An uncertain return; impending floods and erratic weather in Hatyai
Walking across the train tracks from the cargo line where I loaded my bike, to the passenger platform at Bang Sue Grand Station in Bangkok
Route: Bangkok to Hatyai
Distance: 950km
Time: Overnight on a sleeper train
Thoughts: It cost me 2300baht to load my motorbike on a cargo train and an extra 1000baht for the overnight sleeper passenger ticket
My one day stopover in Bangkok turned into three days of rest. Just as I was enjoying Thai massages and artisanal coffee around the city, unexpected warnings of an impending flood in the south started appearing, promising to douse my joyful return with monsoon rains. While it isn’t unusual for the south of Thailand to be flooded at this time of the year, the forecast seemed more portentous than usual. Some part of me was nervous, as the other part of me was nonchalant. After all, unpredictable weather is a part of the riding experience and Bangkok was still so sunny!
Of a surety, one of the top three things I love about riding is the uncertainty of the weather and the inevitable exposure to the elements. There is a particular liberation that comes with accepting we can’t always control everything, even as we often want to. And what could truly teach this principle the way the weather can? Truly, I often look forward to the times when it may rain, even as I dislike being wet and soggy. Unlike the car driver who can ignore it and continue driving through thunderstorms, the motorbiker can sport no such arrogance. The weather is a force to be reckoned with on the roads, especially for one as vulnerable as a two-wheeler, and it demands to be acknowledged.
I hummed and hawed about when I should leave for Hatyai, dancing in between the spaces once again, ever uncertain of the situation yet strangely curious to meet it head on. After some enquiries, I found out that it costs roughly 2300 baht to load my motorbike on a cargo train. Then I’d have to take a separate passenger train, an overnight sleeper costing around 1000 baht, back to Hatyai. The total price of roughly SGD$90 didn’t sound like such a bad bargain. I’d save myself two days of riding 950km in rainy weather, petrol costs as well as hotel fees for two nights. In fact, if I added the total cost up, I would come out on top, by far.
Given that, there really wasn’t much of a decision to make, I decided to take the cargo train back to Hatyai, with hopes that I would be one step ahead of the weather. With any luck, I would be able to ride out of Thailand in two days and be back to Malaysia on the third, avoiding the tricky floods. I loaded my trusty steed on the less-than-known cargo platform of Bang Sue station, while I took an overnight sleeper to my destination; my horse and I taking a well-deserved rest back down the Isthmus of Kra.
As I vainly congratulated myself for being one-step ahead of the unpredictable weather, who knew that I, in my smugness, had unwittingly sent myself right smack into wild stormy weather? Heaven sure has a way of teaching us humility.