Betong to Satun

This is the route that google maps gave me for going from Betong to Satun.

I took 2 days to make this ride. I had planned a more remote route but having encountered some roads that scared me on previous rides I decided to take the safe route.

I headed out from Betong and turned right to avoid going through the center of town on what Google showed as alternative route until I wound up at the Malaysian border.

I guess I need to be a little more careful when picking my routes when close to a border. I turned around and made my way to route 410 and headed north staying in Thailand. Not sure about taking the bike across the border but I don't have a re-entry stamp in my passport so would require me to get a new Thai visa if I left the country.

I spent a night in Hat Yai to break up the ride and then the following morning I continued on to Satun.

Satun is not really on the tourist trail. When I was trying to plan what to do in Satun most everything I looked at only had the island of Lipe and I am not much of an island person. The only tourist attraction I had planned was the Satun National Museum and it was closed the days I was in Satun.

I clicked on Tam Malang Observation Tower (หอคอยชมวิวตำมะลัง) on Google maps and decided it would be a good place to visit.

I have spent a lot of this trip looking at the Gulf of Thailand on the east side of Thailand but now I was on the west side of Thailand and was got to look at the Andaman Sea.

After walking around the pier at the site I proceed down the raised walkway through the mangrove forest and to the tower.

I climbed up the stairs to the top of the tower thinking I would get a good view out over the Andaman Sea and this is the best view I had.

While I was sitting in the tower catching my breath from the stairs I decided to do some searches on my phone. At various coastal locations on this trip I would look up and see a raptor flying high above me with a brown body and a white head, it reminded me of a bald eagle. I believe what I had been seeing are white-bellied sea eagles. Following are a couple of pictures I downloaded off the internet.

When I was descending the stairs of the tower I noticed some branches shaking in some nearby trees. When I got to the ground I went over to see what the movement was and saw a troop of Dusky Leaf Monkeys.

I couldn't capture a good picture or video of any of the monkeys but this is the best I got.

I made my way back through the mangrove forest and rode back to the town of Satun. I found a hotel and then a laundromat before going to the night market for an evening meal.

Narathiwat through Yala City to Betong

This is the link for the route I took from Narathiwat through Yala City to Betong.

I made my way to the city of Yala and rode past the City Pillar without stopping or knowing for sure if that was what it was. I stopped at the Yala Clock Tower (หอนาฬิกา), snapped a picture and figured out it was the city piller in the middle of the last traffic circle.

I tried to add the main Mosque in Yala to my route plan but somehow got Google Maps into some kind of freaked out state. When starting the route the map it would switch to some location a long ways away from where I was. I could zoom out and see the route and where I was but if I hit re-center it would zoom in to some random location.

The directions at the top of the screen seemed to working so I followed them but ended up at Wat Kuhaphimuk (วัดคูหาภิมุข) and not the city mosque.

Wat Kuhaphimuk was a planned stop so I just visited it and skipped a stop at the mosque.

Wat Kuhaphimuk has a lot of stairs up to a cave temple. Not sure it was worth climbing the stairs but I got some pictures.

I had seen a YouTube video that said Route 410 between the city of Yala and Betong was one of the best motorcycle routes in Thailand. I had rode about 60 or 70 kilometers of this route and had a turn coming up so thought I was almost to Betong. I thought there has been some pretty scenery but not really an amazing ride.

I had misread my GPS and still had about 60K to go to Betong and that 60K was a really fun and pretty ride. My phone had me turn onto route 4363 and then route 3006 which ended connecting back to route 410. Not sure if taking those roads saved me any time but those roads had very little traffic and was a really fun ride.

I did this ride on a Saturday and encountered large groups of riders on route 410 before turning off the main highway. When I returned this way 2 days later I made a point to stay on route 410 and it was also a fun ride but with more traffic even without the weekend riding groups.

I didn't take any pictures on the ride south but stopped at a view point on the ride north. These are from a section of 410 I had bypassed on Saturday for this photo.

I spent two nights in Betong and this is my route plan for the Betong Sites.

I had planned for stopping at the Betong Clock Tower (Betong City Centre) (หอนาฬิกาเบตง) and the World's Largest Mailbox (ตู้ไปรษณีย์สูงใหญ่ที่สุดในโลก) later in the day but went right by at the start of the day. Here are the photos.

My next stop was at the Winter Flower Garden in Betong (สวนหมื่นบุปผา เบตง) and is was a great ride to get to the entrance. Once I was there I just didn't feel like going in for some reason.

I snapped a photo near the entrance and then stopped again above the gardens and snapped another.

I rode on up to the entrance to the Piyamit Tunnel (อุโมงค์ปิยะมิตร) but again decided not to go in. I think I have become a bad tourist. The tunnels site is the top tourist site in Betong and I had no interest in seeing it. I did take a picture from the road.

I really enjoyed ride out to and past these tourist sites even though I didn't go in. It was a lot of fun on these twisty roads through the mountains.

I made my way back into town and made a stop at Phra Mahathat Chedi Phra Phuttha Thamma Prakat (พระมหาธาตุเจดีย์พระพุทธธรรมประกาศ).

In Betong I also stopped at Wat Phothisatto Chao Mae Kuan Im (วัดโพธิสัตโตเจ้าแม่กวนอิม).

I had time left in the day but had visited all the stops that I had planned. I guess when you skip going into places you save a lot of time. I sat in a coffee shop and looking at Google maps came up with an idea of a loop to ride and another temple to visit.

I rode over to the start of my planned loop and found a muddy mess of a road and abandoned my loop idea.

I headed out to the temple I had found on the map. I missed a turn so backtracked and then missed another turn and was riding down a small road that was not on Google maps. This non-mapped road had some pretty views.

I went on down this road until the pavement stopped and kept going until I got to a section that looked to be used very little and was very steep. I decided this was a good place to go back the way I came.

I think on my return I found the missed turn to the temple but decided I had done enough exploring for the day. I abandoned visiting this temple and called it a day.

The area around Betong was really pretty and I was happy I made the trip to the southern tip of Thailand.

Pattani to Narathiwat

This is the link for my planned route from Pattani to Narathiwat.

This day was full of riding along the coast and looking out on the Gulf of Thailand.

I am ashamed but I am not sure which picture goes with which beach. I will arrempt to get them correct but please don't plan travel on what I put here.

My first stop was at Penarik Beach (หาดปะนาเระ).

I was riding along and just turned left down an unknown road and wound up here.

My next stop was at Ratcharak Beach.

When I road down to the beach I pasted this mosque so stopped and snapped a picture when I was passing on my way back to the main road.

Once again I saw a sign pointing to a beach so off I went but don't think I made a point to get the name of this beach.

I think this is Wasukri Beach (หาดวาสุกรี) but when I look at pictures on line of Wasukri Beach I don't see a light house so now I'm confused.

My last beach before riding through the city of Narathiwat was Ban Thon Beach (หาดบ้านทอน).

I would say that Narathat Beach is part of the city of Narathiwat. I stopped on a bridge on the way to the beach for a picture and then a picture of the beach.

I seem to have a knack for arriving at a Mosque as prayer is taking place. This was the case at Masjid Klang Pracha Changwat Narathiwat (มัสยิดกลางประจำจังหวัดนราธิวาส) so just took a picture.

I seem to have entered the temple grounds at Khao Kong Temple (วัดเขากง) via the wrong entrance. Google maps had me going in circles and wanting me to turn in places there were no roads but I eventually found my way over to the big Buddha.

San Chao Mae Kow Leng Jee (ศาลเจ้าโก้วเล้งจี่) was my final stop of the day and I was getting ready to snap a quick photo in front of the temple when a lady showed up urged me to go into the temple. I forgot to take the picture outside but have this one from the inside.

It was a very good day of riding along the coast and not what I expected of Narathiwat.

Songkhla to Pattani

This is the link to route I followed from Songkhla to Pattani.

The next three provinces (Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala) that I will be traveling in have a travel advisory about them as follows.

"The U.S. Department of State issues a Level 3: Reconsider Travel advisory for the provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat due to civil unrest and ongoing insurgent activities.Key

Advisory Details

Overall Rating: While most of Thailand is rated at Level 1 (Exercise Normal Precautions), the far southern border provinces carry an elevated warning to reconsider travel.

Security Risks: Sporadic violence, bombings, shootings, and arson attacks occur in the region involving insurgents and security forces.

Targeting: Tourists are rarely the primary targets of these attacks, but collateral risks remain high for anyone caught in the wrong place at the wrong time."

This is not the first time I have traveled somewhere with an advisory but am still a bit nervous. I'm writing this a few days later and have had no issues.

It was a bit of a long ride before my first stop at Teluk Samilae Beach (หาดตะโล๊ะสะมิแล). I found this to be a very pretty beach and sat and enjoyed an ice coffee while watching the surf rolling in.

I saw on Google maps that the road continued north another 10 kilometers to what appeared to be end of this outcrop of land at Laem Tachi.

Laem Tachi did not have much to see other than a couple buildings a bit of sand and a few goat but the ride there and back had some great beach views.

My next stop was at the mosque Masjid Kerisik (มัสยิดกรือเซะ).

I had marked the Pattani Skywalk but think it permanently closed but enjoyed riding around area and through Somdet Phra Srinagarindra Park (สวนสมเด็จพระศรีนครินทร์).

I arrived at the Pattani Central Mosque (มัสยิดกลางจังหวัดปัตตานี) as the call to prayer was going on so didn't enter the mosque.

I found my hotel and then went out for something to eat and made it another early night.