TravellingStrom

I had a few rest days while I caught up on the blog, but also I was trying to source a rear tyre. I had been given a number by Phil from Riders Corner, but for some reason I kept getting an answering machine? It was not until yesterday arvo I finally woke up to myself and asked the guest house lady what they were saying, of course it was all in Thai. She pushed the right buttons and amazingly I was soon talking to the owner, Pairoj(pronounced Pilot) and he had a reasonable tyre at a reasonable price, so I told him I would be there today, Wednesday 🙂

So, it is farewell to the Sugar Cane Guest House N14.03289 E99.51948, it is a nice enough place, soft beds, pretty good WiFi, the tucker is nice, I had the floating aircon room 🙂

And of course it was also farewell to the Aussie Rules Bar N14.03363 E99.52014, nice to have met Bob Scott, his family and some of the regulars, you have to go past this on the corner to get to the Sugar Cane 🙂

The first part of the day was to get to Bangkok and I have to say this was one of the most smoggiest days ride I have been on, only 128km but YUCK!!!!! I should have bought some dust masks, but after an hour or so of frenzied riding I arrived at the tyre shop in central Bangkok and met the owner Pairoj (Pilot).

I was lucky in that they had a free bay, they were very busy, but fitted me in right away. In fact this shop knows what it was doing and within an hour or so I was fitted with a new rear shoe, in this case an Anakee 2. I have used these before and they are sort of OK, but there is not much choice for tyres over here.I am hoping this one will last to get me home, but I passed on the info about the Heidenau Scouts K60, and maybe he will get a few in as they fit Suzukis and BMWs as well, the only other choice of rear was a TKC80, but I have no need of a soft knobbie at this stage, I hope 🙂 I was served iced tea and while waiting checked out their Spirit Houses inside the shop 🙂

I can highly recommend this shop, the price of the tyre was a lot cheaper than what I was quoted in Laos($185 compared to $250), the service was fast and professional, but I guess after being in this shop for 40 years, Pairoj might know a trick or two 🙂 He did say that there is one price for all, not one price for Thai and one for Falang 🙂 Here are the shop details, the first line is the name, then the address in English and Thai:

Eak Paiboon Yangyont
481-483 Santiphap Road
Pomprab, Bangkok


tel 02-6230775,02-2227535
toger05@yahoo.com
GPS – N13.74231 E100.51282

So that was all cool, new tyre and heading east 🙂 It was near midday by now and hot, I needed fuel and food, but wanted to get out of the city. My next destination is a temple out near the eastern border which is made from bottles. I was not sure about Cambodia, by that I mean whether I would have to backtrack a long way to the border post near Bangkok, and this temple was 500km away. But, I wanted to see this and if I have to backtrack, then so be it. As you can see from this map I traversed most of the country today and covered 655km.

I was lucky for the first section getting out of town, because I was riding under the freeway system, so I was in the shade 🙂 Bikes are not allowed on the Toll roads, so rather than try and fail, I decided to not waste time and just stick to the interstate type roads. I only got pointed at once, but I ignored him(the copper that is). I managed to find the correct fuel, some servos only serve Gasohol, supposedly 80% ethanol, I am not sure if that figure is correct, but I found that the Shell or Esso has some high octane good stuff and I think the bike is running better for it 🙂 I also found a Kentucky Duck place just along the way and bought my usual, 3 pieces and chips. The bad news? No salt on the premise and the chook tasted bland, they must have lost the secret herbs and spices for this batch! The good news, it was not as greasy as back home, you win some, you lose some 🙂

Part of the reason for all the smog, burning rubbish, a lot of it is green leaves!

The roads out this way were mostly dual carriageway, good condition and flat and smooth and once away from the big city the smog cleared up a bit. I was doing a $1.20 for a long time, only having to slow when the traffic bunched up, the reason being, they have U-turn signs, so the inside lane can get blocked, or of it is a truck, both lanes get blocked. Then if there is too much oncoming traffic on the single lane roads, well, there is a bike lane you know so passing up the inside is simple 😉 The worst thing on the road were all the sugar cane trucks, super slow very big and wide, they caused a lot of hold ups, for the other people anyway 😉

It was while riding that I was trying to make up my mind what to do. Time wise, I was going to arrive at the place with the temple after dark, not a good thing, but unlike Oz, there are no skippies so except for a few dogs through the towns, it would be OK to keep riding. The other option was to pick a spot about 150km short, stay overnight, do the rest of the ride in the morning, see the Wat and return the next day. This is all based on the assumption I would have to ride back to find a border crossing into Cambodia. I kept dithering but in the end I decided to finish the ride tonight, see the Wat early morning then I could ride back if I have to. It was good to finally make a decision and as the sun went down and I was still 50km short, well, no big deal. The only other thing was accommodation for the night, I had no idea what was there!

To give you some idea of what the ride was like, watch the video.
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I arrived in the small town of Khun Kan around 7pm and once there checked my GPS for lodging, and lo and behold there were a few guest houses and bungalows, plus a hotel. I ended up checking into the hotel, at 350Baht a night with aircon, quite good. I had to change rooms though, they gave me the newest renovated room, but the water was not connected!! So I had to shift into a bit of a run down room next door, but it will do me. I had a shower then I was shown a place behind the hotel where there was food, but the order got mixed up a bit, so it was not the best experience, especially with karaoke surrounding me!!

Amon Thep Hotel N14.62864 E104.42050

But, not to worry, I was clean, sort of fed and I could now relax and sort out border crossings. One of the best moments was realising that I had picked the right choice, there was a border point not 100km from here, so I would use that one tomorrow, unless I decide on a rest day, I was fair knackered after todays effort. 650km is from my home town to Brisbane, I did the same distance in the same time, 8 hours, but with a heck of a lot more brain concentration needed amongst the traffic.

Anyway, I would get up for an early start to see the Wat, then see what happens after that.

Cheers from Khun Han
TravellingStrom