Countries visited: Malaysia, Thailand
Cycled mileage in May: 2,141.6km
Cycled mileage per country: 326.6km Malaysia, 1,815.0km Thailand
Total cycled mileage incl. May: 20,021.6km
May mileage not cycled 3.5km (walking)
Days per country: 4d - Malaysia, 27d - Thailand
Days cycling: 24d
Technical failures: 1 puncture, 1 bottle cage
Link to this month's route
Back in April we finished our 2-week-adventure on Sumatra and returned to Malaysia by ferry. From Kuala Lumpur's sea port at Klang we cycled north passing through Butterworth / George Town once more and through Kuala Perlis.
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| Cycling north along the Malaysian coast |
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| Near Butterworth with German touring cyclist Thomas |
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| Coastal road near Kuala Perlis |
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| Approaching the Malaysian - Thai border at Padang Besar |
Just short off the Thai border we turned east crossing the border at Padang Besar before riding on to south Thailand's capital Hat Yai. Shortly after Hat Yai we reached Thailand's east coast and followed the shoreline all the way up to Hua Hin. There's not much to say about the 1,000 kilometres between these two places. It's definitely been a scenic route with a lot of enjoyable secondary roads and stunning views of the coast. The weather, however, was rather unpredictable with a lot of rain and heavy clouds. We hardly ever stopped to cool down in the sea.
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| One of the rare swimming breaks along Thailand's east coast |
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| Amazing scenery on the coastal roads |
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| We stopped at the very same hot spring on the way down to Malaysia. It was equally relaxing this time |
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| Beautiful temple near Suratthani |
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| Unfortunately the weather along the coast was rather unsteady |
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| Sunrise at a beach resort |
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| Yet another Buddha statue |
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| Sand dunes and sandy beaches for almost 1,000 kilometres |
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| Cooling down in the sea |
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| Mango season |
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| We never got tired of those fantastic beaches |
While staying with Warmshowers hosts Paul and Natt once more we noticed that we would finish cycling in SEA with a mileage of 19,800km if we would take the direct way to Bangkok. Therefore we decided to bring our mileage to 20,000 by riding a detour through central Thailand.
Changing our route turned out to be a good decision allowing us to visit the famous “Bridge on the River Kwai” in Kanchanaburi as well as the rather infamous troop of monkeys in Lopburi.
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| At Paul and Natt's place once more |
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| Brigde on the River Kwai... |
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| ...for the famous movie they used a bridge on Sri Lanka |
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| Historic sites in Lopburi... |
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| ...but the mischief-making monkeys are the major attraction |
Last but not least we went to Ayutthaya which was the place where we began the SEA leg of our journey 5 month and more than 9,000 kilometres earlier. So it was just the right place to finish this leg of the journey.
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| We found the squirrels in Ayutthaya to be much cuter than Lopburi's monkeys! |
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| Ayutthaya was the right place to finish the SEA leg of the journey |
With a total mileage just over 20,000 kilometres we eventually reached Bangkok. We had a great time hanging out with digital nomads Nina and Nicolai who would kindly take care of our bikes for the next 2 weeks.
On 31st we jumped on a plane to Germany to see our families and friends before returning to Bangkok and flying on to Australia in late June.
This has become a rather short monthly update. Probably we both feel pretty tired. A break from cycling will hopefully recharge our batteries!
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| Exploring Bangkok's restaurants with Nina and Nicolai |
