Well blog followers, in my last blog I was lamenting the fact that I really want to get home and don’t want any more excitement, in the last three months I have had so many experiences my poor head can’t take anymore (Jep Hua as they say here). I said goodbye to my lady in Udon Thani and put her on the bus back to Vientiane, it was a bit sad because it could be a while before I see her again. In a previous blog I reported about passing through immigration at the ‘Friendship bridge’ I can report that was smooth as silk compared to my further 3 trips through the same point. On Tuesday, I had further hassles at the bizarrely named ‘friendship bridge’, but nothing of the magnitude of what I experienced in the last week. Vene decided to come with me as then we can have a last day together and also to help me with any further problems I may have at the customs post, she has been a treasure and I wouldn’t have managed without her.
So I was on the bike again and heading to Bangkok, unfortunately most of Northern Thailand is flooded and only 30 Km out of Udon the heavens opened, south of Koen Kaen the roads were flooded, no seriously at first but each flooded patch seemed to be worse than the last. Then I hit a very bad patch were the water was sweeping across the road, the water was well over the top of my boots. For the first time I realised I was in real trouble, the force of the water was making it very difficult to keep the bike upright. At this point I had a savoir, A driver of a fuel truck pulled alongside me and indicated that I should stay in the lei of the double axles keeping the major part of the water away from me, and we crawled along together for what seemed like an eternity, I don’t know how far we crawled like that it might only have a been a kilometre but it seemed much much further. Any way never got to thank the man but the driver of fuel tanker truck S-19, with the truck number 70-5257 I will forever be in your debt. I got to the town of Phon completely exhausted and decided that I would get a hotel although I hadn’t even covered a half of the K’s I wanted to. I pulled in at a hotel which to be honest I didn’t like the look of, so I thought I’d try a bit further down the road. I don’t know why but at the major intersection I was inspired by the thought that the road was OK from now, the rain was ebbing so I thought I’d continue. It turned out to be the right call. I would like to say that it was worth the drama for the hilarity I caused when I removed my boots and water proofs at the next servo, I have never ever been that wet on a bike and there was an easy ½ litre of water in each boot. So the best medicine for the blues just loads and loads of laughter.
I managed to find a really good hotel in Nakhon Racthasima, it is a brand new hotel, I can still smell the paint so nearly everything works. There is a basketball convention on here at the moment so it’s a bit like land of the giants.
I’ll be in Bangkok in the afternoon and I plan to store the bike with Terry from Asiabikes.com who will take care of the sale etc etc. I am very grateful for his help.
So I was on the bike again and heading to Bangkok, unfortunately most of Northern Thailand is flooded and only 30 Km out of Udon the heavens opened, south of Koen Kaen the roads were flooded, no seriously at first but each flooded patch seemed to be worse than the last. Then I hit a very bad patch were the water was sweeping across the road, the water was well over the top of my boots. For the first time I realised I was in real trouble, the force of the water was making it very difficult to keep the bike upright. At this point I had a savoir, A driver of a fuel truck pulled alongside me and indicated that I should stay in the lei of the double axles keeping the major part of the water away from me, and we crawled along together for what seemed like an eternity, I don’t know how far we crawled like that it might only have a been a kilometre but it seemed much much further. Any way never got to thank the man but the driver of fuel tanker truck S-19, with the truck number 70-5257 I will forever be in your debt. I got to the town of Phon completely exhausted and decided that I would get a hotel although I hadn’t even covered a half of the K’s I wanted to. I pulled in at a hotel which to be honest I didn’t like the look of, so I thought I’d try a bit further down the road. I don’t know why but at the major intersection I was inspired by the thought that the road was OK from now, the rain was ebbing so I thought I’d continue. It turned out to be the right call. I would like to say that it was worth the drama for the hilarity I caused when I removed my boots and water proofs at the next servo, I have never ever been that wet on a bike and there was an easy ½ litre of water in each boot. So the best medicine for the blues just loads and loads of laughter.
I managed to find a really good hotel in Nakhon Racthasima, it is a brand new hotel, I can still smell the paint so nearly everything works. There is a basketball convention on here at the moment so it’s a bit like land of the giants.
I’ll be in Bangkok in the afternoon and I plan to store the bike with Terry from Asiabikes.com who will take care of the sale etc etc. I am very grateful for his help.
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