Having never crossed the Malaysian-Thai border before via land transport, we decided to start with Betong for our first excursion.
We made some mistakes along the way and will share them here along with our itinerary which has a relaxed pace.
Follow along with us below!
Video Of Our Trip
Preparing For Our Trip
We bought some Thai Baht to use during our trip. In hindsight, you might want to bring more than we did. 2000 Baht (~RM265) doesn’t last long. Especially if you want to buy food at the night market. We ended up using Touch N Go – all the local mini marts and most eateries accept this payment platform. It is very convenient, and the charges are not unreasonable.
As Malaysians, we need to go through the Malaysian and Thai checkpoints before entering Betong. There are some documents we needed to bring since we were planning to drive our own car.
Here’s what we needed to enter Betong:
- Car ownership document (original) / photocopy is acceptable if you get it verified at a police station near the border
- Car insurance documents
- Both of our passports
- Thai insurance
- TM2
- Thai Sim card – bought at the same place we bought our Thai insurance after learning that roaming plans won’t work in the Yala district (this includes Betong)
We also bought Thailand insurance right before the custom checkpoints. This is compulsory to pass the custom checkpoints anyways. Because of this, there are many businesses selling Thai insurance all along the way to the customs. We highly recommend the place where we got our Thai insurance. The service and facilities at this roadside stall were amazing! They helped us print and fill in the TM2 form – this was the only form needed for the time that we drove to Thailand. But you should be able to check this easily with Thai insurance agents.
For our group size of 2 people and a sedan type car, our insurance cost RM25. The Thai Sim card (DTAC tourist sim) we bought at the insurance roadside stall also cost another RM25, but we have to say that it worked a lot better than the second Thai Sim card we picked up in Betong (AIS SIM Card).
Day 1
Driving From Ipoh To Betong
This drive took us roughly 3 hours. We went on a Thursday, leaving our house at around 7.30am. We passed through Lenggong and Gerik. The drive was scenic even though we couldn’t see the lake from the bridge at Lenggong. We did stop at Lenggong for a while to have some breakfast.
At the last small town (Pengkalan Hulu), we refueled on petrol since it is more expensive on the other side.
We reached customs around 10am. Since there was hardly any queue, we entered Betong at about 10.30am – much earlier than our allocated 2 hours to go through customs.
Going Through Customs
We only had to present our passports through the driver’s side window at the first checkpoints.
And once we arrived at the customs building, we parked and joined the short queue for the immigration counter. This involved paying RM2 per person, and having our passports checked.
After this, we went round the side of the building to another counter for the car customs declaration (only the car owner needs to queue for this). We had to pay another RM5 here. They gave us a stamped form that we had to return after our trip in Betong (or risk paying a hefty fine).
Exploring The Town
We had zero experience driving in Thailand before. They thankfully drive on the same side of the road but there are a lot more motorcycles and scooters. Hardly anyone wears helmets here too.
What we found confusing was their parking culture. Many parking spaces are for motorcycles although they sometimes take up spaces allocated for cars too. At lunch time, we had to circle the town three times to find parking for a famous eatery, Betong Chicken Rice.
What’s nice though, is that you don’t have to pay for parking in Betong like you do in Ipoh.
Lunch At Betong Chicken Rice
We were relieved to find that the staff here can speak Mandarin & Cantonese. And they do accept Touch N Go payments too.
The food came shortly, and all three dishes were delicious. The sauces they used are different from what we are used to. The rice too was tasty.
This first meal in Betong cost us a lot more than what we usually spend for lunch in Ipoh but this is probably the most famous eatery in Betong. Our total came up to RM56 for 3 dishes, 2 plates of rice and 2 drinks.
Street Art
We took advantage of our early arrival to hunt for some murals on foot. There are many and often, they are close to each other.
Some are along heavily used roads so watch out for passing motorists! If you plan to check out the night market in Betong, you will see some too.
After walking about for an hour, we decided to see if we could check into our hotel early at 11am instead of the stated 2pm.
Our Stay At The Butterfly Princess Hotel
Turns out we could. We stayed at the Butterfly Princess hotel for 2 nights (it costs us RM128 per night). The car park is sheltered, well-lit, and spacious.
Just outside the car park is a small café, and a massage parlor. Two convenience stores are around the corner too. There also seem to be tuk tuks outside this hotel too.
Both Butterfly Princesss Hotel and Butterfly Hotel Betong are under the same management. Both have direct entrances to the car park too.
Butterfly Princess is in the older building. We got a room on the top floor with a king-sized bed. The window view was not bad. But this is a very old hotel. For instance, our pillow covers had holes in them. Still, during our whole stay, we found this hotel to be safe, clean and quiet. Our only complaint would be the shower which only gets scaling hot or ice cold with only a tiny window for in-between temperatures.
Suvarnaros Café, Bistro & Bar
This is a popular café for its unique structure and lovely garden.
By the time we left our hotel (our gear needed to charge for about 2 hours) for this location, it was raining quite heavily.
Still, the café already had some customers. Following the recommendations of previous reviewers, we got an iced Americano with coconut syrup and a slice of cheesecake to share at one of their outdoor tables.
Both the coffee and cake were just so-so. We weren’t hungry after our big lunch too. There were some mosquitoes outside too, so we came back into the café later. It is a comfortable space to wait out the rain.
They have many beautiful plants outside and while we couldn’t fully explore their garden, what we saw was pretty.
Temple Sightseeing
Our café experience was a little underwhelming, but these temple complexes left us awestruck.
The temple architecture and grounds are well kept, grand, and beautiful. We were the only visitors and had a lovely view of the town to ourselves (apart from some dogs and temple staff) at the highest temple.
We parked at the middle temple and walked up to the highest temple before going back down to see the last temple.
You cannot go into any of the structures except for the temple at the top. There are multiple entry points at the base of the temple. From the inside, we found staircases that led up to the top of the temple. All that marble is very slippery, especially on a rainy day so be careful!
Here are the temple names:
- Phra Phuttha Thammakaimongkon Phrayoonkesanonsupphithan
- Phra Mahathat Chedi Phra Phuttha Thamma Prakat
- Wat Phuttha Thiwat
We spent about an hour at these temples (they share the same grounds) and decided to hit the town right after for an early dinner. We browsed a local convenience store along the way but didn’t find anything particularly interesting besides how cheap their beer is.
Jung Shin Restaurant
Our dinner spot was Jung Shin Restaurant. It looks like a very simple eatery and not the cleanest. But this turned out to be one of the best meals we had!
We ordered a plate of glass noodles and tomyum soup with rice and both dishes were excellent. We have yet to find this standard of Thai food in Ipoh. The meal was inexpensive too, at least compared to our lunch earlier that day.
After our meal, we took a stroll around. Despite it being a Thursday, there were some night market stalls open and we made a humble purchase of one persimmon before heading back to our hotel.
Day 2
Pee Dao Mee Kaeng & In House Cafe
We got up at 6am (7am back in Malaysia) the next day to get an early start. Breakfast was at a simple but quaint café by the river. There were some locals dining here too.
There are a lot of options on the menu including rice and Western style breakfast like sausage and eggs. The waitress couldn’t speak Mandarin, but the proprietress could. The kolo mee with crispy pork was an off-menu item that we wanted to try based on what previous customers wrote about this place.
After taking some time to understand us, the proprietress said it would not be a problem. And presently, we were served our kolo mee with crispy pork and curry mee soup.
We think our food would have been a lot better if the noodles were not so soft. Our total was RM21 (160 Thai Baht).
Bentong Hot Spring
The first place on our agenda was Bentong Hot Spring. It was a cloudy morning with a slight intermittent drizzle. We found Betong to be much cooler than Ipoh. The temperature did not go above 25°C while we were here.
For a place with free entry, we expected there to be more people. But then again, it was 7.30am on a Friday.
We spent about 30 minutes relaxing here. There’s a dedicated pool for soaking your feet (as well as shower facilities) and the much bigger pool has 3 egg cooking stations. We didn’t see anywhere you could buy eggs apart from a small shop across the road.
Piyamit Tunnel
Our next stop was further ahead along the same road. It opens at 8.30am. The entrance already impressed us. For a small town, the attractions in Betong are well kept.
It costs us 80 Baht (~RM10) per person to access the path leading to the tunnels. The ticket counter is a short walk from the entrance although you do have to go up a steep slope.
To the side of the counter is the start of the jungle trail to the tunnels. It’s not a full jungle trek since there are walkways. This walkway even had a roof which was nice since it had started to rain.
At the midway point, there is staff that will check your tickets. And they will also play a presentation (in Mandarin) about the history and the people (Malaysian communists) who used the tunnels.
The tunnels themselves are behind this station. They are too low for someone close to 6ft but for my petite stature of 5ft, I hardly needed to crouch to get through them. The tunnels are well lit, and they even have cheery music playing. But we could still feel the claustrophobia creep in though. Especially when you go further in.
There are multiple exits for the tunnels. After studying the map, we chose to do a small loop to the museum and rocky outcrop. The rocks are very big. And while small, the museum is filled with many antiques and old photographs. What we found the most interesting there was an antique Chinese typewriter with numerous tiny keys with characters on them!
We used another exit through the tunnels (I think it was exit 6) the next round. This passage was wet, and it felt like the walls were closing in before we finally saw light at the end of the tunnel. Once back outside, we followed the trail to see a very majestic tree (the signboard for this tree calls it the Millennium Tree). After admiring the tree, we continued along the path until we found ourselves somewhere close to the starting point.
There are some shops and an on-site café. We spent a couple minutes in the small garden beside the café as it has a fountain and attractive landscaping.
Winter Flower Garden
This is another paid attraction along the same route. It cost us 200 Thai Baht (~RM26) to enter. We have to say that the road to get here is very risky. We saw not one but several instances of landslides in the progress of being cleared.
There is not much jungle left as most of the landscape has been used for the surrounding rubber tree estates and durian orchards.
A history museum is right at the entrance of the road leading to Winter Flower Garden. Wanting to head back to town after exploring the gardens, we decided not to check out the museum.
When we arrived at our destination, we got our tickets and got aboard the shuttle that takes visitors past a waterway and up to the gardens. This is only a short ride and is included in the entrance fees.
The gardens didn’t have many visitors yet (most seem to arrive after 10am). For the price we paid, we thought it very affordable. There are gardens in Cameron Highlands that charge a whole lot more.
Unless you plan to take a lot of group selfies, you probably won’t need more than an hour to fully explore the gardens plus an attached nursery. We skipped the nursery and explored the lower and upper gardens. It started to rain so we got ourselves some hot beverages at the on-site café overlooking the lower gardens.
After about 40 minutes of downtime, we got the next shuttle (same point as the initial drop off) to get back to the visitor car park. Winter Flower Garden has other facilities like another café above the waterway, accommodation, a restaurant and a massage center.
Wat Chan Thada Pracharam
This was the famous temple with a giant laying Buddha. We didn’t know it at the time, but you can slide underneath the figure.
The temple features solid wood windows, and the front of the temple is all glass so you can already see the Buddha from the outside.
There’s a smaller temple in the same courtyard and it doesn’t have much on the inside, but the outside is lovely, nonetheless.
Je-Mhui Noodle
Our original plan was to stop at the Betong Grass Jelly Shop, but we changed our minds completely after seeing a whole bus load of tourists enter the shop. This area doesn’t have many parking spaces either.
Instead, we went back to town to try another eatery, Je-Mhui Noodle. This appears to be a popular breakfast and lunch spot among locals. At around 1pm, the choice sides were already sold out. But what was left – fishball mihun noodle soup was still tasty despite of its simplicity.
We spent under RM16 here for 2 bowls.
Jaijai Coffee Bakery And Thai Desserts
After a quick stop at our hotel (more so to charge our gear), we went out again to try this famous local bakery/ café. It was pretty busy at 3pm but we didn’t need to wait for a table. We got a cendol frappe of sorts and their signature glutinous rice ball dessert soup. Both were good and not too sweet. The dessert soup was surprising to us because the coconut milk was salted.
Sud Siam Park
To walk off some calories while killing some time before the night market opened, we drove up to Sud Siam Park. The park is small but has a hilly location. It is not far from the Betong museum and OK Betong viewpoint. There are some nice statues and an attractive fountain here too. A children’s playground is directly across the road from the park.
Betong Mongkollit Tunnel
We found some stairs that led down to the main road from Sud Siam Park. The giant Betong chicken statues are here. They are particularly popular with tourists wanting a photo stop, so we didn’t stay too long here.
Betong Mongkollit tunnel is in this area, and we were surprised at how busy this intersection was. The tunnel was also a lot bigger than we imagined. We decided that we would have to see what it looked like at night later. The other opening of this tunnel is in town.
Friday Night Market
There was one stall that we really wanted to try but it did not open until 5.30pm. We walked through rows of different market stalls selling various snacks, dishes, desserts and beverages before we finally spotted the stall owners setting up their stall at close to 5.30pm.
This stall is known for their roti. We saw both locals and tourists ordering from it. We were the third customers that evening. The mother and daughter pair are both very friendly and kind. The tourists in front of us chose to abandon their order completely and the stall owners did not force them to pay. They ended up giving the roti to someone who appeared to be a regular customer.
Our single order of banana and Nutella was made on the spot after 15 minutes of waiting (they ran out of gas halfway and had to get more). The stall owners did tell us we could look around the market and come back to collect our order.
The roti is delicately crispy with a generous serving of both banana and Nutella. We ate ours on the side of the street in minutes.
Baan Khun Chay Amphor Betong
Although we were not that hungry after our snack, we decided to go for dinner anyways seeing that it was already 6pm plus.
We decided to walk to a restaurant we saw the night before. Turns out, you must go through a sketchy back alley if you want to walk here from the night market. The weather was very agreeable though. We rarely get such low temperatures in Ipoh.
The restaurant is open air with great ventilation. This is more for large groups to dine since there are only big tables. If we had one more person in our group, our order of 3 dishes would have been just right. The portions here are very generous, which fits the higher pricing.
The sugarcane juice was also plenty for just the two of us.
We left this restaurant stuffed with rice, basil minced pork, green curry and stir-fried vegetables. All of which were very appetizing.
After dinner, we walked back to our car but not before stopping to see the Betong Clock Tower and the now-lit Betong Mongkollit Tunnel for some photos!
Day 3
The next morning had some light rain too. We were eager to try the famous fish maw soup in town. This stall took us a while to find (hint: all the tables in this eatery are full). It was 8am and the lady running the stall was just starting a new batch of soup. She told us it would take a while.
In the meantime, we got some coffee and mihun soup with some mini yong tau foo. And a plate of deep-fried bread. Both were excellent and we felt satisfied enough to leave the eatery without having to try the fish maw soup. It was starting to rain heavier, and we wanted to reach our car ASAP since we did not have an umbrella with us.
Wat Phothisatto Chaomae Kuan Im
This temple is very close to town on a hill and its main highlight is the multi-tiered pagoda in the front. We stayed here a while to make some temple offerings and to admire the architecture. Golden carved dragons with blue clouds are a prominent feature on the roofs of the pagodas (there’s a smaller pagoda at the back of the temple). There’s a larger golden dragon at a pond close to the front pagoda.
The temple and its grounds do not take too long to explore. You can climb up to the top for a better view of the surroundings. We like the juxtaposition of the temple roof with other buildings in the area.
There is another temple next door that was undergoing construction. The caretaker beckoned us in for a look. He said this temple would be ready by the end of the year. The building is spacious and modern with many rooms – we didn’t see all since they were still working on it. The balcony has a good view of the town, and all the statues and paintings are brand new too.
เจ๊ปูก๋วยเตี๋ยวเป็ดตุ๋นไก่ตุ๋น กุยช่ายเบตง (Duck Noodle Soup)
After checking out of our hotel, we decided to have an early lunch at this eatery known for its duck noodle soup. This eatery is out of Betong with a roadside location. There are no walls or toilets here.
Even though we came here before 12pm, there were quite a lot of tables occupied already – mainly locals and their families enjoying a Saturday.
Close to the makeshift kitchen, there is a tatami-like seating arrangement but most of the tables and chairs are standard.
Someone took our orders promptly – we ordered one bowl of duck noodle soup and one plate of duck rice as well as a glass of herbal tea. And we liked all of them! Both noodle soup and rice came with a lot of duck meat, and what turned out to be duck intestines – finely cut and with a delightful crunch. The soup is tasty as well.
As with many eateries we experienced in Betong, portions are generous and there’s also tissue on the table. We got a heap of assorted raw vegetables to dunk in our soup (bitter gourd, beansprouts and basil leaves) which we thought would incur extra charges, but it did not. This eatery provided two bottles of drinking water too.
We spent a total of RM20 here. It was one of the most affordable meals we had in Betong.
Café Amazon PTT Betong
Before going back to Ipoh, we made one last stop for coffee but more so to use toilets at the petrol station. We ended up getting a cup of Thai milk tea to share – that cost us RM6.5. It was pleasant and we found that 50% sweetness was just right for our liking.
This petrol station is popular with a lot of Malaysian travellers as there’s also a 7-Eleven store (no alcohol is sold here though) here besides prayer facilities and toilets.
The café itself is small but attractive with outdoor and indoor seating, and it even has a wheelchair ramp.
Conclusion
That wraps up our 3-day, 2-night trip in Betong. We could have included the Skywalk Aiyerweng into this itinerary but chose not to since we didn’t fancy getting up early to beat the inevitable crowds.
Betong folks are very hospitable, and many (especially the elders) are multilingual. The air here is cooler and cleaner than in Ipoh. We liked a lot of the food that we tried too.
But we do think it’s best to visit Betong in the shoulder season before it gets too crowded. Because if you bring your own car, parking is very difficult to find during peak times like lunch and dinner hours. It was already a struggle during shoulder season. Furthermore, it is possible to take hours just to get through the customs during long weekends!
Our Suggested Ipoh To Betong Itinerary
If you liked our itinerary and want a similar one, here it is below! We have filled it out more and put an alternative plan for the last day for those who want to see Skywalk Aiyerweng.
We didn’t go for any massages or shopping in Betong but there’s still time for that in our itinerary if you swap out some of the activities.
You should highly consider adding one more day if you are going to be here during peak season as many things may take longer because of the crowds (e.g., finding parking, getting through customs, getting tickets for the Skywalk, etc).
Day 1
- 7am: Start 3-hour drive from Ipoh to Betong customs point at Pengkalan Hulu
- 10am: Go through customs
- 12pm: Reach Betong, have lunch at Betong Chicken Rice
- 1pm: Exploring the town for street murals
- 2pm: Check into hotel
- 3pm: Have a coffee break at Suvarnaros Café, Bistro & Bar
- 4pm to 6pm: Temple sightseeing in town
- 7pm: Dinner at Jung Shin Restaurant
Day 2
- 7am: Breakfast at老蔡鱼鳔羹 (fish maw soup stall)
- 8am: Betong Hot Springs
- 8:30am: Piyamit Tunnel
- 9:30am: Winter Flower Garden
- 10:30am: Betong Grass Jelly Shop
- 11am: Wat Chan Thada Pracharam
- 12pm: Lunch at เจ๊ปูก๋วยเตี๋ยวเป็ดตุ๋นไก่ตุ๋น กุยช่ายเบตง (Duck Noodle Soup)
- 1pm: Free time – we usually go back to the hotel to refresh
- 3pm: Chill at one of the many cafes in Betong. We went to Jaijai Coffee Bakery And Thai Desserts but other options include Jinbo Home Café or Backyard Roaster Cafe
- 4pm: Free – can use this time to go shopping at Kasong Wholesale or BM Super Center
- 5pm: See the big chicken statues, OK Betong viewpoint and the Betong Mongkollit Tunnel
- 6pm: Browse the night market stalls – we recommend the Delicious Fried Roti Pushcart
- 7pm: Dinner at Baan Khun Chay Amphor Betong
Day 3
- 7am: Check out and early breakfast at Pee Dao Mee Kaeng & In House Café
- 9am: Skywalk Aiyerweng
- 10am: Tok Ku Chae Bridge (30 minutes from Skywalk Aiyerweng)
- 11am: Early lunch at Khunthong Café
- 12pm: Coffee at KM.50 Coffee
- 1pm: Rainbow Spray Waterfall & Chaloem Phra Kiat King Rama IX Waterfall
- *Detour to Tae Pu Su Bridge
- 2pm: Get a coffee at Modern café or Lot18 Cafe & Bar
- 3pm: Leave for Ipoh
Instead of coffee, there are some dessert places we think could be great replacements. Especially on hotter days:
- 刨冰-黄色店
- itimpad@betong (Stir-fried ice cream)
This looked like a cool place for dinner and beer too though we didn’t get a chance to go:
- ร้าน ณ แลเมือง LAE MUANG
And these are some attractions that we missed:
- CHO Coffee – Cocoa Farm and Café
- Wat Tham Phukhao Thong (Gold Mountain Cave Temple)
Our Cost Breakdown
We spent less than RM900 in total for our 2.5-day self-drive trip to Betong from Ipoh. Our hotel rates were last-minute (we booked the date before) and we think this saved us some money.
Skywalk Aiyerweng is probably the most expensive attraction you can visit since it involves not just the entrance fees (~RM26 per foreign visitor) but also shoe covers (~RM4) and transport (~RM5 for a two-way trip by songthaew or motorcycle) up and down from the car park. We chose not to visit this attraction during our visit as we didn’t want to fight with the crowds.
If you want to do sightseeing without spending on entrance fees, then there are numerous temples to see in Betong. Betong Hot Spring is free to visit as well. And visiting the Piyamit Tunnel only cost us RM10 per person.
Shopping wasn’t on our agenda either though we did pick up a few cans of beer from the local mini-marts – there are duty-free shops in Betong. There are wholesale warehouses as well but we didn’t check those out.
Meals cost about the same as they do in Ipoh. Under RM30 for 2 pax. The more popular eateries like Betong Chicken Rice are more expensive. And the further you are from the town, the cheaper it appears to be (like the duck noodle shop we visited on the last day).
Tip: Chances are if you see a lot of locals dining there, that means the prices are reasonable.
| Day | Item | RM |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Roaming | 56.00 |
| Petrol | 30.72 | |
| Insurance | 25.00 | |
| Thai Sim card | 25.00 | |
| Accomodation (2 Nights) | 257.42 | |
| Customs checkpoint | 4.00 | |
| Car Custom Declaration | 5.00 | |
| Lunch ( Bentong Chicken Rice) | 56.16 | |
| K-mart – Drinks and Thai Sim card | 25.71 | |
| Coffee and cheesecake (Suvarnaros Café) | 22.02 | |
| Snacks plus beer from mini mart | 11.26 | |
| Dinner (Jung Shin) | 33.13 | |
| Fruit | 3.98 | |
| Day 2 | Breakfast (Pee Dao Mee Kaeng & In House Café) | 21.20 |
| Piyamit Tunnel | 21.20 | |
| Winter Garden Tickets | 26.50 | |
| Winter Garden Drinks | 19.21 | |
| Lunch (Je-Mhui Noodle) | 15.90 | |
| Jaijai Coffee Bakery And Thai Desserts | 13.91 | |
| 7eleven | 8.02 | |
| Kmart | 16.89 | |
| Roti At The Night Market | 6.63 | |
| Dinner (Baan Khun Chay Amphor Betong) | 78.13 | |
| Day 3 | Breakfast (fish maw place) | 14.58 |
| Guan Yin Temple Praying | 3.98 | |
| Alcohol from 7-Eleven | 12.80 | |
| Lunch (duck rice and noodles) | 19.53 | |
| Thai milk tea (Café Amazon) | 6.51 | |
| Petrol | 47.10 | |
| Total | 887.47 |