Bridging the Malaysia-Thailand Gap

Our last push in our abridged Malaysia tour promised to offer a treat of sorts- the ability to dust off the old nylon and screen home-away-from-home and spend a night in the outdooors, this time at a beauthiful park tucked in the Northwest corner of the country.  The location, Perlis State Park, just happened to be in our path as we made our way toward the Malay-Thai border.  Though it was quite a treat for us to stay in this paleolithic jungle-like environment which showed signs of once being a bustling and popular educational park with gardens, caves, rivers, and animals.  Now in somewhat disrepair, most likely from government defunding (the Malaysian economy has been on a downward trend as a result of falling oil prices) it was still a treat to walk around, set up camp, watch monkeys climb the tree canopy and at dark witness the pyrotechnic wonder of nature as the fireflies (something that Chiara had never seen in her life) flitted about the field.  Truly a fantastic way to end a fantastic tour in Malaysia.

    

Pictures from Perlis.  Doing my best to model pose.

The next day we said a fond fairwell to Malaysia and headed to cycle across the border into Thailand, the first time we crossed a border by bike on the trip.  After a fairly uneventful crossing into Thailand we made an easy pedal into the city of Hat Yai.  Hat Yai is all but unknown to foreigners unless they cross the border it is the third largest city in the country; unlike all the others there is little to no tourist market and is mostly Thai locals. We once again had an awaiting Warmshowers host and Chiara was ready to burst with anticipation over her impending massage (one that she had been thinking about since Taiwan).  Priscille and her husband John were amazing hosts for two nights, Priscille cooked us some wonderful dinners, we shared finally- cheap-again beers, Chiara was able to shop, we both enjoyed a two hour full-body Thai massage for 300 bhat (about eight USD) where the massa, t therapists worked out all our kinks and troubles.

    

Our first temple right in the border, yay, Thai massage! It hurts and feels good at the same time.

Priscille, making serious Prince-eyes 

After our restful time in Hat Yai, we hightailed it north along a flat and trouble-free road that eventually led us to Rangot.  We had intended to find a flat spot somewhere to camp but as the sun began to drop and our search for food was in full swing a nice Thai woman and her husband called out from their passing vehicle and aked us where we were going.  After a bit of conversation, she and her husband led us to a local food market and eventually to there friend's "Resort" which was still under construction.  They introduced us to Will, a lively young guy who spoke quite a bit of English.  His family was doing a "soft opening" (as Portland folks might pretentiously call it) of their new beautiful (and very unpretentious) resort.  Will let us camp in the common area, and that evening we also met Martyn, a recent arrival from Lithuania who was on Rangot to teach Englissh.  Lively converation ensued covering all topics from music, to travel, to politics, and after a few hours and another surprise flat tire (after over 5000km we are starting to notice that this happens a bit too readily and that maybe it is time for that new set of Schwalbe tires we have been talking about), we decided that one day was not enough at the resort.  We needed a little more time to explore the lake next to the resort, paddle around in the kayak that Will kept on the property, and just plain chill out a bit.  Which is exactly what we did the whole next day, save for a very cool kayak paddle at sunset to the main town market 5 km from the property, and a visit to a local bar where we drank Leo beer and listened to wonderfully talented local Thai musicians.  

     

Right outside of Will's resort, rowing to the might market with Martyn

Will is playing guitar here

We went to bed that night unsure about when we might leave this great little spot we had stumbled upon but when we arose the next morning we both knew that the road was calling so we quickly packed up and hit the road.  Sorry to not be able to say goodbye to our new friends as they were still tucked up in bed, we left a note and a surprise for them to find!