Day 62 - Ipoh to Singapore

Left Ipoh at 11.30am to begin my 600km ride home. I really need the weather to be on my side today as I won't be any fun doing a long ride in the rain.

As always, I bring sunshine wherever I go, although it did threaten to rain when I was on the outskirts of KL.

Along the way, stopped at ulu bernam for a break, at denkil for lunch and ayer Keroh for a coffee. The time now is 5.15pm. Should be able to reach home by about 10pm if everything is smooth. Really feeling lethargic after so many days on the road.Next rest stop as at Yong Peng.

I finally pulled into Station One Bulit Indah at about 10pm to have my dinner and unwind after a long and hard ride. The chicken chop I had tasted unusually good as I was feeling good about completing my seemingly impossible mission of touring on a 125cc bike.

Till next my next ride in 2 weeks time.
Betong! here I come!!!

Day 61 - Dannok to Ipoh

Feel must better today. Checked out of hotel at 12pm and to my horror, there is a huge jam at the border checkpoint. Wasted 1 hour clearing both checkpoints and I'm on my way again.

it's been a long while since I've been on the NSHW. Along the way, I saw the sign board which points the way to langkawi so I thought I'll make a detour to check it out.

Rode about 12pm to the jetty and there's a huge jam there too. Decided to stick to original plan and proceed to Penang as the weather don't seem happy today and it's no fun being on an island when it rains. But not before I gather some information about the ferry crossing.

Proceeded southwards on route 1 towards butterworth. Reached the ferry terminal at 4pm. The toll charged for a motorbike is RM2. It took about 20 minutes for the ferry to cross from the mainland over to Penang.

By 4.45pm, I was in Penang. However, things are not so rosy as it seems. Most of the hotels are fully booked and I'm not able to secure suitable affordable accomodation for the night.

At 6pm, after hearing 'fully booked' one too many times, I made the very very painful decision (for my appetite) to abort mission and head back to mainland as it looks like it's gonna rain anytime in Penang but sunny on the mainland. This time I rode back over causeway bridge. I find it so easy to press the 'quit button' when things are not in my favor. ^^

I assumed my adventure had ended the moment I touched down in Hatyai, but it was not to be. There is to be night riding tonight and onward I shall ride. Next break was KFC at Semongol for dinner. Time is 7.30pm and the sky is already dark. I'm tired and hungry.

I thought of climbing up Cameron highlands at night but the thought of another 'no more rooms rejection' made me give up the idea. Finally checked in to 'Good times hotel' in Ipoh at RM70 at 11pm. I was really tempted to go all the way to KL as I wasn't feeling tired but it wouldn't make any sense arriving in KL at 2am. So Ipoh it is. Hope the day doesn't get any worse.

12am went out to explore Ipoh town at night. Initially intended to go out for drinks but decided against it as I was feeling kinda down now as I had a lousy day. Ended up I bought Mac and went back to my room to watch soccer. Let's hope tomorrow will br a better day.

Day 60 - Hatyai to Dannok

After 5 days of relaxing and doing nothing much in Hatyai, I'm finally on the move again. This time to Dannok which is 60km south of Hatyai.

I had so much fun in Dannok last night and decided to stay here today as the hotels are expensive today in Penang. Isn't it a good excuse to stay in Thailand?!

Left Hatyai at 1pm under the blazing sun and started to ride southwards on route 4 very slowly, averaging just about 60km/h as I'm having a serious hangover today. 60km seems so far away and i can feel my tummy churning.

Went to find the Singaporean guy owns the brothel and he brought me to his friend's 'Florida hotel' where I checked in for 400B a night. The room was not bad. I'm damn tired and needed to rest. At 4pm I went for a 2 hour oil massage for 500B. Still feeling sick so I took my dinner and went back to rest.

At night went to Club spider and hello Bangkok for live entertainment and some ice cold beer. Left around midnight to go to a LAN shop as there's no wifi in the hotel. -_-

Day 56 to Day 59 - Relax @ Hatyai

Hatyai is a very familiar town to me as I've been here numerous times and have some friends here.
This is considered 'home ground' to me and I'm very comfortable here.

Some of the places that I've went to in Hatyai include:

-Lee garden
-Robinson
-Night bazaar
-Sugarbeat disco
-Nectar bar
-Boran Bann Buri
-Chonburi
-Swan
-Boo bar
-Shabushi

Not many photos as I was extremely lazy.

My parents left for Singapore on Tiger Airways 2pm flight on Thursday 08/12/2011 (Day 58) while I stayed on in Hatyai for a couple more days to unwind from my trip.

On Day 59, my friend's mum came to town and she brought us to Dannok (a border town 60km south of Hatyai) to party and have a good time.

Before I left for Dannok, I went to Winstar hotel to meet up with the 'Ridenorth team' who were in their way to MHS/GT and wished them all the best for their trip and prayed for their safe return.

Something comical happened as her Merc ran out of fuel just 3km outside of Dannok at the Customs house. When the fuel was replenished, the car can't start due to a weak batt. We had to call for reinforcement. The car did start miraculously after 20minutes and didn't give us another problem for the rest of the night.

We first went to visit her friend who was operating a brothel near the Grand Osar hotel and had some drinks and chit chat there. At about 12am, we went to Yes! disco which was a very very fun place which puts the other discos in Hatyai to shame.

The place was huge and the entertainment was fantasic and we super enjoy ourselves. We drank alot and went back stoned. It was a good thing that our driver no drink much and managed to send us back safely.

Day 54 - Ranong to Phuket

Left Ranong at 10.15am and went to the bus terminal to meet up with my parents who had left slightly earlier than me. They have boarded the bus which will be leaving soon. They will definitely reach before me as I will take about 5.5hrs to cover the 300km.

Moved southwards on highway 4 with the sky overcast and the road damp. I hope it doesn't rain as i got ground to cover. After about 1.5hrs, I stopped at Kuraburi for rest and fuel. The signboard shows that it is another 184km to Phuket.

Stopped at Khao Lak town to have fried rice for lunch. Earlier on, there was this joker on a small orange bike who tried to be funny with me by cutting into my lane and blowing his throttle at me in a corner not knowing that I only come to life in the corners. The devil in me woke up and I toyed with him for a good 5 minutes or so until he got scared and slowed down. He was not even wearing a helmet and I was just waiting for him to make a mistake. So evil...The best part was I missed my turn and had to detour back a good 5km. Wasted 20mins but had good fun.

Due to 'unforeseen circumstances', my parents have decided to proceed to Hatyai, leaving me stranded in Phuket for the night and feeling fucking pissed.

Checked in to 'Neptune hotel' hotel for 950B. It's nice, new and clean compared to the other budget hotels who have doubled their prices in the peak season. Just a freaking rip off I feel. After settling down, I quickly made my way to the many agogo bars at Bangla Road to drink myself silly.

Expenses:

Hotel - 950B
Petrol - 180B
F&B - 400B
Entertainment - 1500B

Day 55 - Phuket to Hatyai

Left the hotel at Patong beach and headed northwards towards the main land on highway 412 and turned in highway 4 towards Phang Nga where I stopped for lunch. Cost: 65B

After lunch, I continued southwards on highway 4 and stopped about 20km after Krabi for a tea break. Cost: 120B
The time now is 5pm and I will have to do night riding today.

Reached Trang at about 6.45pm and the sky is almost dark. I decided to postpone my dinner break till Patthalung which is about 55km away.

I think my super powerful led spotlights claimed it's first victim today. I was riding down the twisty and winding mountain road when I spotted a bike on the left side of the road wanting to turn into the opposing lane. So I on my lighted and flashed him. The next thing I saw was some light on the floor. I thought someone has thrown some firework onto the road so I swerved aside. But when I past it, I realized that it was a bike on the ground by the roadside. But this dark and forsaken place was no place to stop and help so I rode on till Patthalung where I had my dinner.

Finally reached Hatyai at 10pm and when to Swan for some food. It feels good to be 'home'

Contacted my parents and found out that they are staying at 'ambassador hotel'. It costs 580B and the hotel sucks, more like a whorehouse than a hotel to me. Quickly checked in, took my shower and went off to meet up with my friends.

We went to 'Chonburi restaurant' which has good music, great food and whisky. Got to know a waitress there named 'bear' who really resembles Justin. After the place closed, we thought of going to 'Nectar bar' but that too was closed at 2+am. So we ended up in 'Boo bar' to finish the night. Went back to the hotel at 4+am feeling totally drained of energy.



Expenses:

Petrol - 600B
F&B - 300B
Entertainment - 1000B

Day 53 - Side trip to Kawthung / Burma

Awoken by knocking on my door. Today we are going for a 1 day trip to Burma. We left the guesthouse at about 9.30am and walked to the market where we took the local lorry transport to the pier. (lorry bearing route number 3&4 - red colour will go to the pier) The fixed price is 15B per person regardless of the distance travelled.

Went to have duck noodles for breakfast before proceeding to the pier to arrange for the transport across to Kawthung. We booked a long tail boat for 200B (1way for 3 pax). And we had to pay an additional 20B per pax for the letter of conveyance.

The 4km boat journey took us about 20 mins and we had to stop briefly at a number of checkpoints:

After clearing Thai immigrations and boarding the boat:

1) Thai customs
2) Thai army
3) Burma customs

After the boat docked at Kawthung, the boatman led us to the Burmese immigration checkpoint where we hand to hand over our passport along with a photocopy of our passport and a crisp condition USD$10 for entry fee. After inspection of our passport, the immigration officer asked us how many days we were staying in Burma (fluent English) and stamped us in (passports returned to us)

My impression of the town is that it is quite similar to Ranong (due to the high Burmese immigrants) and it is slightly better than what I had expected. We were only allowed to travel within a 5km radius around the immigration checkpoint and no further.

After about 2 hours of exploring the town on foot, we got bored and decided to return to Thailand. Went to get our passports chopped out and took the long tail boat back. It was drizzling. Cost: 200B

After the 20min boat journey back, we cleared Thai immigration and took the transport back to town. I got my Thai Visa extended for another 15days.

It's quite an exciting and new experience for me but it will be my first and last time doing it.


Expenses:

Hotel - 1000B
Boat transport - 400B
Burma entry - USD$30

***All expenses not accurate due to sharing***