Day 1 - Malaysia to Surat Thani Province

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The first day ride was from Kuala Lumpur to Surat Thani province and I am expecting to clock in about 1000km. As usual I pulled over at Caltex gurun to prepare documentation and insurance. Surprisingly there wasn't any crowd on that day and I manage to get my stuff done within 5 min. I bumped into another solo rider - Zamri who rides BMW 1600 GTL and his trip is to Koh Samui with his wife. As we were talking, I was highlight that Sadao border maybe busy as it is year end so people may go for holiday. He then suggested to use another border but we need to detour about 20km and he confirm that the crowd will be minimal. The idea sounds good to me so we decided to take Durian Burung border checkpoint. He shared the GPS Coordinate and we start our journey after we agree to stop at Kuala Nerang for refill. Off we go and ,I am unable to catch up with 1600GTL so I decided to ride on my own pace as I must ensure I adhere to the speed rating for my Mitas E07 tire. We did refill at Kuala Nerang and Zamri shoot off first because he need to change currency. The road towards Durian Burung was good, trunk road with less vehicle and going through paddy plantation and forest area occasionally. The border checkpoint is really deep inside and looks like located in no man's land. Going through Malaysian Immigration was easy and fast. Next hurdle was the Thailand checkpoint - Ban Prakoop. One good thing here is that, there was medical country and the lady was very helpful and able to speak Malay. I had to approach her to ask for border name because I keyed in Sadao in my TM2 form. As I was sorting that out, Zamri came and since he didn't
prepare the TM2 form earlier, he had to fill up there itself. Done that, we went to get our passport chopped, here the passport counter is inside building so while waiting you can enjoy the air-cond and there were seats for you to rest a while. The officers here more particular ie they need you to sign and fill up what is your destination in Thailand unlike in Sadao. I hand over my TM2 form and walla, I am done. Next is for the custom declaration and this was easy step as well. The officer in this checkpoint are more friendlier. All sorted and we head back to our bike and continue our journey. It tooks us about close to 45min to reach the junction to Hatyai and yes this way is slightly detour and windier from your normal sadao checkpoint but I didnt mind because I manage to get through the sadao border in shorter time. I prefer to spend time on road rather waiting at border. After the junction towards Hatyai, we split because Zamri wanted to have lunch and he was looking for Halal food. I decided to pull over at petrol station on my way. What a coincident because I bumped into Zamri again at petrol station where he and his wife decided to grab some food from 7 -11. You can see sparkle in my eyes when I saw KFC, not to waste any longer I dive straight into KFC. It was close to 1pm when I settled my lunch break and I still have couples of hundred of KM to go. All done and I am on the bike again to continue my ride.

About 6pm, my GPS showing I still have 126km more to go and expected to reach my accommodation for the day around 8pm. I suspected something is not right so I checked the accommodation coordinate using Google and true enough, GPS direction was wrong. I felt grateful because I only overshoot 26km. I quickly made a U turn and head back and in less than 30min I manage to reach the location. I went in and mention that I have booking, and guess not many people actually staying there so she could easily recognize my name when I say I am from Malaysia.

From the way it was I suppose this place is family run business. Few of the family members came out to greet and they were surprised to know that I came from Malaysia and reaching there within a day. There was this one uncle who takes care the place and he was nice because he guided me to my unit. He also open the door and help to switch on the aircond.

Next is the tedious part, unloading my stuffs. The room was spacious and clean. I had more space to distribute my riding attires so it can dry from the aircond. Before I shower and begin to welcome the tiredness, I decide to go to nearby 7-11 to grab my dinner. Generally my lunch or dinner during my rides is very simple. I can survive by having 7-11 food because they sell quality and fresh food. I bought pre-heat chicken burger and yogurt drinks and sneaker bar for breakfast tomorrow.

One last routine before and after dinner is to update family and friends. As the day almost come to end I landed on the bed around 10pm Malaysia time after arrange the stuffs for tomorrow. Next day I have to ride about 400km to Petchaburi province for a day night there.

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