Tour of Thailand on GS1200

[FalangADVenturer]

Hi there everyone,

I've got a story to tell about a recent trip covering pretty much all of Thailand. It was so good, I think I'd be selfish to not share it on this great forum.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...&id=1507220402
This is the route I took, starting and finishing way down in the southern town of Hat-Yai.

I have no idea how to get photos (or a map) on this forum!!! Sorry about this, in need of some technical advise

[Gadget Boy]

The pics look good, but to show them here, you need to hotlink them to your report. Have a look at this tutorial:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showp...66&postcount=1

[ramblin66]

And.. Some of us don't do FaceBook...

Hoping to see some photos and hear more of your story....

Khorb koon krub.!

[FalangADVenturer]

Thanks guys, I'm uploading photos to Photobucket as I write. Hopefully I'll have them up on here in the morning.

[FalangADVenturer]

It all started at a ridiculous time of the morning on the 13th May, I had -for some reason- thought that my mate Ang had said the 15th a week ago... that was until he phoned me early evening on the 12th to confirm our time and meeting point for the next day! Oh shit! Panic stations... rush home, grab my tank bag and throw some clothes and stuff in there, then an early night.

Ang and I set off, Ang on his new GS1200 Adventure and me on my oldish GS1200, up to our breakfast stop 98 kms north of Hat-Yai, near a town called Phattalung. This restaurant, Ta Chu, is quite famous for its steak around our parts, but the breakfast was pretty crap! Oh well, a late lunch at Burger King should put us right. A petrol stop at Chumpon and a welcome cup of coffee (we both smoke, so we chain-smoked 3 cigarettes each with our coffees as well. Did I mention that you CAN smoke at petrol stations over here?!).
Just after Chumpon it started pissing with rain. Slowed down to 80 kph as it was raining so hard visibility was down to around 10 meters. The speed limit in Thailand is supposedly 90kph, but we, as with 99% of other bikers, sped with complete and blatant disregard to the local laws at around 140kph wherever it was safe to. I was once trapped with the only radar gun in the country at the time (how unlucky is that?!) doing 135kph. I was fined 200 Thai Baht (US$5.80) and the guy next to me was protesting that the fine should be representative to the amount of speed over the limit the vehicle was travelling at (he was caught after me, so I probably went flying past him at some point before he was nabbed!). 'Tough-shit bud, you were doing 100kph, therefore breaking the law, so STFU and pay your 200 Thai Baht like the rest of us!'.
At this point, I'd better explain why there aren't any photos of this part of the trip: in my rush to get ready I forgot my new, waterproof, shock-proof and purpose bought camera! It wasn't until we got to Bangkok that Ang said that he'd brought his along! Darn! There wasn't a lot of interest on this stage of the trip anyway (well, maybe that's a bit bias, as I've done this leg quite a few times now, so it's old to me).

When we got to Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, it was 2:30pm, pretty slow really due to the rain. We rode round the resort town looking for Burger King... well of course we found it opposite to MacDonalds! Ah, nice and full now. Negotiating traffic on the way out of town, Ang clipped a pannier on what appeared to be a train-track-bumper on the back of a pick-up truck. He must of clipped it pretty hard as his BMW pannier was distorted and the lid was way out of alignment. He was really pissed off! I tried a bit of counseling by telling him: 'he was lucky the bumper on the truck was pretty well indestructible! It was his fault as the pick-up was stationary when he clipped it after all. If the pick-up was damaged it could have been a lot worse.' That didn't help! He was ready to give up biking there and then!

The remainder of the journey to Bangkok was a bit tense. We arrived there at around 5pm, but didn't get to Ang's sisters' house till 7pm (the notorious traffic wasn't as bad as I remembered it to be, but still pretty terrible when you're on a big Beemer with it's boxer engine and panniers too!). Fortunately we were still wet through from the rain, and it was still raining lightly in Bangkok, so that kept us fairly cool.

The next morning we'd arranged to take our bikes in to the BMW service centre Barcelona Motors, which had just moved to the other side of town (now that might sound like a mild inconvenience in most major cities, but when the city is Bangkok, that could mean 4 to five hours of bumper to bumper traffic!). How we managed to get there in under an hour is still beyond me! Following Ang through the traffic was a nerve-wracking experience: trying to keep up with him when cars and little 120cc bikes are zig-zagging lanes left me thinking 'WTF do I do if I lose him?' and there were a few times when he came within millimeters of wrapping one of his panniers round another vehicle again on this commute.
I only needed a new pair of tires for my bike, Ang was getting a few things done. We arrived at Barcelona Motors at 9am and my bike was rolled out of the service centre at 3pm (6 hours just for a pair of tires!). Ang's bike was going to be there for quite a bit longer. Ang wasn't keen on doing the rest of my planned trip up to the Northeast and the North, but I thought I may persuade him to change his mind. It wasn't to be! So we parted company in Bangkok and that's where my solo adventure starts (with photos, thanks to Ang and his camera).

This was my route:
[IMG][/IMG]

[FalangADVenturer]

In the above map, the colour-coding represents days; day 1 from Hat-Yai to Bangkok is in green (it's dotted with red between Surat Thani and Samut Songkhram as it's the same route I took back on day 10),
Day 2 = Blue
Day 3 = Red
Day 4 = Green
Day 5 = Blue
Days 6 & 7 = Red (rest and laundry day in Chiang Mai)
Day 8 = Green
Day 9 = Blue
Day 10 = Red
Day 11 = Blue

At 3pm I set off for the Northeast region of Thailand from Bangkok. I got very clear instructions from the sales staff at Barcelona about the very confusing road in front of their service centre and showroom: "just follow this road up until you reach signs that say Nakhon Ratchasrima", sound easy enough, unless you're me! My first problem was that I was on the wrong side of the road(s)! There were actually three different roads, an elevated expressway with ramps leading up to it all over the place (motorcycles are strictly not allowed on expressways!), then there was an inner road directly under the elevated expressway (which apparently is off limits to motorbikes as well) and an outer road full of bumper to bumper traffic. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe... But that still hasn't solved the problem of how to get to the other side. One of the salesmen said to get to the inside lane on the inner six-lane-road to find the U-turn about 1km along. Okay, another simple instruction and one which I repeated to myself over and over as I road along this inner road looking for the U-turn... 'Oh shit, the road has just branched off up a bridge and now I'm heading down another road! Okay, don't panic, just find another place to U-turn then I'll be back on the right side of the other road, easy... Oh yeah? Think again, this is Bangkok you MF, nothing's easy here! No bloody U-turns! Okay, take a left turn down that smaller road, there's bound to be a U-turn place down there... Ah, success! Now we're back on the right track! Now did I turn left or right just now? Left, I'm sure it was... Yes, this looks familiar... Was it this junction I had to turn left onto? Where's Barcelona Motors? Oh shit it's way out of sight, just try this junction and see...' Oh the relief as I cruise past Barcelona Motors on my right hand side! 'I'm on the right road now, sod the laws, I just want to get as far away from this place as quickly as possible, and if that means using the inside lane of the inner-road all the way, so be it!'

Bangkok traffic is quite tolerant of big bikes and they more often than not give way to you, or at least give you a break and find another target to carve up, bloody good job too, really, other wise it would be worse than a nightmare to negotiate on a GS!

There's a sign telling me I have to keep right for Nakhon Ratchasrima... great, I'm finally leaving the city! Big six-lane road, "Highway" they call it. Flat and straight, just a road for eating miles. Oh, a police check-point. I'm being flagged over. Lift up my System 5 helmet chin and visor so they can see I'm a foreigner. Didn't help, made them more curious! (Sometimes this technique works as the police are known to panic at the prospect of having to speak English!) "Passort and driving license, please" (spoken in Thai, do I pretend that I don't understand? No, not a good idea, they'll suss me out, tried that once before and upset a policeman: bad! I once said that I worked at the ******* Embassy a long time ago! It worked a treat, but I've never tried it again, I could land myself in a whole world of shit, both with the police and the embassy!). Hand over my passport, the policeman checks it by looking at my photo while I rummage for my driving license. "That's fine", he says. "Where are you heading? How many cc's is your bike? How much was it? HOW MUCH? Why didn't you buy a car?! A car's got air-conditioning and you don't get wet in the rain!", the usual questions and banter form the local constabulary!

Uneventful road and journey to Nakhon Ratchasrima. Get into the city and find a hotel, it's 6:30pm and starting to get dark. City Park Hotel, 1,200 Baht per night (the most expensive hotel on this trip).

Fed and watered at The Mall opposite the hotel. More junk food, Samurai burger at MacDonalds! Walking back to the hotel, the security guard asks me if I want a lady for the night! I declined.

More to come and the pics.

[FalangADVenturer]

[IMG][/IMG]

This was on the road to Khon Kaen. For me, until this trip, the Northeastern (or 'Issan') region of Thailand has been pretty much 'unexplored territory'. I wanted to get away from the cities and experience rural Issan, supposedly a semi-arid and poor part of Thailand, where the main earner is rice from the many paddy fields dotting the "Khorat Plateau" (found that on Wikki!). It was nothing like I'd imagined. Even the language I'd expected to find there (officially a 'dialect', dubbed "Lao") wasn't spoken by many people at all. I found (and smelled) lots of eucalyptus trees and teak plantations, not many rice fields.
[IMG][/IMG]

[FalangADVenturer]

[IMG][/IMG]

Just at the start of the rainy season in the Northeast.

[FalangADVenturer]

On the 4th day a long trek across to Mukdahan, via Kalasin and Roi Et. Mukdahan was the start of my journey following the Mekong River up round the top of Issan. This Mekong River -10th longest in the world- marks the border between Thailand and Laos except for a little 100 odd km section where Thailand, Laos and Cambodia meet. There are some amazing views along this road.

Mukdahan, taken near the Indochine Market. The Mukdahan Thai-Laos Friendship bridge can be seen in the distance.
[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]
And some twisty bits:
[IMG][/IMG]

[FalangADVenturer]

How's this for a sunset?
[IMG][/IMG]

[FalangADVenturer]

Did the last stretch of 50kms or so into Nong Khai in the dark. (Travelling at night isn't advisable over here for many reasons, drunk drivers being quite high up on the list!) With the help of some locals, found a nice cheap guesthouse to stay at: 500 Baht for the night. Took my local helpers out for a meal after getting cleaned up. After which they took me on a night-tour of their town as a pillion on a 110cc bike! Bit of a contrast.

Next morning, after eating breakfast on a terries overlooking the Mekong and the Nong Khai Thai-Laos Friendship Bridge, I didn't get much further than 200 meters from the gesthouse before my bike started playing up. When I stopped at the traffic lights it was making very strange noises, so I decided to cut the engine using the kill switch. Big mistake! When I tried to restart it, nothing happened. 'Ah, must've forgotten the side stand... No, I didn't even put it down... gremlin in the electrics? Maybe, have a cigarette and leave it off for a few minutes... Nah, that didn't work either... It's BLOODY HOT out here in the sun!... Okay, there's a big tree with plenty of shade in that house's front garden, wheel the bike over there and ask if it's okay to park there for a while... "No problem", the owner's daughter says. She's running a little shop at the side of the house, better go in and get a cold drink... Right, lets have another try at starting this thing... The symptoms are getting worse, no electric at all now... dig out the hand book and look through the electric trouble-shooting section... No, nothing to help me there. Let's take out the battery and see if the charge is okay'. (Another good thing about Thailand is that there's a motorbike repair shop on every street) I went to the first repair shop: no charge meter. They pointed me down the road another 50 meters to the next repair shop... Their meter's broken. They guy in there points me to a small lane and says it's a shortcut to another proper battery shop. Now I'm traipsing all over town looking for this other shop and carrying this battery. I find a truck repair shop and ask them where this other shop is. One of the guys asks what the problem is, so I explain, he says, "bring the battery over here, I'll check it for you! Brilliant! And the battery's fine too. So, it's not the battery, but it could have something to do with all the water I found under the seat and battery area. Possible solution: wipe everything down with a dry cloth... Eureka! That did the trick. Must have been all that rain on the way up to Bangkok, but that was 3 days ago! Oh well, it's working now, but I've got a long decollate road ahead of me all the way to Loei. 'Hopefully, if the bike starts playing up again, it'll do it sooner rather than later', and with that thought I get on my way again. (I didn't have any more problems with the bike for the rest of the trip, thankfully)
Sorry, no pics of my broken-down bike, didn't enter my mind to take any at that time!

Some amazing roads and scenery from Si Chiang Mai and onwards, all the way to Loei.
[IMG][/IMG]

[RobBD]

Keep the story and pics coming. Did you buy your bike there or import it? Are you living in Thailand or just travelling?( I guess speaking the language sort of says you are there often at the least!)
Anyway keep the report coming

[ramblin66]

Originally Posted by FalangADVenturer

How's this for a sunset?

Beautiful.!!

I've been reading a bit of your report today, but mostly enjoying the photos...
I'll catch up on the story when I have some extra time..

I visited Thailand a few years ago... Mostly Bangkok and some surrounding areas..
What struck me most was the people.. Incredibly kind and warm. Made me feel very welcome right away..

Thanks again for sharing..

[JED]

Your right about there being a repair shop on each block. At least there seems to be a 13yr old kid on the sidewalk of each block with a bike torn apart and pieces layig around. Always wondered if they could get it all back together. Saw them put in black market gas from a old booz bottle and the gas was almost to cloudy to see through. My bike would have a stroke if i put that gas in it. Keep the report comming. I love Thailand!

[FalangADVenturer]

Firstly, thanks to RobBD and ramblin66 for your feedback.
RobBD, I've been living here for 20 years, I'm originally from UK. Bought my bike here, in Bangkok (Barcelona Motors). Big bikes are pretty expensive here, the new GS1200 is 998,000 Baht (nearly US$30,000!). Apparently importing could cost even more!
ramblin66, I agree, the people are really up there regarding genuine warmth and hospitality; so nice in fact, I even married one!

On with the story:
It was 11:35am before I managed to get on my way toward Loei due to the electrical problem with my bike. That meant that the day was getting pretty hot by now. The road down to Loei was really something else, did I mention that already? At least from Si Chiang Mai onwards. Ups, downs, twists and turns and all with incredible views of the Mekong River! Very little traffic on this road. Met a Thai riding a GS1200 going the other way. I did a quick U-turn and caught up with him (I guess it was the adrenalin high I was on which made me do that, as I wouldn't normally). Had a quick chat and cigarette with Noom, from Udon Thani. He was leading a group of 10 Harley Davidson riders along this amazing road, and had obviously left them for dust ages ago. We stayed talking until they all went plodding by, then Noom was off after them again and I was heading back toward Loei in the other direction.

For some reason, my mate's camera stamped 16th on all the pics. It jumped from the 16th to the 19th.
[IMG][/IMG]


[IMG][/IMG]
[IMG][/IMG]

My wife's uncle (former biker) had told me about a stretch of road from Loei, the 203 down to Lom Sak a year or two back. I wanted to check this road out. It turned out to be a very nice section, but paled in comparison to the road before it.

I got into Lom Sak as the sun was setting. Still a ways to go before Pitsanulok. I stopped for a coffee and to ask some locals for directions and to come up with a 'plan B' if I didn't feel comfortable riding in the dark again. 140kms to Pitsanulok, through mountains, at night! I thought I'd at least go some of the way, as the coffee-shop lady mentioned that there were some mountain resorts along the way. Highway 12 to Pitsanulok turned out to be a very nice road with few other road users (probably because of the fact that it was dark). As soon at the road started ascending it started to rain, now that was all I needed! I could just make out the edge of the rain cloud responsible for this down-pour and the road seemed to be heading away from it. Or so it seemed! On this twisty road, one minute you're heading away from it, 'oh joy', the next you're heading right at it, 'oh shit, should I turn back?' I continued and got soaked for the next 40kms. The following 100kms dried me out before getting to a hotel.

This episode of the trip turned out to be quite spectacular in the end: there were fireflies everywhere! The road wound it's way through thick jungle, up and down mountains and round some not-so-tight turns. As I remember it, fireflies are pretty small creatures, right? Well that doesn't help to explain these massive creatures that were making a real mess all over me and my bike... They felt like small stones when they hit, and boy did they splat! At times, it was like driving through hail. Stopped twice to clean my visor.

Finally the road came down from the mountains and took me into Pitsanulok. 'Time to find somewhere to stay... Ah, there's a place, oops, didn't stop in time... turn round and ride the wrong way down the street... okay, made it! This place doesn't look much like a hotel!... Walk in and ask anyway... Yes, they have rooms and they're cheap. Ask to see a room... they have two types to choose from, I'll see both.'
*Strange note: Mum and Pop at the reception, daughter (about 25ish) is the bell-person. As the daughter gets the keys to show me the room, Dad says, "Don't disappear!". Then Mum says, "It's not 500 Baht for that, it's 5,000 Baht!" Everyone laughs! Very strange!
The cheaper room is very ordinary, but good value for 460 Baht. The other, more expensive room is a shock to the system! Huge four-poster bed with white mosquito net curtains, massive flat screen plasma TV, a bath tub with multi-coloured lights in it (as in under the water-line), balcony and solid wood everything! Now mum & pop's comments were starting to make a little more sense! I asked the daughter (nickname: Ying) how much this gob-smacking room was again, she said 500 Baht! I was blown away. After I checked in, Ying helped me carry my stuff up to the room and I guess she logically came to the conclusion that I was tired and aching. She said that she had a friend who was a good masseuse and that she charged 300 Baht for 2 hours. Done! 15 mins later Wee arrived to give me my massage. That was just what I needed and she was really good (at massage that is!). I'd better add that a lot of mind and body control -on my part- had to be used to avoid any embarrassing situation for the entire 2 hours!

Next morning left the hotel at 7:45am and -heading toward Sukhothai- went in search of a place to grab breakfast. Not a lot to choose from, so pulled up at a petrol station and had a bowl of noodles with meatballs in chicken-broth soup (kwatiaw luk chin).

Stopped for petrol and a coffee in Sawankhalok (just north of Sukhothai). As I was sipping my coffee and writing my journal a chap came over admiring my bike. Turns out Pee Somchai (nickname: Yao) had a BMW motorbike too. He said "James Bond" when I asked him what model, took me a minute to figure that one out! He told me about a new route up to Haehongson from Chiang Mai. Said it was used by BMW's Chiang Mai motorcycle instructor to teach nOObs about riding a big bike. Sounded good, 'I'll try that one'.

Highway 101 via Uttaradit, Den Chai was an uneventful mile-eater road, same for Highway 11 to Lampang and Luphun. Finally arrive in Chiang Mai (like a mini-Bangkok as far as congested cities go). Took me ages to find the old guesthouse where I've stayed at before (3 years ago), and when I found it, SHOCK, HORROR! it's now derelict! Fortunately there was another guesthouse just down the road with 'in-house' parking (and I mean literally in-house parking! The owner had me park my bike in her house!). My laundry was taken care of by one of the owner's daughters (poor girl!). I had one set of semi-clean clothes to wear while my laundry was being done, 24 hour service, so I had to stay for a couple of nights. The room was reasonable for 500 Baht per night, but I found out that the air-conditioner barely worked and sounded like an old steam-engine! First night I tried unsuccessfully to sleep with it on, the second night I gave up with that idea and used the ceiling fan and opened the windows instead. Woke up with mosquitoes buzzing in my ears! Suffice to say that in future, I'll need to go up-market a bit in Chiang Mai.

Wandering round the night-market on the evening of my day off, I found a chap from Nepal on one of the market stalls. He had lots of -what looked to be- antique jewelry and Buddha images. A friend of mine is into all that sort of stuff, so had a close look at some of his wares and picked out an old-looking moonstone and silver neckless. The guy said he'd got it on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border (oh yeah!). The neckless did look rustic enough to be from a past era, so I was inclined to believe him about its origin. He wanted 500 Baht for it (already a bargain), but said that he'd come down in price a bit. I offered 200 Baht! He sold it to me for 220! Even if it wasn't real, that was still cheap! (After the trip, I pulled the neckless out to show my wife, who loved it instantly! I still haven't told her how much I paid for it! Good job she's unlikely to find this forum, hahaha)
[IMG][/IMG]