Border crossing Thailand – Malaysia (Betong)

The Thai officer waved me through the first booth. But this is the customs and I needed to go back there to get the stamp on my Carnet des Passages! They didn’t know how to do it and I had to explain where the stamps go and that they have to keep the lower part. Fortunately there was one officer who spoke a little bit of English.

There are some other boothes on the left side of the second big building, but nobody is in there! So park before or after them and go inside to find the immigration counter. There was no queue at all, so this was pretty quick.

There are a lot of Malaysian motorcyclists crossing this border. It seems they only need to show their ID and don’t have to do any paperwork or stamps at all. They just stop for a moment and drive on (in both directions).

On the Malaysian border they are also not used to stamp passports or Carnets! (as mentioned before, they just drive through).
A lady officer took my Carnet and walked from office to office to find anyone which knows how to do it. She even checked my chassis and motor number! (first time since China). I waited about half an hour (while chatting with a security guard with a rifle) and she gave my passport and the carnet back.

The immigration office is in the big building on the right side. The officer had a problem with the computer and I needed to wait about 10 minutes. After that he waved me in and gave me the stamp for 90 days (yeah!), no visa needed. But they took my fingerprints…

 

Malaysia!

Yesterday I crossed the border to Malaysia!

Nice curvy roads here in the north! But the guesthouses are pretty expensive! At least it looks like there will be more possibilities to camp again, I already camped last night. It was the first time camping since Kazakhstan, almost 4 months ago!

But it’s hard to find beer here! Fortunately I still had one from Thailand…


Gestern habe ich die Grenze nach Malaysia überquert!
Schöne, kurvige Strassen hier im Norden! Aber die Guesthouses sind ziemlich teuer hier. Aber warscheinlich kann ich hier wieder öfters im Zelt übernachten. Habe gestern jedenfalls wieder das erste mal gezeltet seit Kasachstan! Das ist fast 4 Monate her!

Aber man findet fast kein Bier, bzw Alkohol hier, Malaysia ist muslimisch.

Motorbike service, replacements and repairs

Since China, the front forks were leaking oil.
It could temporarily be fixed in Luang Prabang, Laos. But as they didn’t have new seals it started to leak again a few weeks later. No chance to find a descent motorbike mechanic with the right parts in Laos or Cambodia, as they only sell bikes up to 250ccm!


I was looking forward to Thailand to do proper maintenance, replacing some parts and finally fix the leaking.  So I went to the Honda Dealer ‘BigWing’ in Pattaya.

It was the worst Honda service ever!
I had to tell them exactly what to do! They did not have a list of what is to do at the official Honda service intervals! Basically they  just replaced the oil. But didn’t check the brakes or the condition of the bike in general. They didn’t even know the official Honda service booklet!
I then requested that they also clean the airfilters, fix the parking brake and the leaking front forks.
So they took apart the front fender to only realize that they don’t have new seals! And they were not able to put it correctly back together, I had to show them how to do it!
And they didn’t have any spare parts at all, although they sell one AfricaTwin a week! No seals, no chains or sprockets, no brake pads, nothing!


Fortunately the JP Rider shop nearby could organize a chain and sprockets and Oleg knew a tyre dealer in Bangkok (29tire.com).


But I still needed to get the forks fixed! So I got in contact with another Honda BigWing dealer in south of Thailand in Phuket, which ordered the parts and said they will arrive in a week. It took finally two weeks for them to arrive! (they are not shipping from Japan but are produced in Thailand!)

When I finally arrived at BigWing Phuket, they didn’t want to fix the fork that day! I guess it’s too much work for a Saturday… I should come back next week. But they are closed until Thursday because of holidays!
Again I was lucky and found a very good shop nearby called ‘StreetBiker’ which did it right away in two hours. He worked really professionally, had all the proper tools and cleaned every part he got in his hands!