Nothing really happened but I'm writing about it
Trip Start
Unknown
1
45
51
Trip End
Ongoing
Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
If you parked two valuable things in London, such as our bikes which are worth 5 or 6 times what they are back home, they would be gone by now but here in the biggest dodgy area in Thailand nobody touched them, they were respectfully photographed and then simply left alone. Brilliant.
The ride back was uneventful in the extreme. I have been having a slight pulsing through the power-train. With a heavy heart I came to realise the vibrations may have done some permanent damage, under acceleration there’s a shake which I’m not liking at all. She got a power-wobble past 65 too. She’s tired, it’s been a hell of a trip for both of us and in a few days we’re going somewhere quite and i’m going to clean her up and give her the attention she so richly deserves or she will break down and give me the punishment I probably do instead.
We had to go back to Bangkok and pick up our gear, well Marcin did, for him this is life back on the road. In only a few days he’ll be crossing into Malaysia and I won’t see him again until next year. It’s strange, we’ve been together on the road now for a long time, not a huge amount of time but the busiest, most intense experience I’ve had. We’ve done so much and now the next few weeks will be quiet and it feels very odd to be parting ways so abruptly. When we started out I wasn’t at all sure we’d get on but now we’re like mates except more. I’ve done in this time with him than I have in years with most of my other friends. We’re pretty close now, I’ve been forced to share a bed, socks, underwear and even a toilet with him while he’s got a stomach bug. You don’t do that without getting to be close friends.
So we finally got back into Bangkok via the same roads which are perfectly fine for us. Marcin has slowed down a lot. His riding is less intense, he’s lost his edge. I know he’s liking it here, the weather is amazing, the scenery is great and we’re having a lot of fun. Now he’s back on the road and on his way out and he doesn’t seem himself. He’s not well, the cold/flu thing is biting hard, he’s coughing like I was a few days ago and his stomach is in a bad way. Maybe the beer is getting to him too. I won’t miss it that much.
So after we got our gear we hit the road. It wasn’t easy to get into or out of the massive car-park which is Bangkok. Not so bad getting in but the traffic was starting to congeal as we left. The old problems came back with the KTM. Even with a clean bill of health it’s running poorly and the engine feels choked. He says it only does it with the topbox and panniers on, I still think it’s the heat of being stuck in motionless traffic, either way it was far worse before and the whole thing doesn’t make very logical sense. It ran well enough to get us out of Bangkok eventually but it was a hell of a slog and neither of us were really in the mood for it. We stopped off for fuel and got some water. We were sweating buckets, the humidity is horrible and it’s not even that hot here yet. It got up to 35 degrees by my sensor and I’ve been here in 45 and that’s incredible. It saps your will to live. I started to see things I knew. The route is one I’ve followed before with my partner and it was nice to see things looking familiar. I mentioned Hua Hin, a place I went with her on the way back from a trip to the jungles down South and I must have hit a chord because before I knew it he was plotting it as a route. I didn’t mind, the night was setting in and I was tired, the heat was sapping the last of my strength. We did indeed head to the town and we found a hotel pretty quickly. You could get a place in a nice guesthouse for only £4 but we spent a bit more for a room with wifi and other little luxuries we fancied but for only £10 between us it was still a bargain.
Dinner was a bowl of Pad Thai for me and Marcin had everything else. The food was good, it seems to get better as you travel further away from Bangkok. In Pattaya they cater too much for the tourists and the food and the prices suffer. Out here it’s still very touristic but still a bit Thai too which is nice.
We had a beer on the beach after dinner and just sat there putting the world to rights under a clear sky with the waves gently licking the sand in front of us. We headed back had an early night without any more alcohol, something both of us needed although Marcin had the shits and my nostrils didn’t need any part of that but what can you do?
