Breakdown on the Way Home

While in Krabi I had to decide what to do next. I had thought about going to the The Phuket Vegetarian Festival but it would not start for almost a week. I could find a place to stay for a week or I could be home in less than a week. I decided to head home.

This is my Route Leaving Krabi

I decide to take a bit of the long way going via route 401 between Phang Nga and Surat Thani. I heard that this route going by Khao Sok National Park was one of the best route in Thailand. The section around Khao Sok was pretty but I think the highlight was the the last 10 or 15 kilometers of Route 4 in Phang Nga before turning north on route 4090.

I was having a good day of riding and thinking about where I wanted to stop but once at the outskirts of the town of Chaiya in Surat Thani my bike decided it was time to stop. It seems I had got an oil leak at some point and I am not good at checking the oil and the only oil light that the bike has is when it is time to change the oil so I ran it dry and the engine seized up.

I was pushing the bike and some sort of shop asked me what was the problem. I tried to tell them the motorcycle was broken and with the help of google translate asked if they knew of a motorcycle repair close by. With it being a Sunday not a lot was open but a guy at the shop went off in search of a motorcycle repair shop that was open. About 10 or 15 minutes later a guy showed up on a motorcycle and pushed the bike with me on it to his repair shop.

He spent some time looking at the bike and quickly knew this repair was going to take some time. He had me hop on the back of his bike and he took me to a hotel a couple of kilometers away. We had exchanged details of a messaging app common in Thailand called Line and he messaged me later that he would need to check on parts the following day before being able to guess on the repair cost or timeframe.

This hotel was sort of in the middle of no where but they did have a menu with a phone number and I was able with my little bit of Thai to call and order some food even without really knowing the name of the hotel. The following day I paid for the room for another day and walked to what I thought was the closest place to eat but turned out to be about a 4 kilometer walk with temperature of about 35c or 95f so was not enjoyable.

I received a message with a price break down for the motorcycle repair and what he wanted as a deposit to start the work. I said OK to the price and transfered the deposit which was about 1/2 of the price of the total repair. He said it would take at least 3 days to do the work. I messaged back that I would be going to a larger town and message me when the bike was ready and I would return.

I had mixed feeling about me breaking the bike. I was not happy about the breakdown but when I look at all the places I have been I could have broken down in a lot of places that would have been a lot worse. I felt really lucky to have brokendown somewhere that had such nice people that helped me.

The hotel I was staying at helped me get to the train station and I took a train to Chuphon where I stayed for the next 5 days and did a lot of nothing. The guy doing the work on my bike ran into a couple of problems but messaged me and told me the bike would be ready in the afternoon so I caught the afternoon train and took the 2 hour train journey back to Chaiya. With my crap Thai and using google maps to show the driver I found a motorcycle taxi that took me to the repair shop. The guy doing the repairs was putting the last few things on my bike when I arrived.

You can see my bike at the shop and a bit of the repairman's head on the opposite side of the bike.

I paid the remaining balance for the bike repair and even though he had other issue with the bike he charged me what he had originally quoted me. I gave him a bit of a tip for all his work and head back to Chumphon where I had left all my stuff. It was about a 2 hour ride and I was very nervous the whole way but it all went well and the bike is still running great after all the work.

The following day I did the long ride from Chumphon to Hua Hin. I got some rain on and off throughout the day but cleared up by the time I got to Sam Roi Yot Beach, where I made a bit of a pit stop before going to my hotel in Hua Hin.

I spent 2 nights in Hua Hin and decided to see a couple of the beach close to the city that I don't think I have visited before. My first stop was at Khao Takaib Beach. I had watched a video on YouTube that said this was the best beach around Hua Hin. I visited a lot of beaches on this trip that I thought were much prettier.

I saw another beach on the maps and headed south to Khao Tao Beach.

Hua Hin is a city with a lot of expats so I decided to look for some Mexican food while I was in town. It is the one food I seem to miss living in Thailand and found a place for lunch I really liked and will visit again the next time I am in Hua Hin.

The last day of this trip was another rain filled day of riding about 4 and a half hours going from Hua Hin to my home in Kanchanaburi. Even with the breakdown I would say it was a very good trip but am happy to be home.

Krabi

From Trang I made the ride north to the city of Krabi. I have been to Krabi before but it is close to 20 years ago so didn't remember much.

My first stop in Krabi was at Phra Maha That Chedi but I didn't go in and just took a picture.

Wat Kaew Korawaram (วัดแก้วโกรวาราม) was in the center of town.

I booked my room where I would stay in Krabi where I normally book hotels but this time ended up in a condo with 2 rooms and a kitchen. It was a lot more space than I needed for my 2 nights in Krabi but would be great if I would stay a week or more. The one thing I really enjoyed was the view as shown in the following pictures.

I had visited a few of the sites I planned for Krabi on the day I arrived so did not have a lot left to see but this was my route plan for the day of the Krabi Sites.

My first stop was at Klong Muang Beach (หาดคลองม่วง). It was a nice looking beach and ended up talking with an expat that have been living in Krabi for a few years. It is nice to get some local insight on an area but didn't add much to my agenda.

I had not planned on visiting Tubkaek Beach but saw it was close to my last stop and made the detour to see what it looked like. This beach had a number of high end resorts in front of it so access to the beach was not great. I found a lower end type of place where I could park and access the beach for the price of an ice coffee. The price of the coffee was more than double what I normally pay but it did provide a good view of the beach.

Ao Nang Beach was my final site in Krabi. It is the main tourist beach in this area and is the one place I remember visiting about 20 years ago that I wrote about in the link. The area around the beach has changed a lot with a very vibrant tourist area with all kinds of shops, restaurants and hotels.

I stopped at the north end of the beach and took this picture before riding south along the beach on one side of the road and all the shops and hotels on the other.

Satun to Trang

I got a late start leaving Satun late on purpose. I had a few stops planned on the ride but didn't want to arrive at my hotel in Trang prior to check-in time.

I rode for an hour and stopped for a fill up of both the bike and myself. I wasted a bit more time and then back on the road. I was not that far along and the sky opened up and started dumping sheets of water on me.

I stopped at one of those road side shelters that I think are used by people waiting for public transportation. After about 20 minutes I thought it had let up so headed out again but it must have only been a brief pause and the sky let me have it again.

I was stopped at a traffic light next to a gas station and a restaurant. I went into the restaurant and dripped all over their floor for about an hour. I stayed in the restaurant until I needed the toilet. I walked across the parking lot to the toilet and regained any water I had dripped off in the restaurant.

After the toilet I didn't want to drip all over the restaurant again so took off on the bike. I have had a few days of heavy rain on this trip but had not had issues with deep water in the road before so it was really slow going but after about 30 minutes the rain let up and was only a light rain for the remainder of my ride into Trang. I gave up the idea of stopping to play tourist and it also well after the check-in time when I arrived at the hotel.

I had dried off by the following morning and the sun was shining. This is my route plan for seeing the Trang Sites.

My first stop was at the beach of Hat Ratcha Mongkhon. Some Thai people had a tent setup back under a rock over hang or maybe it would be considered a cave. I tried not to disturb them while walking around on the beach taking pictures.

The tent seemed to have come alive while I was wondering on the beach so exchanged a quick hello before riding off on the bike.

I had pasted this lighthouse when going to the beach but stopped for a photo on the return journey.

My next stop was at the Hat Pak Meng beach.

I enjoyed the statue of dugong that is the landmark of Pak Meng beach.

I had marked Chao Mai Beach as a stop and it was a pretty beach a little off the road and nothing else around.

When I was at Chao Mai Beach I didn't know there was a National Park by the same name. I pasted the park headquarters as I was headed to Ling Beach (หาดหยงหลิง) and couldn't get to this beach without paying the park entrance fee so removed it from my route.

I kept seeing signs for Yao Beach so added it in to take the place of the one I skipped.

I got something to eat and drink at Yao and just enjoyed the lovely view of the Andaman Sea.

My next stop was at Mot Tanoi Beach (หาดมดตะนอย). I just see beaches on the map and add some of them to the plan without knowing anything about them. This was the case for this beach and it was pretty but I don't think it sees many tourists. I snapped this picture on the way to the beach.

I rode on down the muddy and sandy path and found what I think is Mot Tanoi Beach.

I had rode past Khai Botanic Garden (สวนพฤกษศาสตร์ทุ่งค่าย) yesterday because of the rain but this day I didn't go in due to the dual pricing. I live in Thailand but do not get the local price at tourist sites. Some of the times I have paid the tourist price I have felt like I havebeen ripped off because the site seemed way over priced. Now it has to be something I really want to see for me to pay the inflated price. I might be missing some good places but this dual pricing seems wrong.

The Chao Pho Muen Ram Shrine (ศาลเจ้าพ่อหมื่นราม) was also a planned stop that got skipped due to the rain but this one I did visit when the rain was gone.

Trang Clock Tower (หอนาฬิกาตรัง) was not on my original plan but saw pictures of it at my hotel and I have been to a number city's clock towers on this trip.

I was riding to my hotel and pasted The Dugong Circle (วงเวียนพะยูน).

I had set a goal for this year to visit the remaining Thailand provinces that I had never visited. When I arrived in Trang I had achieved that goal. I have now been in all 77 Thai provinces or as Google keeps saying 76 provinces plus Bangkok.

This is the first country I have reached this type of goal. I have only been to 49 of the US states. I also have never visited one of The Netherlands provinces even after living there for 15 years but never really thought about it until I left.

I am happy to say I have visited all the Thai provinces but still have things I want to see in Thailand, so the journey continues.

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.