Malay Peninsula Tour - leg 2, Thailand

Continues from Malay Peninsula Tour - leg 1, Malaysia

Day 9, part 2

Having been admitted to Thailand, there was a bit of admin to do. Sarah switched to a new Thai e-SIM, which she'd bought while still in Malaysia (it had been cheaper to buy two 15-day single country SIMs than a single regional 30-day one).  I was fascinated to note that despite travelling north and moving only about 1km between countries, there was a one-hour time change.  And, we needed to find an ATM.  

The cash mission chewed up a little bit of time, in part because the ATM I found had spat out 1000 Baht notes, which weren't going to be very welcome for our initial purchases (each worth about 55NZD).  I waited in a queue inside the bank for a wee while, but successfully got some smaller denominations.  

We also now had a target for the day, in the form of a hotel booking in Hat Yai, and I'd scoped out a series of back roads which wouldn't add too much distance to the daily total.

Differences were immediately apparent, though one of them I couldn't quite put my finger on until Sarah pointed it out - the Malaysians were great fans of a nice tidy road edge, and we had seen dozens of weed-eater crews over the past week.  In contrast, Thai roads were unkemp and vegetation commonly encroached on what would otherwise be a nice wide road shoulder.  

The style and regularity of food and drink provision had also changed, though we noted 7-Eleven stores were everywhere, as they'd been in Malaysia. 

There was some evidence of the recent flooding, though the locals had had almost a month now to clean things up.  There were piles of debris that looked out of place, and I saw a concrete block boundary wall that looked like it had been hit by a car, but for the fact that the wall had blown out towards the road, rather than away from it.  It wasn't hard to imagine a torrent of water doing the damage.

After a hot afternoon, we rolled into Hat Yai on the main drag, and found our accommodation down a side street opposite a massive mall.  At check-in, we were asked to leave our bikes just outside the reception area, with assurance that they would be safe there. 

After a wash, we gathered our riding gear and headed out on foot to find dinner and a laundromat.  Back at the main road - a dual carriageway avenue with 3 lanes in each direction - thousands of birds were chirping away, making quite a racket, but hidden from view in large trees that lined the road.  

There was a pedestrian bridge over the road, and rather than search for a break in the median barrier, we took it.  Boy, did the flight of stairs confirm our fatigue!  Fortunately, the bridge took us straight into the mall, so we didn't have to confront that pooped legs are always worse going down stairs.

After canvassing dinner options, we settled on a Japanese restaurant, and enjoyed a good meal.  Some of the service occurred via a robot, which transported trays as far as the table, at which point a human appeared and took over.  The robot played a jaunty tune as it moved around, no doubt to reduce the risk that someone steps into its path.  

Instead of working out where we were going (and how to get there) before leaving the comfort of the mall, we headed outside through a parking garage and ended up almost circumnavigating the huge complex to get to an open laundromat. 

There, a young woman helped me fire up the washing machine, accepting cash from me and processing the payment via a QR code using her phone - credit cards were generally unwelcome, and the QR system seemed the expected method of payment in almost every transaction (from convenience stores through to street vendors).  

Once the washing was done, we walked back to our hotel, managing to avoid the flights of stairs by sneaking through a set of traffic lights.

Stats:  115km ridden, including the first half of the day in Malaysia.  25 to 41 degrees.

Day 10

We both chose an American breakfast at the hotel restaurant, and made good use of the coffee machine. After packing up, we headed downstairs to find our bikes safe and sound, as advertised.  Sarah's front wheel was soft, and after pumping that up, we got underway.

It wasn't long before it needed to be pumped up again, and on inspection, I could tell that the tubeless fluid had dried up.  Given the size of Hat Yai, it seemed worth trying to find a bike shop.  The first we tried was no longer open, but we did find an open shop a couple of kilometres away.  The guy there didn't have tubeless fluid, but gave me directions to another shop which he thought would stock it.

We got to where he'd said it would be, and searched for a while, before finally noticing the shop behind some nondescript shutters.  The mechanic wasn't there yet, though we were told he would arrive within the hour.  I was offered to buy a large bottle of tubeless fluid, and while contemplating our options, the mechanic turned up.  He was awesome and also spoke good English.  Before long, Sarah's front tyre had been topped up, and we'd learnt that he had been the first to introduce Hat Yai to the marvels of tubeless bicycle tyres...  

After burning through the entire morning, plus both physical and emotional energy hooning around, it was nice to finally be riding!  That turned out to be a temporary state, and not long after leaving the city, Sarah hollered at me from behind.  I stopped to investigate, and discovered that she'd been periodically getting fine jets of tubeless fluid in her face.  Her downtube was sodden with the stuff, and it was clear an intervention was necessary.  

We headed across the road to some shade, and I nervously attempted to plug the hole.  This was only my third time using a plug in anger, and my success rate had been 50% to date.  I focused on the punct puncture, while Sarah gave her bike a good clean with some wipes we'd been carrying (for hands and face mostly, but perfectly good for bike frames too).  As we packed up to move off, it seemed plausible that this attempt would go in the win column.  Ten minutes down the road, Sarah stopped so we could investigate, and I was delighted to see that her downtube was pristine.  [Ed:  one of the tasks on my post-trip to-do list is to throw that tyre away, complete with its still-holding-air tyre plug.  It held for over 1150km since the repair.]

As we approached the next major town, Songkhla, we debated our route.  One option was to bypass the town and use the road bridges across the mouth of Songkhla Lake.  Instead, we decided to risk chewing up even more time by catching a ferry.  After some kai, we followed our noses to the terminal and joined a queue of motorcycles.  There was no charge for pushbikes and we were waved on at the ticket counter.

The down-time was nice, as was the novelty factor.  The crossing itself took only a few minutes, but the views from the boat were interesting.

On the far side, a main road awaited us, and a somewhat undesirable 100km or so north lay our accommodation.  The long ride on a dead flat route hadn't seemed like such a crazy idea the previous evening, but at 1pm with only 45km on the clock, we weren't thrilled about it.

To add injury to insult, we were dealing with a headwind for the first time on the trip.  Dozens of windmills suggested wind was common along this stretch, and I was fascinated to note that the wind was harder to ignore with these behemoths alongside. 

It was a shame that we'd bitten off a bit more than we could chew, and couldn't afford a side excursion to check out a floating market that was prominently advertised.  

Just at dusk, we arrived at our resort, to find we were the only occupants.  We were escorted to our cute villa by a young woman in a golf cart, only to moments later be escorted to a second one slightly closer to the restaurant.    

That slight hiccup aside, the room was lovely, and helped us relax after a stressful day.

Once washed up, we headed to the restaurant for dinner, where they had thoughtfully provided insect repellent to stave off the abundant mozzies.  We shared a beer and enjoyed Pad Thai and papaya salad - both very un-Malaysian!  We each had an ice-cream in a cone before heading back to our room for a solid sleep.

Stats:  142km ridden after a very slow start.  25 to 35 degrees.

Day 11

Christmas morning arrived without fanfare, and it was much like any other day on the road.  

We started with a cooked breakfast at the resort.  The food was nice, though the white margarine that came with the toast freaked me out a little.  

Once fed, we headed out into a very complex network of minor roads riddled with waterways.  

The morning was full of nice and/or quirky sights, including some of the agricultural equipment.

I got a good laugh at seeing two turkeys walking down the road at 9:30am.  I sent a photo back to family in NZ, suggesting these two were heading to Christmas lunch.  Hard to believe these were the only turkeys we saw on the entire trip, and that we happened to see them on Christmas day.

We saw a lot of water coconuts growing, and a fellow spearfishing off a bridge.  And, we even discovered a road that hadn't been sealed!  With each turn, I'd continued to be amazed that the vast majority of this network was top quality bitumen, and would have put most of NZ's roads to shame!  

Guilty of relaxing into the day, the peace was shattered when Sarah announced her Di2 had stopped shifting.  We found a spot in the shade, and I dug out our spare battery and tried it in Sarah's bike.  There was no response, but it was quite conceivable that the battery was flat, rather than the system dead.  I plugged the spare battery into a vacant port on my bike and we'd try it again later.

Sarah's bike was in a passable gear for the flat parcours, so we decided to continue rather than continue to troubleshoot (e.g. by trying my battery in her bike).  A few minutes after setting off, I was sprinting back to where we'd stopped, hoping to find the goody bag I'd left lying on the ground (spare derailleur hanger, break pads, chain link and a couple of other things).  

We had a bit of an argument soon afterwards, which was witnessed by a drink vendor, much to their discomfort.  After another hasty departure, I later discovered I'd left a drink bottle there.  This wasn't proving to be our day...

The mood cooled a bit when we stopped for a bowl of soup.  Two businessmen were just finishing theirs, and helped us order.  The soup was delicious, and I especially appreciated small pieces of tender beef.  In any case, we both felt a bit better when we started moving again.

Not long after, I had a bit of a lightbulb moment, and realised my Di2 system would be none the wiser if I plugged it into Sarah's rear derailleur rather than my own.  Being careful not to cause further trouble by snapping my cable, we shifted Sarah into a gear that would be slightly better for the flat terrain (she was spinning out a bit too easily), and then returned cables to their rightful places.  Chuffed, we started riding again.

Passing through the major town of Nakhon Si Thammarat, we found a shop specialising in all things avocado.  I went in and commissioned a smoothie each, and it slid down incredibly well.  We also managed to call both Kaitlyn and Khulan to wish them each Merry Christmas.  The road surface through the city was uncharacteristically horrid, but otherwise, it was a stretch packed with highlights.

On the outskirts of town we found the region's kilns, one after another, all ready to bake more bricks.  One interesting aspect of this part of the world is that they identify the single best (or most convenient) thing to do in that place, and then all do it!  Whether it is growing coconuts, rubber, rice, or bricks, you end up with that, and only that, for hours at a time.

As we neared our accommodation, I left Sarah and shot off for an ATM raid to replenish our cash supply.  That done, we bought a few post ride snacks, and tracked down our room.  

There, after a wash, I spent an hour or so fiddling with bikes.  I determined that the third, spare battery worked fine in my bike, and that the battery from my bike not only failed to bring Sarah's bike to life, but also would no longer work when returned to mine.  Figuring I'd better quit while I was ahead (i.e. with one fully functioning system), I left things as they were.  

While there were hills between here and Bangkok, these were along the border with Myanmar, and I'm not sure if we could have found a hilly route even if we'd tried.  I'd have preferred to be on the bung bike myself, but there were a few things I could do to ease Sarah's burden, starting with matching the route to her single gear.  

We walked to the nearby beach where we found an open restaurant, and enjoyed a spicy meal (fried squid, and a pork curry) before heading home. Not long after we got back, we began to hear thunder.  This got closer and closer, and in addition to the light and sound effects, the heavens really opened.  

For a few days now, the weather forecast had been warning of "monsoonal rains" for 25-29 December, and we wondered if this was the beginning of what we'd experience for the next three days!  While it was nice to watch from our verandah, it didn't look like it would be fun to ride in.  

Stats:  124km ridden, one unresponsive gear system, 27 to 38 degrees.

Day 12

We woke to wet roads, but no rain.  Our accommodation didn't provide breakfast, so we suited up immediately in freshly laundered gear.  I was hoping that by the end of the day we'd be feeling slightly better about our recent riding distances, as we were now within striking distance of the Koh Samui ferry terminal.

Sarah seemed in a good mood as we set off along quiet coastal roads.  

We hadn't seen many cyclists at all (only one that we could recall - Amir on Penang Island), so it was a surprise to see a group of about a dozen riders coming towards us.  A sag wagon towing a bike trailer driving close behind them suggested they were likely a guided tour.  I was glad not to have water flicking into my face off someone else's rear wheel, but each to his or her own!

We popped out onto the main road (running parallel with us, but inland a couple of kilometres) in order to get over the first major river, but soon after found ourselves retreating from the next river, adding unncessary distance as we headed briefly south to correct our mistake.  On the other hand, in doing so we were able to watch a local fisherman lift his net from the river - an apparatus we'd seen regularly, but not in action.

After that, we stayed on the main road for a bit, stopping at the first turnoff into Sichon for a coffee and some planning.  The route I'd mapped out in the morning had a bit of climbing between here and the ferry terminal, so I explored alternatives and settled on the one which seemed flattest.

Flattest, but not flat, as it turned out.  The coastal road beyond Sichon was incredibly fun to ride on a bike with a full complement of gears.  It was rollercoaster-esque, and reminded me of a glorious stretch of road in Bali (the end of our first day in an October 2024 visit), though perhaps a bit less savage.  

I hovered behind Sarah and when I could, pushed her up the hills, hoping to enable her to keep on top of her single gear.  The strategy was working well for us on bridges over rivers, and I could generally sustain the effort until near the top, with the last energy I had going into a shot-put-like motion that momentarily transferred all of my momentum to her!  Many of the rises on this stretch were too long and/or steep, so she had a bit of walking to do.

The second hilly section on the ride profile was actually pretty benign, and while it gained as much elevation as the coastal road had, it did so more slowly, and Sarah was able to ride it all. 

As we neared the ferry terminal, we had to choose between competing operators, and did so without consulting reviews or a timetable.  The company we chose ran hourly, and we had just enough time to do our paperwork (passports and payment) before jumping aboard the 2pm sailing..., which turned out to be cancelled.  This gave us enough time for a late lunch, consisting of fries (our first since NZ), a nice omelette, and instant coffee.

Eventually a replacement ferry arrived, and we were asked to board with the foot passengers.  

The trip took about 2 hours, and it rained most of the way - not bad timing as far as we were concerned.  This was the longest sustained break we'd had all trip, and both of us were happy for it.

I hadn't told Sarah much about the hotel booking, pricey at $350 for the night, but reduced from over $1000, so worth a shot.  (Our typical room was in the $50-$70 range, generally including breakfast.)

The resort had offered a shuttle, which I probably should have accepted.  The profile suggested a 200m climb, but it all happened in the space of a couple of kilometres, and there were stretches I couldn't even ride in my granny gear.  I didn't have a hope in hell of pushing Sarah up!  On the other hand, walking was a good fall back, and barely slower than riding would have been.  The views on the way up were fantastic.

We were warmly welcomed, though it was clear that few (if any) of their usual clientele arrive by bicycle - the person who checked us in seemed agitated about what we might do with our bikes!  Eventually a senior colleague intervened, and our bikes spent the night leaning against our chalet.

We had a pool adjacent to our room, giving us a chance to finally use the swimwear we'd been hauling around.  When I discovered that the pool was actually our pool, I figured there was little point in getting my boardshorts wet, and instead went in wearing only my white socks and undies...!  By this stage our tan lines had become pretty crazy, and our backs in particular were betraying the different UV-ratings of the various fabric components.

After a short soak, we headed to the restaurant for dinner, enjoying very much the slightly more up-market setting.

The menu contained the usual suspects, and we ordered papaya salad and pad thai, plus a massaman curry.  I was literally shocked when they arrived, though in hindsight, larger portions and more premium ingredients (e.g. cashews in the salad, rather than peanuts) shouldn't have been a surprise.

We were too full for dessert so retired to our room and watched a bit of Netflix.  It seemed that things were looking up.

Stats:  108km ridden, and a whopping 650m ascended - almost as much as the previous three days combined!  A very civilised 24 to 30 degrees.

Unlucky Day 13

The timing of breakfast was a little awkward - 8am, with the ferries leaving on the hour.  We decided not to rush needlessly, but when we'd finished eating, it did seem like we might just make the 9am sailing.  

The descent from the resort went well - all sections of challenging down hill successfully negotiated, and a few tactical walks for Sarah!

After about 3km on the ring road, I made the right turn towards the ferry terminal, and 10 seconds later checked over my shoulder to make sure Sarah had also made the turn.  To my dismay, I saw her gingerly walking her bike off the road, with a bunch of concerned onlookers staring at her.  I hooned back, to discover she'd lost her front wheel in some dust, and had fallen heavily on her elbow.  It was clearly going to require stitches.

Within moments, a fellow on a motorcycle had flagged us down, and a couple of minutes later a colleague of his had arrived with a first aid kit.  I had remembered seeing signage for a hospital (noted, but mostly ignored, since we were looking for the ferry...), and while I was keen to get there as quickly as we could, it was nice of these guys to help.  Soon, Sarah had had a bit of a wipe down with saline solution and iodine, and had been temporarily bandaged.  Google and the good samaritans confirmed the hospital was only a few kilometres away, and both Sarah and her bike seemed capable of the short trip.

Once there, we reported to the A&E, and Sarah was seen to immediately - x-rayed, cleaned up, and given three stitches.  I was banished to the waiting room for most of this, and had a short but stressful wait, hoping for the best.  About an hour later, Sarah arrived under her own steam, with instructions about where to pay the modest bill (about $300) and to collect some antibiotics, painkillers and bandages from the dispensary.

Those things done, we set off towards the ferry terminal very gingerly, and believe it or not, rode pretty much straight onto the 11am boat - a mere two hour delay from the 9am sailing, which we'd probably have missed unless it was running slightly late.  We were both feeling a bit trashed.  Sarah had the worst of it, of course, but it was damn stressful for me to see her hurt, and to ponder how we'd navigate the 700 kilometres between us and Bangkok.

The trip back to the mainland was a good chance for things to settle down a bit, and we agreed to take stock when we berthed.

Back on land, we stopped to chat to a group of cyclists who were waiting for the boat.  Perhaps in a better headspace, I'd have retained where they'd come from, but it was nonetheless nice to see them and we swapped notes briefly.  

It was wet again, and that was going to cause a bit of an issue with Sarah's instructions to keep the wound dry.  Sarah had been riding with a small backpack - as an ice receptacle it was playing a key role in keeping her cool, and she was also drinking from it.  Once she pulled her jacket sleeve on over her wounded arm, I knotted the rest of the jacket around the bag and its straps.  It looked like it would do the trick, and indeed it did.  

Sarah claimed to be OK to ride, and that seemed to be the case once we got underway.  The big town of Surat Thani wasn't that far away, so we thought we'd aim for that, and seek out something closer if need be.  

The rain was a bit of a drag, but soon the main problem became Sarah's rear tyre losing pressure.  We had a good stop at a daytime market, and delicious dumplings and coconut smoothies perked us up a bit, but repeated stops to top up the air pressure and slosh sealant around weren't solving the tyre problem.  

Thanks to all the rain, at stop number four or five and with the wheel out of the bike, I found that the source of the leak was at the tyre bead.  I targeted that area with the sealant, and despite giving it a few minutes to work its magic (confirmed by the lack of bubbles when I'd flooded the zone), it would soon start leaking once back in use.  There's no going back from popping the tyre off the rim, but it was clear a tube was needed. 

I made a bit of a balls up of navigating to the hotel we'd booked, subjecting us to extra distance, and also the stress of crossing six lanes of traffic on the ring road around the city!  We got there safely enough though, and before the evening was over, our bikes had been "locked" in the parking garage (monitored by CCTV), we'd been rejected at a couple of laundromats, and had eaten a very authentic dinner surrounded by locals.  If we'd had any sense of humour left, we might have enjoyed the irony of it being our 13th day on the road.  It had certainly been an unlucky one.  

Stats:  81km ridden, one crash, three stitches, our 6th boat ride, and 1400km on the odometer.  24 to 31 degrees.

Day 14

Sarah woke up feeling OK, and we decided to give the whole cycling lark another try.  I actually rolled out feeling optimistic that we'd have a good day.

The hotel didn't offer breakfast, but we stopped soon at a busy local street vendor, reminiscent of our great lunch stops in Malaysia, at least in terms of its popularity.  Sarah ordered us two bowls of congee, which came with garnishings of a raw egg, and pork mince.  I noted Sarah's soup also had slivers of liver, while mine shipped without it - more racial profiling in play!  I left my egg until the very end, and while I'd been reticent to begin with, found the whole dish quite pleasant by the time I had demolished it. 

Boiled eggs were also available, and we had one of those each, plus a couple of rounds of coffee.  We hit the road feeling both sated from a food point of view, and also like we'd ticked a nice cultural box.  

We were able to enjoy some nice quiet roads from which we had some interesting sights, including our first water buffalo for a while...

... and some pretty wee temples.

After watching a farmer surf behind a crazy tractor contraption the likes of which we'd seen in Vietnam a year prior, we stopped at another popular street vendor for an early lunch.  

Dish du jour was soup, and by virtue of a table right near the stove and an epic queue, I was able to watch these two Thai women serve up about 20 bowls of soup (or plastic bags of soup for those wanting take-out) before ours arrived.  The most intriguing ingredient looked to be a beetroot concentrate, and while the production process was fascinating, I realised I'd enjoyed more the simple (and relatively unpopular) bowl of soup from a couple of days earlier.  

Monocrop for the afternoon seemed to be palm oil, and some of the palms were a convenient height for us to see how the seed pods grew - we'd passed hundreds of small piles of them on the roadside, and had ourselves been passed by dozens of utes loaded to the gunnels with them - heading off for processing, no doubt.

We'd seen or heard many large lizards, which we think were monitor lizards.  Invariably, they ran away from us, so I was very surprised to stop and have one nonchalantly cross the road in front of me without a care in the world.  He looked to have just left a Buddhist monastery, and perhaps that explained his zen state.  

The next roadside highlight was a small boat yard, where there were three boats in various stages of production. I stopped to admire the craftsmanship, before heading on.

We were on a deserted coastal road when all of a sudden a cycle path appeared.  Despite having the road to ourselves, we thought we'd use it, but before long it deteriorated to the point that even had the road been rammed with cars, the cycle path would have been the greater of two evils.

We did pass a few hotels, and stopped at the bar of one for a cold drink and to scope out a place to stay.  Something was available another 30km up the road, and Sarah agreed that continuing that much further was feasible.  We took a nice little backroad which took us to a grand bridge over a decent sized river.  On the other side, we didn't investigate the fishing village, and instead headed inland to find our accommodation. 

It was a couple of kilometres before the main town, so after cleaning up, we gathered our riding gear and set off - this time on bikes, in search of dinner and a laundromat.  

Both were initially elusive, but after sorting the laundry, we soon after found some food.  As was standard, the meal components were in plastic bags, and not really suitable for eating on the fly.  Kindly, the salesperson called a friend, who soon turned up with some plastic bowls and cutlery!  

We returned to eat the chilli-laden rice dish on the steps outside the laundromat.  I had an instant hiccup fit in response to the spice, and we both giggled our way through as much of the dinner as we could stand!  We'd also bought some donuts and pandan dipping sauce, the quantities of which were perfectly matched, and which between them calmed my innards down sufficiently, as well as being insanely delicious. 

I hadn't brought my GPS unit on the short ride, figuring the ride would be a simple out-and-back affair.  But, by the time our washing was done it was very dark, and we ended up missing a turn on the ride back to the hotel.  We corrected our error eventually, though arrived back with an additional 10km on the clock!  Doh!

The motel had a smart TV but no Netflix, so I decompressed watching a Tool drum-cam video for about the 200th time.  It was a nice way to end a good day.

Stats:  134km ridden, thanks to one trooper of a wife.  27 to 32 degrees.

Day 15

Despite Sarah's accident on Koh Samui, we'd been making good progress, and Bangkok remained within striking distance.  I'd been looking at the daily average walking distance (via Google Maps), though a bus ride was still a distinct possibility if not yet a necessity.

We'd been tending not to book accommodation until after lunch, and the flexibility seemed to be working well for us.  On the other hand, I'll admit to being irrationally averse to the complication of finding a bus station, working out whether or not we could get our bikes on one, etc etc, and was still trying to keep the option of riding all the way to Bangkok alive.

Our hard deadline was our flights (on what would be Day 20), and while my preference was to have a couple of nights in Bangkok, I figured that at a pinch, being within 50km or so at the end of Day 18 would work out OK.  We simply needed enough time to find bike boxes - something that would be nigh on impossible on January 2 in NZ but hopefully not too difficult in Bangkok.

Anyway, we could afford to play it by ear for another day or two.  

Sarah was mostly fine on the bike, though her body was struggling to clear fluid from both her forearms, not just the injured one.  She wasn't enjoying that aspect, but at least the single-speed issue wasn't pissing her off.

After a filled croissant for breakfast at the motel cafe, we set off into town to find a pharmacy so Sarah could refresh her bandage supply.  My guts were feeling a bit weird, but I was hoping it was just a passing phase.

We passed a huge dog that I'd noticed the evening before (at a guess, a 50-60kg mastiff), and also a prison.  Both struck me as very unusual, and out of character, given that we seemed to be on a pretty standard main street of a large town, and the general preference towards scrawny dogs.  

We soon found a pharmacy, and Sarah was able to get what she needed.  From there, we turned north, and were immediately amongst cuteness.

The route I'd mapped turned out to have a bug in it, and indeed we came across quite a few more decommissioned rail crossings over the next couple of days.  Nothing that a bit of riding couldn't overcome, and we'd soon cleaned up the mess.  

Next, we spent a bit of time on AH2 (Asian Highway 2) which was noisy but with a great shoulder, until a turnoff to Sawi.  There we used a station to cross the railway line on foot, and followed that up with a drink stop.  

Soon, we were on foot again, this time over a rapidly deteriorating swing bridge.  

Back cycling again, we got a nice wave from a woman on a scooter, and thought nothing more of it until 20 minutes later, when there she was on the side of the road flagging us down.  She'd bought a bag of bananas, and wanted to give them to us!  We took some, gratefully, from a fair dinkum Thai trail angel!  

I started to feel pretty flat, and thought all the Sarah-assists up and over bridges were beginning to take their toll.  Apparently we'd arrived in the Thailand Riviera, but riding along the shore, the name didn't seem to fit.

On the other hand, there was a bit of roadside drama to take my mind off my fatigue - first, I startled a monitor lizard chowing down on a dead snake, and soon after we saw someone narrowly avert a bit of powerline mischief by stopping a reversing boat just in the nick of time.

We'd skirted around Chumphon, but found our hotel was directly beneath the flight path for the city's airport - luckily flights seemed infrequent, so our location was a curiosity, rather than an annoyance.

As had become a well established routine, we washed, and demolished a few convenience store supplies (generally some salted chips and cold drink), before getting ready to go in search of dinner.  We headed to the hotel's restaurant, which had an outdoor seating area that was lovely despite a stiff breeze.  

We ordered a range of dishes, and all the food was fantastic, including prawn pad thai, pineapple fried rice that was served in a pineapple husk, a fried squid entree that arrived late in the piece, and three spicy salads which we weren't completely expecting, having thought we'd ordered just the papaya salad component.  The fried morning glory salad was particularly spicy, and while no longer hungry, we ordered coconut caramel custard to sooth our mouths!  Eating with impunity really is a nice element of a long cycle tour!

Stats:  127km ridden, 400 metres ascended which doesn't explain my weariness.  24 to 38 degrees.

Day 16

At check-in, we were asked to nominate a breakfast time, and we'd chosen the earliest slot, being 7am.  We had the fantastic buffet pretty much to ourselves, and it set us up nicely to be underway a little after 8am.  If we'd forgotten about the hotel's proximity to the airport, the morning's first arrival was a spectacular reminder.  

We were nearing Thailand's narrowest point, which looks to be only about 10km.  Were it not for Sarah's injury and the bike issues, I'd have prioritised an excursion to see if we could see the physical border, but instead, to keep things simple, we kept moving north up the coastline, at times under the watchful gaze of...  Oh wait, no-one...!  (We saw a few of these cardboard cut-out police vehicles.)

There were a few unavoidable small hills to contend with, and the first of these treated us to glorious views over an inlet.  The riding had been pan flat for so long, and often in amongst palm trees of some sort or other, so you got very little sense that the land actually had interesting features.  

We descended to the coast again, and checked out a wee jetty from which some children were fishing.  As we were leaving, a single female cycle tourist appeared, but she did not acknowledge us, which was slightly strange.  

Five minutes up the road we were much more proactive, and pulled over to say hi to a male taking a break.  He introduced himself as Alejandro from Brazil, and gave us the highlight reel of his last six months on the road, starting in Japan and passing through China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and now Thailand.  We told him that if he made to New Zealand, which he hoped to, he had a bed in Wellington!

Soon after swapping socials and wishing him well, I stopped to point out nature in action, in the shape of a dead snake being devoured (I guess, it was hard to see exactly what was going on) by hundreds of ants. 

Maybe the explanation was the narrowness of the country, so that there were few routes other than the main road, but for whatever reason, we saw more cyclists this day than we'd seen in the rest of the trip combined.  That added a nice bit of novelty to the day.  

So too did seeing a couple of guys on motorcycles with unique companions.  I heard Sarah shouting at me from behind, and my initial reaction was to fear something had gone wrong.  So, I was a bit distracted and didn't focus on getting a photo of the fellow with a monkey standing behind him looking over his shoulder.  His mate also had a monkey, but his was in a basket in front of him. By the time I realised they weren't actually going that fast, the gap was too big for me to close, despite trying.  The hilarious image is etched into our brains, at least.

We stopped for a mid-afternoon smoothie at a beach which appeared popular with foreign tourists, but as quickly as it got busy, we soon found ourselves on deserted roads again.  

We had to cross the railway line a few times, which involved a massive ramp on each side and then a sweeping U-turn.  At the base of one such structure, we stopped to speak with two lovely Italians.  They were from the Dolomite region, and liked hearing about some of our riding from earlier in the year.  They'd been on the road for 9 months, working as they went to pay for the next leg.  Chiara had lived in Queenstown for a while before they'd met, and as with Alejandro before them, we promised her and Simone a bed in Wellington if they ever had the chance to visit.

We bade them farewell, and took the ramp.  That gave us a good view of some workers watering the power lines (!!!!) and then Simone and Chiara who'd chosen to try out the gravel road alongside the railway line.  

That wasn't the last time we crossed the line, but we didn't see our new friends again.  Our hostel was in an area fairly busy with foreigners on small motorcycles or tuk-tuks.  Our hostess was very welcoming, and gave us good advice about nearby dinner options.  We settled on a seafood restaurant, and I was surprised to see so many tourists ordering spaghetti bolognaise!  

Stats:  135km ridden

Day 17

I'd spent an inordinate amount of time the previous evening trying to book accommodation online, but had been unsuccessful.  There were plenty of hotels in Hua Hin, which was about the right distance up the road, but all of them seemed to be bundling New Years Eve banquets, and were charging about a grand for the privilege.  I was also nervous about bike security, so was avoiding the common alternative - private apartments in condominiums.

For a few minutes, I thought we had a cute and likely bike-friendly Airbnb booking slightly north of Hua Hin, but that was abruptly cancelled by the host half an hour later, and I had no inclination to resume searching.  

Our hostel didn't provide breakfast, so first order of the day was to suit up and head to the main road  (AH2 again), where we promptly found coffee and a bit of food.  It was fun to soon pass a turnoff to a rare border crossing into Myanmar.

We made a really good start to the day, and were both comfortable with the prospect of riding the 320km between us and Bangkok over today and tomorrow.  Progress was good on the highway, and I had no doubt we were benefitting from the wake off the many trucks.  

It was all starting to feel like a piece of cake when I noticed a nasty shudder in Sarah's rear wheel, once per revolution.  I monitored it for a while, before I noticed it was now losing pressure, and I asked her to stop so I could take a look.  To my dismay, I found that her tyre bead was in the process of disintegrating - the leak we'd addressed a few days earlier was likely the early stages of trouble, and I worried that I'd made things worse by pumping the tube up a bit too hard.  

Taking a closer look at the tyre had probably accelerated its demise, though that was vastly preferable to a blowout while Sarah was moving.  We'd found a nice shady spot, and identified that there was a bike shop about 7km up the road.  Off I went, alone, hoping I could fix this problem...

We'd stopped about 500m from a service station, and when I discovered this I was tempted to stop and message Sarah to walk her bike to it, but I'd left her wheel out, and there seemed too much risk that something might get lost or damaged, so kept that intel to myself and kept riding.

I found the shop, and left soon after with the only 27.5 tyre the guy had in stock.  Its width was 2.1 inches, which I feared would be too big to fit in the frame.  It wasn't foldable, so I put it on like a hula hoop.  

I then rode back to Sarah, and mounted the tyre.  I couldn't fully seat it in the rim, which on the one hand was a pisser, but had the slight benefit that the tyre had respectable clearance from the frame.  I'd used the punctured tube, and we had to pump that up a couple of times, and generally nurse it through the 7km ride back to the store.  

There, the mechanic was happy to take over, which gave me a nice rest.  Fully seated, the tyre was indeed too large (no more than a couple of millimetres from the frame, and too close for comfort), so I asked him to use my front tyre on Sarah's rear wheel, and to put the replacement tyre on my front wheel (which had more clearance).  That done, I bought a couple of extra tubes (the ones I had were large enough for our tyres, but probably a stretch - pardon the pun - for this oversized tyre), and thanked the fellow profusely.  

That whole saga cost us the best part of three hours, so our Bangkok plan was well and truly in jeopardy when we got underway again.  Sticking to the main road, we agreed to chip away at the miles until we ran out of steam (or willingness to ride further).  

Remarkably, energy levels endured, and Sarah had covered 150km by the time we started seriously looking for accommodation (me, 15km more).  Every few kilometres we'd pass a motel, but the first four we enquired at were full.  As daylight was fading, Sarah identified that the next closest place was down a side road, and when we pulled in there, we found we were in luck!  

We had to go back out on the bikes to find dinner, and did so before getting changed.  We had no idea how far we'd need to ride, as the chap at the motel hadn't seemed optimistic we'd find something close by.  We took an underpass to the other side of AH2, and went south briefly, before finding a place with an open kitchen. Not 10 minutes later we were tucking into a modest meal, but one which in the scheme of things was worth its weight in gold - delicious, and such a relief to have it!

It was a mercifully short ride back to the motel, which went without apparent incident.  A highlight of the evening was wishing my dear friend and colleague, Professor Sutherland, congratulations on her new title, about an hour since her promotion to professor had taken effect.  

Stats:  180km ridden, 15km fewer for Sarah, while she waited for me to return with a tyre.

Day 18

While dinner hadn't been an option at the motel, they did provide breakfast, and we were the first to sit down at their dining area in the morning.  We had a good feed and then headed back to our rooms to suit up.  

I didn't notice my front tyre (the new one) had a puncture until near the end of the packing process, but swearing at it wasn't going to fix it.  I figured I would try to patch the tube but that failed and it went flat before the rest of the packing process had concluded.  In went one of our two remaining large tubes.  

After about 20km back on AH2, we had an opportunity to get off the main road for a while, kicked off by a cute little underpass.  

Things seemed to be going OK.  For a bit of novelty, the crop-du-jour appeared to be salt, but at the far end of a long series of salt flats, I noticed my front tyre had become soft.

I noted the distance ridden (46km for the record), pumped the tyre up, and rode on, intrigued to know over what duration it had lost pressure (which could have been anything from 1 minute to about 2 hours).  The tyre demanded more air after 15km, which was pretty acceptable from my point of view, and would fit nicely in and around a cold drink and/or bag of ice routine.

Regular as clockwork, we stopped at 61km, 76km, 91km and then... 93km.  I must have been guilty of relaxing.

I thought I'd have another go at patching the tube, and this time used the glue to make sure I knew exactly where the hole in the tube was (handy bubbles guiding the way).  By this stage the mini floor pump I carried was starting to make horrible noises, and I dreaded having to resort to the mini handpump, which would probably need about a thousand strokes to fill the fat tyre.  (I will be taking a USB-charged electric pump on the next trip, mark my words...)  One of the punctures was caused by what looked like a staple from a student assignment, while the other was a bit of glass.  Cheap tyres are cheap for a reason, I guess.

We'd rejoined the big road by this stage, and while it was pleasant enough riding, I did spend a lot of it wondering if all of a sudden we'd find ourselves stuck.  

At Samut Sakhon, we took and exit off the Rama II Road, and made our way to Ekkachai Road - also big, but less likely to turn into a motorway!

For about 15 minutes, we leap-frogged a ute packed with people - these act a lot like busses, stopping regularly to squeeze someone else in - presumably for a small fee.

At some point, we formally entered Bangkok, but by this point, my camera was being ignored, and we were focusing on not getting squashed.  Out on the open road, we were given a lot of space, and while noisy, it felt very safe.  In the urban environment, there was a lot more to keep track of, and things were more close quarters and unpredictable.  

We (at my direction) took a wrong turn just before the Chao Phraya River which passes through the centre of Bangkok.  That was the last major hurdle, and once overcome, some 10km later we were making the turn into Sukhumvit Soi 38!  

Since booking the trip, I'd been looking forward to a plate of mango sticky rice to celebrate our arrival, and was saddened to see that the vendor near the corner was closed for the holiday.  Disappointing, but somewhat fitting, given the travails of the last week on tour.

We made our way down the road, and were soon parking our bikes for the last time and washing up.  We had a good dinner, made a mental list for the next day:  GET BIKE BOXES, PACK BIKES.  Hopefully it would prove as simple to do as it was to think...

Stats:  153km ridden, added to the total at the beginning of the day of 1999.8 kilometres.  Huh, I only just noticed that now...

Packing up

The previous year we'd seen some bike boxes on the footpath about 15 minutes' ride from our hosts' place.  Striking out for that store was one option.  Sarah found that we were actually within walking distance of a Decathlon store, and figuring they'd sell bikes, we thought that might be both safer and simpler. 

Sure enough, they were more than happy to give us a couple of huge boxes, and after a bit of a browse, we walked home with the awkward bloody things, experimenting with various solo or collaborative carrying styles.

Back at base, I enjoyed giving the bikes a good wipe down in the shadow of the apartment block while Sarah had a swim.  Bikes duly packed, we went out for a walk, and were thrilled to discover that holidays were over!!!  We were still within 24 hours of finishing the ride, so surely a post-ride afternoon tea celebration was still fine?

It was a bit of a challenge to book an XL vehicle for the next morning, but it turned out that there was a bit of a lag between me adding a new credit card to my Bolt account and actually being able to complete a booking.  Thankfully, that resolved itself before bedtime (and meltdown), and we were also able to sneak in a second helping of mango sticky rice after dinner.  

There was little else to stress about other than whether the taxi we'd booked would be big enough for the bikes. So, that's what I stressed about, and that concern turned out to be well founded.  Our driver was lovely, and while we quickly established that the car was big enough for the boxes, there appeared to be no room for the second passenger.  I though the easiest thing to do was to book an additional car, but the app didn't seem to want to let me do that while the other ride was in progress.  Our driver really seemed to want to help us though, and in the end we found a little pocket of space for Sarah behind my seat!

She'd endured some real physical discomfort in the second half of the trip, and in the scheme of things, this was the least of her complaints!

* * *

We had a comfortable trip back to New Zealand, and it has been tough to see what in many respects was a great and successful ride falter as negative memories waged battle against positive ones.  

Sarah's physical state has improved, though it seems that she has a couple of foreign bodies in her elbow that demand removal.  We wonder if they are unfortunate souvenirs from Koh Samui, but given the scars over scars in that particular elbow, it also seems quite conceivable that they've been in there a while!

For a long time she wasn't feeling comfortable enough to return to her pottery studio, which has been such a positive outlet for her over the last couple of years.  She's finally got back on that horse this weekend, and while I've been wading through photographs and writing, she's cranked out a dozen Kauri snails bound for Zealandia, and two dozen beakers for a local conference organiser.  And, good memories have started to prevail once more.

I look back on the trip with mixed emotions.  I really enjoyed the Malaysian leg, for its more interesting parcours, and culinary highlights.  On the one hand the flat lands of southern Thailand were a bit ho-hum, but on the other hand they were a godsend, and prevented the issue with Sarah's Di2 screwing up the journey.  (Ed:  on investigation, the culprit was a single damaged cable, and both "dead" batteries responded well to being plugged into diagnostic software, which acted like a Di2 defibrillator.)  

I continue to rate our bike setup.  Although the bikes were gravel-ready, we spent most of the time on sealed roads, and they were perfectly efficient there, as well as great when we did find some unsealed roads.  We had some bad luck with the Di2 failing, and with a new tyre delaminating, and I have a new-found appreciation for the puncture protection "expensive" tyres tend to have.  Thankfully, these irritations were nothing that we couldn't work around.  

I'd picked up a new bag for my Revelate Pronghorn, and was glad to be hauling most of our luggage.  Sarah kindly stowed my jandals, her Allbirds, and our shakedry jackets in her easy-to-access, small seatbag, and otherwise just carried a few snacks.  She used a small hydration pack for the first time, and this was an awesome addition to our kit.  She drank way more than she would have from bottles, but it was also a great receptacle for ice, which would slowly melt over the span of an hour or so, making her way more comfortable in the heat.  

The only other notable kit innovation was my Garmin Edge 1050, a necessary upgrade after I'd foolishly lost my seven year old 1030.  Despite the lousy circumstances of its purchase, I was really pleased with the unit.  Enhancements included the map loading feature pre-trip, and general responsiveness due to hardware upgrades over the intervening years.  In terms of the user interface, I most appreciated the ability to zoom the map from the core map screen, rather than have to dig around.  If I'd had a dollar for every time that had annoyed me on the 1030, I'd not have winced at the price of the replacement!

Convenience stores were a must as a steady supply of ice - I reckon Sarah melted at least 100kg of the stuff over the trip.  On the other hand, we bought a fair bit of junk food from them too (my favourite being a soft bread filled with pandan custard...).  That stuff is reliable as an energy source and easy to come by (i.e. you don't end up losing time searching for food which turns out to be not nutritious).  I think we struck a good balance between the authentic, local food experiences, and the crap, but I guess that's up for debate.   

As above, in the space of 18 days we covered 2150km, averaging about 120km a day - too much, in hindsight.  We'd considered going to Phuket, but decided not to - in part because of the distance it would add, but also for the exposure to other tourists - something neither of us was eager to do.  Even so, throughout our time in Thailand we felt under pressure, and as a result, didn't poke around as much as we should have.  A couple of extra days would have made all the difference, or two fewer, in which case riding all the way would have been completely out of the question!

I don't recall talking about it much on this blog, but for a while we harboured ambitions to take 9 months off work, with the aim of flying to Mongolia and cycle touring back to (or at least toward) New Zealand.  We've now taken a couple of small bites out of that long-since-shelved aspiration, and are pondering Indonesia being our next. 

In the meantime, we'll continue working hard (to pay for the holidays, among other things), and hopefully find other positive outlets outside of work, including Sarah's pottery, and my dead end street project.  Our base fitness level is definitely slipping year on year, but not to the point that we're yet unable to enjoy some solid riding holidays.  

I continue to love the fly-on-the-wall experience that cycle touring grants you - slow enough that you see, hear and smell all sorts of things, but fast enough that by the time someone reacts to you, you're gone.  I'll continue to look forward to that experience, and better yet if it is shared with Sarah.  Being able to travel like this is a real privilege, as it is to be able to ride as a couple.  I just need to work on the balance between indulgence and physical labour!  

Until next time!