Mike’s Big Bike Adventure to Thailand.

As most of you know February was kind of cold with some snow. I decided that after falling off my bike in the snow (Honda Deauville 700) on my last visit to my local HOC (North London) it was a good time to go on holiday. I booked a 12 day holiday in Thailand, part of which would be an eight day motorbike tour of the Southern Beaches with a company called Discovery Moto Tours. So offwent via Heathrow Terminal 3 on an eleven hour flight in a Thai Airways Airbus.

Landing at Phuket International Airport I was greeted by 30deg C, heat bl;ast and Harry, the tour guide from Discovery, who whisked me off in a 4x4 to my five star Indigo Pearl Hotel, my home for the next few days before the tour started. A quick e-mail back to family and john and the boys of the NLHOC to tell them how sad I was to be away from them, and down I went to one of the hotel pools & bar for a ‘few’ drinks.

The first night of the tour was spent at the hotel with a meet and greet of the tour guides, the company owners and the other travellers over large amounts of Thai food. Ours was a group of four not including Harry (guide/sweeper) and Terry (backup 4x4 driver/mechanic).

Day 2:- Started at 0800 when we checked out of the Indigo Pearl and travelled by car to the owners home at the Royal Phuket Marina for a power boat tour of Phang Nga Bay and a light lunch on the beach, after which we returned to the Marina to pick up the bikes and check out the goodies kept in the backup vehicle (drinks-cold face towels-sweets-chocolate-water melons), which would also carry our bags around for us from hotel to hotel. Most of the group had decided on the BMW 1200GS, but me having short hairy legs and wanting the lighter bike picked the 650GS.Once ready we set off for Koh Lak (150Km) Wearing ‘summer’ bike gear did not help much in the heat and humidity. A few days later we were all wearing jeans with the strip down bike jackets and desert boots.

Day 3-4:-Khao Lak to Koh Samui (250kms)
Check out at 0830 and travel east to Donsak for the ferry to Koh Samui. The district is located at the coast of the Andaman Sea and to the north is the Si Phang-nga National Park. We were heading through the southern part of the district covered by the Khao lak-Lam Ru National Park, which included the popular resort of Khao Lak which was hit by the 2004 tsunami. The local economy is tourist based with most of the tourists coming from Germany and the UK. The 2004 Tsunami devastated the economy and 90% of the hotels were seriously damaged. However, by 2006 all hotels had been rebuilt and to a higher standard. The hotel we stayed at for two nights was the five star Ban Sabai Sunset Beach Resort. (Only 40 rooms and its own beach). Day four we had to be dragged away from the beach and bar of our hotel to ride 70km to visit the Big Buda and the Butterfly Gardens..It’s a hard life!

Day 5:- Koh Samui – Krabi (280kms).
Leaving the hotel and Koh Samui was hard for the group, it has to be said that this was the best two days of the tour. Everybody agreed that the hotel and beach would be hard to beat and well worth another visit during a ‘normal’ holiday. So we headed west to take the one hour ferry trip to the mainland. At Donsak we took the route south-west heading back towards the Andaman Sea coastline and Krabi. We rode through the national park and on rural roads visiting rubber and coconut plantations-rice paddies and meeting some tree logging elephants. We arrived at Au Nang (Krabi) in the afternoon around 4pm. The rest of the day was ours until 8pm and the evening meal at a local restaurant.

Day 7-8:- Koh Lanta to Phuket (230kms)
An 0830 check out of the hotel and ride north and then east to Phuket. We rode through Krabi National Park following a route that crossed the tributaries of Phang Nga bay.
It was a very muggy day and Harry told us to take our waterproofs as it looked like ‘showers’. Now, when it rains in Thailand it’s not like in the UK, the rain actually hurts! It started around 10am and came down like a curtain rods and kept on coming down until 8pm. All of us had waterproofs on and we still got wet. It got into the boots-the gloves and visors misted up. We stopped off a few times at garages just so the 4x4 could catch up and we could change and try and dry off. But after a few hours we gave up trying to stay dry as we saw the roads flood. I can honestly say it was an experience not forgotten easily.

It was the end of the bike trip part of my holiday as we travelled past Phuket Airport and arrived back where we started eight days ago at the Indigo Pearl Hotel. That evening we had one final meal with Harry and the Discovery team at a beach restaurant where they presented us with our complimentary BMW/Discovery t-shirts and we said good bye to the bikes (they were off to be serviced and used again within a few days).

I stayed on at the hotel for a few more days (no more rain) where I decided I needed some good old fashioned European burger and chips, but even that had a Thai twist too it.

All in all this was a great holiday, not too long and a very good introduction the Thailand, its people and culture. If your thinking of going to Thailand..go!
If you're into bikes and don’t want to sit on a beach all day, I can think of no better way of seeing the country. The backup you get and tour guides your with, are first class, and the five star hotels you stay at are out of this world.

It wasn’t cheap but everything is included in the price. The only thing I’d change would be to ditch the 650GS for the 1200GS. The 650GS was a good little bike and took the miles and rural roads in its stride, but the seat was terrible and after a while it would become uncomfortable. Sawadee Cab.

Mike Dignum (NLHOC)