What Can I Say

Thailand continues to blow me away. Each day a new experience is ready to check my reality. I want to thank Bob for all of his help and friendship on my travels. Bob lives in Pattaya and has shown me around, been there for helping me find whatever I need to find or do whatever I need to do. He has been a true friend to me and I look forward to more encounters with him in the future.

Bob and I on the ferry to Ko Chang

Bob his girlfriend Bia (by) and I rented motorcycles and went to the island of Ko Chang. From the beggining the trip was besieged by difficulties. Firstly the bike that Bob had wanted, and put a deposit on, was not available (this seems to be common here) and he had to try 3 different bikes to find one that ran well enough for the trip. He settled on the V-Max. My bike was there it was an Yamaha FJ1100. The price for the bike rental was 500B a day or about $13 a day. After getting started about 2 hours later than we wanted we got on the road. Not too far in the trip, we pull off to the side of the road where Bia burns her leg on the exhaust pipe. OUCH!. She is a trooper though and after a brief rest we were back on the road.

The weather to the island was overall pretty good. Overcast but hot. I got sun burned on my arms and face, even with SPF 50. We take a ferry to the island and we get to our first place to stay; Lek Bar and rooms for rent. The music here was thumping ALL NIGHT LONG and I got veeery little sleep, Bob slept fine. There was finally silence after 5 A.M. and just as I was dozing off it started up again. I had had enough. I got out of bed and went to the bar where the owner and some other drunken S.O.B. were there and I let them know that I wasn't happy and to please turn the music down. Oh, sorry, they say and turn the music way down. I go back to bed. The song finishes and then the next song BOOM back up to keep Thom awake volumes. I packed my stuff and was ready to leave that shit hole at 6 A.M. when after my shower the music stopped. Finally. But too late. Bob and Bia get up and after breakfast I am very anxious to leave.

We then leave here for another place. A nice place. A new resort that has only been open for a couple of months. The Garden Resort. We get here fine but it is raining off and on very hard. So much of the day was spent hanging out inside or under cover. Bob gets back to his room and finds Bia in such pain from the burn on her leg that she is crying. They go to a doctor and she gets some pain meds and bandaged.

I got a great nights sleep, but the breakfast that was supposed to come with the room and be ready from 7:30 A.M. to 10:30 A.M. was not ready. So at 8 Bob and I got for coffee at 7-11. Instant coffee in a tea type bag. Uhg. But it was coffee. We go back to the resort and while we are there we finally are able to order breakfast and get some better instant coffee, but at least the food was okay.

After breakfast Bob sends Bia home on a mini-bus taxi service (450B or $12 for about a 125 KM trip) back home and we will ride the bikes. The day stared off kind of rainy but as we began to ride it was a decent enough day and the ride around the island to the ferry was nice. FYI - when bike riding you must be very careful when going around corners as there could be anything in the road from a dog lying down, to a water buffalo, or a 125cc moped type bike with a metal frame side car going 1/3 of your speed. The ride was good and fine after the ferry until we stop for a bite to eat.

We stop to eat at a small place and as I'm turning around I hit a patch of sand and drop the bike. Not fast and I was not hurt, well badly, just a couple of very small scrapes and one small burn. But this happens when you drop a bike. I notice that I scrape up the handle bars, a mirror, and broke a piece of the weld on the tail pipe. Joy. We eat and are on our way.

After a few more kilometers Bob notices that there are some nasty dark clouds ahead and that it is starting to rain lightly. So we pull off the road and head for cover to wait for the rain to pass. We have a cup of coffee and wait, and wait. When we think it's okay it starts to downpour again. We wait, and wait. Then back on the road. Not too much further and it really starts coming down and we pull into a Shell station to wait longer. Eventually, after about 30 or so minutes we are again on the road.

I'm no sure how much further we get but as we are getting closer to home (Pattaya) my bike starts making some bad sounds. So we pull of to the side of the road and check out the bike. It may have run out of gas so we put the bike on reserve, eventhough the gas gauge says 1/8 of a tank left. The bike goes again but is sounding terrible.

We go just a bit further and pull into a gas station and BTW there are about 5 gas attendants, way overkill on the help, but this is Thailand. So after putting in a few litres of gas and we get a chance to look over the bike we find out that the exhaust pipe has blown a huge hole on the underside and the bike is running like shit. Well, after a breif rest we get back on the road and aside from sounding like a Harley the bike is going okay.

As we get closer to the city the bike loses power and eventually stalls out. It must be the way I was riding it, because Bob was able to ride it back to his house without it dying on him. But while I was riding his bike right at the intersection to his house, his bike runs out of gas. GAH! We make it fine to his house, but wait there's more.

We put his bike on to the reserve and park my bike and leave it for the rental company to pick up. At this time, Bia was already home waiting for us and we have had an interesting day of riding, to say the least. Now is a good time for food and drink.

Bia's leg burn needs some more attention so we need to go the clinic. After the clinic we are on our way to eat, but Bob's bike runs completely out of gas and we had only gone maybe 5 KM from his house that is not even enough in the tank for a reserve. Bia gets on their scooter and buys 3 ltr of gas and we use a makeshift funnel out of a drinking water bottle. Enough to get us to the gas station up the street.

Now, you'd think we'd be done, but noooo. After dinner, Bob's bike will not start and it sounds like the starter is really screwed up. It makes a nasty sound everytime you crank it, but it won't start. A motorbike taxi guy is watching us and tells us cho, cho. Choke? Yes, cho. So Bob plays with the choke and the bike starts, but not until we had the rental company on the phone and telling them that the bike won't start. We are now homeward bound.

After all this the next day we need to return the bikes. Bob calls the company and tells them to come and pick up the bike because it won't go. We return Bob's bike, go and get me a rental scooter, which is optimal for getting around the city, and go out and do some looking around at different shops for souveniers and things. Eventually the renatal company calls and we need to come and take care of the bike that won't go. The bike I rented.

We get to the shop and they are pointing out all the issues with the bike and they want us to sit and talk it out as to what they need done to the bike etc. What it comes down to is they want money to repair the bike's handlebars, mirror, dent to the gas tank and the exhaust. I am very gaurded but Bob is there as a good mediator for me so that I know I'm not getting ripped off. The company wants 9000B ($235) for the repairs but we settle on 8000B ($210) and I am thinking I'm getting off very very easy and finally this cursed bike trip is done with and we are out of there.

Dude selling food on the beach in Pattaya.

This is a message to Blooger.com

For the umteenth time I've uploaded pictures to this blog for them to NOT SHOW. What is the freaking deal? It takes time and money for me to create this blog and the least that Blogger could do is show my freaking pictures. I'm starting to get pissed off now.

Thank you,

Thom