Again on the “old” bridge … it was just shorter
We could not find any more destinations or activities in Malaysia that were able to re-kindle the fire and joy that has been missing for a couple of days. Nina and I talked a lot about how we feel about the trip, what we thought were the reasons and what we might do with it. One decision that came out of this was to call it for Malaysia and head over to Thailand, today. There was still doubt, though. Are we missing out? We also did not want to do Malaysia dis-justice, when we were so hyped up about exploring here after coming over from Sumatra.
My last bid for a set of Heidenau K60 in Malaysia fell short as well, so at 10:30 it was time to hit the road for the last 150 km in Malaysia. Since I could not find them in Thailand either, it might come that we need to settle on a different tire soon. There was an importunity to get the promising looking Metzeler Karoo 3, but unfortunately they do not make a front in Rocinante’s size.
Hiding out of the sun after lunch to plan our next moves
Once more, the km just burned away on the perfectly maintained motorway and by lunchtime, we were almost at the border. We did a brief stop for lunch (overlander tip we got: Never go into a border hungry) to spend at least some of our remaining cash ringgit. It was sweltering hot again.
This was only our second land border crossing with Rocinante ever, even though she has been to 11 countries so far (plus Spain, where she was built)! There was only a tiny bit of time wasted by being lost on our part, but there were always friendly people to guide us along, even if they wore automatic rifles. All in all we were through in about an hour. Best thing of it all, we even got a surprise at the Thai side. Both us and the bike got 30 days without any kind of fee. Woohaa! That was a huge load off our chests.
Thailand is the worlds most populous Buddhist majority country.
Not knowing how the border would go, we did not have a plan for anything after that. It was 2 pm and a brief check of our options left us with two good choices: Either call it a day soon and experience the only safe muslim Malay city (yes, there is a separatist insurgency going on in Thailand’s deep South. One of the bloodiest in the world). Or give it a real long push and get to a wild camp spot on the west coast, recommended by Celia and Tig about 250km further.
The road felt good today, even Thailand promised riding smooth enough to continue our audio book and our appetite for another Sino-Malay City so soon was not quite there. Plus, I got a Thai SIM card with 9 GB of data in 10 minutes, so we were good to go. We had one more quick stop along the way at a lovely little coffee place, but other than that, off we went.
Not even when disaster tried to strike 150 km down once more could our new-found energy be sapped again. I stopped half way over this perfect road crossing the central hills from coast to coast to check out the rear tire. The tire was fine, I was just not used to the sound of proper cornering at 100 km/h anymore. But when we wanted to go back on the road, the electrical problems were back. I stripped the back of the bike down again, wiggled a bit and she started after a couple of tries / kicks against the footrests. Nothing major yet, but I well need to find some time to go over all connections again and check the wiring for loose connections.
Just 10 minutes and we were across
With a slightly dodgy bike and the sun setting fast, we only made one more stop to shop for breakfast tomorrow morning. Nina even found something to eat on the least likely stall of the lot around. The burger place made her a burger with egg instead of a pattie and we sat down in the 7eleven parking lot for a quick dinner.
From here, the race was on. It was 5.50 pm, sunset was due 6.24 pm and we had 25 km to go. Which was when our dear GPS advised us to … take the ferry. I was wondering why the bridge over that river was on such an odd angle. We got lucky again, as the ferry had just docked. Dart over here, buy our ticket for 50ct and away we were again. 6 pm …
Nina’s part: We made it literally with a minute before the sun touched the horizon. The recommended beach is a beautiful place, especially during sunset. So we watched it reverently, high-fived, turned around…and were eaten alive by mosquitoes. Flo complained that he’s forgotten how to put up our tent but we still did it in record time.
Not even time to take the helmet off 😉
Relieved, both of us hopped into the tent, pulled up the mosquito nets and…were faced with the next challenge. Despite our previous camping, nothing had prepared us for camping in a tropical climate. Within seconds, the tent resembled a Native American steam tent. To try and minimize our own heat output, we lay down on the ground rather than stain our mattresses with sweat and waited to cool down. Which didn’t happen. So Flo got back up, opened all the vents and flaps that we have and we tried it again. Slowly, slowly, we cooled down to a point where we didn’t look like we were sitting in a sauna. From here to sleeping, it was still a loooooooong way to go. Still, we were quite happy with this day. 🙂
