TRAVEL WARNINGS AND SCOOTER CRASHES...
Day 32
Start – Georgetown, Malaysia Finish –Sawi (or somewhere thereabouts), Thailand Distance travelled – 600 +km Words by – Johnny Bang |
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We stayed in a motel at Georgetown (Anggerik lodging) in a satisfactory room. Shaun had again lost the customary match of rock-paper-scissors and was on the floor. Some clothes were washed and the bikes were safe.
We woke early but the kitchen was closed and they sent us down the street to the market for a feed. We were glad they did, as the local food was awesome. The experience was soured somewhat by an elderly banana salesman keeping my change from a banana purchase, but for the sake of $1.50 I decided not to quivel. A bit of bike maintenance, and I quick ride down the road I was surprised to find a full house KTM dealer. They could not help me with the indicator bulb I needed but they did have chain lube. Cowering next to 800cc bikes, it was the first time in a while my little Yamaha had looked ‘little’.
A rather long day on the highway was broken-up by the Thailand border entry. Customs at Malaysia were good and didn’t even check the bikes before stamping us out. While we never felt anything but safe, this area of southern Thailand has the following travel warning from the Australian Consulate:
We strongly advise you not to travel at this time to the southern provinces of Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and Songkhla or overland to and from the Malaysian border through these provinces due to high levels of ongoing violence in these areas, including terrorist attacks and bombings that result in deaths and injuries on an almost daily basis.
I’m glad mum doesn’t read the smart traveller website.
As a precautionary measure, we made plans that we would stick close together as we rode through the troublesome town on the Thailand side, however as soon as we left the border crossing building Dan left us in his dust and then one corner later Swells disappeared and within one minute we were all separated. Our plans didn’t include a meeting area in case this exact situation played out, but hoping that the other two would continue through town, I rode in that general direction. It wasn’t until 15 minutes later that we all found each other on the towns outskirts, no one was abducted or exploded but I think we all noticed the immediate cultural difference noticing several bars advertising “sexy lady time” we rode on into Thailand.
Later, after becoming lost looking for a hotel at night, some friendly locals on a Honda mini-bike led us to a hotel.
In a worrying turn of events, while we were negotiating a room, a lady on a scooter with child crashed into my parked bike at about 30km an hour. She had actually only missed Dan by a few centimetres and things could have been a lot worse. I was very concerned for the kid, but everyone seemed to be ok. The hoteliers called what I can only assume to be the lady’s family who were in the scene in less than 2 minutes. Everyone seemed to be ok, and they spent as much time fussing over the scooter as anything else. They disappeared in a cloud of dust without a word and I could only assume they were worried about any damage done to an expensive westerner’s bike. At any rate, we were a bit spooked and decided to look for lodgings in the next town.
Johnny Bang
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