Number 3 11/02/2011: Alor Setar to Setan (Thailand) 126.52

Final moments before checking out
of Malaysia

I was so excited to be leaving Malaysia, it’s a weird thing to say because I liked it here but I was ready for something new and that something is Thailand. From leaving Alor Setar the first and pretty much last decent sized town I came to was Kangar where I had planned to get some Thai currency and food but instead ended up getting a new reel for my fishing rod and some fishing tackle. Leaving Kangar I ended up on the wrong road one that I thought would be longer but infact I think it turned out to be shorter. As my map didn’t show the road I was on or any road I don’t actually know where I crossed the border, but I don’t think it was the one I aimed for I say this because checking google maps the previous night all I had to do was go straight but I was taking all sorts of left and rights. Before I got to the border Malaysia gave me one last challenge and that was a hill so steep it was almost quicker to walk, only once before have I used the absolute lowest gears in my bike but not for the whole duration of a hill and I struggled but took on the challenge to give it my all and complete the hill in one go. Covered in sweat and feeling a b it queezy I won my challenge and was rewarded with an awesome downhill. I took it in a way that this was Malaysia’s way of saying ‘you’ve earnt the right to leave.’ Of course it could have been a hill anywhere but through the day I think about this kind of stuff a lot, you feel part of the land, the country if you imagine its communicating with you, it’s hard to understand and I probably just sound crazy.

Immigration was painless, there was an area of no man’s land where I had lunch. At first I thought this a special moment to be stamped out of one country yet not into another, but spotting a shop that sold duty free goods I realized that this is no different than being at an airport.

A break in no mans land

Upon getting into Thailand I had a problem, I had no Thai money (Baht). There were ATM’s about as I was in the jungle, I was just going to have to make do with what I had till I found an ATM. Thailand being a new country things were a bit different, the first were the road signs or any signs for that matter, Thailand has its own alphabet which looks as if a child has just scribbled and to the un trained eye, all looks the same, next was hardly anybody spoke much or any English (which made ordering food in the evening tricky but surprisingly I had my best feed of the trip so far, all for GBP2).

The ride to Saten was pretty smooth, I had a slight tail wind and made good speed. Just before arriving to Satan I weighed myself and was shocked to discover I was at a lowly 78KG, before leaving Australia I was knocking on 86KG. After dinner however where I ate till I could eat now more and drank till I could drink no more I found another set of scales, the reading of 81KG was a bit better reading but I’m still missing 5KG.

The hotel I found is pretty good for 230baht, or GBP4.50, double bed, free internet own shower toilet, fresh towels etc but I’m going to try stick to a budget of 500baht per day which means I’m going to have to ‘man up’ and camp a few nights. Looking forward to seeing what the rest of Thailand has to offer, but so far the craziness of the little food market stalls and the cheapness is right up my street.