Journey to Laem Sing - South East Thailand

Steve is a great guy, a retired English fire fighter and amateur artist who loves to paddle-board. He has been telling me how beautiful and unspoiled is Laem Sing (Cape Lion) where he lives, for several years. After buying his fourth SUP (stand up paddle board) from us, I offered to deliver it personally and come and paddle with him.

I did not realise it was a 200km drive each way, when I agreed, but I have not been on the water for a while and was seeking inspiration. (crypto trading and blogging take up my mornings which is when I used to go paddle-boarding to beat the sun). Its amazing how time flies, I have not been training since December and have lost a lot of fitness.

Steve and his Thai wife run a restaurant, apply named "Steve's Steak Bar". Its a Thai style structure built using lots of salvaged timber and locally grown trees from a nearby damn project. We unpacked the new board, and added to the rack which is cleverly made from 1 ¼ plastic water pipe, which is not glued so that modifications, (such as, for extra boards) can be made. Steve's place deserves it's own blog, so we will come back to that, and continue with this story.

After the drive I was ready for some coffee, while drinking I began to explain what glucose ascorbate antagonism is, (nobody escapes my biology lectures). Steve proceeded to show me this giant lime, man I would like some of those bushes.

Another friend who lives nearby pulled up, (Steve's place is a bit of a meeting place for locals) and when I mentioned I that I might not drive back immediately, "John" offered me a bungalow right on the beach, ( he also cooks a mean plate of bacon and eggs and has excellent coffee).

Steve's wife K. Mem, made me this fantastic carnivore's breakfast while we made plans to paddle around an island.

This photo is taken from a bridge, the red line shows some of the route we would take on our SUP paddle session around the island.

Preparing to leave, a few warm up stretches and then we were off. My board is on the left, it is a 2014 Starboard Carbon Ace 14' x 23'5" Open water racing SUP. Steve's on the right is a 2016 All Star 14' x 28" Carbon SUP. They are both good in the Ocean but mine has the advantage in choppy water, also in running straight up or downwind. This helped me to keep up with Steve, especially when we crossed the river mouth and heading into the wind between the headland and the island.

It was great to get out of town for a couple of days and hang out with some cool guys, who I do not see very often. I did not turn on the tracking until a few hundred meters in, but this 4.5km SUP run reminded me how much I love being out on the water. Since then I have been out 2 more times, though not in such a stunning location. The island does not show up on the image, but you can see where it would be.

The photo with the ugly red line drawn on it was taken from a bridge looking towards the island, this photo is taken from near the island, looking back at the bridge, ( I guess it is about 2.5km away).

This photo shows one of the lions that the peninsular is named after, it is from the Eastern side of the island.

This photo is even worse than the preceding one, shooting on a phone through a waterproof bag does not work well. I included this image because it shows how beautiful the water is, the colour and most of all the way it moves. It feels so free to be out there, captain of my own tiny vessel. Able to go anywhere my body can paddle and handle any conditions the balance and strength of my biology can calibrate to. Normally I paddle alone, but it is also very cool to paddle with friends.