Ferda and I are pretty lazy bicycle tourists. We rode with Jack for about three weeks from Cha-Am to Krabi. Then we spent the next three weeks island hopping with more time sitting on the beach than sitting in the saddle. After a week on Koh Kradan we pedaled four days to Kangar, the largest city in Malayia’s smallest state, Perlis.
In these last days in Thailand we were reminded of the good things about bicycle touring here: it’s very easy to be in Thailand, the food is good, the hotels are clean and comfortable, and the people are wonderful. We never did find an adventurous side like in Sulawesi or the Philippines. Whether that’s an advantage or disadvantage depends, I suppose, on your point of view.
On the boat from Koh Kradan to Kuangtungku we got some views of Koh Muk. We’d heard good things about staying there.
That evening we found a great hotel in Yan Ta Khao
and bought dinner at the night market.
Those night markets are fun, but there are rarely places to sit. We did what the Thais do — take the prepared food home to eat.
Ferda’s biggest complaint about Thailand was the dogs. A couple times through here she overruled our bicycle navigation, preferring to stay on larger roads where the dogs are (usually) not as aggressive.
We had one of our hilliest days in Thailand, but mostly it was flat through rubber and palm oil plantations, like all the riding we did in Thailand.
At first I thought these might be tobacco, but they’re rubber saplings to be replanted when they get bigger. The rubber trees are tapped for latex for about 20 years. Then the trees are harvested for the wood. In spite of synthetic rubber there’s still demand for the natural stuff apparently.
The highlight, as always in Thailand, was the food.
We saw more hills as we got closer to the border.
Ramadan had started by this point, and some of the provinces in southern Thailand are Muslim-majority, but people didn’t seem to mind that other people were eating and drinking. For example, three sisters who were fasting served us watermelon outside their home. Our final night in Thailand was just a few kms north of the border. The restaurant at our hotel here was closed for Ramadan, but the owner prepared us this dinner and served it in our room.
The Khuandon Immigration Checkpoint (aka Wangprachan Boundary Post, aka Wang Kelian immigration post) was an easy crossing. We were able to eat breakfast on the Thai side before crossing the border, but we were too early (8:30am) for the money changer. The town of Wang Kelian didn’t have anything, but by asking around a bit in Kaki Bukit we found a money changer who gave us a good rate for the rest of our Thai baht.
To get between Wang Kelian and Kaki Bukit, we avoided a 250m pass on the main highway by following a water line track, a decision that Ferda was not happy about.
This part of Malaysia was pretty with rice fields instead of the familiar rubber and palm oil. On the map there appeared to be pleasant small roads all the way to Kangar, but we stuck to the highway and managed to get a bus that afternoon to Penang — more lazy bicycle touring!
