Thailand (1700km)

From flat coastline, lined with tiny villages and white sandy beaches in the south, to the lush hilly farmland of the central west. Thailand has plenty of opportunities for relaxing and cycling. It would be an ideal place for a first cycle touring trip outside Europe. Culturally different enough to be interesting but developed enough to not be a shock to the system. 

bukit kayu hitam (border with malaysia) to Koh tao (550km)

Arriving through the bustling border at Bukit Kayu Hitam, the place immediately felt different (I couldn't read any of the signs for a start). Pictures of the recently appointed (Oct 2016) King Vajiralongkorn lined the busy main road and there were temples visible every 10-20km. I cycled 60km along the main road towards Hat Yai where I spent the night researching my route up the coast. The next 550km would take me up north towards Donsak, from where I could take a ferry to Koh Samui and Koh Tao . Here I would take a week off to look around the islands and learn to scuba dive.

Amazing encounters in temples

I had been told by other cycle tourers that sometimes it was possible to camp in the grounds of Buddhist temples. So on my second night in the country I decided to take my chances and ask. Was Bo Daeng was a pretty big temple with large grounds, I entered and someone came up and asked in broken English what I wanted. I pointed at a picture of a tent on my phone and then asked if I could camp there. Apparently it wasn't ok for me to camp but I was welcome to stay in the temple when the celebrations calmed down. Perfect! I sat down at a table with an English teacher, her husband and a young woman. I asked the teacher what the celebrations were for. “Oh, this lady’s grandmother (gesturing at the young woman beside us) has died, and this is the funeral party, tomorrow we burn the body.” I HAD CRASHED A FUNERAL. 

That night me and the young woman slept on sofas in the temple in the same room as her grandmothers body. I couldn’t believe the kindness I was receiving. Can you imagine if a random sweaty stranger turned up at your grandmother’s funeral and asked if there was somewhere to sleep? The next morning I packed up, said goodbye and gave the young woman and her family hugs. Just before I left I was presented with a 2 kilo bag of fruit and a bottle of water; I cycled off with a massive grin on my face and a huge sense of gratitude.

After 550km cycling along the coast via Phattalung and Nakhon Si Thammarat, I took the ferry from Donsak to Koh Samui. Koh Samui was quite nice, but nothing special to be honest, so from there I took another ferry to Koh Tao. Koh Tao was incredibly touristy, but a fab place to learn to dive, so I spent 5 days doing my open water and advanced scuba diving certificates with Rocktopus Dive School. 

chumpon to phetchaburi (450km)

Back on the mainland at Chumpon it was time to push on. This part of the coast was more developed towards tourism than the coastline south of Donsak, but it still made for nice cycling. A main road runs all along this coast up to Phetchaburi but it was possible to stay off it by taking the smaller roads hugging the coastline. Altogether I spent 6 days cycling from Chumpon to Phetchaburi via the towns of  Ban Krut, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Sam Phraya beach and Cha-am. Highlights included visiting Wat Thang Sai Temple, street food in Prachuap Khiri Khan, camping at Sam Phraya Beach in Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park and visiting the Khuha Kharuehat Pavilion inside Phraya Nakhon cave. 

phetchaburi to mae sot (714km)

After roughly 1000km cycling up the coast it was time to turn inland again, to experience a more rural and undeveloped side of Thailand. It took about a week of cycling to reach Mae Sot, the border town with Myanmar, and despite it being 700km, not a huge amount changed in terms of scenery. I went via the towns of Chom Bueng, Kanchanaburi, Dan Chang, Mae Wong, Kampheang Phet and Tak. It was a fairly flat cycle through farmland to Kanchanaburi and then an up and down ride through small villages and undeveloped land to Tak. This was followed by two big hill climbs up to 900m and 700m between Tak and Mae Sot. 

Interesting points along the way included:

• Visiting the Death Railway, the railway built by prisoners of war during WW2 between Myanmar and Thailand.

• Cycling through hundreds of km of farmland and passing by Dam Krasiao, Thailand’s longest earthen dam.

• Visiting the 500-700 year old temples at Kampheang Phet Historical Park

• Staying with some super hosts in Tak and tackling my first real hills since Indonesia before Mae Sot.