Ride to Phatthalung (another unplanned trip)

Usually I love to ride alone. Riding on a long distance gives me peace of mind. Last Thursday my car was involved in an accident. It will take several weeks to claim insurance and repair it. I'm quite stressed and need an escape to clear my mind. Riding my kapcai to overland is the cheapest mode of travel.

Today, I decided to ride to Hatyai. It was supposed to be just a day ride and be back home by tonight.

Buying the compulsory 3rd party Thai insurance for vehicle at Petronas Changlun.

Today they offered RM10 only for insurance, TM6 white card & TM2 vehicle form. This is very cheap as normally it would cost around RM24 for all of them.

Seems there is an event in Dannok called the "Sadao Border Bike Week", I decided to enter Thailand via the Padang Besar border. Bukit Kayu Hitam border will definitely be jammed considering the bikers going to the bike week and other tourists with families going to Hatyai as today is part of the week long school holiday.

Road at Chuping with Bukit Chabang in sight.

Bukit Chabang @ Twin Peaks, Perlis.

As I reached Padang Besar CIQ, all the process went smoothly.

Padang Besar CIQ. Line clear...

I reached Hatyai, parked my bike near the Santisuk Market and strolling around by foot. Normally I would survey the military apparel stores, looking around for anything that might be of my interest. If my budget permits, I'll buy and if not, I'll just take note and start saving so that I could come again to buy in future. At the same time, my friend also asked me to look around for his airsoft rifle parts which are not available in Malaysia.

My original plan was to visit Sadao Border Bike Week event on my way back via Dannok. I was made known that my friend, Fadzil a.k.a. Kanji was in Dannok with his wife and their biker friends since last night. I texted Kanji, asking him about his plans today. He said he and his friends intended to ride to Phatthalung. I asked him are they going to spend the night in Phatthalung? He said no. They are going back on the same day.

That's interesting. I told him I'm going to join them. Meet me at the gas station not far from the Hatyai intersection. With the smartphone and the Google map app, I just gave him the RV location via WhatsApp. The evolving technology had made our lives easier.

Kanji and I. Friendship since 1986.

They rode from Dannok and we arrived almost simultaneously at the gas station. I filled up my tank and we proceed to ride to Phatthalung.

There were 7 bikes and 11 of us (4 with pillions):

• 4 Yamaha Y15ZR
• 2 Yamaha 135LC V1
• 1 Yamaha 135LC V4 (me)

The sky was cloudy and I expected that it would rain.

...and it rained. hehehe.

We stopped for a shelter at a steel store. After a few minutes, the rain stopped and we continued our journey.

Berteduh di kedai besi

The cute girl is one of the steel store staff.

We arrived at the Route 41 store. There were lots of stickers from various Malaysian and Thai bikers club on the wall. One of us put up the sticker, 'Workshop Burung Hantu'.

Workshop Burung Hantu

On my left is the store owner and on my right is one of the cafe staff.

We bought some t-shirts as souvenirs. Suddenly, the shop owner asked us about a bag which was left in the store by one of the bikers. The bag doesn't belong to any of us. That means a biker from other group that had left earlier had unintentionally left it there.

We opened the bag to check if there is any documents for us to contact the owner. In the bag there were some vehicles' documents and a Malaysian passport. Luckily, there was a contact number in one of the vehicle's insurance cover note. A friend, Akmam called the number. It belonged to a lady. She was the bag owner's wife and is in Malaysia. She contacted her husband and he called back Akmam.

We waited for the owner to collect his bag and he arrived shortly. The store owner gave us each the "Route 41" sticker as a thank you gesture for helping her to contact the owner of bag.

Kanji and missus.

Akmam and missus

The sticker that the store owner gave us each for free. Thank you!

After that, we continued our ride to the Bamboo Garden.

The place was full of bamboo trees. I really admire the Thais creativity in turning a bamboo forest into a garden/market for tourists attraction.

They sell various souvenirs with food and drinks stalls. Unfortunately, there were no halal food stall. However, Muslims have an option for food that were made from fishes/seafood and drinks made of fruit juices.

After we had strolled around and took some photos, we rode on to Lampam Beach.

Lampam beach is located at the most eastern part of Phatthalung. The beach is part of the vast Songkhla lake.

After that we look for halal food in Phatthalung town. The place is quite isolated from the main road. Another help that I got from Google to find the nearest halal food. Simple logic, search for a mosque first. Normally there will be several halal food outlets near a mosque in Thailand.

When we reached a Muslim food stall, they only have 'roti canai'. We were starving and asked the girl if they have any rice dishes. She went to check at another food outlet nearby and luckily that outlet served rice dishes.

The owner of the food outlet told us that they were about to close but he will still serve us considering we are Malaysians. Thank you! LOL

I just ordered seafood fried rice.

After we had our meals. We rode back to Dannok. The highway from Phatthalung to Hatyai was quite dark. It is not advisable to ride on that stretch of highway after dark. The highway from Hatyai to Dannok is ok, which was quite brightly lit.

We arrived at Dannok. There were lots of Malaysian bikers there attending the Sadao Border Bike Week. We went to seek for the famous local dish i.e. 'daging bakar' (grilled beef).

While looking for the food stall, someone waved at me. It was Abang Din from Manjung. Abang Din is an old friend of mine when I joined the Bikers.Net Group in 1999. It was during the time of eGroup, which was later changed to Yahoogroup and now we're still keeping in touch via FB and WhatsApp. No more Yahoogroup. Abang Din owns a Ducati Monster and a Harley Davidson while I'm just an owner of a kapcai. He's a humble and down to earth person and that's what makes me respect him.

Met Abg Din, geng BNG since 1999.

Daging Bakar at Dannok

After we have had our dinner at Bang Don Daging Bakar stall, four of us decided to go back to Penang while others stayed for another night at Dannok. Yes, it was quite tiring to ride more than 350km within a day.

The four of us crossed the border at 11.45pm (M'sia time) as the border at Bukit Kayu Hitam closes at 12midnight. I reached home at 1.30am.

In summary, our total riding distance is approximately more than 700km both ways. The map below only showed the straight line, but we rode in some distances which were out of the route shown in the map.

It was great riding with you guys. What an experience.

As the saying goes, "Unplanned trips are the best, because planned trips seldom happen."

Till the next ride.

Selamat!

.