China Border Ride, Day 1 : KL - Surat Thani, Thailand

Ride Itinerary:

Day 1 : KL - Surat Thani

Day 2 : Surat Thani – River Kwai, Kanchanaburi
Day 3 : Kanchanaburi – Mae Sot
Day 4 : Mae Sot – Mae Hong Son
Day 5 : Mae Hong Son - Pai
Day 6 : Pai
Day 7 : Pai – Chiang Rai
Day 8 : Chiang Rai – Huay Xai, Laos
Day 9 : Huay Xai – China Border, Boten
Day 10 : Huay Xai – Chai Nat
Day 11 : Chai Nat – Hua Hin
Day 12 : Hua Hin – Hatyai
Day 13 : Hatyai – KL

Day 1 : KL – Surat Thani, Thailand

This is a post-ride report in December 2013..

Me and Otai planned to do 1864 Corners in Mae Hong Son and Golden Triangle in Northern Thailand. We planned to have a ride and easy for 14 days..

We named ourselves as The Two Armies as we are members of two different Motorcycle Clubs..

I left my condo from Damansara Perdana at 3.00 am. The plan was to meet Otai at Juru Shell Petrol Station, Pulau Pinang at 5.30 am..  As the I waited for Otai, the traffic in Penang was building up. Apparently, Otai arrived Juru Shell Petrol Station at 6.30 am and we arrived at Bukt Kayu Hitam at 8.30 am..

Fortunately, we travelled on Wednesday and Thailand Border Control was not crowded.. At 9.00 am, we’ve settled our documentations with Thai’s immigration and customs and continued our journey to Surat Thani on Route 4..

Along Route 41, we stopped at Amazon Cafe PTT in Patthalung for coffee. I always stop at this Amazon Cafe, which is located before intersection of Route 41 & Route 4..

We had brunch and refilled our bikes at PTT petrol station as we reached Thung Song, right after the intersection to Nakhon Si Thammarat. Since we had plenty of time without rushing to Surat Thani, we used Route 403 via Nakhon Si Thammarat and some coastal road on Route 401 towards Don Sak and Surat Thani.

We used the coastal road because we tried to avoid the bad road on Route 41 in especially from Wiang Sa to Tha Ruea, before  entering Route 44 Intersection in Surat Thani district. You’ll find many potholes and uneven road conditions which is very uncomfortable to ride with our Harley Davidson rear air suspension bikes.

 We finally reached Surat Thani at 1.00 noon.. First, we searched for Naraya Riverside Resort Hotel which is located near to Surat Thani Hospital. It is a newly built hotel and just being advertised in Agoda.com website..

The hotel is located in the small alley between housing area. From far, the hotel kinda look like a huge Modern-Thai bungalow house.. We could have mistakenly thought it was a private villa. As we entered the hotel, there were few guests had already checked in. We booked 2 deluxe rooms with pool view.. We got a cheap Flash Deal from Agoda.com website which cost us RM85.00 per room (excluding breakfast)..

Naraya Riverside Resort faces a quiet and peaceful river and its sunset view is beautiful! 

The swimming pool is located at the back of hotel and it is awesome.

We changed and went to Surat Thani town for sightseeing and had dinner at riverside.

For dinner, we've headed to Surat Thani Pier.. There are many street hawkers selling street food and the dining tables are set along the river.. Many tourists have dinner and drinks here before they get boarded onto ferries heading to Koh Samui and Koh Phangan.. i was told the night ferry provides beds as it arrives on the 2 islands in the morning.. The pier is a totally recommended place to be in the late evening with mates..

Today, we have clocked almost 870 km from Kuala Lumpur to Surat Thani.. The journey was slightly further than my usual because we diverted to Route 403 via Nakhon Si Thammarat.

HooRahh!!

Surat Thani, Thailand..

Heyya..

In July 2012, after spending 3 days in Koh Samui, i rode solo to Surat Thani to meet a friend of mine, who is Thai and been working in Koh Samui before.. Now she lives in Surat Thani and works for Chevrolet Thailand..

I took the 10.00 am Seatran ferry from Koh Samui pier.. i reached the pier almost an hour early so i stopped at a restaurant nearby to have a breakfast of Khao Mun Gai.. generally, Khao Mun Gai is a famous dish in Thailand, where Thais would eat it during breakfast, lunch or dinner.. Khao Mun Gai is commonly known as Chicken Rice in other countries.. Khao means rice, Gai means Chicken and Mun means the oil/fat dripping from the roast chicken..

Normally, i would have my Khao Mun Gai with a glass of Gaa Fae Yen.. Gaa Fae means Coffee and Yen means cold (normally it serves with ice cubes)..

After breakfast, i headed straight to the pier, bought ferry ticket for a big motorcycle and a rider which costs almost 260 Baht, if i could still remember the exact price..

The journey back to Don Sak pier took nearly 1 hour and 15 minutes.. met few Malaysian riders from Penang, on their way back to Malaysia after spending 2 days at Koh Samui..

Reached Don Sak pier, i was still on my carpenter shorts, t-shirts and flip flops.. i decided to ride to amphoe muang Surat Thani without changing to riding apparels.. i could ride as slow as 100 km/h with the shorts and flip flops..

Surat Thani is only 56 km from Don Sak pier.. Upon reaching Surat Thani, i had to search for Roi Koh Resort.. Initially my friend had booked a room for me but telling the name of the hotel is 1000 Island Resort.. i could not find the hotel in Surat Thani but  then i asked a receptionist at Centara Hotel, saying that One Thousand Island Resort is the name in English.. the Thai name is Roi (Thousand) Koh (Island) Resort, located very near to a huge Tesco Lotus..

The room is wonderful, spacious and clean.. it is facing a swimming pool and costs only 1,100 Baht per night..  Ooowieee!!

Had lunch at Kanchanadit for fresh Thai Oysters, Lobster Prawns and Crabs.. Kanchanadit is a fishing village, 40 km from Surat Thani city.. most Surat Thani residents would drive to Kanchanadit for seafood meals.. the price of the Oysters are very cheap, i.e. from 5 Baht to 20 Baht depending on its sizes and they are super fresh too.. HooRahh!!

Then we headed back to Surat Thani town to have desserts and coffee at an independent cafe, called My Cup Cafe.. In Thailand, there are lots of successful independent cafes and Starbucks / Coffee Beans are quite rare to be seen.. unless if u're in areas populated with farang.. the prices of coffee late, cappuccino, etc at the independent cafes are 60% lower than Starbucks because Thai consumers really put an effort to support the local coffee farmers, by brewing their local coffee.. this ensures the price of every latte remains low and affordable for all..

 

For dinner, we just had simple Phad Thai in the Surat Thani night market, next to Riverside...

Went back to the hotel, had a very good sleep and left Surat Thani in the morning for Kuala Lumpur (950 km, almost iron butt mileage)... Solo ride as always..

HooRahh!!

Ride: Surat Thani - Aranya Prathet, Thailand

Surat Thani - Aranya Prathet, Thailand (12/2/2010)

Heyya..

We left Surat Thani as early as 5.00 am as we knew the ride to Aranya Prathet will be the longest, hardest and it will hit us hard as we also had to go through Bangkok (BKK).. the word of Bangkok really scared us off.. we could imagine the busy traffic, narrow streets, hundreds of highways, toasty hot environment, getting lost, getting split up from the group, etc etc... we estimated the ride will be almost 1,000 km of distance..

From Surat Thani, we took Route 4 heading to the North.. we've passed Chumphon (also refilled fuel for those with smaller fuel tanks) and stopped in Prachuap Khiri Khan for lunch... the lunch was delish! with simple Thai chicken curry and salad..


We continued our journey through Route 4 and it was a boring and sleepy ride.. it was getting hot and we were riding on a straight motorway.. we knew the ride from Surat Thani to Bangkok on Route 4, we were gonna ride for almost 700 km of distance..



We stopped at Phetchaburi for our final resting place before we entered Bangkok.. we decided to ride close as we didn't want to split up in Bangkok..

Then we entered Route 35 via Samut Songkhram and Samut Sakhon heading to Bangkok city.. as bikes are not allowed to be on highway, we had to divert our route to Phra Pradaeng to cross the Chao Phraya River using a barge (a flat-bottomed boat for carrying vehicles, i.e. motorcycles)...

Before we reached  Chao Phraya River, i was very amazed with the traffic in Bangkok.. it is not advisable to ride big bikes in Bangkok as 'certain' big bikes can be overheated in the city... Luckily, my KLR 650 is Bangkok Traffic Approved!! It did not get overheated although the temperature only reached 3/4 of temp gauge... Brilliant! OooWieee!!



We've managed to reach the river and parked our bikes on the barge.. the ride to cross the Chao Phraya River took only 5 minutes.. we shared the barge with other small bikes.. snap couple of photos and continued our ride on the other side of Bangkok..

Since we left the barge, i have been following closely with Doc Holiday (Dr Nadir).. he is our group leader as he used GPS unit and has studied the Bangkok road map.. the streets were getting narrower and more cars, busses and lorries got stranded in the traffic..





As expected, our group split into 3 groups in Bangkok.. the other 2 groups got lost in Bangkok... when me and Doc Holiday reached Route 3 entry point, we waited for 30 minutes for the others... but only Zaini arrived at Route 3... so we've decided to continue our ride along Route 3 and find the exit to Chachoengsao.. we thought it will be a wise decision to wait for the others there instead in the middle of Bangkok city..

At the junction exit to Chachoengsao (along Route 3, Pillar #41), aka Charanyanon Road, we waited for the other 2 groups for almost 4 hours... Doc Holiday and Zaini tried their best to direct the rest to our location.. but it seemed others have got lost and didn't know their exact locations...

The day was getting dark.. it was 6.00 pm.. so the three of us decided to leave the rest behind and head to Aranya Prathet as we still had 250 km to ride ahead of us... it will be risky for us to ride in the dark...

Therefore we took Route 304 heading to Chachoengsao.. the traffic was still heavy as it was the peak hours... but we managed to reached Chachoengsao and headed to Kabin Buri via Route 304 (trunk road) for 55 km of distance..


It was already dark... we reached a junction before Kabin Buri and entered Route 33, heading towards Aranya Prathet border town.. it took us only ~100 km to reach the border town from Kabin Buri.. luckily, although it was already pitch black, the Route 33 is a dual-motorway.. this was my first night ride in Thailand... it was a great experience to learn riding at night in here...









Finally at 9.00 pm, we've reached Aranya Prathet... Doc Holiday's GPS pointed us to Phubesth Inter Hotel.. we checked-in, took shower and heading to the small town for dinner... we had dinner at a road-side restaurant and it was a superb authentic eastern thai dinner!!

For your info, Aranya Prathet is a border town of Thailand.. it is a gateway to Cambodia..



















The total ride we did on the 2nd day from Surat Thani to Aranya Prathet was almost 1,000 km for 16 hours.. that was officially an Iron Butt Ride!!


HooRahh!!

Next Ride: Entering Cambodia - Siem Reap, Cambodia