Hat Yai to Surat Thani Bikepacking Trip

We had 5 days off that we could carve out of our working lives, and of course, we wanted to make a short cycling trip. At this time we wanted something laidback, with beaches and good food. South Thailand, and more specifically the area of Songkhla, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Surat  Thani came as a natural choice.

 

First, Hat Yai, the capital of the South is a short and cheap flight away from Singapore. Second, this part of Thailand has a different weather pattern than the rest of country, meaning that June did not fall into the monsoon season, unlike further north. Third, the area sees far fewer tourists than some other parts of the country. Overall, we got everything that we had been looking for. On top of this, Zoltan could fulfill his own professional interest in Muslim customs and culture as this part of the country has a mixed Muslim and Buddhist population.

For the sake of simplicity, we’ll go through our trip day by day.

 

Arrival:

We landed at Hat Yai’s small but efficient airport and got our luggage, including our bikes quickly and without any problem. Since we arrived rather late at night, we hired a seven-seater to drop us at our accommodation (it was quite expensive, 1000 Baht), instead of assembling our steel rigs at the airport.

 

The “Little Bear” guest house was a very pleasant place to get some rest before our ride. The owners kindly allowed us to keep there our carton boxes in which we transported our bikes. In this way didn’t have to hunt for new boxes upon return.

 

Day 1: 

We left the guest house early morning and headed towards Songkhla. After about a 35 km ride we crossed the Lake of Songkhla on a ferry. On the boat, we enjoyed some nice views and excellent green mango with chili that we bought from a vendor.

 

 

Once landing at the other side of the lake we continued up north on the super smooth highway, with a convenient, wide motorbike lane. We didn’t have to pedal long to arrive at a small Muslim cemetery where we found the grave of Sultan Suleiman, one of the most successful rulers of Singora in the 17^th century. Singora, once a thriving Muslim Sultanate due the region’s lucrative pepper trade was a vassal state of Siam until the latter, after a revolt, completely took it over. Local Muslims until today consider Sultan Suleiman as a saint, and his grave sees regular pilgrims who ask him for intercession for the sake of their health and good fortune.

 

 

 

During the rest of the day, we watched a local funeral proceeding, passed by some beautiful Buddhist temples, Muslim villages and had the chance to grab some tamarind drinks and green tea. In Thailand, at almost every milestone there’s a kiosk selling various kinds of shakes, tea (including bubble tea) and coffee. The existence of these small establishments adds to the orgy of senses that this country is famous about. {I’m not referring here to the nightlife, rather the cuisine (mango sticky rice…), the beauty of the landscape and the richness of religious and local customs.}

 

 

 

Before sunset, we ended up at a dodgy roadside motel at the outskirts of the town of Ranot. After resting a bit we walked out to find our dinner.  We passed by a few bars obviously hosting working girls (in a convenient distance from our motel…this tells something about the spirit of the place…), and ended up in a steamboat restaurant.

 

 

The only really inconvenient part of this day was that both of us got flats. Angela got a pinch flat after running over a piece of metal in high speed. Zoltan found a huge nail in his rear tire. He could complete the day without changing the tube as he previously installed anti-puncture sealant inside the inner tube. After the ride though, the tube had to be replaced.

 

 

 

Day 2:

We started the day with some noodles and coffee at a roadside stall. We just sat and asked for 2 orders of anything they are serving. Communication was difficult with the locals and we usually got surprise dishes.

 

 

On the way, we passed by a beautiful beach and some windmills. The headwind was strong close to the windmills making it harder to cycle but the view was worth the trouble.

 

 

In the late afternoon, we arrived in the city of Nakhon Si Thammarat and checked in a very pleasant, yet cheap hotel. The highlight of the day was our dinner. In a local restaurant, just a few hundred meters away from our accommodation, we got served the juiciest, succulent, sweet and tangy pork ribs of our life (BEST pork ribs ever!). We finished the day with a short walk around the town spotting a beautiful temple in the city center.

 

 

Day 3:

This day started perfect and ended perfectly. In a Chinese breakfast place (just outside our hotel) we had some excellent dim sum. While passing through the town we stopped for a coffee in a beautiful and very pleasant café.

 

After enjoying our respective ice latte (A) and double espresso (Z), we, with very few stops continued to ride until the little coastal town Khanom, where we found accommodation in a fantastic beach chalet.

 

 

We spent the rest of the day with swimming, reading our kindle on the beautiful Khanom beach. In the evening we borrowed the motorbike of our receptionist and were driving around town, and hunting for food and massage. We ended up in a noodle shop owned by an old Auntie who let us decide what meat we want to put our noodles. We were not successful in finding a massage though.

 

 

 

Day 4:

The next morning we headed towards the city of Surat Thani, where we supposed to catch our train back to Hat Yai. On the way, we saw a number of charming Buddhist temples and grabbed some nice food and drinks.

 

We only had the chance to pass by the outskirt of Surat Thani as the train station is 15km west of the city in the town of Phin Phin. Upon arrival at the latter, we purchased our train tickets.

 

 

Since the departure of the overnight train was around midnight we checked in a cheap and rundown hotel near the station, and then left for the night market to grab our dinner. We passed by plenty of food stalls and grabbed some of the local bites.

 

 

We had a few hours of sleep and then headed to the train station. We put our bikes into the freight car, then slept through the night in our sleeper carriage until we arrived in Hat Yai in the early morning.

 

 

Last day:

We packed our bikes, had breakfast in a Muslim street food stall, then headed to the city to pass our time until we had to head to the airport at night. We had a great Thai massage, drunk plenty of coffee and bought a lot of tamarind candies. Before returning to Little Bear and getting a tuk-tuk to transport our bike to the airport, we strolled around the city and visited some of the moderately interesting temples.

 

Certainly, we plan to return to this beautiful country with our bikes, hopefully, multiple times next year.