South Thailand and North West Malaysia

Cycling in Thailand is always a nice things to do. South Thailand and North West Malaysia are areas easily overseen by mainstream tourists. And it's really a shame.

Sure, people go to Krabi and Phuket, beach lovers visit Ko Samui and Ko Phanghan but few take the energy to visit less known areas as Hat Yai, Yala or Betong. The reason is simply, south Thailand has a bad name of bomb attacks a small group of extremist Muslims. Personally I still think London or Paris are far more dangerous in crime and street danger with all the traffic but who would believe me?

I travel Betong - Hat Yai through Yala regularly and I never had any troubles. In fact all I find is smiling faces and people are happy to see at least one traveler takes the opportunity to visit their beautiful area.

This time it was a bit different then other times. I cycled from Penang to Betong, deep in south Thailand. Right at the border I got some problems with my gear system. For this little trip I had not brought my tools which turned out to be a serious problem. Or that was what I thought at the border.

The gear system was not to be fixed without tools but it was also virtually impossible to cycle. Fortunately from the border post into Betong is all the way down and I was hoping to find a place where I could repair my bicycle. You may have read about Jim, my bike, and if not, read more about Jim here.

In south Thailand, as in other parts of Asia motorbike shops are plenty. I expected to find a few. As Betong is a small town it shouldn't be too difficult to find a shop where they would have some tools, usually a motorbike shop would do. But in Betong, to my surprise I found a very nice and neat bicycle shop: Betong Mountain Bike. Although I have been numerous times in Betong I had never seen this shop. The guys in the shop told me Betong has developed a quite fanatical bicycle club that toured the area.

The staff of the Mountain Bike shop in Betong and me

In many ways I was not surprised. With its mountains and good roads, B etong is an excellent playground for enthusiastic bicycle lovers.

The guys were able to help me out with my little problem. And with that I was able to continue my little journey. However, the problems where not solved.

This part of south Thailand is a beautiful, as I already described at this page. Therefore I won't pay too much attention about that. However, I torn out my back tire. Now in Betong I would have been able to find a new decent tire. But while I was cycling to Yala I was hoping the tire would hold until I was in the city. If I could reach the city I was at least not far from any repair.

Indeed I made it to Yala and believe it or not, right in the city, the tire collapsed. But where to find a new tire? I decided to ask at a motorbike shop. The people here were happy to help me out. And as it showed, in Yala too there was an excellent bicycle shop. The guys found a very good Japanese slick tire. And again I was saved.

Later, in Hat Yai I was able to found another 2 very nice bicycle shops I had not seen before. It seemed that cycling in Thailand had become quite popular. Maybe it was also because there was a promotional bicycle tour in Hat Yai going on. There was quite a bit of advertising for that too.

Street life in Alor Setar

For me it was time to move south again. I didn't want to cycle again to Satun and take the boats to Langkawi and Penang. Instead I decided to travel a less visited area in North Malaysia: Perlis. The kilometers to the border of south Thailand and north Malaysia where nice though at some stage quite busy. However, the last 10 km to Padang Besar was very quiet and beautiful. Wide roads in forests, and almost no traffic.

Most people know Padang Besar from the railway border crossing. However, there is a big international border crossing over the normal road too. Service is excellent and quick (as usual)

The Great Mosque of Alor Setar

And then you arrive in Perlis, the tiny little state in North Malaysia. The main city here is Kangar, about 35km from the border. Perlis offers quite a few caves to visit. I have never been a cave lover so I skipped them. Instead I enjoyed the scenery. East lie the hills, west the sea which you sea from time to time.

Just north of the city is a crocodile farm, and even an ostrich breeding station, just along the road.

A small ostrich farm in north Perlis

From Kangar I went straight to Alor Setar. I didn't expect much of Alor Setar but I have to admit, it was a very pleasant big city. Maybe I didn't stay in the best area of the city, near the airport, but near was a Chinese night food market where I indulged myself with some excellent food and drinks.

And from Alor Setar it was just a short day ride, around 100km back to Penang to visit friends before going back home to Sitiawan.

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