Heading back south.......

The road south from Mae Sariang (the fabulous 105) runs very close to the Burmese border. Spectacular scenery and blissful riding: swooping along the twists and turns, hairpins, rises and falls of probably the best road I've ridden in Thailand. Dodging the water buffaloes wandering along the road, or the snake slithering across in front of me.

The 105 was made for motorcycles; a strip of riding nirvana. I will have to come back and explore this region again. One of the bikers I met at Riders Corner (a Scottish guy living in the area) gave me the GPS tracks of other "must ride" routes nearby. Maybe when it is not so damn hot though!

Eventually, route 105 neared the border town of Mae Sot and I turned East, away from Burmese border, over another range of hills on a multi-lane highway and on to Kamphaeng Phet. 

At one of my 7-11 fluid replacement stops, I noticed some oil on one of the front forks. Bugger! One of the seals was leaking. Fortunately, it wasn't the brake disc side (which would have been dangerous). I had little choice but to continue riding to town where I found a Honda dealership with a mechanic. They were only really dealing with scooters and didn't have any parts for my "big bike" so they directed to the next big town, 80 odd miles away. They did adjust and lube the chain for free though.

It was too late in the day, so I stopped at a nearby hotel and consulted the interwebs. As the leak seemed minor, the consensus was just carry on riding, but keep an eye on it. I improvised a scraping tool from an old plastic water bottle and tried to clean out any grit around the seal that might be causing the leak. To my amazement, it actually seemed to work. Not 100%, but there is much less oil appearing on the fork. Only about 500 or 600 km to Bangkok and the return of the bike. Should be fine!?!?

The next day started with a bit of highway slogging to get some miles under the wheels on the way to Kanchanaburi (of Bridge Over the River Kwai fame). Out of the hills now, so head down and weave through the traffic...... The scenery improved as I got closer to the town, but the mountains of the north are just a memory now. 

A day wandering around town, before the relentless heat drove me to seek the sanctuary of air-conditioning. There must be 6 Australian owned/run bars within 100 metres of each other here. Aussie flags hanging limply in the hot, still air.

Then the final run to Bangkok. Long, straight, flat roads with ever increasing trucks and traffic the closer I got to the capital. Not the best days ride; but once into Bangkok proper, the fun started. Not unlike Phnom Penh, a free for all was the name of the game. Dodging, weaving and swearing at the drivers as you weaved your way around them, trying to gain precious centimetres in a lord of the flies/survival of the fittest race to the destination. Fun.

Then, back in Bangkok, it was time to return the bike. Just over 3000km in 2 weeks. The CB500X proved to a great bike for the conditions. If you are not hitting the dirt roads, it is a very capable machine. Wouldn't swap it for my T7 though. Probably a good time to finish the ride as the next day saw thunderstorms and torrential rain, with more of the same forecast.

Part of the reason of coming back to Bangkok early was to sort out the paperwork to get back into Cambodia from where I fly back to the UK (Singapore airlines being monumentally intransigent about altering flights). However, I just discovered that Cambodia no longer requires a negative PCR test and have abandoned testing on arrival. So I only need a visa and my vaccination record. Easy as  ...

Soudtrack: Sleaford Mods - "I'm shit at it"