More Details on Winter Trip

Thanks to the following websites with all the information on previous cyclists who have done these routes already:

Mr Pumpy web site: http://www.mrpumpy.net
Crazy Guy on a Bike: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com

Let's just say it's gonna be a rather Muslim kind of a holiday -- I seem to have an affinity for those kind of places.

The Mt Bromo volcano tour and Denpasar (Bali) island cruises in Indonesia are well-traveled and documented. This one always get rave reviews, and I'll soon be adding my voice to the chorus.

In the deep south of Thailand, there have been a steady stream of cyclists doing the Narathiwat -- Pattani -- Sonkhla run in recent years, most of them continuing a run all the way from Malaysia to Bangkok (a very common cycle route). The numbers have been increasing now as the security situation has improved. In fact, they've lifted the martial law in two of those three provinces now as peace is slowly but surely returning to the region.

There is much to say on what the deal is with these southern regions in Thailand, but the media isn't a good place to start looking for information. I tend to distrust the media, for the simple reason that too many people put their trust in the media. If the media reports a melamine milk scandal in China, for example, then everyone panics and stops drinking milk, but the actual chances of getting sick from the milk in the supermarket are very slim indeed. Similarly, the media raises the alarm bell about the insurgency in south Thailand, and everyone avoids traveling there because they think the bombs are going off 24 / 7.

Media out of the way, there is lots of useful information on what the situation is like in southern Thailand. This would include the root causes of the insurgency, how the situation is changing, and a lot more news if you're willing to dig. The best way to find out is to go there and see, which prompted my first pass through the area in winter break 2008 (3 years ago). Or maybe it was a combination of my own morbid curiosity, or having traveled to most of the other tame places already

The first time I whizzed through on a combination of minivans and buses, and was scared as hell. Obviously I was not wanting to ride a bike through the area -- this was confirmed with the reports of bikers in 2007 who basically did the same as myself. Things definitely felt tense at the time -- army checkpoints were indeed lining the road, complete with razor wire and army patrols with guns. It was basically a case of getting through there as fast as possible, then crossing into Malaysia. Fast forward a year and a half, this I tried half by minivan and half by bike. The 2nd pass-through revealed lots of changes, and most of the army patrols had been dismantled. Definitely optimistic of changes in the area, I confirmed it by looking at other sources to see that the number of injuries and fatalities was way down in both 2009 and 2010, and the army was now lifting their martial law.

Ironically though, it was then Bangkok that suffered a bout of bombs during those years due to all the protesting and ugly turn of events surrounding the protests.

Make a long story short, I'm now about to face my fears and try this whole thing again, this time completely on the bike.