Globe NOMAD Rider...: Five Armies Day 2: Khao Lak

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Five Armies Day 2: Khao Lak - Chumphon, Thailand

Heyya..

I woke up early in the morning at Khao Lak to have a walk and watch the sunrise on the beach. The weather was warmer than yesterday as we had a rainy day from Krabi to Khao Lak. Today, we were hoping a hot and sunny day.

As i was walking back to the hotel, i met the guys who just arrived at the hotel's coffee house and were getting a table for breakfast, facing the swimming pool. They have already packed their luggage and ready to check-out after the breakfast.

We checked-out the hotel, kept our luggage in our panniers and ready to ride. Our journey today took us from Khao Lak to Chumphon for almost 300 km via the beautiful Route 401...

We visited Tsunami Museum since we were in Khao Lak.. Khao Lak was one of the worst places being hit by a massive tsunami in 2004..

We continued our journey to Chumphon via Route 4 and joined Route 401 after passing Takua Pa town. Although Route 401 is only 130 km, it has amazing curves and scenery. The corners are medium and long, therefore they really suit for huge and heavy Harley baggers to take corners from 3rd and 5th gear.

I let the guys to right in front of me and let them enjoying the curves with freedom. Obviously Otai and Najib NJ already far at the front and cannot be seen. They must be really enjoying the curves.

Passing the breathtaking Ratchaprapha Dam was spectacular. The 130 km of Route 401 ends near Surat Thani and there is a Caltex petrol station, which is our meeting point.

We finally reached the end of Route 401 and we joined Route 41 heading the North towards Chumphon. We had our lunch along the Route 41. Chumphon district is very notorious with rain and it rains almost every day throughout the year. We had an incident where Fauzan could not stop his bike at the traffic light (which turned to red) as he was approaching it. The road was slippery and he could have either locked his front & rear tires and fall OR just ride through the traffic light. He was lucky as the motorists on the other side saw Fauzan could not stop on time and they decided not to move, letting Fauzan passed the junction. Phewwww..

We finally reached Chumphon town at 2.00 pm.. We passed Chumphon Train Station and headed to A-Te Hotel. A-Te Hotel is located in the middle of Chumphon town and next to night market.

A-Te Hotel is a Harley Davidson friendly hotel which the hotel management allowed us to park in front of the hotel entrance and we received a warm welcome from the hotel manager. Our rooms were very clean and spacious facing the swimming pool.

We had an excellent dinner by the beach and came back to the hotel for a night swim at the pool..

Our journey took us from Khao Lak to Chumphon for almost 300 km via the beautiful Route 401... We could have gone through Ranong but we just could not resist the medium and long sweeping corners on our heavy Harley Davidson baggers.