Guided by Orion’s Belt

This is a long story, 23 days long, and we still don't have a happy ending, yet.

It all started when we noticed the one-headlamp-bulb Tiger was trying to be a 2-headlamp-bulb Honda. A tiger cannot change its stripes, it cannot be what it isn't. There was one 12V 25W bulb in the 2 bulb arrangement, the other an empty socket. Its shining power was useless. At the various visits to the repair shop, we asked them to fit a second 12V 25W. Happy chappy, this will work. We set off home later than expected back along the 10kms stretch of highway with streetlamps, no problem. Then 15kms of village roads showed the true value of the twin headlamp. Pathetic. We couldn't see a thing in the dark, no street lamps, no white lines, nothing to guide us. Until I spotted the familiar 3 bright stars in Orions belt. The constellation of Orion is predominately a Southern hemisphere one, used for centuries as an easily identifiable navigational tool. It has other names, the Three Kings, the Three Mary's, the Three Stars, amongst others. It pops over the equator on January 6, which in some countries is a memorable day. It leaves the Northern hemisphere to go South again about the end of Feb, beginning March. Having lived on or south of the equator most of my life I know it well. Orion and his belt gave us just about enough light to travel a fair way, then no more. It was too dark. We pulled over and waited for a car to appear in the distance behind us, then charged forward, catching their beam to show us the way, until they overtook and sped away. We did this a few times until some wonderful driver realised our predicament and stayed behind us until we turned left through the gates into the driveway. NO NIGHT DRIVING. The next day we returned to the repair shop and replaced those bulbs, increasing the wattage to 35. It looked OK in the daylight. We crossed into Laos and headed to Pakse, the first major town over the Mekhong River, and were drawn to a loud musical thumping sound. It was a riverside restaurant in the middle of a midday Karaoke session. The microphone is passed around for potential superstars to sing away, reading off a huge TV, followings words written in Thai, with subtitles of the phonetics, reading something like this: WAW SIN BAH,TEE FUU MI HOO, PIL AN DUM KAH BE DOOO. We joined in, without the mic, just for fun. Then noticed a bloke buying a crooning girl a beer, then another, then another. The more she drank, the more offkey, the more he bought. She eventually joined his table. Ah, I get it, a courtship ritual. Time to move, we consulted our map. It was only 2pm, too early to look for a room and decided to push on the mere 100 kms further down south towards Cambodia. Aptly named, Highway 13 disintegrated into a pothole feast, with wandering cows and goats, carts, pick-ups and rickety buses. No petrol stations. Nothing. Petrol only sold in one litre refilled cola bottles. The going was slow and hazardous. We set 4pm as our cut-off time to start looking for somewhere to sleep. We pulled up alongside various people in the road and signaled a going-to-sleep gesture with palms together under our cheeks. Blank looks. A new way of greeting, perhaps? 5pm came and went, of course we don't have a either a speedometer or odometer, the gauge is stuck on 14,000kms. 6pm came and went, the sun went down fast. No streetlights out here in the wilderness. Orion and his belt showed up. On coming traffic, with out-of-focus lights blinded us by switching up to high beam. Our pathetic lights made bizarre patterns on the road, peering through the metal basket in front. We trickled slowly on, waiting for dusk to pass, our lights got vaguely brighter as it got darker. The traffic was crazy, then all of a sudden there was none. Every beast and bird had got where they wanted to. No towns, no traffic, no lights in front or behind. Just B and me and Orion. "GUESS WHAT, " I shout. "WHAT?" "WE ARE THE ONLY PEOPLE LEFT IN THE WORLD." "SURE FEELS LIKE IT," B shouts back. Just darkness to the left, right, front and behind, only the sound of the engine as it strummed along. Something bright in the distance, yeah, a sign for the Nakabhouli Hotel. We pulled in at 7.30 PM, an hour of darkness riding tensing our shoulders and straining our eyes. NO NIGHT RIDING? 3 days later, when we returned to the genius mechanic in Khongchiam, he discovered the rectifier plug had been connected incorrectly. He did the correction, rewired the plugs. In daylight all appeared great. But it wasn't. Previously the Tiger had a halogen bulb in its one socket, so now the hunt was on for halogen bulbs. Perhaps we'll find one in the same place we found the special 17inch tyre, an 80kms roundtrip. En route from Khongchiam to the Cambodia border we detoured through Phibun. It's quite difficult to explain that we were looking for Halogen bulb. We stopped at a few places, pointing to our headlight, then pointing at modern headlamps, those with halogen. Go to Yamaha. Where? Down there, turn left, go straight, not sure. We start off and sure enough, get lost. Then spot a policeman riding a Yamaha, he should know. More sign language, then we get police escort to Yamaha, easy. "They no have", but one super helpful mechanic beckons us to follow, we head off after him to a racer boy type shop. They have it all, shiny this and that and one halogen bulb in a dusty box. 100 baht, 2 GBP, thank you, we'll buy it, fitted for free with a smile. So we're running one 12V 35W standard bulb, with one halogen blue 12V 50W. Tiger's a bit cross-eyed now. Further down the route in Khlong Hat we found 2 matching halogen bulbs, so now Tiger has 2 beautiful blue eyes. Disappointingly when we returned from shopping for provisions one night, we had poor lights. The sun sets so quickly here. Our desperation is growing stronger. We have a night ride coming up. The Bangkok/Surat thani train arrives at 1.30 am, and there is 5 hours jungle night riding before dawn. For back-up, B has rigged up our camping LED headlamp on his helmet, stuck with duct tape and 20 spare AAA batteries to last the 5 hours. When we get to Koh Chang for a few days of R&R, B fitted 2 X 6V 25W bulbs, expecting them to blow. They didn't. It got him thinking. He removed one of the halogen bulbs and the power streamed through. We now have a super bright light, but the two separate reflectors diffuse the light in the wrong direction. A squint one blue-eyed Tiger. In our tool compartment, underneath the seat, we have an assortment of 12 headlamp bulbs, 6V, 12V, halogen, all differing wattage. A Tiger cannot change its stripes. Once a single bulb system, always a single bulb system. When we got to Bangkok station, we discover there is a new timetable. The 12 hour train journey to Surat Thani leaves later than before and arrives at dawn. So no night riding needed after all. That's OK . We've nearly reached our southern destination, and its almost time for Orion to go South too.