Catching up on past blogs. I haven’t yet got the knack on blogging on the fly, and still preferring to post when I have time with some detail and structure.
April 28, 2016 my first ride into Malaysia since living in Thailand. My friends (JC, Nicola, Mark, Anita & Andrew) from Singapore planned a weekend ride up to Cameron highlands. Roy Penwarden is friend I’ve come to know since being in Thailand. A great guy and easy to get on with. We’d done some day trips around Bangkok and decided to ride down and meet the guys & gal in Malaysia.
Setting off from my home in Bangkok on the 28th late afternoon, we ride down to Roy’s home in Cha Am which is a few kilometres north of Hua Hin. There we spent night and made a move to ride to Hat Yai on the Friday morning. Hua Hin is a beach resort town quite popular with many locals as well as foreigners being only about 2 hours drive out of Bangkok. It’s a bit of sleepy town and also the resident of The King of Thailand.
Leaving early on Friday morning, the ride to Hat Yai is along the Route 4. It’s a long and relatively simple road, very straight and long sections of dual carriageway. The only blessing is that it flows fast and you can cruise easily in the higher speed ranges and soak up the miles. There are interesting spots to stop along the way if one isn’t planning to do the ride in a single day. Our plan, ride straight to Hat Yai and aim to be there by 4pm.
Roy had a plan to break off at Prachuap Khiri Khan for breakfast so we broke off the road for a detour into Prachuap and found a noodle stall by the bay for breakfast. These were indeed the spiciest noodles I’d ever eaten. I only got half way through the bowl, then gave up. I can take my spices quite well but even this was too much for me especially at breakfast.
After breakfast, my stomach burning with the chilli’s we motored on. We stopped about 50km South of Chumphon for lunch. Chumphon is where the South of Thailand officially starts and passing here you can see the increasing presence of Islam. For me it’s a relief as there is abundant halal food. Waiting to pull a U-turn at a junction, out of nowhere a pick up truck in oncoming traffic lost control for no apparent reason and was heading right towards me. Fortunately (depending on your point of view) the truck veered into the central ditch and hit a tree. It kind of disintegrated with pieces flying off it in all directions. You definitely have to keep your wits about you when riding in Thailand. Thailand is known for having among the most dangerous roads in the world. April being the hottest month in Thailand, and by now the temperatures were showing 42 on the gauge.
We arrived in Hua Hin shortly after 4pm. Even at 4pm it was still 32 degrees. It had been a hot ride and we were glad to be arriving. After checking in we headed out straight for food and drink stopping at the walking street in the centre of town. Hat Yai is the main city in the South of Thailand and is a combination of Buddhist and Muslim Thai’s. It’s a key holiday or weekend destination for Malaysians coming out of North Malaysia so always quite busy with holiday makers especially Friday – Sunday. The hotel was the Red Planet in Hat Yai. Cheap and cheerful 3 Star hotel. Only 900 baht a night with a secure underground and out of sight car park for the bikes.
We found this bar / restaurant, The Post Laser Disc Bar / Restaurant that at the time was very quiet and empty. So we grabbed a seat for some quiet food and drink. However, very soon the place filled up as a live band was playing so we settled in for an evening of entertainment and made quite some friends in the bar. That’s one of the best things about Thai people. Where ever you go, you sit down and start talking with one and in no time you’ll be having conversations a whole group and they just love bikers and keen to know what we’re up to and where we are going.
One of the staff was Khun Noi who we noticed had a very stunning Tattoo.
The band members were a talented group of singers. We nicknamed the guy with the beard ‘Father Drugmas’. You have to be on something with a beard like that !!!
Motorcycle Chronicles by Jamil Siddique 