Mae Hong Son (3rd Time) : Hua Hin - Mae Sot

Heyya..

On the second day of my Ramadhan 3rd Solo Ride to Mae Hong Son's 1864 Corners, i started with great breakfast provided by Colonnade Hotel in Hua Hin.. the breakfast was taken placed at Tom & Tom coffee shop..

The ride to Mae Sot is only 700 km from Hua Hin.. i planned my ride would take at least 7 hours to complete and my average speed always be 130 kmph and i might do couple of rest & re-fueling stops in between..

Then went to Hua Hin Train Station which was located 1 km away from Colonnade Hotel.. I have been to the train station for few times but never took a photo with my bike..

I started my journey to Mae Sot at 9.00 am from Hua Hin.. I knew i started a bit late after taking photos at Hua Hin Train Station..

So i started my ride via Phet Kassem on Route 4 after i exited Cha-Am.. As i rode to the North, there's a signage pointing Bangkok and Samut Songkhram on Route 35..

On Samut Songkhram's Route 35, it leads to Samut Sangkhon and Bangkok City via Bangkok's outer ring road, Kanchana Phisek of Route 9.. The traffic gets heavier and heavier as i am riding along the Route 35..

As i am approaching Bangkok city, i had to exit the Route 35, near Thanon Rama II.. There is a big blue Motor Highway lights and toll booths at the end of Route 35.. before the toll booths, there is an exit junction of Route 35, which connects to Kanchana Phisek's Route 9 and took that exit.. The distance from Samut Songkhram / Phet Kasem interchange to Thanon Rama II is merely 75 km..

Along the Kanchana Phisek Route 9, this is where i have to be aware of all the road / route signs.. it's a bit tricky as there are many interchange junctions and i must be aware of the building traffic.. sometimes the route signs could be blocked by huge lorries and busses on the slow lane.. therefore i just need to be alert of the signboards while riding in between cars through Bangkok traffic..

Finally, after 82 km riding along Kanchana Phisek of Route 9, i reached the AH1-Route 32 - Route 1 huge interchange also known as Pratunam Phra-In interchange.. Then i proceeded to ride on AH1-Route 32 highway and Ayutthaya town interchange is not very far.. only 23 km from the Kanchana Phisek interchange..

I planned to go to Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya town for a coffee break and few photo shots of Ayutthaya.. It has been almost 2 and half hours of riding and i have covered 300 km of distance from Hua Hin..

After 30-minute coffee break, i started my ride back on Route 1 towards the North.. I had a lunch break at PTT Kamhaeng Phet before headed to Tak.. The distance from Ayutthaya to Tak is merely 340 km..

As i was approaching Tak town along the Route 1, there is a T-Junction which leads to Mae Sot, Route 105..

I ended my ride in Mae Sot as the 1864 Corners will start from Mae Sot to Mae Hong Son.. On Route 105, the distance is approximately 80 km to Mae Sot from Tak junction..

The 80 km of riding is the "warm-up" ride of Mae Hong Son's 1864 Corners where the Route 105 starts to be hilly and full of corners in the mountains.. This is very encouraging as it builds up the riding spirit after the long, straight and boring 700 km of riding from Hua Hin to Tak.. 

I made a room booking via Agoda.com for the best hotel in Mae Sot.. it is called Centara Mae Sot Hill Resort.. It has nice, big and clean room,  swimming pool and serves a huge spread of breakfast buffet.. It costs RM120.00 per night..

It has a nice music bar where i could chill listening to music, updating my blog and drink..

Ride in Style.. HooRahh!!

Mae Hong Son (3rd Time) : KL - Hua Hin

Heyya..

During the first week of Ramadhan (July 2013), I rode my new Harley Davidson Road Glide to Mae Hong Son's 1864 Corners in Thailand.. It was my Third Time of riding to the infamous 1864 Corners also known as A Thousand Corners..

At that time, i just picked up my new Road Glide within 2 weeks.. i really wanted to prove how good my Harley Davidson Road Glide Custom FLTRX would handle in 1864 Corners.. it is normal routine for me to ride to Mae Hong Son's 1864 Corners every time i buy a new bike.. The first time i rode solo to Mae Hong Son with Kawasaki KLR 650 Redbull.. a few months later, i sold the KLR 650 and bought the BMW GS Adventure and went to Mae Hong Son.

The trip to Mae Hong Son with my new Road Glide was also done solo..

The route:
KL - Hua Hin -Mae Sot - Mae Hong Son - Chiang Mai - Ayutthaya - Pak Chong (Nakhon Ratchasima) - Chumphon - Trang - KL


KL - Hua Hin

I left KL at 3.00 am... i reached Gunung Semanggol (Bukit Merah) RnR for refueling and did another refueling at Changlun, then rode straight to the border. Surprisingly during early Ramadhan month, the queue at Thai Border Control was not busy.. it took me only 20 minutes for the immigration and customs process..

I  needed to remind myself that the journey on the first day always had to be hard and far... very far.. Kuala Lumpur to Hua Hin, the distance is more than 1,300 km.. I had to remind myself that i was riding a Harley Davidson.. not a BMW GS Adventure..

Hence, there will be more refueling stops and slightly slower average riding speed compare with the GS Adventure.. Subsequently, I would be spending more time on the road..

I stopped for my first coffee break at Amazon Cafe @ Phatthalung PTT Station for large Espresson Yen which costs 55 Baht.. By the way, Phatthalung Amazon Cafe is my routine coffee stop..




Since i hadn't had breakfast, i decided to have breakfast at Thung Song's PTT Station.. There, i met my girlfriend's uncle, P'Ell, who runs a custom bike shop in Trang.. He and his Exciting (Trang) Bike Club were heading to Nakhon Si Thammarat for Bike Week..

 

The weather was hot and good for the Dunlop tires.. Riding the Road Glide, with music blasting loud, really made me wanna ride for a longer journey..

Always had the idea for bringing my Macbook Air to update my blog.. but i ended up updating it 2 months later.. Lmao!

i I finally reached Hua Hin at Colonnade Hotel at 3.00 pm... what a great achievement for my Road Glide for covering more than 1,300 km on its first long distance run with the average speed of ~145 km/h.. What a ride!!

Checked-in at Colonnade Hotel, jumped into swimming pool... then headed for dinner at MK Restaurant nearby..

Next day ride, i was gonna be riding from Hua Hin to Mae Sot via Bangkok's Route 32 and Route 9, then a coffee break at Ayutthaya..

Ride in Style.. HooRahh!!

Ride: Pattaya - Hua Hin, Thailand

Pattaya - Hua Hin, Thailand (18/2/2010)

Heyya...

I was too excited to leave the busy Pattaya as my next destination would be Hua Hin.. I've read lots of good review on Hua Hin..

Hua Hin is a beach resort place, near 200 km south of Bangkok, where most Bangkok residents would visit during weekends.. Unlike Pattaya as westerners would prefer... Hua Hin is the oldest and most traditional Thai holiday resort.. Hua Hin is also known as the Royalty's favourite beach resort.. 

We left Pattaya at 7.30 in the morning... the traffic was building up, but we were lucky to leave a lil bit early.. We joined Route 3, which led us to Bangkok city...

Moments later, we passed Si Racha and Chonburi town.. Upon reaching Bangkok city, we decided to ride closely and did not wanna get lost as some did in the beginning of the tour...

Almost 1.5 hours from Pattaya, we successfully reached Phra Pradaeng @ Chao Phraya River... we took the same barge, which we did on our first Bangkok trip and cross the Chao Phraya River... we then continued our ride heading towards Samut Sakhon and led to Samut Songkhram on Route 35..

We then exited the Route 35 and rode along Route 4, which is the highway to the south coast of Thailand..

About 120 km later, we reached Hua Hin... OooWiee!!! 

Usually Hua Hin will be packed during weekends and i was lucky to be there on Thursday... so the Hua Hin beach town would be less crowded...

We reached Hua Hin and checked in at a hotel which is located along the Market Street, Dechanuchit Road... the hotel is called Baan Permchan, is so clean and i love its interior... also, the hotel owner was very soft-spoken and very friendly...



The room is simple, bright and clean.. i was very happy with the room.. in fact, i could go to the top floor to do laundry and the hotel has a beautiful sight of Hua Hin at night...

"The best known of these is definitely Hua Hin night market. A visit here is an absolute must during your stay. It is located in the centre of town and runs up from Petchkasem Road to the railway line and opens from around 18.00.  Most stalls will start to break down at approximately 23.00, however some selling food will stay open until dawn.

The market is a fascinating insight into Thailand and the way Thais like to live. You will find countless outlets selling delicious food that is freshly cooked and served to you within a matter of minutes. 

Do also take a look behind the stalls on the pavements because there are plenty of restaurants there as well. Other than the food, you'll discover an overwhelming variety of local handicrafts, souvenirs and clothing on sale. 

The night market can get very hot and busy at weekends, so take your time here. Prices can also be a bit more expensive than other markets in Hua Hin, but they still represent good value."

After checked-in, we had a wonderful seafood lunch.. it was seafood fried rice and crab meat cooked with curry leaves.. Delish!!!

Then we headed straight to Hua Hin beach and jumped into the sea... the beach is very clean and the water is blue, crystal clear.. i swam couple of hours and took few breaks accompanied with bottles of cold beer by the beach.. wickedddd.. 

As me, Zaini and Piee spent few hours by the beach, it was time to head back to our hotel...

As mentioned, our hotel is located along the Market Street... hence we had to walk through the night market.. it was good as we had the chance to see and buy souvenirs, gifts and food along the night market... the night market is not as busy as what you'd think.. i could see there are lots of Russian tourists at Hua Hin...

*photos courtesy of Zaini Zaid

To me, Hua Hin is the best place of all the places i have been through out the journey.. it was good to chill out in this town...

After dinner, i decided to have a walk along the Night Market and headed to Hilton Hotel.. Hilton hotel is located only 1 km away from my hotel.. there are pubs and bars between Hilton and my hotel... i decided to have a drink at Captain Inn Bar and made friend with a bar hostess, Miss Dao..




*view from my hotel.. right along the night market and beach @ Hilton is not far away (top left building)




Then i joined Piee, Zaini, Doc Holiday and Doc Gwendy at a walk-path bar, facing the sea near Hilton hotel... the sea view was beautiful, even at night.. it's such a great place to chill in the evening...

Total journey we did from Pattaya was 320 km and took us almost 3 hours to reach Hua Hin beach... I really enjoyed most of my time at Hua Hin beach... I will definitely be visiting this beach again..



HooRahh!!

Next Ride: Hua Hin - Hatyai, Thailand