March 16, 2019
Samnak Kham
We woke up this morning after a pretty restless night (our digs weren't that quiet) to see a fresh easterly wind blowing. Not what we had hoped for given that our planned route was due east for most of the way.
Today was never going to be an exciting one. Most of it would be on boring main roads, which we had chosen to ensure we have a good, safe shoulder. Thankfully, for the first twenty kilometers or so we could stick to a track alongside the main road but this petered out after the town of Arau, south-east of Kangar. We stopped in Arau for a second breakfast of Roti Canai (Leigh had to have some more before we left Malaysia) before slogging our way eastwards towards Changlun.
When we passed this way in 2017 the rice fields were green and lush but now they were burnt and left fallow.
At Changlun we turned northwards on the AH2 - the Asian Highway 2 - which turned out to be shoulderless which made the last ten kilometers even less pleasant. We stopped at a road side shop to spend the last of our Malaysian money. The roti we had bought earlier in the day had left us with just two ringit so all we could afford was a 100 Plus to share. Revive and 100 Plus are the supposedly isotonic drinks that are widely available in Malaysia.
Passing through passport control out of Malaysia was a breeze - we simply joined the motorcycle queue and only had to dismount from our bicycles to provide prints of our index fingers.
The Thai side took a bit longer. Because we were re-entering after a short break an interview was called for to make sure we were sticking to the visa waiver conditions. It was all very pleasant and polite. We were processed via the priority queue which meant we were done faster than if we had to join the long queue of other travelers coming through from Malaysia.
After that we set off to look for a place to spend the night. We were both hot and tired and didn't feel like spending hours riding around in the midday heat. So we spent 650 baht on a room at the JDA Hotel. Very nice - clean and big and close to food, convenience stores etc.
Tomorrow is another uninteresting ride up the AH2 to Hat Yai. At least there will be a good shoulder.
Today's ride: 48 km (30 miles)
Total: 1,116 km (693 miles)
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