After a last promenade in Kuala Lumpur, I leave the city. There is a Chinese and Indian area there, but it is quick to go around. Really nothing more impressive than New York City can offer.
In the northern suburbs, I do some grocery shopping to make sure I have enough food for the upcoming week, and I later stop few miles outside of the city, in Templer Park, to spend the night in the forest.
Early in the morning I get on the road and drive toward the Island of Penang. It is still sunny, but I know it is going to change and I probably will get a lot of rain once in Thailand.
As I said earlier, the roads are very good in Malaysia, and effortlessly that I put the 200 miles behind. Highway tolls are somewhat more expensive than the previous countries I have been too. I am surprised to see gasoline is in self-service, which – surprisingly enough – I didn’t see since the U.S.
Also I have GPS maps for Malaysia and Thailand, which will make the next weeks a bit easier on the navigation front. Last time I was able to use the technology was in the Arab Emirates.
In the south of Penang Island, I find a quiet beach and spend the night there. In the morning, I pass the bridge and go back to the Peninsula, then drive north to the Thailand’s border. Everything there is straight forward, and it takes me only one hour to go through the Malaysia and Thailand customs and immigration procedures. The temporary import of the vehicle in Thailand is very easy, and I don’t even have to use my special document (the Carnet de Passage) to go through.
The area around the border has been recently the theater of floods, and the road is sometimes still under the water. Regardless, it is not as bad as I was expecting, and I can put some miles behind. Late in the afternoon, the rain becomes very strong, and early enough I have to stop for the day.
The rain is too sturdy and I can’t cook out, so I go to a roadside restaurant where I get my first Thai meal, which I was looking forward since a long time. Of course it is delicious. I also spend the night on the parking lot and fall asleep as the rain continues to fall.
In the morning the sun is back and I can leave what turns out to be the city of Phatthalung.
I am now going northwest toward Phuket. There, I will visit David who contacted me few months back to invite me to visit the island. Few years back David was also on the road with his family, and visited a lot of the places I have been to. When he arrived in Thailand, he decided he found his paradise and will stay here.
I arrive in Phuket after a long day of driving and call him from a public phone.
It turns out that he rents luxury villas in the paradisiacal island, and having one available in the Surin beach area, he invites me to forget my tent for few days and enjoy the huge west coast mansion. Of course, I accept.
I spend three nights there. David takes me out at night, and in the daytime we visit the island or work on the truck. He has an old Land Cruiser, so he takes me out on off-road trails.
The nightlife is famously crazy there, and it is quite a contrast after all the time I spend in Muslim countries. I am not use to drink that much and can’t say I take too much rest. There is a lot of European around, and they are out of their mind, especially in Patong, the sin capital of the Island.
Knowing I have a lot of kids following my adventures, I will not post any nightlife pictures on this website; just know that it is pretty alarming.
In the meantime, I get some news from my friend Vikas who I stayed with in Mumbai. He is able to take some time off, and we decide to meet in Bangkok. From there we will drive to neighboring Cambodia and explore the area. It is time to leave my friend David and go back on the road.
I leave on Thursday morning and drive north. I cross the small mountains dividing the south of the country and reach the east coast.
After nightfall, it takes me some times to find a good beach where I can camp for the night. Eventually I find the perfect spot north of Chumphon. The temperatures are lower as I go north it seems, which give me some respite as it is easier to sleep.
