My adventures in and around Hua Hin

Hello everyone! Now it’s time for an update about my adventures in and around Hua Hin.

The beautiful Thai countryside minutes away from Cha Am

One of many flats during this ride..

As most of you are probably aware by now I’m quite into biking and try to seize as many opportunities as possible I can to get out and ride some. Last time I told you about the trip up to Cha Am to join in with the Hua Cha hash, well that trip is one for the history books. It was the first time I met this really cool dude Paul from Australia and I had more problems with my bike within those 65 kms than I have ever had accumulated through my life. It started when we were in the middle of nowhere and these stray dogs started chasing us and my chain snapped as I was trying to accelerate to outrun them. The chain got caught under my rear wheel causing it to lock up and I went in to a very uncontrolled powerslide because there’s not a whole lot of friction between the tarmac and metal. Luckily the noise from the chain scared the dogs off. However it left me stranded without a chain. Good thing Paul and I were front riding bastards(FRBs(Hasher language)) because one of the slower guys actually had a chain breaker and we managed to fix the chain enough so that I could ride home at a very cautious pace. Ten minutes later on the paved road my rear wheel decided to go flat. I was already taking the easiest and closest way to home but now that I only had one spare tube it was even more urgent to get home. But this is not where my problems ended, oh no.. After about 20 kms of riding at a super steady pace to save the chain from breaking again I was three kms away from the bike shop and then my front tyre went flat! But that’s life…

During the last weekend of February I went on a Bangkok Hash House Bikers hash in Khao Yoi, near Petchaburi. This is one of the main reasons I brought my bike to Thailand and this event was much looked forward to. So I managed to hitch a ride with one of the guys from Hua Hin bicyclists and we were at the site in very good time. The Saturday’s ride was going to be one of the most challenging tasks I have ever undertaken. Ride-off was at 1 pm in the deserty area around the Sawang golf resort. The temperature at ride-off was a cosy 35 degrees centigrade. By the time we reached the first water stop 1 ½ hours later the temperature was up to a scorching 42 degrees. Add to that the fact that most were riding in black or dark clothing and the total absence of shadow and the temperature alone would be enough to call it quits. After having replenished with coke and water at the first water stop we kept on going and soon my front tyre decided to go flat again. Luckily I had brought a spare tube so not much else to do but to find the nearest tree and change the thing. Fifteen minutes later and I was on my way again. This probably happened some 25 kms into the ride with another 40 kms to go and it wasn’t long until I noticed that my front derailleur was giving up on me, so the rest of the 40 kms I tried to stay on the middle chain ring to save the derailleur. It made it all the way around. With about 15 kms to go I somehow managed to break my middle chain ring in half, a feat rarely heard of which resulted in 15 kms in fourth gear at a painfully slow pace. Later on I was called to stand in the middle of the circle and confess to that it was my chain ring everyone was laughing at, and yet worse was that someone had told them that I was a bike mechanic. A hash is a really cool get together of people biking and drinking beer. For bht 300 (roughly 65 SEK) you get the riding and then a sandwich and hot dog buffet and free beer! Sweet deal! There was another ride on Sunday and luckily the bike shop that comes to all the hashs had a spare chain ring and front derailleur. Thirty minutes and a few litres of sweat later my bike was fit for fight again and off we went. This time I only had a smaller problem with a broken spoke, but otherwise this ride was quite uneventful. The scenery was stunning to say the least, the thai countryside is gorgeous.

Niklas and I chilling out ten meters below the water surface!

Last Thursday Niklas and I went on a trip down south to an island called Koh Tao which translated mean turtle island. The name comes from the shape of the island. The island is mostly known as a scuba diving paradise, but I’d definitely say just paradise, it sports some of the most pristine beaches I’ve seen and the island is hilly with jungle everywhere. So it’ what you think Thailand should be! Niklas had never been scuba diving before, but PADI has got a programme called discover scuba diving which lets people without certificates scuba dive for real to a depth of 12 meters. I got my diving license when I was in Thailand in 2007 and have been diving at Koh Tao before and my memory of it wasn’t the greatest but that was because of the timing of my visit, just after the monsoon ended means that the visibility is quite crap. The monsoon ends in late November so this time the sea had had plenty of time to settle so we had great visibility of up to 20 meters. The diving was great and the underwater life is just spectacular with a vast array of different species, including barracudas, anemone fish (Nemo’s cousin), stingray and squid. Niklas and I had a blast and did all kinds of stuff that one needs to do while in Koh Tao, like have a Snickers shake at the View Point resort, watch the sunset at Sunset view bar and watch the nightly fire shows on the beach. Koh Tao is only an easy five hour busride and then two hours on a boat away and it is so worthwhile going there. Check out the photos.

The sunset on Hat Sai Ree on Koh Tao is pretty spectacular.

Next week I am planning on catching a bus down to Phuket to go see a friend of mine who is holidaying there at the moment, will let you know next time what happens!

Until then, peace out!

// Sebbe

It's been a while!

Hello everyone. I know it’s been a while since the last post, so here goes!

Since the last time I wrote some exciting stuff has been going on here in Hua Hin. We’ll start off with the stuff that concerns school. We started a new course as I mentioned last time called CSR(corporate social responsibility) which has been a very interesting experience. It sure made everyone think once or twice extra about what their everyday choices are and how responsible those choices actually are. Since the last post we’ve had more lectures and also had the time to take a bit of a deeper dive into a case study of our choice. The case study is part of the grading for the course and it is due this Friday. I chose to write about a telecommunications company in Malaysia called DiGi and how they were struggling with their CO2 emissions. I never actually realised that telecommunication companies had such high CO2 emissions, but after doing the case study I realised that there is a major impact and a huge CO2 footprint from such companies.
The remainder of the lectures in CSR were all interesting and necessary to be able to get a grasp of how large an area CSR actually covers. Most people were quite stunned at how much work has to go in to an organisation’s efforts if they are to be successful in implementing CSR into the organisation.

7/11 is supposed to be really good when it comes to logistics, I rest my case.

On Monday we had a presentation for our logistics group work that went really well, we got some good feedback about what a presentation really is about and so forth that we are sure to take with us when doing future presentations. On Monday we have an exam in logistics as well and that will be the end of that course. It’s been quite useful to do the group work because the work that has gone in to the report and the presentation are all stuff that surely will help us get through the exam. So this week people are all about studying for the exam and not a whole lot is really going on, but it’s the same when you’re back in Sweden, a week before the exam people tend to go into isolation.

The most exciting bit about school is the field trip we’re planning in the CSR course. In late march we’re all flying to Cambodia to visit a few of IKEA’s suppliers which will offer a really good opportunity to take the theoretical knowledge from the lectures and compare it to reality. The trip also offers a good chance to see the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh and a good portion of the class will be flying out on the 26^th of march and then have a few days before the school work actually starts in the morning of the 29^th.

Alright, that is the school update for you.. As you can tell we’ve been quite busy with school, a lote more than when January turned into February. Keep an eye out for the update about my adventures biking around Phetchaburi and scuba diving in Koh Tao!

Until then, peace out!

 // Sebbe