SE ASIA - DAY03 - HATYAI to CHUMPON

November 19, 2017

SE ASIA - DAY03 - HATYAI to CHUMPON

As decided yesterday, I split today's route into two days to avoid draining myself out. Last thing I want is a fatigue induced injury/accident or falling sick. Instead of heading to Hua Hin, I will stop by Chumpon which is 480km away from Hatyai. This is estimate to take about 6.5hrs of riding.

The road forward is a new battle ground as I have never rode beyond Hatyai.

I have read from other people's experience that the road highway route 41 AH2 to Chumpon is filled with pot-holes. Many have found that this route is too time consuming and have choose to load up their motorcycle up the train and take the sleeper train all the way to Bangkok. I think this is practical for people who is tight on their schedule and this allows them to save up 2 days riding up to Bangkok for less than THB2000 (SGD80).

As for me, I have the time and didn't want to dilute the idea of doing the SE Asia ride with some minds lingering the thoughts on "eh, I thought you took the train also ?" .... "Might as well fly there lagi fast ? "

Surprisingly, the highways are in rather good condition, except in areas where they are traffic lights. I count that about 15 traffic lights from Hatyai to Chumpon. When you see traffic lights, slow down and be prepared to stop, the roads at the junction are filled with pot-holes, some of them are rather big pot-holes. After traffic light, 1 km beyond, the roads are back to good condition again, dont ask me why, it beats me too ! Average cruising speed is about 130km/hr, but scale down to 90km/hr when road conditions are doubtful.

There are abundance number of petrol kiosk and some equipped with 7-11 or other convenience stores. I had a bottle of milk and an egg sandwich for THB50 (SGD2.10. The egg is of those ONSEN TAMAGO(Japanese Hotspring) style, with Bacon, BBQ source and cheese. What funny combination, but it was good, especially when you are hungry.

When I tried to top-up my petrol the 2nd time, I totally forgot I have two large side panniers and the left side brushed against a barrier-post near the pump. Immediately, I lost my balance and let go of the bike to fall to the right side. I was okay, but the bike's right side pannier was bruised. I couldn't lift up the bike myself and the petrol kiosk girl have to come and help lift it up !! : ) After that, she give me the kind of "eh Uncle, you sure you know how to handle this bike ??" smile. Ok, now both the Pannier and my ego bruised, quickly set-off after paying her to top up full tank.

200 meters after the Petrol Kiosk, I feel that I cannot accelerate the bike and it is losing power, so I park the bike on the side and examined it. I smell burned rubber. The front wheel is jammed. Further check showed that the front brake has jammed the front wheel, so much that I couldn't even push the bike manually. It was like 10am and the Sun starts to heat up the roads and I was totally out in the open. There is an Esso petrol station but it is like 100 meters down the road and I couldnt even push the bike forward for 1 metre due to the front-brake jammed.

Ok, I tell myself to calm down, take out my jacket, have a drink and then slowly analyse the problem. My mind is thinking that it probably has something to do with the fall just now. So I checked the area of impact and noticed that the right ride hand-guard have been pushed upwards due to the impact with the ground. Due to that, it is pressing against the front brake level and that's why it appears to be jammed. After pushing it back to where is is suppose to be, the front-brake is released now. phew !

Continued the journey until going through two traffic jam due to traffic merging from another highway. Lucky for motorcycle, you are totally allowed to ride on the left most road shoulder as there are a lot of smaller motorcycles that cannot catch up with the speed on motor lanes. I did manage to evade the jam and reach Chumpon in 6.5hours.

The Nana Buri Hotel in Chumpon, cost THB800(SGD33) with breakfast. You can park your bike at the motorcycle lot right in front of the lobby and there are hotel staff there all the time. Perfect parking security. The WIFI in most Thailand hotels are quiet disappointing, while the signal is strong, the transfer rate is very very slow. I bought a tourist sim card at THB299(SGD12) and it has 2.5GB for 8days. If you happens to finish the 2.5GB, you can still use it at a throttled rate of 128kbps. I am writing this blog using my mobile phone's tethering.

Appears to be a very studious WIFI looking by the password.

Even the antenna is huge, that explains the full bar signal. Time for them to look into the bandwidth than the signal strength.

Ok, the daily riding sequence has to go like this,

1) Reach hotel, check in

2) Do the laundry

3) Put up the laundry to dry

4) Take shower

5) Go out and look for food

If you don't do your laundry first thing, when you set out tomorrow with wet laundry in plastic bag, you are likely going to wash it again due to the smell, you know what I mean.

When I book the hotel, I was informed by booking.com that this Nana Buri is in the middle of the Chumpon Town. The customers rated it good due to it's perfect location. When I walked out of the hotel, it looks like this, quite a quiet town.

Managed to find a shop hanging some chickens on their stall and I walked it. I pointed the chicken and say "one" , and then point to Coke advertisement and say "one". This is what I got, one Thai Chicken rice and a coke for THB50 (SGD2.00).

Chicken was not bad, the rice is a bit soggy compared to Singapore Chicken Rice.

I got to walk 3 streets away before finding a shop selling Singha beer.

Here I am, writing and drinking Singha !

During the evening, the quiet town was slowly transformed into a busy night market, without the tourist. You really get to eat what the locals eat.

I saw a local buying the horse-shoe crab for THB100(SGD 4). The seller pry the crab open and scrapped out all the roe and a bit of meat and then repackage it using the shell with shrink wrap.

I was very tempted to try, but I could just imagine a super fishy taste which I am likely to dump it after one small bite. Poor crab, better let it die a more worthy death by having itself eaten full by another person,, so I gave up.