Day 25 (23rd Feb 2013)

Day 25 / 23rd Feb

Thung Wa -Thailand to Perlis State Park - Malaysia

It rained in the night and in the morning it was cloudy. So we prepared our selves for ride in the rain. Dipankar had rain covers for his panniers but Rajoo and I covered our panniers with the cycle cover which we are using for multiple purposes such as mattress, rain cover etc. It is coming very handy.

We went to the corner stall where we had coffee yesterday and had coffee before we started our ride. At Lung Wa which was 24 kms away there was a bypass going to Satun, but we thought of going to Lung Wa as the ferry to Ko Taru Tao island starts from there. We were thinking of going to that island provided we get ferry to Satun next day. But there was no certainty of that ferry so decided against it. Going through Lung Wa added about 10 kms to our distance. We had planned to cross border at Wang Prajan near Thaleban National Park. We left the main road going to Satun when Satun was about 30 kms away and took road 4137 to go to Wang Prajan. That road had no proper signs, all the boards were in local Thai language, the numbers of the road and kilometer distance signs kept changing and we were a little confused for the first time as road changed directions at will, sometimes heading north, exactly the opposite to the direction that we were supposed to go. Finally we arrived at a junction where we got clear directions for Thaleban National Park followed by a board stating that it was 20 kms away. 

We turned on that road and the scenery changed dramatically. It was all plantation on both sides so far,either rubber or palm, it was replaced with wild trees, all growing very tall and dense. We could see mountain ranges in front which we were to cross soon. We were riding towards border and we saw two fully loaded cycles parked on the side of the road in the opposite direction. So we stopped. One of the cyclists was French and the other Japanese, they were having some snacks and a sweet dish there. With usual greetings the French cyclist told us he had cycled in India and to Pune. He had met few cyclists from Pune who we also knew and suddenly we were on the same frequency. We chatted with each other, shared our experiences, exchanged our maps as we were to enter Malaysia and they had just entered Thailand, said our good byes and pushed off. 

Reached the border, and crossed in to Malaysia after usual formalities. There were lines of shops on both sides of the border, lots of wine on the Thai side and lots of toys and clothes on the Malaysian side. It was 5 in the evening so decided to stay there. On this side the park was called Teman Negara Perlis State Park. There was a forest rest house. The security person there opened a dorm there for us though the office was closed, but there was no facility of canteen there so went three kms to have dinner. Had lovely Nasi Goreng, which is becoming our staple now :-) and chicken soup and returned to our dorm. We were in the middle of a rainforest with forest noises all around us.