Thursday, 31 October 2002

We are currently at Bang Lang dam in southern Thailand, which is about 70 kilometres from the Malaysian border. We have been on the road 177 days and covered 16 708 miles (26 733 kilometres).

We spent another 2 days in Ko Lanta due to some rain that forced us to further enjoy the relaxed lifestyle the island has to offer. The mud roads are quite steep in parts and not suitable for a fully laden bike! We did a ride around the island to visit the Mai Kaew caves. The highlight, apart from getting very muddy, was swimming inside a waterhole in the dark cave. We visited 3 caves that interlink via small tunnels, some of which you are required to crawl through! We stopped off in port of Saladan to see if there was any diving but most companies only start on 1 November. The following day we visited the waterfall close to Waterfall Bay resort. It was about a 2 hour hike through the rubber tree plantations, where we watched the locals making rubber mats.

Since leaving Ko Lanta, we have not done much riding. We rode from Ko Lanta down the west coast through Sikao, Trang and Kantang before staying at Hat Chao Mai, a quiet fishing village in Trang province, where not many tourists visit. We stayed at the only beach resort there, the simple Sinchai's Chaomai resort.
During the 5 days we were there we made some good friends, Marianne and Olav from Stavanger, Norway. They have just started their Asia leg of a 6-month, round the world trip. We spent most days doing daytrips with them around Trang and it's surrounding provinces, which have so much to offer.

On the first evening we were in Hat Chao Mai, we had dinner in the nearby village at a local Thai restaurant and met Amorn Buranachan. He was so friendly and hospitable to us that we felt like we had known him for years! He offered us his time to show us around his "back yard" and we were amazed how much the area around Trang actually has to offer. His knowledge of the area could not be condensed into a guidebook! An electrical engineer by qualification, he spent some time working in Bangkok in that field but a love for nature and the outdoors led him to give that up and move out to Trang. His lifestyle now offers him much more freedom compared to that of Bangkok and he is now a freelance graphic design artist. The Internet allows him to still work in Bangkok but live some 800 kilometres away, what a life!

He took us on 3 day trips:

Libong Island is visible from the mainland and only a half hour longtail boat ride away. It is not very big, has 3 typical Thai fishing villages and a national park. We hired scooters and spent the day riding around the island. There are few, if any, foreigners that visit island around this time of year. We found a beach to snorkel but due to the damage that dynamite fishing has done to a lot of this region, the snorkelling was not worth a mention. It has been 3 years since the protection of national park status was given to this area and there are positive signs that the coral reefs are beginning to regenerate. There is one resort where you can stay overnight and in season it could accommodate quite a few tourists.

The following day Amorn took us on a longtail island hopping tour. We first visited Ko Muk's Emerald cave, a lagoon not accessible at high tide that leads to the most gorgeous beach. To get to the beach you are required to swim through the 80m stretch of sea in the dark, but when you get to the inside of the cave, the view is worth it!
We moved on to some snorkelling spots at Ko Chuek and Ko Waen, 2 rocky outcrops habituated only by the rare protected swallows in this national park. There were both hard and soft corals so the life is abundant. The highlight was seeing a black and white sea snake winding it's way in and out of the staghorn corals, not a sight often seen.
We stopped off at Ko Ngai, a more popular tourist stop in high season, for some drinks and then headed back to Hat Chao Mai before sunset. On the way back we spotted a large turtle swimming on the surface and some jellyfish.

The 3rd day was spent away from the coast as we headed into the tropical forests and mountainous region east of Trang. The Khao Pu-Khao Ya national park and Khao Banthat Wildlife reserve have a number of rivers running through so some 10 massive waterfalls are located in and around the park. We visited 2 of them, Ton Te and Kachong. Ton Te has a 45-degree, 100m rock face that the water glides down and into a lovely pool so we spent a few hours swimming there. After lunch we moved up to Kachong falls, somewhat different in that the water falls vertically so the current created is quite immense. It took some effort to swim up the narrow channel, as the current is strong and the channel deep.
This area is really beautiful and hiking is another option available, as there are camping spots at the top of the mountains.
Amorn gave us 3 days of his time and did not ask for a penny! He is a great ambassador for Thailand!

Anyone wishing to contact Amorn for information on bird watching, jungle trekking or anything Eco-Friendly:

Email: amorn_b_chan@hotmail.com
Telephone: +66 01 3673302
Address: 121 Mu. 6 Tumbol Bangpoa, Kantang, Trang, Thailand, 92110.

That evening we had a few too many Thai beers (Singha, Leo and Chang) so the following day was a bit subdued as we tried to nurse our hangovers.

We left Sinchai's resort yesterday after saying our goodbyes to the friends we had made and hopefully we'll be meeting them for Christmas and New Year in Sydney, which is only a few weeks away…. can't believe it's November already!

We had planned to reach Langkawi Island but, after a late start and wanting to visit Bang Lang dam on route, we decided to stay another night in Thailand before entering Malaysia.

Yesterday we rode east through Trang to Phatthalung on route 4 before turning south and into Hat Yai. After stopping for a drink we joined route 43 and then route 408, arriving in Na Thawi. Routes 42 and 409 from Na Thawi to Yala offered some lovely hilly, winding, well-tarred road and so are worth a mention should you visit this area on a bike. From Yala it's a 140 kilometres to the Malaysian border post of Betong. We stopped off for the night at Bang Lang dam, which is well worth a stop. The accommodation is set up high overlooking the dam wall with a pool and good restaurant. It is a somewhat more expensive to what we've become used to in rural Thailand but the rooms are very comfortable with air conditioning and hot water showers.

As we are about to enter Malaysia, it's quite sad to be leaving Thailand. We've been here for 2 months, visited some awesome places, and done some world class diving, met and made some great friends and ridden nearly 6000 kilometres on some fantastic roads! If you have a taste for travelling then we certainly recommend Thailand, an all-round great place to spend some time whatever your time or budget allow.

Itinerary of the past few days:

Tuesday, 22 October
Trip around Ko Lanta Yai, distance 48 miles;

Wednesday, 23 October
Visited waterfall, about a 2 hour hike;

Thursday, 24 October
Ko Lanta to Hat Chao Mai, distance 125 miles;

Saturday, 26 October
Daytrip to Libong Island;

Sunday, 27 October
Daytrip by boat to Emerald cave and 4 islands;

Monday, 28 October
Daytrip to Ton Te and Kachong waterfalls, distance 122 miles;

Wednesday, 30 October
Hat Chao Mai to Bang Lang dam, distance 261 miles.

Monday 21 October 2002.

We are currently in Ko Lanta, an island off the west coast of southern Thailand. We have been on the road 167 days and covered 16 152 miles (25 843 kilometres).

We spent another day in Phuket before heading to Khao Lak, some 120 kilometres up north on the west coast. We got in another few hours of snorkelling around the point off Karon beach of which the highlight was seeing a large female cuttlefish lay and insert her eggs far into a rock for safety. We must have watched her for about 15 minutes and we could actually reach out and touch her without her getting too stressed. It was sad to leave Karon, as the snorkelling is world class!

It was interesting to meet up with Ralf and Caroline Koebler on our last night in Phuket, a German couple who have been on the road for 18 months now on 2 new Honda Transalp 650's. They have done over 50,000 kilometres and spent most of their time in Australia and New Zealand before shipping their bikes up to Singapore. They are now on their way to Europe via Asia and perhaps Russia if not the Middle East.

We rode up to Khao Lak on Wednesday where Brian, the manager at Phuket Divers informed us that there weren't enough divers for our 3 day liveaboard trip to the Similan Islands. We were disappointed but as the season is only just starting now it's understandable. The best time to dive the Similan Islands is in December up until April and we were simply too early. However, after checking into some simple accommodation at Happy Lagoon on the beach, we headed for dinner at a beach bar. There we met another dive instructor, Nigel and he told us they were doing day trips out to the Similans most days. It was at 12pm and after 4 beers that he told us that they would pick us up at 7am!

On Thursday morning early we left for the Similan Islands by boat and arrived there around 4 hours later. The sea swell was quite bad so it took a little longer than usual. We did 2 dives, first at Elephant Head and the second at Turtle Gulley with lunch in between. The dives were superb and worth the long trip, it's a pity we would only spend one day there! Like the rest of Thailand, the water was crystal clear and the life similar to what we had experienced in our other dives. The only thing different was that we saw turtles for the first time and a few different species of Angel (Emperor and Regal) and Butterfly fish (Raccoon).

We left Khao Lak the following day to move down to Krabbi. We briefly stopped off in Ao Nang but decided it was too touristy and we continued down to Ko Lanta, an island south in Krabi province. The marine national park off Ko Lanta was the reason we came as it is a popular diving spot but we found out upon arrival that we were too early to dive here yet. We caught 2 flatbed car ferries to get to the south island; the north island doesn't offer any accommodation. It is then a 20km drive along a dirt road to get to the national park. We found Waterfall Bay Resort, built close to a quiet cove; it has accommodation to suit all budgets. We have a large bungalow built high up on stilts for a few pounds a night. The travellers here are friendly and we've met 2 great couples within a few days of being here: Mark and Kate, Ducatti and BMW motorbike owners themselves, were from Nederland, Colorado and Markus and Sonja, who also live in London, are from Austria.

Ko Lanta is a quiet retreat off the beaten track and has a lot to offer. It is somewhat different to the other islands we have visited in that it has a strong Muslim community; some 95% of the population here are Muslim. The diving, in season, is up to the usual high standard that most of the Andaman west coast islands have to offer here in Thailand. The island is not very developed so the thick forest is ideal for hiking and getting away into the hills. There are a number of scenic waterfalls and even a gypsy village on the eastern side of the island.

We have been here for a few days now and it's a refreshing change from the normal touristy spots we've visited. Most tourists come from Krabi by boat, as there are no tourist buses that visit. Yesterday we took a boat trip out to Ko Rhok, an island visible on the horizon about 1 hour away by speedboat. It's a small island with only a few tents for accommodation if you wish to stay overnight but it has little else. There we snorkelled and enjoyed a day in paradise with its white sandy beaches. We even found several hermit crabs and raced them up the beach.

We will probably be spending a few more days here before going on further south. We also may consider coming back to Thailand after entering Malaysia as we have a renewable visa but we have to leave the country in order to renew it.

Itinerary of the past few days:

Wednesday, 15 October
Phuket to Khao Lak, distance 77 miles;

Thursday, 16 October
Daytrip out to the Similan Islands diving;

Friday, 17 October
Khao Lak to Ko Lanta, distance 174 miles;

Saturday, 18 to Monday, 21 October
On Ko Lanta, no travel apart from day trip to Ko Rhok.

Monday 14 October 2002.

It was with great shock that we read the news of the death of Bracken's John Hill. He was not just an employee at Bracken but one of the most knowledgeable and helpful motorcyclists we were so fortunate to have known. Anyone who had any dealings with John will agree, that no job was too small for him to undertake. He spent many an hour helping us with our trip preparations and it is a tragic loss to the motorcycle touring fraternity. Our deepest sympathy goes out to his family and the Bracken team in London.

We are currently in Phuket, southern Thailand. We have been on the road 160 days and covered 15 901 miles (25 442 kilometres).

We have spent the last week in Phuket, further enjoying the wonderful island lifestyle Thailand has to offer. Phuket is Thailand's biggest island and is accessible by road over Sarasin Bridge, which allows you to cross the Khlong Tha Nun channel. On the West side of Phuket is the Andaman Sea and on the east is the Gulf of Thailand.
The beaches and clear water are superb and among the best in the world we have come across. We are staying in Karon, not too touristy with a beautiful beach. Phuket also offers easy access to many of the best diving sites around this area, among them the Similan Islands, Ko Phi Phi and even Burma Banks (Myanmar).

We haven't done much on the riding front, getting from Ko Sumui to Phuket took only a day and since then we've been enjoying what Phuket has to offer. We caught the ferry from Thong Yang on Sumui at 9am and got to Don Sak around 11am. We don't quite know how but they managed to fit all 50 cars and a few scooters on board.

We then rode west through Surat Thani, continuing along route 401 before leaving it to join route 415, south to meet the coastal route 402 into Phuket. This area is tropical and so, very similar to that of Ko Sumui, huge forests with farming the main industry.
The roads were quite busy and the drivers gave us a few hair-raising moments but we managed to avoid any problems, arriving in the touristy Patong area around 3pm. We drove around this area and considered staying there but it was a bit too touristy so we continued south down to Karon where we have been for a week now.

Over the last few days we've done a few rides around the island to see the various sites, visit the beaches and really see what's on offer here. The main activities seem to be water related: scuba diving, parasailing, water skiing, jet skiing, etc. There are quite a few big motorbike shops offering some lovely road bikes. You can get anything from a CBR 400 to a GSX 1300 for around 10 - 15 pounds! We may hire one this week to get our road skills back on track…

On Wednesday we met an interesting American/German guy, David. He has been driving a similar route to us over the last 1 and a half years but in a Mercedes truck he's converted into an all terrain camper. It is massive, weighing some 10 tons, and can hold over 1000 litres of diesel so you can imagine the size of it! His wife, him and his 6 year old son have travelled from Germany down through North Africa, then back to Germany and through the Middle East to Bangladesh. They then shipped their monster to Malaysia and have since driven up through Laos and Vietnam before coming down south again. The "unimog" type vehicle goes almost anywhere and has such great clearance that even small river crossings go unnoticed. On the back they have a Suzuki DR 350 and a 3-man boat with a 7hp motor! There isn't much place they can't get to with these 3 modes of transport! They also plan to get to Australia but the cost of shipping is rather expensive.

We finally met up with Goose and Lucy on their way down to Malaysia. They are from the Uk and, after shipping their BMW 1100 to South Africa, have ridden through Africa and then across the same countries we have. They are now in a rush to get to Melbourne by Christmas so rode all day down to Sepang to see the motorcycle grand prix, before shipping their bike to Perth and riding around Australia. Lucy has residency so they are planning on settling in Melbourne when they reach there.

The snorkelling here is fantastic and you almost feel you are scuba diving as the life in the water is equivalent. We did a few hours off Kata beach close to Phoo Island and saw huge moray eels, butterfly and angelfish, triggerfish and sweetlips but the rare powder blue surgeonfish was certainly a highlight. We are still learning all the ocean life so it's a steep learning curve right now. Dom bought a chart and so now we can tell the difference between all the colourful life on offer. It is easy to get them mixed up!

As the snorkelling is so good and the water so clear, the visibility is around 20 metres, we decided to book an overnight scuba trip to the Phi Phi Islands for Friday and Saturday. This is where the The Beach was filmed and so a pretty popular destination. The islands are around 3 hours away by boat but the trip we went on incorporated a dive at Shark Point, around 1.5 hours away.

We left Chalong; Phuket's busy port at 9am on Calypso diving's boat, Greta. She is well equipped specifically for diving and can hold 25 divers at one time. No sooner had we got onto the boat with 10 other divers, were we in the water at Shark Point. This is simply a rock sticking out of the water in the middle of nowhere! The diving was superb, loads of life to see and the water warm and clear. The highlight was seeing 2, 3 metre, harmless leopard sharks, one asleep on the bottom, the other floating past us like we didn't exist.

We did 2 more dives close to the Phi Phi islands (Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Ley) and began to realise why this area is so popular among divers. The life under the sea is incredible and with little currents, warm tropical waters and harmless creatures below, Thailand certainly has to be one of the worlds best dive sites on offer.

The 4th and final dive of the day was in the bay of Phi Phi Don and was at night. There was not much out at 7pm but we did manage to see some 2m great barracuda out to feed as well as a few large red crabs, cuttlefish and some sleeping groupers.

We spent a few hours looking around Phi Phi Don, the only habitable island, before returning to the boat to sleep for the night. Most of the other divers chose to sleep on the shore but for only a few hours we decided to save our pennies and chose the boat. The mosquito's, heat and rain took their toll on us and we didn't get much sleep but we enjoyed our night on the water anyhow.

On Saturday there were 3 dives, one was a repeat of previous day but there is so much to see you miss a lot the first time. The 2nd was down to a large sunken car ferry, King Cruiser, which sank back in 1997 due to a misjudgement on the captain's part. The story goes that he did it for the insurance and is still locked up today! The ferry sits in around 30 metres of water but we only the 3rd and 4th decks are accessible. The 3rd deck is where the cars park and the 4th the captains cabin. It was our first wreck dive so pretty interesting, though the life on board was not as abundant to that on the natural reefs we'd dived previously.

The last dive, our 7th over the 2 days, was at Koh Doc Mai. This is a large limestone rock sticking out of the sea with very little around it. It is an island but not habitable due to the steepness of the rock rising up to around 100 metres. It is similar to that under water in that the rock goes down steeply to the ocean floor at 30 metres. But on the wall there is a great deal to see with little cleaner shrimp, large moray eels, triggerfish, lionfish and many many more.

We arrived back on Phuket at around 5pm and were quite exhausted so went to sleep very early after dinner.

Yesterday was the first day we've had monsoon rains since arriving so we woke up late and spent most of the day indoors, watching the grand prix at a pub. We tried to find the Motogp but couldn't get it on any of the stations so had to settle for the F1.

Today we did rent the Honda CBR 400's and had a fantastic time on them! We rode up from Phuket Island onto the mainland and visited Khao Lak, the closest launching point for visiting the Similan Islands. We popped into a diveshop and found out about trips out there for later this week, they sound really good so we may be relocating up there for a few days of more world class diving!

We did a roundtrip on the CBR's on route 4 past Khao Lak then turned eastward onto the 401 and then down through Phang Nga and back to Phuket. Phang Nga is a very mountainous area surrounded by limestone peaks. It's also home to the Phang Nga National Park where there are several popular islands, one of which is called James Bond rock, made famous by 007 in The Man With The Golden Gun. We covered around 330 kilometres on the thoroughly enjoyable, lovely Thai roads.

We will be spending tomorrow in Phuket before heading up to Khao Lak and the Similan Islands for a few days. Then it'll be a southward journey taking in Krabi and slowly making our way down to Malaysia.

Itinerary of the past few days:

Monday, 7 October
Koh Sumui to Phuket, distance 233 miles;

Tuesday, 8 October
Karon beach down to most southern point of Phuket Prom Them, distance 21 miles;

Wednesday, 9 October
Karon beach up along coast to Surin beach, distance 40 miles;

Thursday, 10 October
Karon beach up along coast to Kamala beach, distance 52 miles.

Friday, 11 October and Saturday, 12 October
Away diving on Ko Phi Phi islands;

Monday, 13 October
Hired CBR 400 roadbikes and did a 330km roundtrip via Khao Lak and Phang Nga.

Sunday, 6 October 2002

We are currently in Koh Sumui, southern Thailand. We
have been on the road 152 days and covered 15 506
miles (24 810 kilometres).

We have spent the last 2 weeks enjoying the wonderful
island lifestyle Thailand's Koh Sumui has to offer.
It's difficult but somebody's got to do it..

We have been staying at Lucky Mother, a well situated,
comfortable and reasonably priced hotel with bungalows
equipped to suit most. Most of them are made of wood
and cater for couples with built on bathrooms and
double bed. We managed to get one of the concrete,
larger, single bed options. The staff here have been
extremely friendly for the duration of our stay and
we'd like to say thanks for making our stay in Sumui
such a special one!

On the night we arrived it was the monthly full moon
party, held once a month on the night of full moon
obviously, but not in Sumui - on the nearby island Koh
Pha-nang. The boat trip was a bit rough, 40 party
seekers joining us on the 400 hp half hour trip across
the bay. Once we arrived we realised how big this
event actually was: there were at least 5 000 people
spread out on the beach with music playing out over
the bay. Needless to say we had a good party and
returned to Sumui at 7am the following morning,
getting to see an awesome sunrise on the way home!

Our family holiday was one to remember for many years
to come. On Monday, 23/9, Gary's sister from London,
Kelly and brother and his wife from Sydney, George &
Jacqui arrived in Koh Sumui after spending a few days
in Bangkok. On Tuesday, 24/9, Dominic's brother,
Damian arrived from Perth (having spent a few weeks
there after leaving Kathmandu) and wife, Karen,
arrived from London.

They all stayed until Saturday, 28/9 and thoroughly
enjoyed their stay on this wonderful little piece of
paradise. Most of the time was spent lazing on the
beach but there were a few activities, which are worth
a mention:

For 2 days the girls (Karen, Jacqui and Kelly) did
what girls do best, go shopping, get beauty treatments
and massages and generally relaxing on the beach or by
the nearest pool.
The guys (George, Damian, Gary and Dominic) hired
offroad bikes for some muddy fun! If you ever come to
Koh Sumui and enjoy this type of thing we can
certainly recommend it! The bikes cost only about GBP
8 per day and petrol is very cheap. This is such value
for money as you can have a whole day of fun for
GBP10! We hired them from S.P.'s, a shop 1km north on
the main Chaweng beach road. A local Africa Twin (AT)
owner, S.P. runs the bike hire centre and is a keen
motorcyclist himself, having done a lot of touring on
his AT.

The island has some lovely dirt roads to offer and
they take you up high into the mountains (600m above
sea level within 10km) for the most spectacular views.
Most of the region is where local farmers grow their
crops (coconuts, mangosteens, avocados and bananas).
They use these roads to get their crops to the
markets, so you have to keep an eye out for their 4x4
vehicles. The roads are relatively quiet though and
apart from the farmers there are some tourists
sightseeing in jeeps too.

The bikes we hired were Honda XR 250's, superb for
this type of terrain. There was the odd thrill and
spill but nothing is really breakable on these bikes.
Damian managed to put the bike into a cartwheel on a
leafy, muddy section but, apart from a bit of
bruising, he was fine and the bike only lost its
mirrors. 2 full days were spent exploring the islands
little known dirt roads. The maps don't have mention
of many of them so you simply have to try one and see
where it comes out. Be warned though, that the terrain
is pretty hilly so in the rainy season the mud can be
quite slippery and descents are not for the feint
hearted, as George found out a few times!

Other days were spent lazing by the pool at Karen and
Damian's hotel, the lovely Coral Island Resort away
from the busy centre of Chaweng. We did some
snorkelling around the local bays and found some
fantastic underwater life including moray eels,
colourful butterfly and angelfish, the odd puffer fish
and parrotfish. The best snorkelling is in front of
Chaweng central, where there is a natural reef about
500m offshore.

Thank you to Karen, Damian, Kelly, Jacqui and George
for coming out here to see us. We thoroughly enjoyed
your company and it was certainly a highlight of our
trip so far! Thanks for all the hard work in arranging
spares, computers and other important stuff for us. We
wish Damian lots of luck in London; he's been with us
since the beginning but will now be looking out of an
office window rather than over the front wheel of his
bike! All the best..

After 5 days, the family were gone and so the week
ended with a bit of an anticlimax. To get our spirits
up we booked a scuba diving trip to Koh Tao, where the
diving was said to be world class. It certainly lived
up to its expectations and the diving was superb! The
speedboat journey out to Koh Tao was 90 minutes, we
passed Koh Pha-nang on route and the sea was quite
calm. We stayed on the Dive Point live-aboard, a large
boat equipped specifically for diving with all
equipment, including a compressor to refill tanks. The
staff were extremely helpful and knew the sites well
so diving was a pleasure and very relaxed. We did 5
dives in all including a night dive but the highlight
was Chumpon Pinnacle, where the visibility was at its
best and very busy with sea life! A first for us was
seeing 2, 3m grey reef sharks at close range!

In the past few days we've done a bit of sailing, we
rented a hobicat and took it through its paces out in
the bay. It was a bit of a steep learning curve but
well worth the effort. We also hired the Honda XR
250's again for 2 days, as that is such good value and
thoroughly enjoyable! Other than that we have just
chilled out and enjoyed having the beach and sea at
arms reach!

Today we did a ride, one of the few, when we went to
visit the aquarium, bird and Tiger Park, which are all
located in one venue. The aquarium is not that
impressive and the bird show was ok but seeing 5
Bengal tigers up close is something to remember.
Unfortunately we didn't manage to see these creatures
in the wild in India and Nepal, so had to resort to
seeing them behind bars! They are massive creatures
and when standing on their back 2 legs, reach over 10
foot!

Tomorrow we are, sadly, leaving Koh Sumui to go down
towards Phuket, Krabi and slowly make our way down to
Malaysia. We still have another month on our visa here
so hopefully it will be as good as it has in Sumui
further south!

Itinerary of the past few days:

Sunday, 22 September to Saturday, 5 October
Spent this time on Koh Sumui, no rides worth a
mention;

Sunday, 6 October
Did a tour of the south of the island around Lamai,
distance 49 miles.

Saturday, 21 September 2002

We are currently in Koh Sumui, southern Thailand. We
have been on the road 137 days and covered 15 506
miles (24 810 kilometres).

It became a bit of a struggle to reach Koh Sumui in
time to meet our family due to more fuel pump
problems, which plagued us! Read on and find out…

On Sunday the 15th we continued our journey north from
Lampang to reach Chaing Saen by 4pm. The winding back
roads via Chae Hom to Wang Nua along the Mae Nam Wang
River were superb! The surface is new tar and so
cornering was at nothing less than 40 mph, though the
corners are quite sharp. From Mae Khachan we took
route 118 to Ban Dong Ma Da to Chaing Rai and then the
national highway 1 for a short time. The final few
kilometres to Chaing Saen are ‘A’ type road leading to
the little town and the river alongside it. Laos is
across the river and only a few kilometres up the
river is the Golden Triangle, where the Mekong divides
Burma (Myanmar) from Laos and Thailand.

We took a long boat (powered by no less then a Toyota
Corolla 1600 twin cam motor!) that powered us over to
Laos for some shopping. Tobacco pipes, handcrafted out
of Yak bone seemed to be quite popular on Laos as
Opium smoking is somewhat of a favourite hobby there!
The boat then went onto the Golden Triangle a few more
kilometres up river. China is only 250 kilometres
further up the Mekong River, so in effect, there are 4
countries very close together at this point. All 3
countries were very green at this time of year due to
the monsoon rains and the Mekong was in full flow.

We spent one night in Chaing Saen at JS Guesthouse but
it’s not really a touristy town. We had to go to the
River Hill Hotel for dinner. This seems to cater more
for the tour groups who visit and the food was quite
good though expensive.

Monday the 16th was the beginning of our southerly
journey back down through Thailand. We wanted to do
the road along the Burma (Myanmar) border all the way
from Mae Hong Son but were short on time so only did
part of it. The back road we chose was via Mae Salong,
Muang Ngam, Mae Ai and Fang to Mae Sun. We then joined
route 107 and continued down through Mae Taeng to
Chaing Mai. We stopped at an Elephant training centre
just outside Ban Mae Na but we were too late for the
daily show (9:30 and 10:30 am only). We had planned to
reach Chom Thong, 100 km south west of Chaing Mai, but
we got caught in a huge storm that drenched us and was
so dark at 4pm we considered stopping for safety! The
water filled our boots up and the roads became part of
the flood plain!

Chaing Mai is a beautiful city, the 2nd largest in
Thailand and has a country feel to it rather than a
city. There are quite a few tourists around and so
they are also well catered for; Internet café’s,
western food, English is widely spoken and the Thai
people are very friendly and hospitable as in most
places in Thailand.

On Tuesday 17th, the road out of Chaing Mai toward
Chom Thong on route 108 was very industrial, busy and
not that pleasant. Once past Hot, we turned west to
pass through the Op Luang National park, headed for
Mae Sariang and the road was once again back to the
tropical Thailand we had become accustomed to. The
road from Mae Sariang, running alongside the Burma
(Myanmar) border is certainly a highlight worth
mentioning. The road is fantastic, though the surface
is not as good as other roads we’d ridden, it offered
lovely grand prix type sweeping corners and hill
climbs over the green rolling terrain. It is
rainforest so there were patches of rain but also
plenty of sunshine in between. Some of the roads had
been washed away from the monsoon rains but we only
counted about 3 or 4 places affected.

Riding south along the Mae Nam Moei River (Burma
border) has a slightly different feel to the rest of
Thailand. There are Burmese and Karen hill tribe
villages alongside the road and you can feel a
different vibe to the area. The men walking along the
road (mainly farmers) are all smoking a pipe, wearing
traditional colourful throwovers and their rurul
villages are thatched with leaves rather than grass.
We didn’t really stop at any of these points but you
could sense something was different about these
people.

The best part of the road was from Tha Song Yang to
Mae Ramat, where the road is absolutely empty, almost
the width of 2 cars for each lane and the tar brand
new.

There were many Police checkpoints along this road too
and our panniers were searched on more than one
occasion by heavily armed guards. They were all
friendly and we’re still not sure what they were
looking for? The border with Burma is not far away so
there are no doubt goods being illegally imported.

We arrived in Mae Sot in the dark and with a little
difficulty found Mae Sot Guesthouse in the main
street. There is little signposting in English so it
wasn’t that easy to navigate our way around. We did
find a Canadian/Thai restaurant in the main town that
served lovely food but it looked like the only one of
its kind in this little village. If you come across it
try and Burmese Duaeng Din coffee they serve - great!

Wednesday the 18th was another day of mechanical
trouble with Maggie (Dom’s bike) this time. She
started her niggles by just cutting out at irregular
intervals. We only managed to leave at 12 pm, as she
simply wouldn’t start! At this stage we did not know
what the problem was. If a fuel pump is faulty, like
any electrical gadget usually it’ll either work or
not. Maggie seemed to be ok then not, so it was a
process of elimination. We managed to get going and
then after cruising at 60 mph for a few hours, she’d
just cut out!

We rode from Mae Sot through Tak, Kamphaeng Phet,
Nakhon Sawan and Uthani Thani and stayed in the rather
large town of Chainat (though the Lonely Planet guide
for Thailand fails to mention anything of this area
south of Khamphaeng Phet to around west of Bangkok).
Again English wasn’t the best way of communication but
we eventually found a hotel suitable and it had a
restaurant on site with good Thai food.

With the fuel troubles we were having with Maggie we
tried to find decent in line fuel filters to replace
our current ones that have been on the bikes since
Turkey. This was another impossible task without
actually showing up at a bike shop with your bike! We
did find some but they were either too small (for
scooters) or too big (for cars).

On Thursday the 19th Maggie continued her cut outs and
it was becoming a cause of concern due to the problem
troubleshooting. If it was the carburettor, we’d have
to seek professional help, as it wasn’t really
something we wanted to tinker with (very delicate
process). We struggled on, sometimes stopping for 10
minutes to let Maggie sort herself out: This seemed to
solve the problem of flooding or starvation?

We managed to ride from Chainat (motorway 340) to
Phetburi via Sulphan Buri (route 321) and eventually
making it onto National Highway 4, the main route from
Bangkok to the south of Thailand. It did take a long
time due to the mechanical problems and about 20 km’s
from Phetburi we stopped right outside a “big”
motorbike shop, not something you see very often in
Thailand. We decided that this was fate and we had to
take Maggie into this workshop for a check. The owner
of the shop, Charoen Narake, was an very friendly and
experienced mechanic. You could see by the bikes he
was working on at the time: there were several big
bikes on the shop floor including a Suzuki GSX 750, a
Honda VF 750 and a KDX 250. His English was very
broken but after 20 minutes his colleague, Kija
Iamsuwan, showed up. He spoke great English and was
extremely helpful to our cause.

He showed us Charoen’s trophies that he’d won over the
years as a motorcross rider and also the broken bones
in his body! Kija was more of a touring rider and had
a BMW K100, which he later brought to the shop to show
us.

Within 2 hours they had stripped Maggies carburettors
off, cleaned and reassembled them. Dom took her for a
ride and she seemed right as rain so we paid for the
work and thanked them profusely before heading for
Phetburi, some 20 kilometres away in the dark. Only 2
kilometres from the shop Maggie stalled again! The
problem was still not fixed!

We managed to get to Choh Klao hotel alongside the Mae
Nam River and parked the bikes inside the courtyard
undercover. We decided to swap fuel pumps on our bikes
as this could only further eliminate what was on our
minds: Fuel pump!

After swapping the fuel pumps the following morning,
the suspect item on Shalastic (Gary’s bike), we rode
out of town heading south and 1km from Phetburi,
Shalastic gave up! The 2nd fuel pump had gone at only
24 000 miles (38 000 kilometres)!!

As we had already used the spare we had carried from
London, we were now down to 1 good fuel pump for 2
bikes - dilemma! We tried riding the bike but she cut
out regularly and, as we had over 800 kilometres to
reach Koh Sumui in only a few days, we had to make
another plan. We bypassed the pump by joining the
inlet and outlet so that the fuel flows directly from
the tank to the carburettor, but the maximum speed you
can do like this is only 30 mph on a downhill. Uphill
is a problem as you try to keep the revs down the bike
simply cannot get enough fuel and so cuts out. We
limped alongside the road to the next town but decided
we needed to do something about this.

Alternative plans started to develop and in the next
coastal town, Cha Am, there was a Budget car rental
office. We planned to hire a van, put the bike on the
back and drive to Koh Sumui with the other rider
following behind. We pulled into the train station,
asking for directions, and managed to bargain with one
of the local taxi drivers to put Shalastic on the back
of his van for Thai Baht 4, 000 (about US $100).
Within half an hour we were on the road again, Gary
inside the cab with 2 Thai locals and Shalastic on the
back and Dom following behind on Maggie, who was
running perfectly.

The route from Cha Am to Surat Thani was a main
highway and not very interesting but then it’s a
quieter road to Don Sak.

We got to Don Sak, the vehicle ferry port to Koh
Sumui, in the dark at around 9 pm. The driver found us
a suitable hotel to stay at that happened to be right
next to where the ferry leaves at 7am for Koh Sumui.

Early on Saturday, we managed to get onto the half
full, 7am ferry to Koh Sumui and in 90 minutes, we
were on the island. It had not seemed possible just 24
hours earlier but we had managed to do it!
There were still the 20 or so kilometres to get across
from Thong Yang to Chaweng but we managed this with
only a few cutouts. Sumui is quite hilly and with the
fuel problem still apparent, the bike didn’t take
kindly to the uphill sections!

We found the Lucky Mother bungalows, as recommended by
Lonely Planet, and settled in. This resort is very
central but affordable and favourably placed for most
things: shopping, beach, watersports, restaurants and
airport.

Koh Sumui is a favourite tourist destination and so it
has become quite commercial over the past few years.
The main street in Chaweng, the centre of all the
restaurants, travel agencies, markets, etc. is quite
crowded at most times of the day though it’s out of
season now and not so busy. The main road is parallel
to the lovely white sandy beach and is a few
kilometres long.

Tomorrow we have a day to ourselves before Gary’s
family arrive from Sydney (brother George and wife
Jacqui) and London (sister Kelly).
On Tuesday Dominic’s family arrive from Perth (brother
Damian) and London (Damian’s wife Karen).

They are here for 5 days for a holiday and to bring
some necessary spares (laptop, fuel pump, etc!).

We are looking forward to a good family holiday, as
it’s been a few years since some of the family have
seen each other!

Itinerary of the past few days:

Sunday, 15 September
Lampang to Chaing Saen (Golden Triangle), distance 185
miles;

Monday, 16 September
Chaing Saen to Chaing Mai, distance 172 miles;

Tuesday, 17 September
Chaing Mai to Mae Sot, distance 280 miles;

Wednesday, 18 September
Mae Sot to Chainat, distance 200 miles;

Thursday, 19 September
Chainat to Phetburi, distance 204 miles;

Friday, 20 September
Phetburi to Don Sak, distance: Shalastic - 26 miles,
Maggie - 374 miles;

Saturday, 21 September
Don Sak to Koh Sumui, distance 26 miles.

Saturday, 14 September 2002

We are currently in Lampang, northern Thailand. We
have been on the road 130 days and covered 14 065
miles (22 504 kilometres).

After just over a week in Bangkok to sort out a few
things on the bikes (tyres, service, etc.) it was time
to head out into the wonderful countryside that
Thailand has to offer. We had around 2 weeks until
some family arrived to visit for a holiday and we were
meeting them in Koh Sumui, a lovely island in southern
Thailand.

Thailand has been having the worst floods for many
years with the north and northeast the most affected
areas. This is exactly where we had planned to visit
for the next two weeks so we were a bit apprehensive
but decided to go anyway.

Early on Tuesday, 10 September, we left Bangkok and
rode up to Ayuthaya. It’s only a short distance from
Bangkok but trying to find an alternative route out of
the capital is not easy. Motorbikes (there are
thousands of scooters) are not allowed on their main
expressways. Signposting is mostly done in Thai for
the alternative routes and there are not many of them.
It took us the best part of an hour to reach the
outskirts of Bangkok and then only another hour or 2
to reach Ayuthaya.
Ayuthaya is a historic Siam landmark and used to be
the capital of Thailand with many ancient temples,
wats and buddas all set within a natural moat (made by
the Lopburi river).
We hired bicycles and rode around town to visit some
of these. The river was very high due to the rains in
the north and a week later, we read in the Bangkok
post, burst it’s banks submerging the town in waist
high water. Our timing had been perfect!

The following day, Wednesday, September 11 – there was
little sign of the significance to this day where we
were. We continued our journey to the northeast
through Lopburi but the road we chose had been closed.
The Lopburi River had broken its banks and parts of
the road were covered in excess of 2 metres of water.
We had already crossed some of the flooded roads but
eventually the road up ahead had been closed. We had
to go back to the main highway (which had a large
bridge over the river) and bypass the river before
joining our intended route some distance further up.
We continued up to Chaiyaphum to stay for the night.
On the way, however, Gary’s bike was struck with
mechanical problems.

Honda Africa Twins have a known fuel pump defect (as
most travellers on Africa Twins we have spoken to have
agreed) but Honda refuse to admit to this. The
Mitsibushi units fitted as standard are not of a high
quality and so at only 25, 000 miles (40, 000 km) the
one on Gary’s bike had given up. As we knew this
before leaving London, we have carried a spare along
the way. A simple swap out took only an hour or so and
we were back on the road. Dominic did approach Honda
before we left London and asked them if there was
anything we could do about the fuel pumps, as our
bikes were still under warranty. Honda failed to
impress us and simply said there was nothing wrong
with the fuel pumps they supply on their bikes.

Just before reaching Chaiyaphum, we were witness to a
dog who should have been a cat of 9 lives! After being
struck by a car approaching us, he was bounced and
rolled several times on the tar, then pulled
underneath. The woman driving, distraught, had driven
off the road and stopped but the dog simply got out
from under the car and ran off appearing not to have
been affected at all!

The following day (Thursday, 12th) we continued our
northeasterly bearing and began to realise why
Thailand is so popular among touring motorcyclists! We
rode from Chaiyaphum along route 229 to Kaeng Kuip,
and then we took a backroad to Khow Kaen. The
countryside reminded us of Southern Africa:
Green-rolling hills, wide, well-tarred, empty scenic
roads and good sunny weather.

We had to use a highway, number 2, to cross the Nam
Phong River, but even the main route to Laos was
covered in a foot of water. We managed to cross by
riding in the wake of a passing vehicle, this makes
the level drop and so easier to ride through.

We spent this night in Udon Thani, a town that
developed overnight from the deployment of thousands
of US troops to join the Vietnam War. The air force
base is massive and on entering town our attention was
drawn to 2 fighter jets taking off.

The northeast of Thailand is not frequented by many
western travellers so reminded us of our Iran days.
People are extremely friendly, hospitable and
inquisitive but English is rarely spoken. There is
much memorabilia from the Vietnam War on sale in shops
(Tom Cruise type glasses, fighter jet helmets, dog
tags, etc.)
A highlight this day was visiting the local Internet
café, something of a find in the northeast! It was
full and after spending about 20 minutes, the power
suddenly disappeared and so all of the 20 computers on
the network died! This is an ideal scenario to paint a
picture of how northeastern Thailand is “real” Asia
(reminds us of Africa!).

On Friday, 13th, we continued up towards the Laos
border on the road to Nong Khai and Vietiane (Laos
capital) but, before reaching the border, we turned
west at Ban Nong and headed toward the Mekong River.
We reached it at Si Chaing Mai and continued along to
Chaing Khan. The Mekong River is the border to Laos
and can only be crossed by road at Nong Khai. The 120
km section along the river to Chaing Khan was
fantastic on a bike! The rolling hills, winding
corners and roads with very little traffic reminded us
again of Natal!
On route to Chaing Khan we began to realise the extent
of the floods. The most troubled was the province of
Loei. We found villagers stranded, their houses under
up to 6 foot of water! The communities get together in
these times of trouble and help is never far away.
Boats are busy carrying supplies, people and their
rescued belongings to safety while pumps are employed
to relieve the situation.
We arrived one week after the worst so things had been
in a far worse state. The Bangkok post reported
hundreds dead and thousands homeless.

Passing through Loei on route 201, we then used route
203 west and stayed at Dan Sai just off this route.
Floods had subsided here though aid was still being
given out at a community meeting when we arrived.
This small village, where English is simply
non-existent, it took us almost 2 hours in the dark to
find somewhere to stay. Eventually we found
T-Guesthouse, which had been under 4 feet of water
only a few days prior to our arrival. It took another
miracle to find something to eat as everything closes
very early in these rural towns. The local market,
usually the last resort to find food even refused us!
We resorted to the local “hot dog” type stand on the
side of the road. As communication was reduced to hand
signals and animal noises, we decided to order what
the last customer had. The food wasn’t too bad but the
chicken looking things turned out to be mashed fish
balls!

Today found us headed in a westerly direction towards
Thailands 2nd largest city, Chaing Mai. We didn’t
quite make it Chaing Mai as we stayed off the main
highways to thoroughly enjoy the lovely, well-tarred,
wide, quiet back roads. We could finally test our new
tyres out in the 60 mph corners – fantastic!

We stayed in Lampang, just south east of Chaing Mai,
at the lovely teak Riverside Guesthouse. They have
bikes for hire and so plenty of parking for motorbike
tourers as well as a wonderful friendly attitude
towards bikers.
It was here that we saw our first western tourists
again as the north is a more accessible and well
travelled area. The river Mae Nam Wang runs through
Lampang and had burst its banks a few days earlier in
the large town. It had subsided but was still pretty
high on our arrival.

Tomorrow we plan to head further up north to the Golden Triangle before we head back down south along the Burmese border to our destination of Koh Sumui by the 20th.

Itinerary of the past few days:

Tuesday, 10 September
Bangkok to Auythaya, distance 45 miles;

Wednesday, 11 September
Auythaya to Chaiyaphum, distance 257 miles;

Thursday, 12 September
Chaiyaphum to Udon Thani, distance 151 miles;

Friday, 13 September
Udon Thani to Dan Sai, distance 234 miles;

Saturday, 14 September
Dan Sai to Lampang, distance 191 miles.

Saturday, 7 September 2002
We are currently in Bangkok, Thailand. We have now been on the road for 123 days and we've covered 13 287 miles (21 259 kilometres) on our bikes. We spent our last day in Kathmandu ,over a week ago now, on mountain bikes enjoying what the Kathmandu valley has to offer. Unfortunately the traffic is quite bad in this area so the offroad sections were really enjoyed, away from the hustle and bustle of cars, trucks and busses. It's not easy to find the biking routes and we stumbled upon a temple on the river where the daily cremations were being held. We joined some other tourists and watched the process of stacking a pile of logs, very similar to that of making a braai, and then laying the deceased relative on top of this. Then it's a simple lighting process and away you go! There were 3 bodies at various stages of the process so we managed to get a full picture. This area is very sacred to the Hindus and even though this is happening around the corner, still people are bathing themselves 100m downstream! Quite bizarre really!

Dom and Gary flew with Royal Nepal airlines to Bangkok early on Monday morning. The view of the Himalayas was short and a tad obscured by cloud but it's amazing that when you consider that you are at 29 000 feet and you can see snow capped peaks at that same level! Damian flew Thai air in the afternoon, he has since gone onto Perth to visit his sister, Rulan for a few weeks in Australia before coming back to Thailand for a week and then onto London.

We stayed near the airport for 2 nights so as to be close to the customs/cargo area where we would have to spend at least a day to get our bikes back to normal. It took us the whole day of Tuesday to get our bikes out of the airport. The main problem is not knowing where to start or in what order to proceed. It's quite a frustrating process in that there are many touts outside the customs office only too willing to help but we've heard stories of them requesting 100 pounds after they've done so! In order to avoid the confrontations we decided to do things ourselves. We arrived before 9am and only managed to ride our bikes away at 5pm.
The customs procedure is pretty straightforward but it's knowing the sequence of events to follow:

1. First you have to split the airway bill if you have more than one bike shipped together. This is done at the Customer Service Centre, 1km south of the domestic terminal. The original document is provided (we only had a photocopy from our agent) and stapled to some other papers.

2. Then we went to the Personal Effects customs office. Here we had a tout help us but we soon ditched him when he asked for our passports outside at a dodgy looking table. But as he'd shown us where to go we found a customs officer, who willingly asked us to sit in his waiting room while he filled out some paperwork - about 5 pages for each bike! He asked for our passports and carnets. The carnets were only used for the engine and chassis number, they were not stamped at all. This took close to 3 hours sitting in his waiting room as he had to get his superior to approve his work. Among this paperwork was the Thai temporary vehicle import "white paper" (you sign to say that if you do not re-export the bike within the time stated you are liable to pay 500 000 Thai Baht - US $ 12 000 import fee!).

3. Then it's off to the Manifest Dept. Don't ask me what they do but there was some stamping and signing of our paperwork.

4. The final step is to pay the airline for the clearance fee and service. This amounted to TB 545 (about US $ 13) for each bike. You get 3 days free storage, which we hadn't exceeded but it's about US $ 100 per day if you do store a bike there for longer than that.

5. Once the customs official had re-approved all this paperwork, we headed for the warehouse located a further 1km south of the customs offices. You can catch a motorcycle taxi for about TB 10 (US $ 0.25) but have your wits about you!

6. Outside the warehouse we visited the office and presented our paperwork. This is again approved by their officials then passed onto someone who takes it into another office located inside the actual warehouse. Here it is delegated to one of the many forklift drivers cruising about the place.

7. In the meantime we handed in our passports in exchange for a security pass and entered the warehouse to find our long lost bikes!

8. Once they were delivered by forklift, to a nice spacious area within the warehouse, we started the uncrating process. The local workers there were really good and when we needed some extra help lifting the bikes up to assemble the front wheels they were only too keen.

Eventually we rode our bikes out of the airport with smiles on our faces! The whole process is a longwinded one but with a little patience it's not too bad. The airport staff, whether working for the airline we used (Thai Air) or the government (customs) were very helpful and never once complained or held out their hands for money.

After this taxing day we had an early night and then on Wednesday we moved into central Bangkok. The simple 20 something kilometres into the centre took us almost 3 hours to cover as the Expressways don't allow motorcycles on them. In order to find the equivalent roads taking you in takes some time, a lot of patience and a compass! We didn't have a decent map so it was guesswork but we eventually found a great place to stay with safe parking for the bikes. It's in northern Banglampoo close to the river next to the infamous Shanti Lodge, Sawadee Guest House.

The next 2 days were spent looking for spares for the bikes. We caught a boat into town, a reliable "taxi" service used by most of the locals to go to work. We managed to find good quality Castrol oil and so took an afternoon to change our 10 000 km old oil. The next day was spent not looking for the actual parts but a reputable shop, which would cater for our bikes. The average bike here is a 125 cc so nothing like our monsters! . We needed tyres quite desperately as our wonderful Michelin T66's had eventually come to the end of their life. We found 2 shops, which were pretty good, but only 1 could provide us with what we required. A pretty informative website on bike shops in central Bangkok was all we used: http://www.oocities.org/bkkriders/shops

It has a map of the area and also a description as to what the shop specializes in.

The first shop we used, Riders Club could only get some motorcross knobbly tyres but we decided to look elsewhere. We found Dynamic Motors, also recommended on Horizons Unlimited, but his service is shocking. He did eventually come through but not without the (far too often) occasional nudge. Yong, the manager, promised us we could come the following morning at 9 and the tyres could be fitted. Only 1 set of tyres appeared after we had removed both wheels from both bikes. We had to get the old tyres removed and new ones put on at the car tyre shop adjacent, we had to catch a cab to the other side of town to get the wheels balanced and we did all the labour! However, this is Asia and we were glad to have new tyres provided in just one day. The Michelins we were on, the reliable T66's were only being delivered in November!
The shop we had the tyres balanced at was on the other side of town but the attitude of the owner is worth a mention! He is Pirot and runs a warehouse of specialist bike tyres (we are sure that he supplied
our tyres). His company details:
Ek-Pai-Boon
481 Santiphab Road
Bangkok
(02) 2227535
If anyone is looking for tyres in Bangkok in future we suggest you go straight to him. He can supply, change and balance them for you in one location and his price will be much cheaper too.

So now we have new rubber: Bridgestone Trailwings on both bikes (TW47 front and TW48 back). They are a bit knobblier than the Michelins but with the monsoons and floods aplenty at this time of year, they may prove very handy! The front page of the daily Bangkok post is full of floods here and floods there so who knows what's in store for us up north should we decide to venture up there this week.

Yesterday evening, after the bikes had been sorted out, we could finally be tourists again!

We tried to find Patpong, the world renowned red light district of Bangkok but instead stumbled upon Soi Cowboy, a smaller version. We met Brian, a US expat, who took us to a show at one of the local go go bars. Here you feel a little uncomfortable for the first few minutes, but once you realize what's going on it's not so bad! The Thai girls that work in the bar literally throw themselves at you but once they realize you are only there to watch the show they are very friendly and are quite interesting to talk to. There are as many working girls as there are customers and half of them perform on stage while the others tend to the customers. This then changes every half hour.

Today we visited Gary's distant relation, Lorraine out near Bagna on the road to Chomburi. This is an area where the expats live so is a completely refreshing change from the centre of Bangkok. It has huge houses, golf courses, wide-open spaces and we even spotted a monitor lizard soaking up the sun! It was a bit of a nightmare to navigate the Bangkok traffic but was worth the journey just to see how things operate on the roads. Once again the expressways were out of bounds but we managed, with Gary driving and Dom navigating on the back. It's very hot and humid here now and with the traffic lights taking between 5 and 10 mintues to change it was in the bikes best interest to switch off during stops to avoid overheating! We were treated to a lovely lunch and a swim and then we returned to the centre of Bangkok.

Tomorrow we'll be full blow tourists taking in some of the wonderful sights this place has to offer, temples, grand palace, etc. We have also yet to see some Thai boxing so may do that on Monday night before deciding what to do over the next 2 weeks (flooded northern Thailand or a sunny beach somewhere.difficult decision!)

Our itinerary over the last few days:
Sunday, 1 September
No motorbike riding but 40km's on the mountain bike.
Monday, 2 September
Flight to Bangkok
Tuesday, 3 September
Spent the day at the airport getting the bikes out of
the customs warehouse.
Wednesday, 4 September
Relocated to centre of Bangkok, short ride from
airport to town, 26 miles.
Thursday, 5 September
Changed oil on bikes, found bike shop and ordered
tyres,
Friday, 6 September
Spent the day changing tyres.
Saturday, 7 September
Day trip out to Bagna, 39 miles.

Copyright 2001. Site best viewed at 800x600 in IE 5.