Onwards and upwards into Thailand

I ended up staying in Penang for three nights - the couchsurfers there took great care of me (thanks to Kendra and Mun in particular), as did the staff at the Blue Diamond hotel. George Town has a real, whacked out travellers feel and is an easy place to lose yourself for a few days. I did a quick tour of the island as well - the war museum and the tropical fruit farm were very interesting, and the national park in the NW corner has great roads and scenery.

With fellow couchsurfers in Penang - Happy Lee, Mei Mei, Kendra and yours truly

Malaysian cuisine is as varied as the various groups that make up the country, but Penang is mainly Chinese, so that's largely what was on the menu. Now the Chinese don't hold back on the ingredients, and I'll try anything once - boiled frog was surprisingly good (yes, it does taste like chicken...)

Ribbet

But all good things come to an end, and the caravan rolled out of George Town bound for the Thai border at Betong, and on to Hat Yai. This route looked more interesting than the highway which leads directly north from Penang, but it's not that remarkable on the Malaysian side. But as soon as you cross into Thailand, it's like entering a war zone. There has been a lot of insurgency on that side of the border, and there is a military checkpoint at the entry and exit to every village between Betong and Hat Yai. I passed about half a dozen Hummers (and not the soccer-mom version - these bad boys have machine guns on the roof). I'll leave that image to your imagination - since the soldiers were wearing bandanas to conceal their identity, I decided that pulling out the SureShot would not be a good move.

Thai border - hippies not allowed

I chugged on through Yala and arrived in Hat Yai after dark. It was a bigger city than I expected, and although I had the name of a hotel that had been recommended by another biker, I had not bothered to mark in on my GPS. When I stopped to ask a group of locals if they knew where the Yong Dee was, one of them was immediately enlisted to escort me there on his moped - service indeed! The Yong Dee was fairly sumptuous by my current standards, and at 500 Baht (10 quid) with secure off-street parking, definitely gets a thumbs up. The food in Hat Yai is fairly good too. Not much to do there (the best compliment that the Rough Guide can find is "Malaysians go there to get laid"), but a reasonable stop-over.

The next day, I decided to head for Phuket, which is a 450km slog along the 4 highway. Not very remarkable - a bit like the A1 - although I did run into Eddie, a mechanic with a bike shop in Krabi who was coming back from a parts run to Singapore on his Yamaha Drag Star. We rode together as far as Krabi, where he bade me farewell. In Phuket, I headed down to Karon Beach where I checked into the Little Mermaid. Another clean, air conditioned hotel room, although the price reflects their top billing in the Rough Guide (1,400 Baht). I got a complementary 240 volts from the shower as well.

Eddie and his Yamaha Drag Star

Phuket is quite an experience - I don't think I've ever seen such a big holiday destination in my life - miles and miles of neon, restaurants, and... hookers. Now obviously, Thailand has a bit of reputation that department, but I was still astounded. Even the US Navy sailors seemed somewhat taken aback. Apart from the hookers, the other dominant group were Swedish tourists - old couples, newlyweds, families - from every demographic, the Swedes were out in force. Not sure it would be my first choice for a honeymoon - a bit like celebrating your anniversary in a brothel - but there you go. Fun spot though... great food, bars, live music... so I stuck around for an extra night, this time at the Nine Ten in Patong Beach, which was better located than the Little Mermaid, just as nice, and half the price...

Obviously, the centre of Thailand is renowned for islands, beaches and scuba diving, but this is a motorcycle trip, so I decided to press on. Kanchaburi is the next 'destination' but that's a couple of days ride from Phuket so I overnighted at Chumphon (sounds like Trumpton...). There's really no alternative to the 4 highway, which runs up the Andaman Coast, an area that was decimated by the tsunami in 2004.

A monument to the tsumani - now sitting 2km from the coast...

Towards the end of the day, I'd reached the Isthmus of Kra (which sounds to me like something from the Lord of the Rings, but Paul reckons it's named after a restaurant in South Melbourne). The 4 highway crosses from the west to east coast, but I was ready for a little more excitement after a long day in the saddle. On the map, there appeared to be a shortcut running through La Un, which was variously named the 4091 / 4139 / 4014, but it didn't appear on the GPS. As soon as I peeled off the highway, things got interesting - steep climbs and incredible views. There's a maze of winding roads and only one of them makes it over the top of the mountains and across to Khao Khai on the Gulf side of the range, but it's worth finding. Eventually you climb out of the villages and the road turns to dirt for about 5km, but the views are incredible - on the Gulf Coast side, there are stunning limestone crags.

On the Andaman side...

On the Gulf side...

Limestone crags...

A quick word here about GPS. I bought a $400 Garmin 60CSX GPSMAP for the trip. It's a 'rugged' model designed for hikers and bikers (i.e., it has the ergonomics of a late 80s cellphone), with a handlebar mount and a USB connection to the bike electrics. Now this isn't like the Tomtom in your car - there is no commercial GPS software for places like Thailand, and at best you can download maps created by enthusiasts, which are not very detailed and not complete. But here's where the GPS is truly invaluable: if you're trying to hack across country on a road that's not shown on a map, it shows you (i) exactly where you are, (ii) exactly where you're trying to get to, and (iii) which direction you're travelling in. Perhaps most importantly of all, it provides a 'breadcrumb' feature showing exactly where you've been, so that if the worst comes to the worst, you can easily retrace your steps. Some adventure bikers say that you can't do without a map, which is true. But if you really want to go off the beaten track, the GPS is a lifesaver. I'm a fan.

Er, I think it's left...

The last 60km to Chumphon involved weaving through heavy trucks on an unlit 41 highway after dark, although I must say that while the Thai driving style is 'pragmatic' (lane markings, road signals etc. are treated as 'advisory'), they are also very attentive and courteous. I had already plugged into my GPS the co-ordinates of the street with the hotels, and the Sureya proved to be a good clean option at 190 Baht (4 quid), plus I could park the bike in the lobby and chain it to their metal bannister. Just down the road is a backpackers hang-out called Fame, which does a really excellent Mussaman curry for 120 Baht - sometimes these backpackers hostels can be the best-run establishments in town (and no doubt the most profitable...)