{"id":36840,"date":"2020-10-29T11:59:09","date_gmt":"2020-10-29T11:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=36840"},"modified":"2020-10-29T11:59:09","modified_gmt":"2020-10-29T11:59:09","slug":"day-960-kuah-to-thaleban-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=36840","title":{"rendered":"Day 960 – Kuah to Thaleban National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day 960                                         7th March 2019
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

48 miles (Kuah to Thaleban National Park) Average speed 11.1 mph Top speed 34 mph<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Great to be on the move.
\nI got up at 8 and showered, packed and waited for Pauline to have breakfast, but as she was asleep I had coffee and toast. I left at 9.55 and went to the port to buy a ferry ticket. I boarded and chained the bike to the railing as told, but as I was looking for a seat one of the boat crew asked me to move it so that it wouldn\u2019t get covered in salt water. Then I wrote my diary and read after passing all the nearby islands and the beach resort I had bunked into yesterday. It only took about 45 minutes to reach Kuala Perlis where I disembarked. I stopped at KFC where I tried to use WiFi from a discarded receipt, but it didn\u2019t work so I hit the road, saying hi to lots of people along the way. The road was good and followed a river; there wasn\u2019t much traffic and despite the wind from my left I was setting a good pace.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I arrived at Kangar in no time where I had chicken rice with curry and vegetables and ice tea. There were some well dressed business men, one was even carrying a full length rain mac! I found a shop that I knew stocked snail gear and went to spend some of my Malay ringgit on a very nice polo shirt with Brian motif on the pocket for 79 ringgit. Sometimes fashion costs and I couldn\u2019t leave Malaysia without one!! <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I left knowing that I had some big climbing ahead but it took a long time to get to the first one. I had two tea ice and chatted to the staff and customers and took photos. Still no climbing as I was circumnavigating a big reservoir, but 20 mins after leaving the restaurant in the afternoon sun I found my hill!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Hill climbs and fantastic views<\/p><\/div>\n

It was tough and I think I may be two gears down since changing cassette, but I made it to the top with some support from drivers passing by. I stripped off to cool down and then took on the descent which was brilliant. At the bottom I went to a garage for 100 plus and the pump attendant gave me free water as I looked at the stickers on the window. A splash of water and I was off again. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Stickers in a window<\/p><\/div>\n

At the security check 1 mile from the border the police asked me lots of good questions about my trip and were all impressed. I topped up with more 100 plus and went through passport control and straight through customs after filling in forms.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Border crossing from Malaysia into Thailand<\/p><\/div>\n

I was now in Thailand where the first guy I spoke to offered me drinks and I asked him for money exchange. As the grocery shop\/exchange was so close to the border I carried on hoping for another that may offer better rates. There were no others, but on the way out of town I stopped at Thaleban park to ask if I could camp and although the guard didn\u2019t speak English he took me inside to a guy who did a bit.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Thaleban National Park<\/p><\/div>\n

H<\/span><\/span>e offered me a bungalow and put me onto a lady on his phone speaking perfect English who offered me this wonderful place for 600 baht and as I could hear thunder and feel the rain that was a done deal. She said I could pay tomorrow after going back to exchange money! The place is amazing, I am right next to the lake where I listened to frogs, monkeys, birds of all sorts including owls and watched two women fishing from a raft. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Surrounded by wildlife<\/p><\/div>\n

I showered, did my washing and went in search of dinner. Back at the border which was now closed as were all the shops and restaurants, I asked at the only place open if I could eat and it turned out that it was the opening day of a new shop and they had food left over and gave me delicious noodles with fresh veg, papaya and cucumber with light curry sauce and I chatted to the owners’ son, who was the only one to speak English. I offered him money but he declined and gave me water. A great first meal in Thailand. He told me there was a village a few miles away which had a few shops and restaurants, so I went, even though it was downhill and dark. The road was of brilliant quality with wide shoulders and fresh tarmac. I found a stall selling satay stick and took two of each to eat back at my place. I realised I didn\u2019t have as much baht as I thought but still enough to buy coke from a shop. I expected the ride back to be tough as it seemed I\u2019d been going down all the way for 4 or 5 miles, but I think these are magic roads, as I found myself doing 16 mph even uphill!! <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Back at the bungalow I tried to sit on the balcony but there were too many insects for that, so I ate inside listening to the wildlife. I gained an hour crossing into Thailand so was in bed by 9.30!! What an amazing day and another new country to add to the list!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thaleban National Park.
\n600 baht. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day 960                                         7th March 2019 48 miles (Kuah to Thaleban National Park) Average speed 11.1 mph Top speed 34 mph Great to be on the move. I got up at 8 and showered, packed and waited for Pauline to have breakfast, but as she was asleep I had coffee and toast. I left at 9.55 … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[2429,2408,2430],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36840"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36898,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36840\/revisions\/36898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}