23 Apr 2016
22. Thailand
Considered as 'Asia for beginners'. Entry was straightforward with the immigration officer barely taking a glimpse at my passport's ID page I'm soon away. The plan was to first head south-west to the main road route-3 and then south-east to the town of Trat where I'd be meeting Michael, - the warmshower host from Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City - whom was on a several days tour with some friends.
Crossing a bridge over a crystal-clear river I decide to make myself presentable for the new country so jump in for a quick scrub-up!
The first town I rolled into gave a sight for sore eyes, or should that be for hungry stomachs? A convenience store perched upon a garage forecourt, clad around the building's edge the familiar colours and markings of red, orange and green bands. I'm talking 7-Eleven! Not a huge store but nevertheless full of crisps, sandwiches, chocolate bars, biscuits , pasties, cola, milkshakes, beer, soya milk (that soon became staple!)...it was party time!! This was a stark difference to neighbouring Cambodia. Most of the cars here were new, clean & shiny, many of them 4x4 pick-ups - the 'Asia for beginners' was becoming apparent.
Checking emails the next day I find that Michael would not be at the town of Trat so change my plans and head north-west toward the town of Chanthaburi, sounding similar to England's Canterbury, but actually translates as 'moon city'. Here my wheels auto-pilot to yet another pit-stop - 7-11!
An accustomed sight I felt missing were the kids walking or cycling to school, they'd always smile and laugh, sometimes cycling alongside me until reaching their school - but for the remainder of my journey heron I was to see this no more as Thailand (and Malaysia) are wealthier countries with most families owning cars therefore drive their children to school.
My first main stop was to be Bangkok and being in no particular rush decide to follow the coastal route around the Gulf of Thailand. Camping proved much like the previous few countries, always being welcomed at the Hindu temples, each usually with an entourage of canines.
I'm not sure what these Pandas were advertising.
In my town of Milton Keynes we have concrete cows so it was nice to see (quite literally) a green version!
Several of the towns I rode through were full-on holiday resorts with hotels galore, golden sandy beaches, palm trees, speed boats, ice-cream sellers and westerners. I felt quite overwhelmed in these towns as the ease of Thailand was amplified even more-so, such of a clash against neighbouring Cambodia, how would I cope with Bangkok?
One day whilst taking a break at a road-side shelter a local man stopped to express his concern for my safety. A few days earlier a western touring cyclist-family had been hit by a driver whom had used the wide hard shoulder to undertake a slow moving lorry, unfortunately killing the husband / farther of said family. I told him I was aware of the sad news and he kindly invited me for some lunch with his wife.
A ladies keep-fit group next to the night's temple.
Big sister giving riding lessons to little sister.
Spray-can street-graffiti is partly about out-doing your opponents art work, I wondered if that was the same with many of the coaches I'd seen.
Five days after entering Thailand, Bangkok's periphery arrives under my wheels, fortunately I managed to find a reasonable traffic-free route into the centre and find a hostel with space inside to keep my bike safe (as with many cities, avoiding cables in photo's is not easy!!).
As an ex avid Lego builder, this copy version in a shop window caught my eye.
I loved the bright taxi colours, a tad more cheerful than the boring black of certain capitals.
Here's a few photos from around the city:
The streets that surrounded the back-packers hostel were dormant in the day but sprung into life at night, neon signs illuminating bars and restaurants, party revellers at the start of their next 'day' on the liquor, street food-sellers with fried insects and critters of all sorts - back trays, 2nd from left..tarantulas!!
Stopping at one of the restaurants with two people I'd befriended from from the hostel we enjoyed a tasty dinner. This was my final night in the city, it was good to say I'd visited but it wouldn't make entry on to my 'must see again' list.
Having meandered around South-East Asia from entry, Bangkok heron would follow a predominantly south route, the final leg to Singapore
Through the district of Phetchaburi the coastal area have many Brine salt-farms, unfortunately at the cost of cutting down vast areas of once Mangrove forests.
The land is firstly levelled,
Following the main road Route-4 I'd occasionally use alternate more interesting village-to-village roads, although at one section I had no choice. Much of Thailand's west side borders are against Myanmar (formerly Burmah) and the southerly section of both countries becomes very narrow such that Thailand's width becomes no more than 10 km leaving little choice of road to take.
Having ridden across Africa, the heat here felt so much more intense and at one point I started riding with a thin piece of material around my face to shield from the scorching dry air, the daily 7-eleven ritual of ice-cooled chocolate or banana milkshakes increased to two a day! Further south, Thailand has an east and west coast, so for a little change I spend a day crossing over to the west side heading toward Phuket, Thailand's largest island - renowned as a bit of hippy hang-out but also for some of its beautiful beaches on many of the smaller island surrounding it.
Some of the scenery from Bangkok to Phuket;
Cycling so far from England one thing I'd seen comparatively little of was coasts, so at least here gave the opportunity to see a descent amount and also the chance to camp at, to think in 2004 this area was swamped by the tsunami that brought destruction and death.
The town of Phuket felt a let down, maybe the lack of hipster within me disabled any mutual connection, although the old town was very art-deco with its colonial Portuguese buildings but nevertheless I spent just one night there at a hostel and the next day ferried across the bay to the town of Krabi on the mainland.
Krabi is quite a big town and felt better to stay at than Phuket, so I booked in at a hotel to write a blog-post. At the town's market I met an English cyclist Jimmy. He was cycling back home from Australia, so with both of us travelling in directions each had come from we had lots of useful information for one another. I slightly envied him knowing my trip was almost over, whilst his [effectively] was just beginning, and he'd travel through Myanmar and India - two countries I'd intended to visit but had to circumnavigate due to the Iran blockage!!
An interesting set of traffic lights in Krabi.
Lithuanian Tom suggested I contact a keen cyclist Terej Olav in the city of Hat Yai. I'd been aware of him from some of the FaceBook cycle groups I frequent thus contacted him a while back. He'd invited me to stay at his house so my next port-of-call would be there.
Two days later I'm in the big city and a phone call later I meet with Terej. A well travelled cyclist himself we soon discover we'd both stayed at the same guest house (albeit at different times) in Africa's D.R. Congo!
Keen to show me his city he and his wife invite me to stay for a couple of nights. The following morning we're up earlier than ever before! The reason being to catch sunrise from a stainless steel temple Terej was eager for me to see. In the nip of the morning's cold air we slog our way up the steep hill where the temple over-looks the city below, at the top the early start became worthwhile;
Such an amazing arrangement of predominantly steel circular that seemed to work so well as a temple. Not being one to usually 'pick up on the vibe' the temple did seem to have a rather relaxing aura surrounding it, maybe from a design aspect the coldness of the bare steel – minimalistic, yet at the same time visually busy. The morning's hill-top cold flag-flying wind strangely enough perfectly complimented the temple's calmness.
Passing down the hill's other side we passed a few Hindu figurine shrines along with some interesting greenery.
Later in the day we discussed my onward route. Preferring to enter Malaysia via one of the quieter border crossings near the city of Yala, Terej was concerned as the city had links with a small terrorists group that had recently tried to blow up the police head quarters in Hat Yai - nevertheless I stick to my plans but promised to inform him when I reach the border town of Betong.
Terej Olav, his wife Worosa and new son Olav on the morning I depart, Terej kindly leading me to the city's edge.
Passing through some excellent scenery on good quality really quiet roads it took two days to reach Betong. If anything people along the route seemed friendlier than ever! Several times I was given ice drinks and food at random villages. Only at one point was I actually escorted by the police for a few kilometres....but they soon got bored of tailing me at a snails-pace as I crawled up one of the (many) hills in the heat of the day, before their U-turn they bade me farewell with safe travels and good luck.
Not being a big busy town Betong proved the perfect way to bid farewell to Thailand. I soon find an internet shop so as promised send a message of safe arrival to Terej, then locate the town's temple for the night's camp – a rather picturesque temple set on a hill side with various colourful buildings and shrines.
In the morning I head to what had become my temple - the 7-11! before the few kilometres section to the next country, Malaysia!
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