The trip is over, 5:40am today i arrived by train from Surathani in Hua Lampong where i had started about a month ago.
Some stats:
Timeframe: 1 Month (13.03.2018 - 15.04.2018)
Total distance: 2800km
Islands: 8
Ferries/Boats used: 11
Avg. accommodation cost: 500 bath (more a guess than calculated, paid anything between 150 bath and 800 bath)
Camped: 4 nights
Dangerous road situations: 0! (I think this is because I rarely drove on any road with traffic, mostly small back roads or dirt-tracks)
Stopped by police: 2 times (1 time standard check when I entered Surathani Airport, 1 time yesterday when riding from ferry pier to Surathani train station, very friendly, just briefly checked the bike's license)
Bike dropped: 0 times (that just means i didn't ride hard enough roads :] )
Maintenance: a week ago i felt the bike wasn't running so great anymore, uneven idling, went to a Honda shop and got a new air-filter for 300bath + 100bath service, fixed the problem (which is weird as the filter didn't look so bad and had only 2500km on it), but I made that stupid mistake again, I let someone else touch my bike, while I was busy reattaching my soft luggage one mechanic just blindly refilled oil while yet another one just filled the water reservoir to full. It all happened in less than a minute and I was distracted enough to not scream stop. Only checked/fixed it after 100km of riding, oil ~200ml over maximum, good that it's a Honda, shouldn't have done any damage but these mechanics here really make me angry. Honda Krabi (or any other Honda shop that you don't know/trust for a long time), stay away!
this is the final GPS track (for a high resolution version use this
link):
And here come the last images from Krabi and Koh Phangan
At the end of one of the many dead-end roads to the coast I came out at a little fishing village, what was different here was that they don't seem to get any tourists, kids came in safe distance to look who that white guy was who just turned up in their village. Adults smiled but were shy to be photographed, luckily this guy was happy to have his picture taken.
Some of the adults told me that everyone in the Village is collecting a specific kind of mussel, selling those is what they live from. I saw the piles of mussels but couldn't tell what kind they are, they did not seem to be for typical restaurant food, too small.
I found a little sticker shop along the road, this girl opened the shop doors and invited me in.
Her mum turned up and told me the sticker i had chosen is free for me.
Really lovely people.
Young boy and his friend, I asked what his name was, he answered "Gai", that means chicken, i hope he understood me wrong.
9 months old kid
Backroads
A really cool find in yet another little village, these happy people have a little greenhouse, lots of cats and a mynah that can speak some Thai (too funny).
They invited me to come back and teach the kids some English, a place to sleep and good food provided. Hope i can keep my promise and come back next year.
a wide steep road up a hill leading to...
...nowhere
maybe they planned to build some hotel here, the road is abandoned now.
When staying in Krabi town, there was a little fair going on, I shot this photo in the morning without him noticing, not much going on yet.
...later in the day, a guy on a motorbike doing crazy stuff
centrifugal force is a weird thing.
These guys seem to know the limits very well.
Still, go two pictures back and look at the state of the wooden planks. When standing up there the whole thing was moving in the direction of the car.
Reminded me of Mexico, it's saltwater mixed with freshwater, beautiful colors and at one spot you were allowed to swim in there.
my cheap rooms usually don't have a nice view, for 600 bath I got this one which wasn't so bad
There was an amazing looking dirt track between the big limestone karst in the middle and the one to the right, half way between there was a fence that I could not pass, it looked like the garden Eden behind it, have to come back and find the owner.
yes he is sawing this 'not so thick' wood into two pieces by chainsaw?!?
Back in Surathani, time for some breakfast.
On the way to the airport I got a bit lost.
Island Nr. 8:
Koh Phangan
One of Thailand's most popular islands and the first one in the gulf of Thailand on this trip.
I was here with the fan who flew in from Bangkok for 3 days, so less riding more relaxing as you can see on the GPS track.
It's a busy and big island and I really dislike that everything is foreign-owned or at least managed, even the staff is mostly Burmese, i basically had to switch to speak English to everyone as nobody could speak Thai.
Drugs (not just weed) are the big thing on the island and obviously attract a lot of people looking for this, It's not my thing so I dislike this part of it as well.
Overall there were many things to dislike for me, but the island has admittedly some really fantastic nature and because it's so hilly, there are very cool steep roads with views.
I should have definitely explored a bit more.
Night boat from Surathani, leaves 11pm arrives 6am. CRF -> 500 bath (scooter 400), passenger 400 bath
I love boats like this! very good sleep with fresh breeze from outside.
Our home for 2 nights, 1300 bath for a rather basic wooden beach bungalow, but with this view it's hard to complain.
The speed ferry (passenger only) takes off to Surathani
A good thing that comes with all the tourism is that they clean the beaches several times per day, which makes them look really nice.
Songkran friday, the fisherman and his two kids can't be bothered.
In other parts of the island the party is on...
The bike that allowed me to make this cool trip, long live the CRF!
Goodbye Koh Phangan
Took a big car ferry back to the port 100km east of Surathani, rode to the Train station and got really lucky with the timing, 30min later I was back on the way to Bangkok.
This "bike on train" thing is awesome, it would have been a partially boring and surely dangerous ride back to Bangkok in Songkran time.
Paid ~600 bath for the aircon sleeper and this time ~1350 bath for the bike (I learned the price depends on the weight, so you better tell them your bike weights 120kg not 170kg!)
5:40am, back in Bangkok Hua Lampong station, painless. Empty roads on the way back home, Bangkok is deserted right now.
Well, this is it, i hope you enjoyed following this little trip report, I know I got lazy writing down the details of where I stayed and where exactly some of these pictures are, but feel free to ask me, i might still remember
Cheers and happy new year to everyone,
Moritz