I was a little excited the day before the ride and couldn't sleep well. Being one of the youngest member in Team Hornets at 22, I was very inexperienced and had done little highway riding, and Melecca was the furthest I have ventured. Having taken out my p-plate only 3 months ago, I felt that there was quite a bit of risk for me to tag along with Endless and Spectrum on such a long ride. If any accident was going to happen, it was going to be to me. But riding to thailand was something I wanted to do since my p-plate days. I was not going to miss out on this opportunity to ride before the new semester began. Endless had 2 weeks leave and was itching to bring his STX out, hence the the sudden trip.
The usual team pic before the trip. 
Clocking the milege. We set off just after noon on Friday 20th July.
It started raining a short while after we left Petronas. What a spoiler... We ended up having an extended lunch break at Ayer Hitam. The wanton mee stall we went to during Pagoh challenge was as good as before. The boss gave us a treat as he knew Alan well.
We reached these pomelo stalls in Ipoh at 6pm.
Hmm... The pomelos were sweet... and so were the pomelo girls, Ah Ying and Xian Xian.
Xian Xian was very game and posed with us for pics. Upon reaching our hotel, we sought help from the mantainance crew to open the box. It wasn't too much effort and now my bike had a bungee cord securing it, making it look like an injured bike. Sobs...
Ipoh kway teow with chicken made a sumptous dinner for the night, after which we visited the night market.
Woke up at 5am thailand time for a hearty breakfast in Excelsior hotel.
What a spread!
Beautiful view of Ipoh's mountains from Alan's hotel room.
Easy riding. 
The secnery was captivating along this strectch.
Gerik mountains.
A river along Gerik highway.
Me and Endlessloop posing along the bridge.
Gerik had nicely curving roads. 
The weather was great for riding and we really enjoyed ourselves along this stretch of the road.
Almost reaching the thai border.
This was one of the candid poses... hands clasp together in thai fashion.
We entered the town of Betong. It was relatively peaceful, unlike the rest of Yala province where terrorist attacks were worrying.
This was the only tunnel in the thai kingdom.
The Betong post office was listed as a tourist attraction but this was incomplete. What a dissapointment.
Visiting a temple in Betong town.
The architecture was beautiful and the temple compound was very well maintained.
Alan offered his blackbird later on the return leg but i declined the rocket as it was too much for me. For your info, the Ringgit is accepted in Betong and customers are always quoted bills in both currencies.
Mr Xu, the owener of a tea house we rested at was a former communist soldier
We headed up the Piyajit tunnel. This was very tiring stuff...
The tunnel was dug by communist soldiers when they were fighting the Malayan army. It provided cover against air raids.
50 soldiers spent 3 months digging this 1km long tunnel.
One of the work rooms. Mr Lin explained that they used Morse code in the work room and intercepted radio signals form there.
Mr Lin explained to us how each section was bobby trapped and section leaders guided troops through the area by memory. 
Land mines were used to make Malayan advances to the communist difficult. 
Apparently, Mr Lin spent 20 years fighting the Japs, the British and then the Malayan army. He and his wife were former communist soldiers but are now citizens of thailand. At the end of the tour it started raining heavily and we were stuck at the exit for a while. Mr Lin entertained us with recounts of how he fought the Malayan army during his heydays. He confessed to shooting enemy troops but could not be sure of any kills. Jungle warfare was a messy stuff. And here he was, 20 years after the communists gave up the fight on 28 February 1976 when the thai government granted amnesty, guiding tourists around the cave. If we didn't ask, we wouldn't know the modest man's past. He was very enthusiatic recounting the war history and we learnt a lot about the communists' fight. The thais gave them refuge in Betong provided they refrained from disturbing the locals. In return for they obedience, they were allowed to used the mountainous area as a base and training camp from which they attacked Malayan troops, all the way to Pahang.
Endless volunteering for the cause? Hmm...
This kind of scenery is rare. Accending the mountain roads was tricky.
Alan, aka Spectrum with the bird
Route 4017 is a must ride for bikers when the weather is good.
Beautiful scenery.. and treacherous roads. Notice that there is no road barriers...
Skidding in any of the corners will bring fatal consequences.
The rain didn't make our ride any easier. We had to take the corners very slowly as there were mudslides after some of those blind corners.
Its not one those days to "buah katah"
At this point Alan decided against going further. The road was incomplete and we had zero traction. It was getting dangerous to push on.
The down hill ride on the way back was even more tricky. It was one of those times where first gear engine break was insufficient.
To make matters worse our tyres were covered in mud and the roads that were free of mud had stones, twigs and debris as it was under-used.
At least we saw Betong Garden before we U-turned and headed back towards the hotel. Alan told us that the architect of this road was the guy who designed Mae Salom. Well.. Hope its completed soon.
Last stop for the day was Betong hot spring. 
One of the locals was cooking eggs in this hot spring
Me and Endless fooling around the spring. It was so hot he could not place his hand in there for too long. I wondered how some of the tourists could dip they feet in them since you could cook eggs with the spring water. That ended the day and we headed back to the hotel to rest for the night.
We hit the roads early the next morning at 5am and crossed the thai border at first light.
We tried a new route, the Baling highway, which features impressive mountain views. Endless gave me some tips to improve my trunk road overtaking and that really helped a lot.
We headed back home on the NSH after this and the most part was in heavy rain. I lost count of the number of times I had to change to rain gear and back.
Our bikes was in need of a good wash by the time we reached Gelang Petah, still carrying some thai mud on it. A dinner was in order before we returned back through Tuas checkpoint. This trip helped me understand the higher end rpm range of my bike. The s4 proved to be a lot more powerful and reliable than I thought. I'm glad I chose the s4. 
We reached Signapore by about 7pm on Sunday. Total milege for the 3 days was 1700km. Not bad for a pplater, and a new milestone in my touring career. Up next will be Hornet's Track Day, Port Dickson ride, Cameroon Ride and a series of road safety talks in various army camps which our safety team comprising of Mr Lau, Alan, Endless and me are working with the Traffic Police. Hornet's forum is at http://www.moto-v.sg/forums/
1 comment:
Hi PPlater!
You have a nice blog!
And you were spotting and good company throughout our ride to Betong.
Let's go for more rides!
Endlessloop
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