Thailand
click here to see Lisa, Merill and reclining Buddha
You can always trust your Mum! Many had promised to visit us on this journey but so far the only one to come through with the goodies was Mum. She flew out to meet us for 3 weeks in Thailand after we returned from Cambodia. This meant we spent most of that time using public transport (we couldnt fit 3 on the bike like the locals manage to and Mum forgot to bring her rollerblades and tow-rope). We had a laugh and once again saved lots of money on fuel (these backpackers have it too cheap).
But first of all, I have to say, finally, after 10 months and 30,000 kilometres we learnt how to bribe a cop.Coming back from Cambodia we somehow found our way on to the motorway into Bangkok. We knew we werent allowed on the Bangkok city motorways but werent sure about the rest of the country. There were no signs in English to say go away and we got through the first toll booth, paying our 30 Baht and getting a receipt ticket. At the second toll booth they werent so friendly and summonsed a cop while we held up a long queue of Sunday afternoon traffic. A charming Frenchman and his Thai girlfriend stopped to help translate. The cop in his tight brown uniform approached with the compulsory shades and the knowing smile. We explained our innocence, his smile grew wider, the Frenchman said to pay even though there was no demand. The cop asked for our drivers license but didnt look at it. He started writing in his ticket book and talking about his boss at the next exit and a 2000 Baht fine. The Frenchman slipped him some money - they had big, nervous smiles on their sweaty faces. The cop walked away, we slipped the Frenchman some money, said farewell and were off, attempting to find our way through the outskirts of Bangkok on a late Sunday afternoon.
While Bangkok is the modern world to us for my mother it was culture shock - street food, open drains, fetid canals, street sleepers, cockroaches in restaurants, noise and humidity.
We spent a couple of days sightseeing Bangkoks finest before catching an overnight train to Chang Mai. It would have taken Rich 2 days to ride but only a night in the train and as we were only to be in the north a week we decided to park the bike in our Bangkok hotel. The train was fantastic, air conditioned, clean and with stewards to come around and make up the bed with crisp clean sheets; far superior to Indian trains.
click here to see the girls bamboo rafting
Chaing Mai is a bit of a tourist hangout and so is Pai, a delightful little town to the north near the Myanmar border. So we hung out, hired bicycles, visited caves and hill tribe people, did a Thai cooking course, bamboo rafting, elephant riding, ate weird food, shopped and relaxed.
elephant trekking - click here
We caught up with Bob, an American we met in London, who spends half his life in Chang Mai, keeping a TDM 850 & a new 900 there for riding in the hills. Tough life. He sorted Rich out with some much needed replacement gloves, the old gloves having disintegrated over the miles were (only just) held together with duct tape.
click here to see Lisa in Than Lod cave
We returned to Bangkok on the train but headed straight to Ko Chang, the second largest of the Thai islands, sitting in the Gulf of Thailand near the Cambodian border. This time the bike came too as, having been there before, we knew the roads were windy and steep with sharp hairpin curves - perfect for an unloaded bike.
We had some gorgeous hot blue skied days, kayaking, walking, swimming and having Thai massage. We had other days with thundering heavens, when huge swollen black clouds came rolling in across the sea and the rain would hit our little beach bungalows with a full blast that warned us the monsoon was coming.
Mum and I hired a scooter for a laugh. I must have looked strange to the other westerners on scooters in their shorts, singlets and jandals while I was in full motorcycle riding gear. However many of them were sporting grazes and burns from falling off and we have a friend in England who tragically fell off a scooter in Thailand 2 years ago, hitting his head on the ground, wearing no helmet and who is severely brain damaged.
click here to see the flying Merill
It was Mums first time on a bike and it took her a bit of getting used to, Rich reckons he was lucky she didnt T-bone us coming around a hairpin bend but she eventually got used to it and enjoyed the experience.
click here to see floating food stall
Back to Bangkok for that final shopping and we got rid of another 20kg of souvenirs to Mums luggage.
She returned to New Zealand and we set off for Laos. But thats another story