Day 7: 160km Satun - Trang
Started the ride around 7am, and it got hot pretty quickly. The humidity wasn't so bad as there was a gentle breeze accompanied me during the morning half of the trip. Looking in my travel scribblepad I noticed I jotted down something about a dragonback road and after 2 hours from Satun I reached it. Its a stretch of 30 - 40km road that goes up then down then up again then down up then down updownupdownupdown. It killed my legs yaw.
also, thank goodness for the ipod that i was able to push on till the end. wasn't too sure why but it was so hard to go on. lack of carbs? the weather? but since isotonic drinks are not easily available in southern Thailand, it was really hard to hydrate my body salts the day before so i guess that's the reason i was sore all over. yea they do have gatorades but they're not exactly cheap. and since its super smooth super good, whenever istop for a roadside 7-11 break i'd consumed 4 bottles wei. godamnnnn
Got into Trang pretty late. 6ish? Thats almost a 12 hour ride and i have discovered my daily body limit where i can only do 140 - 150km a day. anything more im just dragging myself hanging on for dear life to go on. took me almost 2 hours to finish the last 10km.
Legs: jello.
Energy level: fucken zero.
Arms: stiff as Rosmah's hair.
Got into town saw the first hotel asked how much was it. Oh 250bath? Thats really good. Ok i take it. What? See the room? I'm good. I'll take it. I'll be taking my bike upstairs is that ok? Ok cool. Thank you.
On the up I was wondering why are all these ladies sitting outside their rooms? And who are these guys walking aimlessly up and down the corridor. Took me awhile to realised I was checking into a brothel. Yeah. A 500bath per sexy time brothel. They were mostly aunties and slightly older men prowsing and negotiating the sexy wares. Turns out after a loud WEI! in my general direction, photographing them is highly frowned upon. Hahaha
After a quick nap, out I went for dinner. But surprise surprise turns out I arrived in Trang coincidentally with somesorta statewide celebration of something. There were just so many people in the town square. If it weren't for the fact that I'm zombiefied tired and hungry I'd checkout whats with the singing and concert and live bands playing.
The plan was to get real food, warm food. Loads of rice with spicy green curry and a plateful of fried chicken but I succumbed to blended mixed fruits yogurt as dinner. hahaha. By the way, English is almost nonexistent here.
Day 8: Menyambut Perayaan Encik Tonyok di Trang
Woken up by my growling hungry tummy, swung outta bed and decided that am gonna stay in town today. Krabi can wait. On the way down to the city square for breakfast, there was an ongoing street procession. Everyone was decked out head to toe in traditional garbs, never ending rows of flag waving kids and throngs of families were out in full force lining the street while there was a school band blaring out tunes nearby. All of this is happening and I'm still quite unsure what's going on. Celebration apa nih?
Once I've reached the town square and went under the biggest canopy, only then I realised what was the whole fuss was about. It's somekinda celebration that involved copious amount of pork . Hahaha. I swear, there were grilled pork, pork roast, pork knuckles, pork chops, still dripping in fat pork belly, macam macam ada. Free babi testers were on every table and you can actually vote for the most delicious and by the end of the day the one that gets the most votes will get somekinda medal.
Hanging around these splendid specimens of grilled pork kinda worked up an appetite pulak. Had these Ah-boms sweet savoury thingys on a stick for breakfast, and as usual I never stop at one. You can have the option of having eggs, green beans or crab as the fillings with a dab of jam on top. Moving on to the next stall i had this huge slab of spicy pedaspedaspedas otak otak (a sorta grilled fish cake made of ground fish meat mixed with tapioca starch and spices) looking thingamajig where the difference with the ones in Malaysia that was it was crunchy on the outside as its lined with anchovies on the outside and the fillings was a mixed of coconut flakes and thick slices of soft fish fillet. Yea, green curry kung (prawn) as dip. Seafood madness.
Met up with sara, a Couchsurfer who was an English school teacher and her friends Jenny and Pat. They were pretty awesome, showed me what's up and what's around in Trang the whole day and I guess their idea of bringing fruits for my ride to Krabi the next day was the reason I managed to stay hydrated really well. Cause I made the mistake of drinking some super sugary fake fruity fizzy drink thing on for breakfast next day that made me overly thirsty than usual. meh
- Ride Preparation, Equipment and Notes
- Day 1 - 3. Kuala Selangor, Setiawan and Taiping
- Day 4 - 6: George Town and Satun
- Day 7 - 8: Trang
- Day 9: Krabi
Nice stuff there, thanks for sharing..especially the photos. Let you have taken me on a bike journey that i think will never happen to my life. Cheers bro. and wish you more journey and sharing.
MarcW: thanks for the kind words man. my next trip would be an ambitious over the top kl to istanbul. hahaha. lets see if i can survive that
Awesome!! I especially like the pic with the burnt nose! hahahaah