I get up as soon as the sun rises. My hut does not have air conditioning, so I want to leave early while it is still reasonably cool. The owner of the cabin takes me and my packed motorcycle to another place to have breakfast. After the roti with dahl and iced coffee I immediately drive up, because I want to be at the border with Thailand as early as possible.
Well before the border there are already many billboards of offices that sell compulsory insurance for Thailand. I choose one and a young lady goes to work for me. It takes 30-45 minutes for the insurance to be activated online and I use that time to put my downloaded navigation map for Thailand into the Garmin. They also sell SIM cards for the telephone here, so it is also ready for Thai internet.
Half an hour later I am standing in front of the large border crossing, where, very easily, a separate route for motorcycles is indicated. My passport is stamped from Malaysia and at customs they kindly wave me to continue. It goes so fast that I am already on the Thai side of the border when I realize that customs should have stamped my Carnet de Passage papers for exporting the motorcycle from Malaysia! Oh dear. I am still in no man's land and take the opposite direction to enter Malaysia again. Fortunately, the customs officers understand the situation and a little later I am standing in front of the customs counter again to ask if they can stamp my CDP. The customs officer calls his manager and takes my papers to another office to return 10 minutes later with the completed version.
Great, now Thailand. Things are going smoothly here too. Many light motorcycles cross the border and they all have to fill in an import form. When they see my CDP I am immediately sent to the last counter, but I see the question marks above the head of the customs officer on duty. I explain to her where I would like stamps and dates and which parts of the paper are for her and for me and then it is quickly fixed. I'm in Thailand! On my own motorcycle!
On the way to the coast of Krabi I booked an overnight stay in a hotel of the OYO chain. In India I had bad experiences with this, but the pictures and reviews on the internet of this place gave me confidence. And that was right: what a great place. A house on stilts in a small piece of jungle. Truly beautiful and actually a pity to only stay one night, but I want to go to the coast.
