Thailand - Bangkok
We arrived in Bangkok on Wed and as soon as we got off the plane the heat hit us, it was 6pm and dark but it was still 30 degrees outside. We had been very delayed in Kathmandu due to thick fog and we were about 3 hours behind. It was funny in the airport and a fitting send off: no one knew how long flights were delayed for and really it was down to guess work that we made it onto the flight. I was glad to be moving, I like Nepal but would not go there in the winter again, 12 hour power cuts means it’s really cold inside and out, and after 5pm everything is very dark!!
Once we arrived in Bangkok the change was noticeable and pleasant: modern buildings, signs telling you where to go; and a good level of organisation. We cleared passport control very quickly and soon found ourselves waiting to clear baggage. We had somehow lost Miano, not sure how, but we texted and agreed to meet at the baggage area. We were chatting with the really nice English bloke called John, or Lucky John as I have decided to name him, and he gave us lots of info on good bars and places to stay before Miano turned up and our baggage was clear and we went our separate ways. We jumped in a taxi outside the airport and headed to our hotel nearby. It was really nice for the £11 a night it was costing us and as we didn’t know how long it would take to clear the bike so we decided pretty quickly to stay a second night in case it was late by the time we got the bikes out.
Early the following day, we headed for the cargo part of the airport and mentally prepared ourselves for a long day. We visited a few offices and started to figure out where we needed to go. We then picked up a helper who ran around with us for about an hour or more before handing us over to the Carnet people (who don’t need a carnet) and issued us with the own temporary import paper.
The rest was pretty straight forward, and much to our surprise the smiling Thai man who had helped us for about 2 hours by this stage shook our hands and left. It wasn’t so much of a surprise he left, but he didn’t ask or want any money, he was just very very helpful. We couldn’t believe how helpful Thai customs were to be honest. People would leave their posts and walk across the airport to show us to the next room and help us get the work done. One lady even led us to the next department with her lunch in her hand, and her colleagues called out to her and I assume she said something like “I’m just helping these farangs and I’ll be back in a minute.” It was very easy even if it was time consuming and but by about midday we were moving the crates around to unpack the bikes.
The putting back together of the bikes went to plan and was for the most part pretty easy. Miano’s crate had no floor as such and so his mirrors and sat nav holder were missing, but luckily Cat thought to ask if they found it, after about 30 minutes a guy turned up asking if this was the missing package, and to Miano’s joy it was his mirrors! We then finished off the bikes and had one last customs inspection to clear before we got our gate passes to leave.
Hot and tired, I was keen to get moving but the customs guy came out and we noticed a small mistake after the Z on my chassis number there was an A which was not supposed to be there on the paperwork. He then insisted I go back to get it changed even though it was a clear mistake on their behalf and all my other paperwork matched up. Rather pissed off, I stomped off across the airport to the other side to get it sorted. I walked back into the office and the head of customs looked confused as to why I had come back. I explained the situation and he just crossed out the A and gave me his card asking me who it was that sent me back and why didn’t they just call him?! I smiled and said it wasn’t a problem, but really I was thinking well that’s the same fucking thing I was thinking!!
The letter A crossed off, we were given our clearance papers, FINALLY I thought. We pulled away and Miano waves his arms around as there appeared to be a problem with his bike. After I rode it round the cargo area I could see a disc was catching on the calliper on the front right side. We tried to see why but couldn’t figure it out in the 32 degree sun in our bike gear, so we took the calliper off pending further investigation back at our hotel, and Miano had to ride back with no front brakes.
Once back at the hotel, Cat got the beers in and Miano and I started to try figure out why this disc was catching. The first thing I noticed was the disc was bent, but this was old news and something Miano already knew; it was only just catching so something was only 2-3 mm out. After some looking around it turned out the spindle needed to be clamped in just past the flush point and then the bike ran and fitted together perfectly. This little puzzle solved I headed upstairs to shower before heading into town for a drink and some food with Cat. Miano headed off on his bike to meet his couch-surfing friend to stay at his place and we agreed we would meet in Bangkok at some point.
Bangkok is great, it’s a bloody great place, some things are certainly not cheap here and for the first few days we have overspent on our budget, but this is also because we are socialising again and meeting people which has often ended in us going out for a few beers, which is a great thing as we like to party from time to time and Bangkok is a great place to do that.
Bars aside, the city is still great. We have now been staying here for 3 nights. Our hotel is pretty average and really a little overpriced for what it is, but we needed parking. Thursday night we met some English guys and I had my first pint of Guinness in about 7 months - a real treat - and much to my pleasure they were even showing the Dakar Rally on the TV.
Friday we rode the bike into town and settled in our new hotel. We went for a walk around the markets, got a great foot massage and met a really cool aussie chick called Bliss who we ended up hanging out with for the rest of the day. We also went and met Sue and Ronnie (Cat’s dad’s cousins) who were over here for a wedding, and had a couple of bottles of wine and some nibbles and we sat chatting in the bar of their hotel. After they left for the aiport, we headed to Cheap Charlie’s, one of the bars Lucky John told us about.
It was really cool, it’s basically a shack with a few tables outside and it’s dirt cheap with beers costing 60 baht (£1.20). Lucky John was there with friends and we all had a catch up: they were heading out to see Goldie play in a club down the road but I had shorts on and I started to feel a little tired and ill so we decided to call it a night by around 11pm.
Saturday we went for a long walk to the temples and round all the markets along the river. I have never seen so much food cooked at the side of the road, and some of it looks and smells amazing and tastes great, whilst some looks pretty bad, but most of it is clean and edible and safe!! We saw everything at the markets including much to our disgust real tiger skins being sold in cut down patches!! The walk was pretty tiring and all we bought was new t-shirts for me and contact lenses for Cat so we decided it was time for another foot massage before we hit the town..... well it WAS Saturday night after all!!
Saturday night was excellent, we headed back to Khao San road and went to Muligans Irish pub for what was going to be one drink before moving on. At the table next to us there was a bloke in an Arsenal shirt and the football was on so naturally we got chatting. Soon we were sharing a table and all getting to know each other. They were very interesting, had been away from home 14 months and spent a good amount of time in Perth and had also been to India recently in search of tigers with only a little luck and a couple of small sightings, Needless to say they were not impressed with our videos!!
We went upstairs to play some pool and get a feed, and met another guy up there who was on his own from Grimsby (I know no one is perfect) but he was a great bloke and soon our merry band had grown to 5. We hung out, played pool, generally pratted about and in the end went on a mission to find a ping pong show, but everyone tried to rip us off so in the end we just went to a titty bar and had a drink. It was a good night and in the end we got home about 5am and so Sunday was spent just chilling out and recovering.
Monday was Temples day, it was great, still felt a bit hung over though I guess that’s called getting old. We headed for breakfast after a lay-in and headed for the temples around 11am. On today’s list was Wat Phra Kaew with the emerald buddha and Wat Po with the big reclining buddha. The buildings are simply breath taking places, the details blow you away – all the gold leaf and sparkly colours and mosaic tiles that glint in the sun - and it’s like something from a movie, I truly feel a million miles from home. I think this is one of my favourite places - the buildings are so beautiful and there was so many great pictures to take it was almost hard to choose.
We walked around for over an hour with each corner we turned offering something new for me to smile about and shake my head at the overall beauty and mystery that seemed to keep coming at you. We even went and looked at the Armoury and the Grand Palace which was also very impressive; it kind of makes the houses of parliament and Buckingham Palace look like a council flat. All the colours and gold and attention to detail just everywhere you looked there was something to be impressed by. We walked from there to the reclining buddha, again more amazing temples and lots of other buddhas as well as the huge 40-foot reclining buddha. I stapled 20 baht to the money tree for luck for the rest of our journey and we left. We had spent 4 hours walking around and decided to walk the 3km back to Khao San road to have a coffee and get an hour long leg/foot massage!!
We got some bad new regarding the bike: the water hoses were swelling around the joins, so leaking a little bit, not a lot at all really but the hoses have gone pretty soft and they advised me to replace them as we are in no rush to move on and after this stage I don’t plan to service the bike for 10,000 km. The only problem with this was they had none in stock. We had to order them on the internet so I decided to get Samco hoses from RacebikeBitz who were very very very helpful on the net and it was nice to get some great customer service. I got them to Fedex them over so should have them tomorrow (Friday) and as the Tax and VAT came off they cost me less that £100 inc delivery!
The guys at KTM here are pretty good, they have stripped the bike completely and are putting her back together and cleaning everything. I met another guy who had a service off them and he said he got his bike back in better condition than when he left from Austria!! We also took our panniers in to see if they can come up with a way of fixing them to the bike (they are currently held on by ratchet straps because both locks have broken!) maybe even so they cannot come off. If not, when we get to England new panniers will be in order.
We have also broken our tank bag, and we asked how much for a new one but its £180 which is too much and my bungy cord works fine!! But they might be able to fix that cheap as well so fingers crossed. So all in all this has turned into a bit of a midway pit-stop: my wheels have a had the India-induced dents knocked out of them and I’m just waiting for the hoses, the sad thing is we have missed the Chiang Mai biker meeting but getting the bike fixed up properly at this stage is more important.
.........................
Great news, less than 48 hours after I ordered the hoses from Samco (
http://www.racebikebitz.co.uk) they have arrived! Good customer service like that is rare these days so very pleased. Now just got to fit them and we should have the bike back tomorrow. Still not going to go to Chiang Mai though as it’s too much of a rush to get 800km in a day especially after the bike has just had a big service.
So today we went to have a good look at the gold Buddha in Wat Traimit. It’s 5.5 tonnes, 3 meteres high and SOLID gold – it’s pretty big but due to crazy traffic it took an hour to get there so we decided to walk back after. I really like walking around in Bangkok, there is so much to look at. There is so much going on I love it. I really think we have far too strict rules in England, we miss out on so much culture just because the odd person might get sick or some half wit might trip over a box. I remember years ago when my Dad worked the markets, I had gone to lunch and the heath inspector bloke had come round and told my dad the eggs which he stored under the table on wood boards had to be at least 12 inches off the floor or something similar - you have to ask yourself what fucking idiot thinks that is a good idea and how come 12 inches was the measurement! Also the eggs were on wooden boards and packed in egg trays so really well protected, what a fucking waste of time, my poor dad had to go and get the wooden pallets changed just because of some prick sitting behind a desk deciding that this was a good idea.
Stuff like that annoys me, it’s like the new “you cannot modify your bike” rule being bought in by the EU - there is a petition going so make sure you sign it. Some of the modifications are for safety! I have also read they’re making it the law from next year that you have to wear a fluorescent yellow jacket on a motorcycle in France - they do realise that we could be naked, covered in fluorescent pink and orange stripes with a fucking mardi gras following us to the sound of prodigy with disco lights, and the driver who “didn’t see you” still fucking wouldn’t!!!
Anyway my point being we all know the risks and it should be up to us to choose to take certain risks without someone making the decision we need to be wrapped up in cotton wool or dressed like a lolly pop lady!
On Friday afternoon I got the bike back, the great news is the guy had done an excellent job and I was pleased. The bike looked very clean so I hope the mechanical job was as well performed. They were super helpful it had a big service and then they gave me 15% off everything meaning the total bill came in under £350!! BARGAIN!
We had planned to go see Alex Edwards who was riding Cambo Enduro, and meet up with him in Cambodia, so we were going to take it easy and head out west to the Bridge over the River Kwai but we ended up deciding to make it to Chiang Mai for the biker meeting. It was an early start, it was going to be a long day but as it was motorway it was very boring but there was not a lot of traffic, so we managed to cruise along at 130kph and arrived at the Rider’s Corner at around 3.30pm. It took us about 7.5 hours to do the 760km! At least we made the meeting!
