Time to get another bike and continue the road trip. Emma Motorbikes, the company of choice, had CRF 250 Rallys available when I first contacted them a couple of weeks back. But, now, all rented out!! Apparently their business is booming, tourists are coming back and the good bikes have all gone. The available bikes are not to my taste (scooters or absurdly high performance, for Thai conditions, street bikes). They did have one Honda CB500X; that might be a decent compromise. Went to their location to check out the bike (quite a long way out the centre); to be met by the Welsh owner of the business. Affable bloke; deposit paid and I will pick the CB500X up on Sunday.
Had to have my "Day 5 Covid test", not a good start as they couldn't find my information. Took a photo of my passport and did the test anyway. Not confident; could be in for a long quarantine wait in my room. After 7 hours with no information, hunger compelled me to check with the hotel reception. They went online to see my status; after a few minutes I was handed a hard copy of my negative result; which had been issued an hour earlier!! Unlike the day 1 test, I never received an email confirmation of the test result. Thanks.
The days and nights in Bangkok began to blur in to one. Was I in this bar last night, or was it the night before?? Time to leave this town; time to give my liver a much needed break.
The fear of Covid appears greater in Thailand than in Cambodia. I was compelled to download the Morchana Covid app. when I arrived in Bangkok. It shows your "risk" status as well as warning you if someone high risk is nearby. My status has been solidly "medium risk" even after 3 negative Covid tests inside 7 days and 3 vaccinations!! You probably have to be clinically dead to show as low risk. Nonsense.
Anyway, picked up the bike and headed out of Bangkok. The Honda CB500X is a very good bike. Smooth (twin cylinder), comfortable, plenty of power, a functioning steering lock and a working fuel gauge (oh, the luxury!!) Very different beast to the Baja. The CB is definitely a more road oriented bike, especially with the slick street tyres it has fitted.
I picked my way out of the city, trying to use the smaller roads. But Google maps would show a minor road which would turn out to be a 3 lane highway, and an apparent main route would be a single lane each way. Eventually escaped Bangkok's clutches and headed east towards Buriram. A day of getting re-aquainted with the Thai driving style, road rules and with the CB500X. Mainly main roads, with a nice route over the hills where the "yoof" were out in force, racing their tricked out scooters where volume seemed to be preferred over horse power. Kids, eh!?
I booked 2 nights in a "resort" well away from big towns and bars. Had to stop drinking for a while as it was getting silly. I can resist anything except temptation! Give myself a day to explore the local area and get on the back roads.
No comments:
Post a Comment