20-22 July 2007
Motorcycle tour to Betong, Thailand, southernmost Thai town. Ipoh, Gerik Highway Route 76, Betong, Communist Tunnel, Bailing Highway Route 77. Bikes: STX1300 Pan European, CBR1100XX BlackBird, Honda Super4.
I was a rebel since young. When I was 6 years old, when I was munching chewing gum, my mother said, "You don't swallow the chewing gum." The next thing was, I got my whole family going on a manhunt trying to look for me, as I was trying to hide from them so I can try to swallow the chewing gum.
When I was 18 years old, my father said, "You don't go and learn motorcyle, it's dangerous!" I have since clocked over 10 years and hundred of thousands of km of riding.
This time, I want to ride to somewhere different. There was a recent series of bombings and gruesome beheadings by terrorists in southern Thailand. Many have died. The newspapers are screaming "Don't go to Southern Thailand. It's a dangerous place now."
OK then. Let's ride to southern Thailand. To Betong, the southern most town in the southern state Yala, of Thailand.
When I was 18 years old, my father said, "You don't go and learn motorcyle, it's dangerous!" I have since clocked over 10 years and hundred of thousands of km of riding.
This time, I want to ride to somewhere different. There was a recent series of bombings and gruesome beheadings by terrorists in southern Thailand. Many have died. The newspapers are screaming "Don't go to Southern Thailand. It's a dangerous place now."
OK then. Let's ride to southern Thailand. To Betong, the southern most town in the southern state Yala, of Thailand.
Our route. Red is on the way to Betong. Blue is on the way back to Singapore.
Fri (20/8) :
- 12 pm Set off from Gelah Patah, Malaysia. NorthSouth Highway.
- 6 pm: Arrive at Ipoh, Malaysia. Stayover.
Sat (21/8)
- 7 am: Set off for Route 76, Gerik Highway.
- 12 pm: Malaysia-Thai border.
- 1 pm: Betong, Thailand. Check-in. Half-day to tour Betong.
Sun (22/8)
- 7 am: Set off back to Singapore.
- 8 am: After Malaysia-Thai border, Route 77, Bailing Highway.
- 11 am: NorthSouth highway, Penang back to Gelah Patah, Malaysia.
3 Bikes: PPlater (Honda Super4); Me (ST1300 Pan European); Spectrum (CBR1100XX BlackBird).
NorthSoth Highway from Gelah Pateh to Ipoh
When you see the tall vertical rocks, it means you are reaching Ipoh.
It rained during our 1 hour ride from Kuala Lumpur to Ipoh. But behind the large fully-extended screen of the ST1300, I didn't need to wear a raincoat.
Fun watching the water droplets rolling upward off the windscreen.
Our fuel stops along the long journey from Gelah Patah to Ipoh:
- GP
- Ayer Hitam
- Kelok Ayer
- Rawang
- Ipoh.
Each fuel stop is <200km. style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">
PPlater is a brave gung-ho young man. Barely months passed his probation P-Plate, he is going to ride to Thailand with us, a distance many other much more seasoned bikers have not been to.
Midway through, at the Kelok Ayer fuel stop, PPlater went, "Oh shit."
"What's up? What's the problem?", I asked.
"I broke my box key (PPlater's Super4 has 2 side hard-boxes). I was turning the key to unlock the left box and the key broke", PPlater said.
"But you have got the spare key right? I reminded you to bring spare keys before the trip", I asked.
"Yes, I did bring spare keys for the bike and the boxes", PPlater said.
"Well, then just use your spare key to open the boxes and problem is solved, isn't it?", I said simply.
PPlater said, "I left my spare key locked inside the right box."
!!!
I figured PPlater is going to have to spend his next 3 days riding and sleeping in the same underwear he is wearing now.
The Ipoh Pomelo Girls
To go to Ipoh town, we exited at the NorthSouth Highway at Exit 137 Simpan Pulai.
At the first T-junction, turn right. Then head straight. This leads to the Ipoh town centre.
4 km in on your right, you will see one of the unique features of Ipoh town, the Pomelo shops.
It is a row of shops. All of them look the same. All of them sell Pomelos.
They appear a uniform row of green filled with Pomelo, until you pull up nex to them.
Then suddenly, like colourful flowers blossoming after a rain, each shop will sprout a couple of young fair girls standing in front of the shop.
See until blur.PPlater standing in front of the Pomelo shops.
So many shops, so many pomelos, so many girls to choose from.
Which one to go for?
We settled for this shop '888'.
From left, PPlater, Ah Ying, Xian2 Xian2 (sleepy sleepy?), chi-ko pek Spectrum.
I walked past all the 25 Pomelo shops. I noticed the first one-third and second one-third are all manned by young girls like Ah Ying and Xian Xian. The last one-third are manned by aunties and ah gongs and I wonder how they survived against such strong competition.
Almost exactly one year ago, I rode here to Ipoh and to Gerik. You can see it in my August 2006 entry in this blog. I also came here the last time.
Spectrum said, "Let's buy a pomelo and eat back at the hotel."
I said, "That's what you said last year and I ended up bring back the pomelo back to Singapore."
Spectrum said, "Don't worry, if we can't finished in the hotel, we will finished along the Gerik ride tomorrow."
I said, "That's what you said last year too."
Flashback August, 2006. I was ridding a Fazer with side boxes then.
I carried the pomelo from Ipoh, through Gerik Highway, to Kuantan, back to Singapore.
It was the longest travelling pomelo.
We still went ahead and bought the pomelo and it went into one of the large side boxes of my Vice.
Present day, 2007. I had to carry the pomelo again.
Ipoh, Excelsior Hotel
Next, we went to look for a hotel to stay in Ipoh.
We chose Excelsior hotel and checked in at 7.30 pm.
One of the reasons was we stayed there in 2006 and it was a fine hotel.
Another reason was we, or more accurately Spectrum, wanted to see the beautiful hotel receptionist.
Spectrum with the beautiful receptionist who speaks very good English at the Excelsior Hotel of Ipoh, August 2006. See my Aug 2006 entry in this blog.
When we reached the Excelsior Hotel, the first thing we did was to go look for this receptionist.
But there were several female receptionists on duty there and we wouldn't quite sure if one of them is her. And we couldn't exactly remember this beautiful receptionist's name.
Then I said, "Oh! I remembered her name sounds very close to a bad word."
Spectrum enquired, "What name?! What name?! Then we can ask for her."
I searched my rich vocabulary of bad words and cross check with my limited vocabulary of english names.
I said, "Oh, I got it liao! Her name is Nina!" Sounds like Kan-Nina.
We asked one of the receptionists, "We are looking for a Nina, is she still working here?"
The receptionist whom we asked replied, amazingly, "I am Nina."
On one hand, we were overjoyed we found back our Nina. On the other hand, we didn't quite remember our Nina looked like this.
So Spectrum tried to remind our Nina, "Remember us or not? Last year we were here?"
Nina gave a blank look.
Spectrum didn't give up, "We were a bunch of bikers and we took all the brochures in the hotel! Ha ha ha! You remembered?"
Nina shoke her head.
Spectrum was disappointed how could Nina forget us so fast, especially one as handsome as Spectrum.
But we consoled ourselves, oh well, maybe the hotel really had a lot of guests between then and now. It wasn't we were good looking enough. It's just that one year is a long time ago.
Just as we were consoling our bruised ego, one of our bikers back in Singapore sent us a SMS to eagerly enquiring if we found our beautiful reception. The sms went, "So how is Nardia?"
Oh! So our beautiful receptionist wasn't Nina but Nardia!
Our bruised ego from being unremembered recovered immediately!
We asked Nina, where is Nardia?
Nardia has left Excelsior and is now with Emas, the company behind the toll booths of NorthSouth highway.
The next time you are at one of the toll booths along the NorthSouth Highway, help us enquire how to look for Nardia.
Can't blame me for the mix-up ok. I wasn't far off what. Nardia does sound like a bad word: Nin-nah-hia.
Spectrum trying hard to impress the unsmiley and urh, so different-looking-from-Nardia, Nina.
We asked the hotel to send someone from the hotel maintenance engineering team to help us solve PPlater's locked boxes which contained his clothings and toilet kits.
We waited by PPlater's bike and a while later, one young guy from the team turned up bare-handed without any tool kit and asked us what can he helped us with.
We described our complex dilemma of a locked box with a spare key kept inside the box itself.
The young man looked at the locked box. We expected him to go back inside the hotel to return witha toolbox with some huge screw drivers, jacks, hammers, spanners. Within seconds, before we know it, he pop-opened the locked Givi side box with his bare hands.
We were stunned it was so easy for him to open a locked hard box. After he left, we tried to replicate his move. We soon learnt how to open the box too with our bare hands within 2 seconds. I am not going to put Givi out of business by telling you how here.
Gerik Highway Route 76
We learnt from our past experience that we need to set off early to ride the biking Nirvana, Gerik Highway. We left the hotel at 7.30 am.
The rocky granite knolls surrounding Ipoh in the morning wee hours.
And we are off to Gerik Highway.
To get to Gerik from Ipoh, first you got to get back to the NorthSouth Highway.
The most scenic stretch of NorthSouth Highway in Malaysia.
This is not Gerik Highway. This is the NorthSouth Highway outside of Ipoh.
Cooling climate of Ipoh. Nice sweeping roads. Green majestic surrounding mountains.
Under the Gates of Gerik.
Go through this gate and you will be on your way to biking Nirvana in Malaysia.
Cool, dry climate and fresh air; Cloud-shrouted mountain in the distance; Greenery all around; Beautiful scenary; Clear, high quality tarmac; low traffic. This is Gerik Highway Route 76.
What more can you ask for?
More breadth-taking scenaries as you ride through...
All these beautiful view is too much for PPlater and he can't hold on.
Ahhhhhh.....such nice scenary in front as you take a good piss, heaven.
More beautiful scenaries as we rode through that are beyong the description of words.
One has to be there to feel and see for yourself.
We were there.
I was there too.
Interesting traffic light at Gerik town. It's 28 degrees celsius.
Most people would head eastward, taking Route 4 towards Kuantan.
After Route 76, we proceeded to Route 77.
Route 77 has some nice windy country roads to play on.
We reached the northern most Malaysian town Pengkalan Hulu.
Beyond this, no more Malaysian town and it would be Thailand territory.
At this petrol kiosk, it was make-or-break decision time for us. We are now so very close to Southern Thailand where there were numerous bombings.
We approached and asked the local Malaysians over there, "Is it safe to cross over to Betong?"
If their advice is No, we will turn back.
The locals said Yes. And we proceeded towards Betong.
Malaysia Custom.
Stamp passport, return your white card, just like if you were at Malaysia custom returning back to Singapore.
Then Thai Custom.
Compared to the high-tech sprawling Singapore custom at second link, the Thai Custom office is very "traditional". Not many travellers. But still lazy queue, queue, stamp, stamp.
Official payment of 2 ringgit or 20 bahbt to Thai custom officer.
Then fill up a vehicle registration form, which you need to keep and return back to the Thai custom on your return trip. This form could be to ensure you are not illegally importing vehicles into Thailand.
As the Thai custom is very "traditional", I found myself getting one signature from one Thai officer, walked another 10 metres to get another signature from another Thai officer. Why can't they all just sit at one place?
I thought Thailand is the land of a thousand smiles. But the lady Thai custom officer who clears our bike is the most unsmiling creature on earth.
Cleared the Thai custom with no difficulties.
Betong is very near to the Thai border.
Down this brief 10km stretch of windy road and you are there.
Map of Yala province. Betong a town at the south of Yala.
We did not book any hotel in advanced. We just rode around the small Betong town and picked a hotel.
We chose and stayed at Merlin Betong hotel. It's right in the town centre. It also has a sheltered carpark with a security guard. We saw other large touring motorcycles from Malaysia parked there too. It cost each of us S$50 per night. We reached the hotel at 12 pm.
You can also stay at Mandarin Betong. It's a new hotel and looks posh. But it should not be expensive.
There is also Sri Betong Hotel. It looked more dated than Merlin so we did not stay there. But there were also other Malaysian touring motorcycles that parked there.
Lunch was aweful, except for the always wonderful Tomyam Soup.
One of the famous Betong food is the Betong Chicken cooked in Betong soya souce.
Man, it was the toughest chicken I have ever tasted in my life.
The chicken felt like it was a Muay Thai boxer.
I realised how blesses Singaporeans are with our common Singapore chicken rice.
Map of Betong town. We stayed at Merlin Hotel.
In front of the only underpass tunnel inThailand.
A view of Betong.
Betong is surrounded by low hills which means many windy roads to ride on.
The main religion in Thailand is Buddhism, though in the south, there are plenty of Muslims as well.
The unqiue Thai influence on the buddhist temple architecture.
In front of one of the landmarks of Betong.
The tallest postal box in Thailand. It's that red cylinder.
I read that it was so tall because they used it as a radio antennae as well.
Don't know what they are building behind the red postal box.
The entrance to the village with Piyamit Tunnal.
The name of the village is called, "Friendship Village, Numbe 1". Sounds so communist doesn't it?
The entrance to the Piyamit Tunnel.
A ornamental bridge decorated with the twelve Chinese zodiac signs.
This reflects the strong Chinese-heritage amongst the inhabitants in this part of Thailand.
There is a small eatery at the entrance of the Piyamit Tunnel.
This is its owner, Mr Xu. He is not just your average mom-and-pop shop owner.
If you carefully, the faded black-and-white photographs on the wall show a proud young communist soldier holding a machine gun.
That was Mr Xu in his younger days.
With our guide, Mr Lin, at the entrance of the tunnel.
The communist-looking paintings above advertise that protective capabilities of the tunnels:
Even if it were raining bombs outside, you can still sing, read and sleep inside.
Me, inside the tunnel.
The tunnel is long. 1.6 km.
It has a main road and several minor roads.
It took 50 men 3 months of digging by hand to create the tunnel.
I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Scary?
Even if deep inside the tunnel, it is surprisingly cool and drafty.
The tunnel is very well designed and has air shafts to ventilate.
At first, Mr Lin gave me the impression that he is a very knowledgeable tour guide of the communist tunnel and communist war. Later, I learnt that he is 55 years old and he fought as a communist soldier for over 20 years and helped to dig this very tunnel!
So here, right in front of me, is an ex-communist soldier in flesh and blood.
Three communist soldiers and two goon-doos (the extreme left and right ones).
How to Fight a Guerilla War
Some tips I learnt from Mr Lin:
1. Should you engage in a fire fight, on your third shot, you must flee.
Do not bother to check if you hit your target or hit the trees; You must run for your life because the government soldiers are zeroing on you and the artillery is on the way.
2. Never get caught.
You will be dead meat if the government soldiers catch you.
Two communist soldiers fell to the Gurkhurs employed by the British to fight the communist guerillas.
3. You must keep moving.
Stay no longer than 100 days at each hideout.
4. Mine and booby trap your nest
Now, there is a foot path which leads to the tunnel entrance and exit.
During the war, there was no foot path and the area is mined.
5. How to shoot down a helicopter
For years, Mr Lin and his other communist soldiers were not able to shoot down any government helicopters when these helicopters came to raid them.
Then one day, a Viet Con (Vietnamese Communist) advisor came and shared with them the Viet Con's experience in fighting the Americans. It is hard to shoot upwards against gravity.
Shoot down. Aim either at the pilot in the glass cockpit or the tail rotor which is needed to balance the helicopter.
Mr Lin proudly showed us a 1977 newspaper clipping which contained a brief one-liner that a government helicopter was shot down by communist soldiers.
5. Win the support of the villagers.
Unlike the Osama and Al Qaedia and other terrorists, the communist soldiers did not target civilians and were out to win their trustand support.
The communist soldiers depended on the villagers for food supplies. But the soldiers do not steal or plunter. They paid for things they bought from the villagers.
They do not disturb or create trouble to the villagers. Many villagers became their friends and warned them of impending arrival of government soldiers. Some villagers joined in the fight.
I asked Ah Lin if he ever thought of quitting during his 20 years of slugging it out as a communist solider. Without any hesitation, he replied with a No. Next to this steadfast warrior, I immediately felt so guilty as I have just changed job.
Well, being a communist soldier may not necessarily be all work and no fun.
Look, Mr Lin got married when he was a communist soldier.
So did the earlier Mr Xu, whose wife was also a communist soldier.
It seems that even guerilla-communism is more successful than our SDU (Social Development Unit) in producing married couples.
Mr Xin advised that Betong is a pretty safe town. But warned us to avoid venturing out further north of Betong to the rest of Yala province, where the unrests are taking place.
The old communist is still a soldier at heart. 20 years past his fighting days, he still keeps track of tools of his past-trade. I was wearing the Singapore Armed Forces standard issue army boots as riding boots. He remarked that my boots that is very good as it is specially made to protect the wearer from land mine blast.
Mr Xu, in his younger days, with his wife.
Now, the forgotten soldier: Mr Lin.
The Piyamit Tunnel is really worth visiting and it alone is enough reason to go Betong.
Better go now and not delay further. It is not everyday that you can come face-to-face with a person who has fought a war and tell him his war stories (real). Go before Mr Lin and Mr Xu retire.
The Windy Road to Rose Garden
It's 4 pm. We still have time. What should we do Endless?
Me and my bright idea:
Wow, this mountainous steep-looking road looks difficult to ride.
But it looks interesting also. Let's ride up! And see if we can get to the Rose Garden, another tourist attraction near the Piyamit Tunnel.
The road is kind of windy...
It's also kind of steep....
And kind of high up....Riding into clouds.
And the road is kind of narrow...
with almost zero run-off--the edge of tarmac is the slope down...
and there is no railing to guard you from falling off the steep edges...
A wrong move and you go tumbling down the side...
This is Route 4017 on the Thai map.
P-Plater said, "Shouldn't the Thai authorities erect barrier by the edge of the road?"
Ge kiam (act smart) me replied, "Don't worry! No barrier means not enough people fall off the side to justify barrier. So safe, let's ride on."
Our courage (or fool hardiness) was rewarded.
An earlier shower has passed. And left us with this beautiful scene of a rainbow hovering in the background. The air was also fresh and cool. Apart from the danger, it was really a nice ride.
Steep, exposed mud wall...combined with earlier rain....leads to....
Spilling mud and clay across the windy, steep and wet road.
But it's just a little mud, I thought. Surely, we aren't going to let a little mud in our path stop us, right?
Let's press on.
More exposed mud wall and more steep edges down by only a hair's length away...
More mud spills along way...but still, we pressed on.
Hmmm...the mud might get a bit worse round this corner...
Until no more tarmac surface left. All buried under wet mud and clay.
And by then, we were in too deep and we were kind of trapped.
Even for the foolhardy and stubborn me, I began to realise it's getting too dangerous when
my ST1300 starts rear-wheel spinning below me at the slightest throttle opening.
The 300kg behemoth ST felt like toppling over and bathing in mud.
It was too much and we did a very very slow and deliberate U-turn back.
Who says Blackbird and ST1300 can't do the Drakar Rally?
Too bad. We were probably only another 1-2 km away from the Rose Garden.
Now, we got to go back the way we came, only down hill this time.
If the ride up was tricky, now ride down is worse with gravity pulling our bike down towards the sharp windy corners.
The steep downward slope combined with a wet surface means that even going down at first gear was too fast!
Sharp, wet and down hill corner coming up!
Slowly.... slowly...., or over the edge you and your bike go.
Making hair-pin turns.
We made the descend without falling off the hill.
At the foot hill, we passed by and visited a Hot Spring.
The Hot Spring looks hot.
What if you fall into it?
How hot does it feel?
Feels like the same hot water you used to cook soft-boil eggs.
Some people actually dip their feet into such hot water.
I think they are really cooking their legs.
Saw a strange sight.
A girl all by herself...standing close to the edge of the hot spring...sending SMS.
A new way to commit suicide?
Jump into the hot spring and cook herself. But first, send farewell SMS to boyfriend.
Oh, no lah.
She is actually waiting for her eggs to cook.
There are hawkers on carts selling chicken eggs as well as quail eggs for you to cook.
Night Program
We returned to our hotel, have a shower and had dinner. This time, we were careful to avoid any dishes with chicken.
Then we went back to our hotel and asked about the massage service. Only 25 ringgit for 2 hours. Wah so cheap ah! And for 2 hours. I hope the massage masseur don't massage until hand drop off. BTW, this french word masseur is not pronounced (mer-su) or (ma-siu), but (m-air-sir).
We get to choose our masseur. The girls sit on a 3-level terrace and each has a number. We just indicate which number we want. I feel like we are not choosing massage service, but something a bit more sleazy.
Spectrum picked one girl. I was innocently, "I don't understand why they need to display themselves. How to tell whose massage skill is good?"
Spectrum replied, "Like that when you open your eyes, you wouldn't suddenly get scared to death and picked one masseur got a face like kena lang-gar (hit) by lorry."
When it is my turn to choose, I feel a bit paiseh. So I tell the coordinator, "Any one lah. But pick one with good skill. And can speak English, Chinese or Cantonese." The coordinator said, "OK. No problem." P-Plater also copied my choice.
All three of us went into a room. We took off our shirts and wore the given linen pants, lied down and waited for our masseurs to turn up.
First, one pang-teh (serve tea) old grandmother turned up with a plate of 3 tea for each of us.
Behind this grandmother, entered two female masseur. One went to attend PPlater. Her name is Ah Ming. The other went to Spectrum. Her name s Rune. Both looked ok. Not bad looking. I waited for my masseur to turn up, wondering how pretty she will look.
But no more young female masseur turned up. The pang-teh old grandmother is my masseur. Wah lau.
She is addressed Mummy, rather fitting her age. Mummy cannot speak any english. Nor chinese. Nor cantonese. I think next time I better choose myself.
The massage was really nice. Full body. Full two hours. Mummy really has soft tender hands. When I closed my eyes, I almost can forget I was massaged by a senior citizen.
Everything was nice except for some parts of our conversation. Only Ah Ming can speak english, and a little Chinese. So the other two masseurs spoke in Thai and Ah Ming translate for us.
My Mummy said something. Ah Ming laughed and told me, "Mummy asked me what is our room number?" I asked, "Why?"
She explained, "Mummy said tonight she want to do with me."
Oh, my goodness.
I tried to think of a good way to decline Mummy's generous invitation. "Cannot lah. Tonight I very tired lah."
Ah Ming translated to Mummy. Mummy replied back. "It's ok. Don't need you to do anything. Mummy do can already."
Oh, shit.
Near panicking. "Cannot lah. I also got headache. Not tonight."
We didn't dare tell them our room number.
All else. It was a very good, relaxing and refreshing massage. And it is so cheap. We retired to our room to set off early next morning.
Bailing Highway
With a long trip to hit Singapore within a day, we set off early at 7.30 am.
Early in the morning, on our return trip, we cleared the same Malaysia custom.
Instead of going back the exact same route, we took the Bailing Highway route (Route 76 to Route 67).
Riding into clouds. Route 76 is beautiful. It has views that rival that of Gerik Highway Route 76.
Scenic cloud-capped mountains in the distance. Air is cool.
There is a look out point where we stopped to take some pictures like the above.
How I took the previous picture.
Below the parapet is the fall off the mountain.
A malaysian tourist passing by, jokingly told me, "Don't be rash. Any problems, come down first."
Route 76.
I love the sight of cloud floating around the mountain top.
Like long giant fingers running through the trees on the mountain.
How beautiful nature is. Too bad, Singapore don't have.
NorthSouth Highway Back
After the fun and beauty of Route 76 and 67, we entered the NorthSouth highway somewhere near Pinang.
Then, the rest of journey is just northsouth riding back. A couple of interesting things to comment on:
1. We successfully avoid two speed cameras.
The malaysian police with their speed cameras, like to hide below bridges, flyovers where this is shade from the sun.
Whenever we near such structures, we will slow down. This way, we saw two police in their acts some 100 km apart from one another.
2. I rode Spectrum's Blackbird
It was all highway riding. So my thoughts are:
- It is very comfortable to ride along northsouth compared to sports bike.
But doing at 110kmh for long stretches is not that comfortable. If you go to 150, you feel more comfortable.
- My ST1300, surprisingly feels as fast as the Blackbird when riding both bikes at their tallest gear along NorthSouth. Shows how sporty th ST1300 has evolved from its predecessor ST1100.
We went to the Gelah Patah bike wash. A well worth 5 rinngit.
Washed off all the clay and mud doing the climb up Route 4017.
Back in Singapore.
Guess what? I was right. The pomelo came back to Singapore, once again, just like last year.
I carried the pomelo from Ipoh to Thailand and back to Singapore.
The pomelo rode further than many other Singaporean riders.
We covered a total distance of 1,700 km during this tour.
After this ride to Thailand, PPlater is P-Plater (probation plate) no more.
I highly recommend the ride to Betong. A 3-day trip over the weekend can go:
- You can set off at 7 am at Gelah Pateh. Go through the scenic Gerik Route 76 and reach Betong town by evening. Stay one night.
- Spend one day exploring Betong. Must visit the Piyamit Tunnel. Say hello to Mr Xu for us.
Tell him the three Singaporeans who rode there and it was raining and he talked to us a lot.
- Return trip, you can go ride through the Bailing Highway route like us.
So in one trip, you have touched the legendary Gerik Highway, visited Thailan, ride through lots of scenic routes and visited the Piyamit Tunnel.
Parting Shots
Following is a song that currently strikes a chord in my heart.
The Wang Li Hong song's tune has a restrained melanchonic, sorrowful, sad and lonely mood to it, reflecting some traditional chinese culture influence to it. Quite a masterful work of art.
Wang Li Hong - Luo Ye Gui Gen (王力宏-落叶归根)
舉頭望 無盡灰雲
那季節 叫做寂寞
背包 塞滿了家用
路就 這樣開始走
日不見 太陽的暖
夜不見 月光的藍
不得不 選擇 寒冷的開始
留下 只擁有 遺憾
命運 的 安排
遵守 自然 的邏輯
誰都 無法 揭謎底
喔～ 遠離家鄉 不甚唏噓 幻化成秋夜
而我卻像 落葉歸根 墜在你心間
幾分憂鬱 幾分孤單 都心甘情願
我的愛像 落葉歸根
家。。。唯獨在你身邊
舉頭望 無盡灰雲
那季節 叫做寂寞
背包 塞滿了家用
路就 這樣開始走
日不見 太陽的暖
夜不見 月光的藍
不得不 選擇 寒冷的開始
留下 只擁有 遺憾
但願陪你找回
所遺失的永恆
當我開口你卻沈默
只剩一場夢
我卻像 落葉歸根 墜在你心間
幾分憂鬱 幾分孤單 都心甘情願
我的愛像 落葉歸根
家。。。唯獨在你身邊
You can listen to the song by visiting.
http://oursongs.imeem.com/music/e0yCg51z/luo_ye_gui_genwang_li_hong/
Then create an imeem account and you can hear this piece of music.
After the rain, there is always sun shine waiting for us.
Sometimes, there is even a rainbow.
And maybe, you may be rewarded with a pot of gold too.
Sawatikup! At the Thai border.
