Within two weeks, our mothers are coming to Khao Lak, so we rented a house there. First we will pass by the house to check up on things, where after we will go to Phuket.
We encounter a lot of rain under the way. We hear there is a typhoon hanging over the Andaman Islands which influences the weather on the western Thai coast.
Its about an hour's drive to reach Phuket. We decide to go to Patong Beach because its quite centrally located in Phuket and because there is much to do. Once arrived, we dont know where to look first, so we decide to get something to drink. Meanwhile, we check on booking.com if there are any bargains to be made because its low season and there are quite a few hotels without any customers for the moment. We see a room with everything we want, for the craziest price we've seen on this trip. Its only 6.5 euro for one night. We go and take a look at the room and we take it immediately.
This week our moms are visiting us. We have a good time together. We go to Khao Sok National Park with a few scooters. We enjoy the Thai kitchen and each others company.
We rented this House for One Week
View over Khao Sok National Park
We leave for the province of Krabi. We drive through the province, and we are right in between huge limestone rock formations. Really beautiful scenery in this province. It gets even better once we get to the coastline: the combination of the clear blue ocean and the sea which is full of these rock formations that form tiny islands making it picture perfect.
Ao Nang Beach
In the morning we leave for Railay and we go to the pier on foot, Mickey stays behind in our hotel. When we arrive at the pier, we see that the ticket office is closed. A tuk tuk driver tells us that the sea here is too wild at the moment and that there are only boats leaving from the pier at Ao Nammao. He drives us to the pier and a little later were in a longtailboat towards Railay. Here too, the sea seems to be pretty wild because we jump in the air a few times. On Railay our search for a hotel begins.
The ferry that should take us to Koh Phi Phi cant dock at Railay East. We must first take a longtailboat to deeper waters where we have to transfer to the ferry. On the way to Phi Phi, there are a lot of waves which causes the ferry to toss back and forth. Safely arrived in Phi Phi, we walk through the narrow streets of the main town, looking for a guest house. We quickly find a room where we spend the whole afternoon as the weather is bad.
In the early afternoon we are back in Ao Nang. We stay for two nights and continue writing on our English blog. Meanwhile, we also think about our next destination. We decide to go to Koh Lanta and on the internet, Kevin finds the beach-to-be. We depart from Ao Nang around noon and two hours and two ferry trips later, we arrive at Khlong Khong Beach. Most resorts are closed or appear abandoned so we walk along the shoreline, looking for a beachfront bungalow. At the first resort that is opened, we see three luxury bungalows on the beach.
Hat Yai is the biggest city in southern Thailand. Actually, not many tourists come to this city, but we are here for two reasons: the McDonalds (they have a Double Big Mac in Thailand) and a cinema. We arrive in the late afternoon, because we had to seek shelter for the rain a few times. We already found a hotel on the internet and this appears to be okay. We go to the big shopping mall, Central Festival, where both McDonalds and the cinema are located. The Double Big Mac appears to be a disappointment, a Thai curry would have been better.
On the way to the border, we find ourselves driving through the real Muslim area of Thailand, we see hardly any women without headscarves. The Muslims are all dressed at their best, because today is the Eid Al-Fitr (end of Ramadan). Its because of this holiday that we cant cross this border today. We can leave Thailand but the ferry that has to bring Mickey across the river doesnt sail today, so we drive to the next border crossing. The border crossing in Rantau Panjang goes very smoothly.
We have been in Thailand twice for the period of two months. We understand why it has become such a tourist destination, its really the-place-to-be to have a hassle-free holiday. In the north, we especially enjoyed our motorcycle rides through the mountains, offering stunning views. In Southern Thailand we enjoyed the exotic islands: palm trees, white sand beaches and crystal clear water. Thailand has a different era than us. We were here in the year 2557 (2014).
In Malaysia, our bad luck continues: we cant find any ATM that works with a foreign card and we really need refuelling (which by the way is really cheap here, 0.60 euro / l). At Shell we can pay with our MasterCard, but we cant get any money on top. Shortly after, we have to hide for the rain again. At dark we arrive in Kuala Besut, which lies on the east coast of Malaysia and from here we want to take a boat to the Perhentian Islands, the next day. A man on a scooter asks us if we already have a ticket for the boat and brings us to a travel agency.
In the morning we decide that we dont want to go to the Perhentian Islands. We dont trust to leave Mickey behind, so we decide to continue our journey following the east coast. Theres not much to do in this part of Malaysia but it's been a while since we were just cruising with our motorbike, so we really are looking forward to it. We follow the road that is closest to the ocean and occasionally we really are driving just next to it.
Driving Along the East Coast
Singapore is one of the most prosperous countries in the world and although it wasnt in our planning, it seems like a good idea to visit it now that we're so close. We are looking for information on visa and entering with our own vehicle. For Belgian citizens a visa is not required and we can stay for 90 days. On the other hand, bringing the motorbike into Singapore seems less easy. First of all, the motorbike has to be insured so we go to a bank in Johor Bahru to inform about this. There they say that we must wait for permission from the head office for three to four days.
We get off the bus and queue at immigration to enter Malaysia. It really nice how easy it is for us to go in and out of Malaysia so smoothly without any paperwork in advance.
Immigration at Johor Bahru
The 700km to Penang is mainly on the highway and goes smoothly. A couple of times we feel some raindrops but never enough to stop driving. In the early evening, we arrive at the toll bridge to Penang. From the bridge we get a nice view of the island.
Penang Bridge
We have been in Malaysia for almost three weeks, with a three-day city trip to Singapore in between. We saw only the east coast and Penang as we were traveling through, due to problems with the Carnet. Our impression of Malaysia is that it isnt a real tourist destination, though undoubtedly some cities are worth a visit as well as some islands and the Cameron Highlands. We think this is due to the high alcohol prices and the few nightspots. On our way back home, we will definitely explore the west coast with Langkawi, Kuala Lumpur, Cameron Highlands and Malacca.
This is summary from our trip through Thailand and Malaysia
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The owner of our guesthouse in Penang brings us to the airport. We are actually a bit early since we only took our hand luggage. The time at the airport passes quickly, and before we know it we are on the plane.
Our Plane to Indonesia
