TravellingStrom

Mayan Prophecy Countdown

18th October

Well, that bloody Sangsom was a killer, I woke up terrible and although I went down for breakfast, I was soon back in bed again, I am writing today off to a lesson learned, no more fire water, I shall stick to beer, even of I do get fat 😉 The only thing of note was during dinner that evening, when I tempted myself with a beer as a hair of the dog, Na Cho and his dad Lois rocked in from Bangkok, his dad had come to join him for a week or so. His bike had been damaged(the front brake rotor was bent) during transit from Ulan Batar so while that was getting fixed, he and Lois were up here to ride some of Chiang Mai. They had rented some small Phantom bikes and had been given a house to stay in from a friend. Anyway, we had a chat, caught up and discussed the future riding plans as you do 🙂

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19th October

Today was a better day for planning, hangover gone and work to be done. One of the things I had forgotten about was my rear wheel bearings. I had noticed it in Ulan Batar, they were a bit worn and I could feel the play. Also I had felt the extra movement of the back wheel caused by worn cush rubbers. These are blocks of rubber(6 of them) which sit in the rear hub behind the drive sprocket, they were loose and although there was no chance of replacing them quickly, a cheaper and quicker option was to pack them with inner tube rubber so they don’t move. So, I ended up taking the bike to a local chap who replaced both bearings and packed the cush rubbers for 1500B, about 50 bucks, quite cheap and a good job. One thing he noticed while doing the job was that my back brakes were gone, and were starting to score the rotor. So, when I got the bike back to Riders Corner, I promptly removed the old ones and installed a new set that I had bought in Hungary and carried all this way.

Once that was done it was beer time. 2Wheels rocked in for a drink and a feed also, he is Ron another Ozzie who is also very active on the RideAsia forum 2Wheels is his forum name of course. He had started to follow my blog just recently and has some great stories and ride reports. Because my starting point for this trip was Anzac Day in Gallipoli, he brought to my attention a ride I would like to follow myself and it is down to Hellfire Pass and the Burma Railway built during the war by prisoners and locals. He went down there when some diggers turned up for Anzac Day in 2011 and wrote a great report here . He is no longer associated with that forum, neither are any of those from the RideAsia forum, there is some bad blood there which I won’t go into.

Needless to say, it was an interesting evening, with Na Cho and Lois coming in for dinner as well during this time. And he did so because I was hitting the road tomorrow. Now, I had planned on doing this ride called the Mae Hong Son loop, it is 1864 curves and was an established ride, sort of one of the “must dos” of Thailand bike riding. My initial plan was to ride it clockwise but I was contacted by Gary Deeks, the Vstrom rider I met again the other day and we agreed to ride together and do the loop, but we would do it anti clockwise. I had no set reason to do it either way, but as he had local knowledge, why not make use of it. 🙂 So, he came down for dinner that evening as well and while we discussed the plans for the next morning start to the ride, I ate a very enjoyable dish that is a special here called John Dory and fried garlic, with home made chips, delicious.

For those that don’t know, I have been spoilt by living next to the greatest seafood basket in the world, it is called the Great Barrier Reef. And because I have been involved with the Frenchville Sports Club Fishing Club for nearly 10 years, I have eaten a lot of the best fish to be had on the reef and caught by myself(and other members of course), so I find myself always comparing fish at home with that overseas. This is one of the better dishes I have tried and I will grab the recipe, it can’t be that hard surely 🙂

Anyway, the night was an early one as tomorrow we were heading off on our ride, but it was a great evening 🙂

Cheers from Mae Hang Son
TravellingStrom