Cycle touring in Thailand

[marcusinbristol]

Hi, I'm planning to ride Phuket -Hanoi (Vietnam) in January. I've been trying to plan a route to keep off the main highways but for some sections it looks as if the main highways are the only way to go. Has anyone had an experience of riding these roads, particularly highway 4 south of Bangkok?

Marcus

 

[neil earley]

Cant help you there, but be very careful as Thais don't have much road sense . Wear bright colour clothing plenty of lights on your bike and don't travel at night. There was a fatal accident near Khorat city where a car wiped out a scooter rider jumping a red light. Happened as I stopped when the numpty kept going through on red!!
I would rather see you on an organised cycle tour which they have a safety car following you with flashing hazard lights on. Be safe and enjoy your time cycle tour

 

[Hill Wimp]

@hopless500 is your girl for this one.

 

[Yellow7]

Hi Marcus.
I completed my tour to Singapore in May 2015 and from Bangkok I followed the highway 4 to Phuket, the road's in good condition and quite wide, I never had issues with drivers, all quite safe, little difference against some of england's busy roads. Vietnam is the one to be careful, take ear plugs as 95% of vehicles blare their horns at you, personally not enjoyable at all, I had road-works for most the time in Vietnam, stick to the back roads as best possible, so good maps are advisable. My route's shown in the map on the footer of my blog.
Mark.

 

[hopless500]

We did a lot of back roads. I'd have to check maps and stuff as I can't remember the details. For one stretch south of bangkok we hired a minibus to get all 5 of us and our bikes in and bypassed that section of main road. Then we did about 8 miles on the main road before getting back on the minor roads.
We found cycling se asia was no problem. They beep their horns to let you know they're there and will give you plenty of space. The bigger places are manically frantically busy and bloody brilliant. No one wants to run into you and they kinda know you're going to get it wrong occasionally
Being off the cycle tour route on the whole meant we saw some fab bits which other people don't get to see.

 

[Ticktockmy]

Hi, I'm planning to ride Phuket -Hanoi (Vietnam) in January. I've been trying to plan a route to keep off the main highways but for some sections it looks as if the main highways are the only way to go. Has anyone had an experience of riding these roads, particularly highway 4 south of Bangkok?

Marcus

Having cycled much of SEA over the years, generally is is safer than some peeps would have you believe, yellow 7 is correct about using back roads where you can. last time I cycled in Northern Vietnam the traffic was manic, but by the time you get there you will be a battle hardened cyclist, able to cope with all that is thrown at you. I would suggest you check out when the Monsoons will hit parts of your route as it can make for a wet and muddy ride if you get it wrong.

 

[marcusjb]

We found riding in southern Thailand generally pretty safe and stress free. There's a few tricks to watch out for (scooters using the shoulder the wrong way, trucks will pull out of side roads on the expectation that traffic will slow to allow them to do so). We didn't do any major town riding (and I don't think we would ride in much of Bangkok!). We got the train down to Surat Thani and toured from there.

The highways are generally pretty good with massive shoulders and often felt safer than smaller roads.

Surfaces generally very good. Except when they weren't (sometimes turning into gravel where the money ran out!).

Eating and drinking is the easiest and best we have ever experienced on tour - every village will have at least one house serving food out front and delicious noodle broths etc. will appear in seconds and cost very little.

As with most countries, a tandem helps with people being careful around you as people just want to watch and work out how it all works!

Unfortunately the road safety stats are pretty shocking, and we did see the aftermath of a couple of serious collisions.

 

[FrankCrank]

....worth noting that Thailand has now gone berserk with rebuilding/resurfacing roads, all over the country. Dear leader has decreed that this should be so, in order to bring happiness to the people. All well and good, but expect to see huge stretches of road works, without anyone actually working on the roads. My guess is there's just not enough road repair vehicles and workers to do it all consecutively. Anyways, as a cyclist, you can no doubt cycle on these half finished new roads, without fear of the usual nutcase drivers knocking you down, cos they'll all be on the other carriageway.........