Thailand – Ban Krut to Sisaket

Day 1 – Ban Krut to Kamphaeng Saen

Crossing the Bangkok metropolis area is – for me – challenging. Or in other words I not find yet the smooth way to travel and cross from East to West or vice versa.

You can go wide until Kanchanaburi what is a great route but very time consuming. We did this at the beginning of our trip on the way South.

Or you can go closer to Bangkok which means heavy traffic and dirty air.

On our way back home we decided to give the Nakhon Pathom area a try.

As it supposed to be a hot day again, we started early after coffee and hit directly Hwy 4 up North. The first 2 hours riding were smooth, almost no traffic. This changed drastically when we arrived in Hua Hin and later on the way to Bangkok. Not fun anymore riding zick zack in between hundreds of trucks.

In Nakhon Pathom you can visit many things. For us it was just a stop over on our way back home.

So we had a delicious cake and coffee at a place called Niagara N Garden. A fancy coffee shop in an old plane surrounded by several other planes and a huge waterfall with a lake.
Oh, and very very expensive. Two iced coffees and 2 pieces of cake for almost 700 Baht, I not call that cheap. Anyways, it was worth the visit as the location is really different.

As it got really hot after our coffee break, we decided to stay in Kamphaen Saen. Found a quiet resort out of the main roads but close to the Lotus’s supermarket. Time for cool down and relax. And grab some food later.

Day 2 – Kamphaeng Saen to Phimai

5 am – time to get up, drink coffee, get packed and start the day as soon as possible to escape the heat. And the traffic around Bangkok.

The plan worked so far with the traffic. Not with the heat. 9 am and 30 degrees C already.

We planned to go to Phimai, a small city in the Nakhon Ratchasima province what is known for it’s historical park with a Khmer styled temple ruin. We always missed the visit and now finally wanted to see it.

The roads towards east and around Bangkok are a nightmare. Even in the early morning with less traffic, it was dirty, dusty and very bad road conditions. If ask me, no one should be proud of being a city people.
We survived that adventure, tested the new Nakhon Ratchasima bypass (Hwy 290). Very cool to ride due to excellent road conditions and arrived in Phimai at 11 am.

Phimai had previously been an important town at the time of the Khmer Empire. The temple Prasat Hin Phimai, located in the center of the town, was one of the major Khmer temples in ancient Thailand, connected with Angkor by the Ancient Khmer Highway, and oriented to face Angkor as its cardinal direction.

The first resort we wanted to walk in told us that we need to wait for 2 hrs as they need to clean the room.
2 hrs waiting is not our favorite thing to do so we checked and found another resort.

500 Baht for a spacious 2 room apartment. Super clean, super friendly owners with roof covered and safe parking. Nothing to complain about!

After cooling down and relaxing, we visited the Phimai Historical Park.

The temple marks one end of the Ancient Khmer Highway from Angkor. As the enclosed area of 1020x580m is comparable with that of Angkor Wat, it is suggested to have been an important city in the Khmer Empire. Most buildings are from the late 11th to the late 12th century, built in the Baphuon, Bayon and Khmer temple style. However, even though the Khmer at that time were Hindu, the temple was built as a Buddhist temple, since the inhabitants of the Khorat area had been Buddhists as far back as the 7th century. Inscriptions name the site Vimayapura (which means city of Vimaya), which developed into the Thai name Phimai.

In the aftermath of the fall of the Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1767, attempts were made to set up five separate states, with Prince Teppipit, a son of King Borommakot, attempting to establish Phimai as one, ruling over eastern provinces including Nakhon Ratchasima. As the weakest of the five, Prince Teppipit was the first to be defeated and was executed in 1768.

The first inventory of the ruins was done in 1901 by the French geographer Etienne Aymonier. The site was put under Thai governmental protection by announcement in the Government Gazette, Volume 53, section 34, on September 27, 1936. Most of the restorations were done from 1964 to 1969 as a joint Thai-French project. The historical park, now managed by the Fine Arts Department, was officially opened by Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn on April 12, 1989.

As we visited the Historical Park in the late afternoon, most of the tourists were on their way back already. What a quiet and peaceful time we had.
It is really worth to visit this place!!!

For me, for us this was a worthy ending of an awesome trip with ups and downs.

Day 3 – Phimai to Sisaket

Not much to say about this trip. 2,5 hrs on the fastest track back home. We arrived safely at 9 am.

Conclusion about Thailand and Malaysia – 2 month on the road

We started with a Triumph Tiger 1200 Rally Explorer and arrived back with a BMW R 1250 GS Adventure.
Thanks to bad motorbike quality of Triumph in addition with their dealership policy – two Triumph dealers in Malaysia (Batu Caves and Ipoh) rejected to claim warranty, instead they sent us back to Thailand with a not working rear suspension, we not made it to Singapore but at least to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The people we met along the road were amazingly friendly. Always with a smile, always curious where we are from, where we are going.
We never had a safety or security problem. Even in the 3 most southern provinces of Thailand.

We had an awesome time with friends in the South of Thailand, gained 3 kg of weight as they feed us like hell.

We learned about Chinese and Arabic culture. Very impressive that people of different ethnics can live together, respect and help each other without any problems.

We rode thousands of curves and twists, found stunning landscapes and lonesome roads.
We explored beaches and mountain ranges.
We learned that many places are not as nice as we expected like the Cameron Highlands and Penang in Malaysia.

We learned, that riding on small roads in Malaysia is not always the better choice due to traffic and traffic jam.

What we learned as well is, how to arrive in Singapore by motorbike.
In the end it’s easy to apply for it successfully but next time we will let an agency do the work for us. Even that you pay money, it saves a lot of time.

We learned a lot about food in Malaysia. Next time we bring our own instant noodles…lol.

Wait, next time?
Yep, we will not give up and try again to arrive in Singapore by motorbike. Maybe in the beginning of 2025, we will see.

Stay tuned and enjoy yourself!!

#dustysocks