Observation:
At home (Illinois - Central Time Zone) ads for TV shows often say "9 pm
Eastern, 8 Central". Here it's something like "9 pm Bangkok, 8
Malaysia".
A shortish day - but it's the first "day on the bike"
for Thailand so that makes it a good day. The tasks are to get the
laundry from the cleaners, pack the bags, and reserve a room at the
hotel for the other end of the trip. With the room reserved I delivered
my suitcase to the desk - storage for the duration. Those items taken
care of I really had no set plan on where I'd end up but I knew I
wanted to head south a bit.
Heading south I took a mix of the
highway, 3, and some side roads along the beach. It was a reasonable
ride for the day. As the time went I started to run into some dark
clouds. I was catching up to the storm and would occasionally sit along
the road and wait for the storm to "move out". I put on the rain coat
top but didn't bother with the pants. At one point I pulled over and
parked on someones "front porch" - under their awning for a heavy
rainfall to pass over. I contemplated putting on the rain pants too but
figured it would be just a short stop - it was.
The day has
ended in the town of Chanthaburi. Not quite on the beach but a somewhat
coastal town. Tomorrow I'll head inland - northeast - to start a
counter clockwise loop through the country. Gone will be the highway
with the top choice for travel being second and third tier roads.
The LP book does not cover rural roads so I had purchased, at home, a
"Nelles Map". Unfortunately, while the Nelles Map shows many of the
secondary roads it does not LABEL them. Wanting more information for
these secondary roads I kept my eyes open for a bookstore / map
selection and bingo - at the lunch stop today I saw a bookstore. Going
inside they did have some decent maps (that I could see). I say "that I
could see" as many of the maps were "wrapped" in plastic making them
unavailable for preview. Fortunately a few had "open" versions and I
was able to select one - good labels and "water resistant paper" to
boot. I should be ready for some small roads and small towns.
The
evening stop - the River Guest House. I found it easy enough by
locating off of the "park / pond" in town and then by accidentally
going across to the other side of the river. After I crossed the river
I looked back to see the hotel back on the other bank. An easy U-Turn
and back I went - but to where do I park? The hotel is RIGHT next to
the road and RIGHT on the river. That left two sides but one of those
is against other buildings. The fourth, remaining, side was the
direction traffic was headed so I went with the flow and turned onto
the street / alley / sidewalk taking me to the fourth side. Down there
a local seemed to guess what I was looking for and motioned "back over
to the other side - bridge". Hmmm - OK.
A pass through some of
the small, curvey roads in the neighborhood and I recognized them as I
was "just there". The way I had wanted to go ended up being a one-way
heading in the wrong direction. I had followed the locals snaking
through some alleys and I was now in the alleys again. I knew I'd pop
out on the road to cross the river so I processed the alleys again and
I went across the river again, doing the same u-turn to return. This
time I stopped after crossing the bridge and noticed the gate / ramp
between the roadway and the sidewalk. I was to move from the roadway,
onto the sidewalk, and then back the bike down the sidewalk and park
under the bridge. Unusual - but now that I know the process - no
problem. I parked the bike alongside the other ten or so bikes there
and went to the check-in desk not more than 40 eyesight feet from the
bike.
So, do I want a "fan" room or an "Air-Con" room. How much
is the "fan" room? 250 Baht (about 6.50 US - that's right - less than
seven bucks). How much is the air-con room - 350 Baht (just over 9
bucks). Easy choice - air-con please. I was told there was no hot water
for the shower though - I can deal with that as the water really isn't
"cold" here - just cool. The room is spacious, bland, clean. Fine by
me. I'd much rather spend time here than at the prior spot at 950 Baht
per night and have small ants running about.
The place also has
some U.S. based TV channels - some U.S. news. Floods in the northeast.
Bush in the southern border hopper states. Possible legislation for
"English" as the offical language. I've taken a shower, typed some
these notes, gone over the photos. Time to head out and see about
something to eat. The LP book shows a spot directly across the river -
we'll check it out.
A few notes on the bike - I'm settling in
with it a bit. I've adjusted or lubricated a few things. Some lube for
the clutch, shift, rear brake lever / pivots. Remove, clean and glue on
the left handgrip (so it stays put). Adjust down the idle speed to what
it should be. The 2500 rpm speed acted as "cruise control" at town
speeds. The left mirror is loose and will not hold a setting. I tried
to wedge some paper in the pivot to help it stay - no dice. The
suspension could use some firming up. I've not looked at it yet -
perhaps in the morning.
As for it's performance - it's decent.
It's a 6 speed and without having a gear indicator I'm starting to
mentally pay attention to what gear I'm running in. This is doubly
important as when I need to accelerate - it doesn't have the grunt of
my 1100 - and I have to drop two or often three gears to get the RPM's
up. 12,500 is redline and it often sits between 4,000 to 6,000 rpm for
normal running. No buzz issues in the hands or wrists though. Felipe's
bike responded to handlebar pushes much nicer than this thing does -
this is sluggish in comparison. I'll see about checking the
fuel burn rate with it next. The plastic fuel now has spare fuel -
about 3 liters.
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