Born to Ride

Rented the motor bike Saturday morning from an Irish bar. We had stopped by the bar Friday night because I was in a frantic search for some Jameson's whiskey and that was my last resort. No luck. But the Irish expat owner gave us his best bottle of whiskey and we sat and had a few drinks. He married a Thai women and can now retire here and has started a bar. He rented us the motor bike for 200 baht. Needless to say, I looked cool on it. An easy rider for sure! :)
So Saturday morning we got up, moved to a nicer guesthouse (the room and view from room below) down the road a bit (450 baht with TV and a real nice bathroom with HOT WATER!) and picked up our motorbike.




So to be honest, I am of the age where I definitely do NOT feel immortal. As a matter of fact I am quite aware of my mortality! In my 2.5 weeks here in Thailand I have seen some crazy driving, been in a bus that ran over a motorcycle and seen the general chaos of the roads. So I realized that this might be a bit crazy. But it sounded like fun... but it doesn't mean that I wasn't a bit nervous about the idea. Not to mention I have not driven a motor bike in say 20 years. So, upon picking up this sporty bike I sat on it and drove off, the whole time saying to myself 'stay on the left side... stay on the left side'... I was a bit shaky in my driving.





We got some gas and off we went. We were driving to Erawan waterfall, some 65 kilometers north of us. Immediately we hit a big road with lots of traffic. I just stayed 'on the left side' and tried to find another person on a motorbike and follow them and their speed.
Eventually we got out of the city and the beautiful country where cows graze openly along side the road, stray dogs run randomly into the road and elephant crossing signs are common (though we saw none). We stopped about 40 km into the ride and rested for a bit. Once back on the road we were passed by a series of three double-decker (two story) buses. This was the scariest part of the trip. I could see them coming up behind us and would have pulled over if I had the chance. They were moving fast and each one passed by us quickly (about what seemed at arms length away) and the wind from it sort of blew us all over the place. This was scary enough in itself except that I knew another bus was right behind us coming up quick. Luckily, my awesome 'hells angel' like driving skills got us through this brush with death! But no doubt, it scared the shit out of me! :)

I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief when we arrived at Erawan. We had heard about it in town. A series of waterfalls and pools. We were told there were large fish in each pool that would eat from your hand and nibble at your legs. It was stunning. Unlike anything I had seen before. The water was a clear whitish blue.










We climbed up to the 5th pool (which we had heard was the best) and swam there. The fish would peck and bite at your legs if you stayed still ... which would always make you jump in surprise. After swimming for an hour we slowly made our way down and back to the motor bike... always conscious that we did NOT want to be driving in the dark.

We jumped on our bike and started heading back. About 30km into the drive we stopped for a break. While there we witnessed another aggressive dog fight. Seems they are common here. Soon enough we started off again. After a few minutes of speedy travel, we ran out of gas!

One would think a motor bike would easily make 65km and back. Not the case with this motor bike. We were literally in the middle of nowhere. Sad thing is, there was gas at the last stop, now some 4 kms back. By chance there was a large truck with several men just waiting on the side of the road some 50 yards in front of us. We walked up to them and told them 'no petrol'... they laughed and spoke to us in Thai. They knew no English. A few of them walked up and looked at our bike and seemed amused. They tried to tell us things and eventually we figured they had made a call on their mobile and wanted us to push the motor bike up to their truck. One of them came up to us and showed us two VERY LARGE tarantulas in his hand. I think they were dead. He motioned for us to try and eat one of the legs. We declined. They all got a good laugh as we both shuttered. But they did get us to touch their harry bodies. These things were HUGE... the body made of two large round parts about the size of a large marble. Another showed us how they were catching them. Apparently they live in holes in the ground and they take sticks and push them down the holes and twist them around...eventually bringing up one. I guess they eat them!

After a few minutes another guy showed up on a motorbike and drove Avery off for petrol. 10 minutes later she was back and we filled put some in our tank. Before we could get away a truck pulled up with lots of petrol... not for us, but for the truck. Seems the guys in the truck had also run out of petrol. We all got a good laugh out of this one. The whole experience once again proved my like for the thai people. Everyone was very friendly.

We drove the rest of the way without incident. Last night we got a couple beers and went to a night market. Both of us were too beat to stay out too late though.

Today we plan to take a local bus to ... hmm, i forgot the name of the city. Its about an hour north of Bangkok. Its the historical capitol of Thailand and is full of ruins inside the city. From what I read, Elephants are a common means of travel inside the city. Sounds interesting. We plan to stay two night there, then I plan to take a bus to the Bangkok airport for my flight. My trip is almost done!