14 JUNE 2012 DAY 20: PATTAYA - HUA HIN (350kms)

The famous Pattaya Beach

Ever seen someone wearing helmet on the beach? HAHAHA....thats me!!!

HRC Pattaya

I will never forget the ride for Day 20 in my whole life. My fever had lessened, so after taking some pics at Pattaya Beach and HRC, we started our ride, heading to the most complex point of my whole journey – in and out of Bangkok. Even though I was sick yesterday, I still have to do research, checking out google earth map and had been posting questions on travel forum, seeking for advises on how to do this route. The journey must be continued today as I have urgent matters to settle back home, so another rest day in Pattaya is out of the question. From the responses in the travel forum, and my own reading, I decided to take route 3 all the way from Pattaya to Chonburi, and later try to find Bang Na Road. There were lots of vehicles and I was stuck many times as I kept to the ground level road. Reason being was motorbikes are restricted to travel on certain elevated motorway, and if one is not careful enough, they can be fined up to B2000. It took so long to ride from Chonburi to Samut Prakan, via Bang Na Road. I was confused in the beginning as I didn’t understand and I didn’t realized that there were two 3 lanes highway running parallel heading to the same direction, but the right side was not advisable for me, as vehicles passing that highway were very fast. No wonder the responses that I got, told me to keep to the left. I made some stupid mistakes today, such as entering the right side highway, stopping at the exit point, and entering Samut Prakan via kampong road. I was really tensed and all I want is to get out from this chaotic highway as soon as possible.

Once the sign for ‘Bang Na’ ended, I am not sure which way to go. I don’t have a GPS or a street map. The highway map that I have was useless as it only had the bigger town names on it. Bang Na was not even stated in the map. So, when I saw the green sign post of Samut Prakan (green always meant for highway, isn’t it?), I took that way and ended up into its town. Hadi told me that we were going the wrong way. I was tensed, and I couldn’t think straight when I’m in this condition. We have to make U-turns several times bcos of the mistakes that I did, and in the end, Hadi told me to ask locals for the ferry pier. From direction given by the motorbike-taxi drivers and policeman, I finally found the pier and we made it to the other side of the river. We were both hungry as we didn’t take breakfast today. Normally, we will skip lunch as to avoid from getting sleepy during the ride. However, today is an exceptional. As usual, Hadi always find a strategic place to dine. We had a sumptuous lunch of rice with omelette and a very tasty coconut milk seafood tomyam at a riverside restaurant which had a nice view of Bhumibol Bridge.

Bhumibol Bridge

Coconut milk seafood tomyam

After lunch, we continued with our ride. I thought that the complicated part was over. How wrong I was. It was quite a challenge for me to find route 35 to Samut Sakhon. The traffic were very congested. Cement lorries, container lorries, all sorts of lorries - big, medium and small, dominated the highway. Their number were more than cars or motorbikes on the road. I was really scared. Hadi asked me take the middle lane so as not to be stuck if I keep to the left lane. The lorries were fast, and in order to overtake them, I have to ride even faster. The wind was so strong that whenever I overtake the lorries, I can feel my bike swayed and I almost blown off. Not just that, the wind also makes me sneeze and cough many times, as I am still not fully recovered from my illness. I have to grip the handle very tight that my fingers hurt, to keep it on the move. I got so exhausted bcos of the tense, and the wind, that when we fuel up at Ban Lat, after 2 and a half hours hell ride (for me), the numbness arise again.

The remaining ride was smooth as we were now riding on route 4. Hadi told me to find Bird Guest House, so I ride alone all the way to Hua Hin. When I stopped by at a petrol station to check on the map on Lonely Planet book, I met a Malay family. We had a short conversation, and later I asked a motorbike-taxi driver on how to get to Bird Guest House. I found it without much difficulty. I was so relieved, as troubling Hadi to find me will be the last thing that I wanted. Total ride for today is 350kms, approximately 9 hours.