Tour of South Thailand III - Day 1 (12/04) Making Our Way to Ban Thale Noi

9.30am we arrived at border after a train journey of 12 hours.

After clearing the immigration departments we took a simple breakfast at the train station. The train then continued the ride at 11.00am.

My ticket for a berth KL - Hatyai.

12.20pm we reached Hatyai Junction. Patric Yee joined us from here, he made his own way to Hatyai by bus and it was faster travelling by bus than a train.

Sam Cheong immediately purchased tickets for the next train ride to Pak Khalong. 21Baht each for the fare.

A data plan 299Baht of this sort is highly recommended in a foreign land and really makes you a happy tourist when you are able to be connected with the cyber world ....hence our facebook-ing continues ... hehehe.

Basically I am a light weight traveller my stuff weighs 20kg (15kg for the bike and 5kg for the panniers).

This Officer charged us an additional 900Baht each for our bicycles more than 4 times the price of the train ticket... Interestingly this coach is partially built with timber such as the partition walls, seats and windows. And it is naturally ventilated.

Majority of the passengers were local people. I enjoyed the scenery from the window openings. There were many stopovers with enchanting characteristics of a small train station.

At last we reached Pak Khalong and that ended our long 18 hours of rock and roll in the trains. I just could not wait to pedal. 

The full team at Pak Khalong train station with the Roger who came a day earlier.

Immediately we set up our bicycles & rode to Pak Khalong for a light refreshment. 

Let's go and check into Talay Noi Resort which Roger has made a prior arrangement.

Individual chalet for around RM50 per night.

After a quick laundry and shower we headed to Thale Noi town, a small town but with attractive lighting decorations in conjunction with Songkran water festival and tomorrow is Songkran Day.

We visited a local food fair in the town itself.

Thailand food is very interesting and it was time for us to explore their food. In fact it was food food and food most of the time.

Hooray!!! it's dinner time.

Some of the foods we tried in this restaurant.

Tomorrow is going to be another interesting day .... Cheers!!!