3 Nation Charity Ride - Surat Thani
So at 0045hrs on Thursday, 23 October, Mark and I met up with the rest of the riding gang at Gelang Patah - which for those of you who aren't in the know, is the petrol kiosk just past the Tuas 2nd link.
I'm such a biker aren't I? Don't laugh.
So we caught up with Frederick, Wee Kiat, Carol+Siew Lee and Bernard+Eve. FYI the "+" mean that they were 2-up on the 1 bike (aka pillion riders).
~ Mark, Wee Kiat, Siew Lee, Carol and (Big) Fred ~
At 1am sharp we set off in convoy form... because 9 of the other bikers who originally signed up had to drop out (for work and family commitments), Mark and I had to become the 'markers'. Markers are the first few riders in the convoy that are supposed to stop at every turn or rest stop as an indication to everyone following that they are to take that turn - else they're just to go straight on. This, on our very first long-haul riding journey no less... t'was a challenge, but we tried our best.
Progress was fairly smooth until we hit Kuala Lumpur and half the group took one wrong turn and ended up going right through KL, while the rest of us kinda waited around.
First rest stop and there were these birds just sleeping on the Shell petrol kiosk signs.
Sweet huh. Except for the bird poop I guess.
So on with the journey. We average about 160kph throughout the entire night... not too bad given that it rained a little on us on the way. Next rest stop...
That's my bike second from the left - yes the one that's in focus - obviously.
Now the next image was taken after the sun had risen, and we were still in Malaysia - a couple of wrong turns had set us back quite abit.
This is where we got lost - a third time - trying to look for the place to purchase the Thai vehicle insurance. You need to buy the vehicle insurance for Thailand, in Malaysia... go figure. So while Bernard and Eve went scouting, the rest of us chilled out, and I got some nice photos of the bikes all lined up.
Just down the road was the insurance place and hawker centre... erm... and duty free mall. If you look to the left side, you will see a sign for "mini tour" that was our destination for the insurance.
More of our bikes
~ Eve with the most giiinormous Pao I've ever seen in my life. Apparently these are the standard Paos in Malaysia... I never knew...~
Next stop, Thai Border!
When do you know you've reached thailand?
When you start seeing lots of Monks!
Unfortunately they were a little camera shy. How come some monks are so comfortable in front of cameras (appearing almost cam whore-ish) while others are sooo shy? I don't really know. Might need to strike one up in conversation to find out.
Check the queue man... it was about a good 5 mins per person... suffice to say I was in the queue for almost an hour.
Lookit the other bikes... all heading up to Surat Thani. Our next stop from the border was Hat Yai though. By this stage, it was already 1pm... and we'd been riding since 1am the previous night.
So we rode for another hour or so and finally made it to the hotel at around 2.30pm. Groan. At least it was clean... well not like perfectly clean, but after riding through the night and most of the day, I was ready for a bed and sleep... at the Hotel Merridian. Cute spelling of the name.
~ Mark walking past the Hotel Merridian (pronounced Merry-dee-an I assume) ~
Now after a 2 hour speed nap, we met up and went looking for a place for dinner. If there's one thing that bikers do (other than riding)... it's eat - like there's no tomorrow. Like seriously. We ate so freakin' much over those 5 days I came back with a bigger tum tum than I've had in months! It was worth it though.
But more on that meal some other time. For now, what I will say is... that restaurant we went to was one of the weirdest freaky places I've ever been to... seriously. It was some kind of Frankenstein meets Disneyland on Acid... totally trippy.
Looks harmless enough you say... Stay tuned!
:)
I'm such a biker aren't I? Don't laugh.
So we caught up with Frederick, Wee Kiat, Carol+Siew Lee and Bernard+Eve. FYI the "+" mean that they were 2-up on the 1 bike (aka pillion riders).
~ Mark, Wee Kiat, Siew Lee, Carol and (Big) Fred ~
At 1am sharp we set off in convoy form... because 9 of the other bikers who originally signed up had to drop out (for work and family commitments), Mark and I had to become the 'markers'. Markers are the first few riders in the convoy that are supposed to stop at every turn or rest stop as an indication to everyone following that they are to take that turn - else they're just to go straight on. This, on our very first long-haul riding journey no less... t'was a challenge, but we tried our best.
Progress was fairly smooth until we hit Kuala Lumpur and half the group took one wrong turn and ended up going right through KL, while the rest of us kinda waited around.
First rest stop and there were these birds just sleeping on the Shell petrol kiosk signs.
Sweet huh. Except for the bird poop I guess.
So on with the journey. We average about 160kph throughout the entire night... not too bad given that it rained a little on us on the way. Next rest stop...
That's my bike second from the left - yes the one that's in focus - obviously.
Now the next image was taken after the sun had risen, and we were still in Malaysia - a couple of wrong turns had set us back quite abit.
This is where we got lost - a third time - trying to look for the place to purchase the Thai vehicle insurance. You need to buy the vehicle insurance for Thailand, in Malaysia... go figure. So while Bernard and Eve went scouting, the rest of us chilled out, and I got some nice photos of the bikes all lined up.
Just down the road was the insurance place and hawker centre... erm... and duty free mall. If you look to the left side, you will see a sign for "mini tour" that was our destination for the insurance.
More of our bikes
~ Eve with the most giiinormous Pao I've ever seen in my life. Apparently these are the standard Paos in Malaysia... I never knew...~
Next stop, Thai Border!
When do you know you've reached thailand?
When you start seeing lots of Monks!
Unfortunately they were a little camera shy. How come some monks are so comfortable in front of cameras (appearing almost cam whore-ish) while others are sooo shy? I don't really know. Might need to strike one up in conversation to find out.
Check the queue man... it was about a good 5 mins per person... suffice to say I was in the queue for almost an hour.
Lookit the other bikes... all heading up to Surat Thani. Our next stop from the border was Hat Yai though. By this stage, it was already 1pm... and we'd been riding since 1am the previous night.
So we rode for another hour or so and finally made it to the hotel at around 2.30pm. Groan. At least it was clean... well not like perfectly clean, but after riding through the night and most of the day, I was ready for a bed and sleep... at the Hotel Merridian. Cute spelling of the name.
~ Mark walking past the Hotel Merridian (pronounced Merry-dee-an I assume) ~
Now after a 2 hour speed nap, we met up and went looking for a place for dinner. If there's one thing that bikers do (other than riding)... it's eat - like there's no tomorrow. Like seriously. We ate so freakin' much over those 5 days I came back with a bigger tum tum than I've had in months! It was worth it though.
But more on that meal some other time. For now, what I will say is... that restaurant we went to was one of the weirdest freaky places I've ever been to... seriously. It was some kind of Frankenstein meets Disneyland on Acid... totally trippy.
Looks harmless enough you say... Stay tuned!
:)