Krabi, Hatyai & Christmas Cameroons

I realized my holidays cannot start without being on a road trip to somewhere. As it is, it also cannot be to somewhere nearby I have been to before. With each trip made I have to go somewhere further and challenge myself, to learn something new about myself and to explore.

We didn't know each other. There were only 2 ex collegues and 2 old classmates. We met on SBF and decided to ride together.

As with every trip, I am always the most inexperienced rider and riding the smallest bike. I guess I can get used to this. There were 2 FZ1s, 2 FZ6, 1 Varaderoo 1000 and a FJR1300. Its ok, I can live with my super4. This trip, 6 of us had never rode to Hatyai before. And only 2 of us had made border crossings into thailand. Yo was by far the most experienced, having made regular trips to Hatyai, Krabi and Betong and having toured nothern Thailand. We were going to need his experience. This tour had a little of everything-Highway, country roads and mountainous roads. We depart in 1 week on 20 Dec at noon.


Day 1 - 20 Dec - Chasing the shadows


We departed GP at 1220. This was a day to be remembered as the wettest I ever rode in. It was raining when I left home with the raincoat on, and I never took the rain pants off till we reach Sadao in Thailand. 300km into Malaysia there was some brief respite, some 50km of rain-free riding, but that was it, and we pushed on.

We stopped at Rawang RnR for dinner at 6pm. It was getting late. We were not sure if we could make it to the border in time. We ate in haste and moved on, refueling at Tapah RnR just before sunset. Here, William’s taillight blows. There was no more daylight and we were about to hit mountainous roads of Ipoh. His FZ6 certainly chose a perfect time to screw him up.I tried to alert him that his taillight was only working when he applied the brakes and otherwise it was not lighted. To make matters worse it started pouring really heavily. I couldn't see the lines on the road, and at times it was as if I was turning blindly into nothingness. There were few cars on the road and this made riding really difficult. At some point I slowed to 60 or 70 in a turn and still had my balls in my throat, not knowing if I was inching towards the barriers or some stray vehicle. I couldn't tell if there was any debris on the road more than 50 metres ahead and it would have been too late to spot them if there were any. William had his signal light blinking to warn rear vehicles.. The risk level was above my liking.

We refueled at Semanggul. We decided to make it to Gurun RnR in quick time, and then make a decision whether to wait there till dawn to make the border crossing. Before we rode off, William’s signal lights blows. Great. He is now a silhouette breaking the continuous flow of the reflectors along the dividers, a patch of darkness obscuring the ivory asphalt bathed in moonlight. I tailed him with hazard lights on. William started flashing his brake lights intermittently, and the frequency grew to a near panic whenever a fast car came up to overtake us. The poor sod was going to do this for another 200km. Thankfully, the rain eased here.

We make it to Gurun at 10pm and saw a van ferrying some thais across. We decided we could beat them to it and the border would probably still be open. We learn from them that since it's a public holiday, the border would remain open till almost 12 midnight. Without saying a word, Yo tooks turns with me to shadow William. It was easy to lose him if he drifted too far ahead, but somehow we make it to the border and crossed into Sadao at 11.35pm. We were too tired to ride to Hatyai and decided to rest at Sadao for the night. No pictures taken today as it was purely riding in the rain.


Day 2 - Hatyai


My earlier impression was that this was a sleazy town. I was certainly dissapointed because I didn't get to see the see the sleaze I wanted to see. I must have been in the wrong part of town. We spent more than an hour walking and found the seat customization shop for Rahmat's seat, as well as a repair shop, only to find a bike shop next to our hotel, Hatyai Rama hotel. He had a blown fuse and blown tailight. That was fixed for only 50 Baht, or about just over 2 Sing dollars. We also made some stickers and thai number plates, and hit the night markets and Big C shopping centre, which reminded me of a Singapore shopping centre.













When we squeezed into one of these tut-tuts, I was reminded of holidays I spent in thailand as a kid with my parents. Those days when i was still a kid...










Day 3 - To Krabi


We took Route 4 and turned into Route 411 leading into Krabi town. The convoy broke up when one of us made a wrong turn. I drew the short stick. Iw as stuck with the group that "horlan", but it was good fun. The weather was hot as hell at 34 degress celcius.



We needed to cool down badly. The locals were helpful in pointing us towards Krabi town.





The locals playing by the river.



While having dinner, we saw more than 10 of these vans driving by, blaring loud speakers. We realized the Thais were having elections the next day. As a result, we could not purchase any beer that night. The pubs served coke instead. Bugger.



We rode to Ao Nang Beach to explore. My impression was that there were too many foreigners in the area, giving the beach a very touristy feel. Things were significantly more expensive here, as it caters to tourists. Despite the developments, the beach was still a nice place to chill.



I took this while riding :P I should learn from Ah Seng how he does it so well. Many of my shots on the go were badly taken.

















On the way back, we noticed crowds of town folk gathering in front of TVs to watch soccer or movies. Not every household had a TV and this was the kampong way of bonding. I like it.




Day 4 - Phi Phi Islands and the Coral Reefs


We had signed up for the Phi Phi Island tour a day before, and a van came to our hotel to fetch us for the tour. We visited Phi Phi Ley, Phi Phi Don, Chicken Island (it really does look like a chicken), Bamboo Island, Viking Cave and Maya Beach. A couple years ago, "The Beach" starring Leonardo Dicaprio was filmed at Maya Beach. We went snokelling at some of these islands and had a great time sightseeing and checking out the corals and fishes. I don't remember when was the last time I did something for the first time, until I went snorkelling, so this was something new to us.





A speedboat took us out for the tour.



With the roaring twin diesel behind me, the wind rushing on my face and the crashing surf spraying outwards, I closed my eyes to indulge in the moment. I must have done this for too long, because I now am a little sun-burned.



I once read a ride report that the nothingness of the desert is a sight to behold. How about the wide ocean for you?



Phi Phi Ley


Phi Phi Don



Commercial firms were harvesting bird's nest from the Viking Cave and travellers were not allowed to enter. We could only observe the cave from sea.




Chicken Island does resemble a chicken, doesn't it?





Phi Phi Bay




The rest are underwater pics of the corals and fishes taken by Zali. He stepped right beside a sea urchin. A sea urchin is a little black ball with long spikes, somewhat like a poccupine, except a sea urchin's sting is poisonous. Being an hour or two away from land and possible evacuation, he really did cheat death by a couple inches. I'm not sure if there was anything on board that could delay a sea urchin's poison from killing stray victims.











THE BEACH




Thats where he came close to the sea urchin.




The tour lasted till evening, after which we went back to the hotel to rest. We rode to Ao Nang beach again at night to stroll the night market there and have a round of beer.

Zali and wife, Sophiana.


Kadeh on the left and Azmi on the right.





Day 5 - Christmas Eve - To Cameron Highlands


We departed Krabi and rode towards Sadao border, getting held up there for about an hour plus due to the custom jam as Malaysians were returning home from Thailand to spend Christmas Eve with their families, or so I guess. When we hit the base of Camerons it was dark, and that meant accending the mountainous roads in the dark again. Zali was the lead bike, and it took close to 2 hours to reach the top of Camerons because he couldn't see where he was turning into. He couldn't see the lines on the road, where the next curve was and when it did, how sharp was it. In his words "I was turning into nothingness." Me? I was at the rear of the convoy, so their lines helped a lot. No problems for me at the rear watching them take the road and following in their trail. We checked in at 10pm or so and had a rather costly steam dinner. By now I was rather sick of 5 days of Muslim food, but out of sensitivity and group harmony I withheld that craving for the Chinese steamboat all around us.


Day 6 - Deja Vu


I was here a couple months ago and here we are again. Well rested from the ride up, we visited the Boh tea plantation (again) and had tea. Quite a way to spend the morning. Although the tea wasn't fantastic, the cool crisp air was refreshing. I like it.







We elected the old Tapah route back home, instead of the newer Simpang Pulai route which we accended up, since the old route was newer to home and we wanted to check it out. At least, its something new for me. We came across a scenic waterfall and many stalls resembling a market beside the waterfall. Nice.


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Somewhere down the mountainous route of Tapah, I almost crashed. I was negotiating a long sweeper when an oncoming pick-up or something like that couldn't make it back into his lane in time. I braked into the outside of the turn. It was just too bad there was debris there, and i lost the front. Somehow, by luck, I released the front brake in time and kicked the ground to regain balance throught the turn. The kick was instinctive and honestly, I don't think I could repeat the same thing. I should have went down. I was lucky. Santa was watching over me on this trip.

We reached home at nightfall.