Our next destination was Thale Noi where we would be witnessing the celebration of Songkran in this small town and visiting the popular waterbird sanctuary. This was be my second time visiting this amazing natural reserve.
After a nice view of the sun rise at the beach, we were ready to hit the road for the day.
The weather in the morning was fine and pleasant to cycle as we headed out into the town to seek a place for breakfast.
It was quite easy to find a place to eat, we found this place on the same route to our next destination. I had a bowl of delicious porridge, some had noodle soup and a bit of Dim Sum.
A group picture in front of the shop with the help of the shop owner. The chicken that Kiat was holding was a mock chicken.
Bye bye Ranot and see you again.
As we approached the elevated road you could see the local dried fish industry at the road side, there are quite a number of stalls that you could purchase the produce if you want to.
A dedicated bicycle lane on the elevated road over the huge lake of Thale Noi
We started the tour with 5 of us from Hatyai and two more friends joined in the tour they were waiting for us at this wooden house on the dried lake. Now we have 7 in the tour, let the journey continues.....
Our lunch was back to this familiar shop where I remember for its delicious chicken rice which I took it again. Aroi mak mak.
Joe had a lot of fun with the Songkran celebration he really got himself coloured up and wet.
It's the Thai new year celebration and it's time for water fight.
Restaurant Samkak is a popular restaurant it was crowded as expected we were fortunate to get a table for ourselves. The food was good and the pricing was reasonable. I noted that there is an air conditioning corner now which (I think) wasn't there 2 years back when we were here. The location of Samkak is GPS: 07.76812, 100.12182.
After our dinner we headed back to the town, there were lot of people at the night market, lots of street food and loud concert performance. It was indeed a joyous evening for the folks in Thale Noi.
We travelled for a distance of 38km for the day, an easy ride relatively flat without much difficulty at all.
Good morning Songkhla and good morning TJ Motel, the same place we stayed during our previous bicycle tour. We were ready to go after a good rest and for a long haul.
We decided to see a bit of Songkhla before we leave the town and here we were at the Chinatown together with the coolies of the olden time depicting the livelihood of the Chinese at that era.
Those days there were no provision of five footway in the design and later with the influence of the European footway in front of the shops were introduced.
A typical design of a newer shop with verandah.
As it was still early in the morning, there were not many shops opened for breakfast, we found this Hakka lady born and grown up in this very shop for their clear soup noodle.
I like it very much it was simply delicious and something I don't see and taste it in Malaysia.
At the end of Nong Chik Alley is Nang Ngam Street where there were temples under restoration works, I could see that there is effort to beautify this Chinatown maintaining its original look and that is such a wonderful thing to do.
We then headed to Samila Beach as a typical tourist, captured a couple of shots and posing here and there.
The must visit mermaid statue at Samila Beach.
The ever popular coconut ice cream found on mobile vendors, it was yummy and a well deserved dessert after paying the serpent a visit.
A short ferry ride across the opening of Songkhla Lake which is a less than 10 minutes ride and it is free for bicycle.
The heat was too intense, it was like cycling on a hot frying pan I had to put on a long sleeve shirt and a wet towel over my head which I hardly do such thing. The towel had to be wet several times as we pedalled on.
We stooped at Sathing Phra for lunch and a good rest at the beautiful seaside, a place where you get to see the huge wind turbines. GPS : 07.46101, 100.44989
The food was delicious, I enjoyed it very much with the Chang beer and pricing is very reasonable. Of course not forgetting the marvellous sea breeze as I enjoyed the food and drink, I just don't feel like continuing my ride.
Papaya salad Som Thum is popular and most people love it be it the locals or visitors.
More rest and drinking plenty of water is pertinent on a super hot day especially on a long pedalling journey.
We tried to checked in the motel which we stayed the last time in Ranot but it was fully taken up. Fortunately the helpful locals showed us two other options, we decided on this one which was next to the beach, Ranot Beach Motel GPS : 07.78473, 100.36732
The average room rate of such standard is around 400baht - 500baht in most areas in Thailand. This is one of my daily chores as a light tourer on two small wheels.
Despite the hot weather we kept on riding on for a distance of 91km from Songkhla to Ranot.
I decided to join Andrew & gang for a bicycle tour at the last minute and this is my third time doing a South Thailand bicycle tour where this time I hope to see new places in this beautiful land of Thai. The date was 11 April 2016 and with me were Andrew, Hui Min, Joseph & Wai Kiat. The tour will take 12 days and this is my story
We met at KL Sentral to catch a train to Hatyai, all of us were anxious and cannot wait to start the journey.
The train was a midnight train "Express Peninsular" which I think is not an express train especially now that we have ETS train service. The fare is RM59 for a sleeping berth. Thanks to Andrew for booking this limited berths.
The train did not move on smoothly it encountered a 2 hours delay due to a breakdown at Chemor. I just wish we could just travel on the ETS train instead of this old train. Anyway we had ourselves the lower berths with our folded bicycles secured next to us. All of us were using Brompton bikes and the foldability is undeniable to most portable I have ever seen.
Finally we crossed the border via Padang Besar where we have to wait for nearly an hour before the train resumed its journey into Thailand. We arrived Hatyai about 1.40pm instead of 11.30am.
It has become a common practice that we purchase a data plan once we enter Thailand. Since we were going to stay for nearly 2 weeks we opted for this 599 baht plan.
Andrew & myself have been here at Keat's Boat Noodle shop before and we simply love his noodle. Roi Mak Mak is what we needed to say (which means "very delicious"), it is located at Preedarom Road GPS: 07.00194, 100.47098. Happy hunting folks.
All set with our data plans all signed up and tummies satisfactorily pampered we then rode to Songkhla.
Upon reaching Songkhla we checked into the same motel we visited during our previous bike tour, freshened ourselves and went hunting for our first Thai dinner in the town center. The name of the restaurant is something something Thai 2528. The food was good and yummy.
The route we took on Day 1 as we rode towards north east to Songkhla for a distance of 32km.
Welcome to a stall that serves wonderful naans & tandoori chicken found not in any fancy restaurant but in a mere warong situated at Ampang. Opposite the warong is Ampang Point as the major landmark for you to locate this eating wonder.
The naan is soft and lovely to eat, the edges of the naan is crispy and exciting. I took a plain naan while Jo took a garlic naan and my sons had garlic with cheese naans. All were happy with the taste of these dough.
The tandoori chicken has a lot to shout about it's juicy, tender, well grilled and well flavoured. The chance of eating a hard burnt tandoori chicken is absolutely not found here.
We ordered these side orders comprising of spinach, mixed vegetable and prawn masala. Jo fell for the masala.
Surprisingly the serving was fast despite it was crowded and there were some at the queue for take away.
Cups of grated cheese for those who want their naans with cheese.
Two were behind the ovens, two were busy taking care of the queue while others were busy taking orders and of course the customers were busy enjoying their lovely tandoori moment.
There were 4 ovens at work two were made of oil drums and all were busy firing for the night.
There are two satay stalls seen here and I do not know which one is good. My sons an not avoid but ordered some satay for themselves. We were here mainly for the naans & tandoori and I obviously like it
The current pricing of Arumugam's Naan & Tandoori.
