoration") which I will release to the sea later, for good luck.

The captain of the "Silver Hawk", our trusty vessel.

Extensive Mangrove forest

Mangroves.

Ko Panyi, a village almost completely built on stilts and solely inhabited by Muslims, descendants of seafaring Malay. 2500 people inhabit the island, drinking water is brought in by boat from the mainland. Fishing is the main commerce, of course.

Pretty much everything needs to be brought in by boat.

Koh Ping Kan (above, below)

At the end of the day thunderstorms made the sea a little choppy, but I made it back well.

4. Surat Thani-Phuket

290 km, including side trip through the forest at Phang Na.

This leg of the trip was so far the most relaxing and beautiful. The highway winds through hilly terrain, rubber, banana and palm oil plantations (palm trees), dotted with dramatic, towering limestone karst formations, familiar to the movie lovers from the James Bond film "The Man With The Golden Gun", filmed here. 

There was hardly any traffic, however also very few gas stations. 

I was lucky to make it to this one, see picture of the service attendant below. 

Which makes me think that the last time I pumped my own gas was in the US. 

(It is actually a shame how much service quality got lost over time in the so-called developed nations of the West, as a result of laying people off in order yo increase the profit for the shareholders. This is true for many more sectors of the economy, not just gas stations.)

I was happy to get to this Shell station, never mind the higher cost versus Thai petrol stations.

I even got some dirt road riding in today when I left the highway in search for a remote bay at the Andaman Sea. 

I reached Patong Beach, Phuket, in the afternoon where traffic again was the familiar bumper-car style craziness. I will stay here until early next week.

Tranquil setting, wonderful ride

With this section of the trip I have reached the southern-most point of my entire journey. From here the equator is only some 500 miles away.

The further south I rode the more mosques line the roads. Almost every little village has a mosque, most of them small and modest, and all of them rather ugly. I wonder what makes Thais choose to switch from Theravada Buddhism, the most peaceful and non-threatening religion in the world, to Islam. Maybe most of the Muslims I saw in the villages are not converted Buddhist but ethnic Malay. The Malaysian border is not far, and with its proximity increases the influence of Islam.

Small mosque, the men gather for 12.30 p.m. prayer.

I don't know what this little creature is called, but it is cute.

Riding without a helmet. It will either be a hefty fine, or worse, the bike gets pounded until tomorrow.

Abundance.