The JWs Tours Indochina - Post 1

12 April 2011

It's my 7th day on the road since we left KL on Weds. Well on the road would not be the right thing to say cause I can safely say we're gonna be marooned in Chiang Mai until the 16th at least. Why? well it's Songkran! I've heard so many things about it but gonna find out first hand what it's all about. It's a religious festival, though I guess the allure is the water throwing fest that will escalate into a full blown water war tomorrow. They have started early and trust me, it hurts to hit a wall of water when you're doing 100km hour. So as of today, I've parked my bike and that bad boy is staying put until this madness boils over. Whatever it is I got my GoPro for taking pictures of the festivities tomorrow, so wait for that post.

In the mean time let's catch up with the past week shall we. Ok first the map.

View Larger Map

Now that I'm staying put in CM for next few days I can finally get the damn blog updated. It's a lazy man's trick but I'll be using the pics to illustrate. I know....I know....such a slacker! then again no one is paying me......just saying.

Was raining when we left Wunderlich at 5pm...ya damn late. You can see David is happy to see us go...haha

11pm by the time we reached Hat Yai

Hmm...pretty sure I ordered roti telur.

Mad rain on the way to Surat Thani, had to detour due to flooded roads

Heavy mist in the morning as we're about to leave Surat Thani

Evidence of floods everywhere we pass.

It's really weird weather this time around, heavy rain and floods in Southern Thailand almost made us change our plans. We were pretty much modifying our plans every other minute depending on the information that's trickling through to us. 

How the hell did we end up in Australia?

Hot hot hot......more ice.....more ice!

Onwards to Kanchanaburi

The ride up to Kanchanaburi is just damn hot....not funny, yes we did choose to go up in at what is pretty much the hottest part of the year. After a long ride into Kanchanaburi, I was dissapointed that the gueshouse that I booked couldnt find my booking. Hmmm, heard this sort of shit happening to others before so nothing new there. It's a blessing in disguise of some sort coz we found Ploy Guesthouse, really nice place with prices ranging from 600 - 800 baht.

with your own private garden outside the window

It was only 3 months ago that I was in Kanchanaburi, so here I am again. Of course I did the whole Death Railway bridge again, though this time there was more time to check out the new museum and cemetery.

Violin man has a fan...

Read the left....

You can't take pictures at the museum...there are exceptions though.

It was really cool to ride up and have our pics taken with the bridge in the background. Yes, we're just a bunch of camwhores!

Bridge and bikes = priceless

Next stop Mae Sot and Chiang Mai.

Picking up a fallen F650GS

14 April 2011

Sorry for not updating. It's a combination of things really. OK OK I've been lazy. There I said it.

I'm in Chiang Mai now, "marooned" for a week due to Songkran, more on that in my post later. In the mean time, I'm privileged to meet Simon and Lisa Thomas of the 2ridetheworld.com fame here. They've already been on the road for 8 years. It's meeting these people that makes what I'm doing seem quite pussy, but they've been really cool. In fact Simon thought me a valuable lesson on picking up my bike. You know, as riders we hope that we're never faced with a situation where we would have to pick up a dropped bike, though in reality that's what most of us will face. It's well and good if you're riding with friends when this happens as you can actually get them to pick it up while you supervise...hehe, but if you're all alone then how?

I've seen this done on youtube, though there's nothing like practicing it on my own bike to have a feel. So here goes, how to pick up a bike weighing 220 -230kgs.

You may have heard of the turning the bars and lift method, trust me shit would come out my shorts before it'll go up.

Then Simon shows me a better way.

And the third is moi picking it up, minus streak marks in the shorts. The vein in forehead popping is unavoidable though....hehe.

OK enjoy and I'll get on to getting the blog updated.

Trip Preparation

04/04/11, mileage 26262

Nice numbers ain't it? I mean the date and mileage.

Good god, I've only had this bike for 8 months and I'm already on my second set of tyres. It sucks that there's still some life in the old set, but definitely would not be able to last the expected 10,000km for this trip, and keeping that set as spare also does not make sense considering that I have my original Battlewings at the shop. Oh well....

Once the new set goes in, dang what a difference. I didn't realise (noob mah) that I was constantly adding preload as the tyres wear as the bike was understeering. Now that the new set is in I gotta back off on the preload as it turns in easily. Hey! learn something new everyday.

Fresh set vs 18,000km

Can see the old set is flat in the middle

New set for the front as well

While I'm at it, changed the rear wheel bearings as well, new front pads, fresh oil and rear brake fluid. They're all still ok, but I changed it for peace of mind. 

Replacement bearings

Fresh blood

Still life in the old pads but what the heck!

We're shooting off to Hat Yai tomorrow and asses the flooding situation from there before we continue North. So I guess tomorrow I'll start post no 1 of The Jobless Wanderers Indochina Tour. 

Another Trip - Indochina 6 April to ? May 2011

I'm off again next week on my motorbike for another month or so to Thailand/Laos/Cambodia. If you've been following the Indochina series of blog postings it'll be fair to ask, "Didnt you just got back?" My last trip, I left on 19 Nov 2010 and came back on 8 January 2011, a solid 51 days of touring.

Why so soon?

Let me give a bit of historical brief leading up to the above. In 2008 I had planned to drive up all the way to Chiang Mai and pretty much tour Thailand within 14 days. Coincidently, that was in April as well, so that I'll be celebrating my birthday on the road. I wanted something new, a new experience, an adventure, though being the pussy that I am, I wanted it to be manageable. Weeks of preparation, mapping the route, researching accommodation, putting in the leave, battling anxiety and I was all geared up for it and guess what happened?

Riots broke out 2 days before I was supposed to leave. It pretty much crippled the country and closed of Suvarnabhumi airport. Shots were fired at protesters, a journalist was killed. Friends and of course family, very concerned requested that I not proceed with my plans and I conceded. Though disappointed, I tell myself that it was not meant to be. Though the thought was still there I never did pursue it in the same  vigorous manner as I did before. No better way to describe it than, "memang potong stim abis".

Fast forward to 2010 and circumstances revolving around work(or lack of it) pushed the idea, that was long buried back up. I got myself a bike in July 2010 after not riding one for more than 10 years and the rest as they say is history. Cliche as it may be, the 51 days of touring was supposed to be my platform to discover myself and think about what next. Unfortunately, it was such an overwhelming experience that I forgot to do both haha. What I did discover though was that I felt free. I found peace of mind, a feeling I last felt when I was a student. A time when my only responsibility was to down 6 cans of Livita and cram as much as I can the night before an exam. So I'm off again to discover what I felt was real or fluke? Have I been bitten by the travel bug or was it one off?

What's new with this upcoming trip?

So what's different this time around? I'm still going to the same countries though there'll be new routes, new places to go, places that I missed last time around for one reason or another. I'll be updating the blog as I go along so you won't miss it.

There's gonna be 3 of us doing the entire loop, Capt Nik on a GS12, Ivan on a GSA and I on my trusty steed the 650GS. We're not gainfully employed(by choice I'd say but truthfully no company in their right mind would hire a serial slacker like me haha) at the moment hence the name "The Jobless Wanderers". Though I've not ridden long rides with them, the harmonics of the group seems good, an important element if we're to ride together for the next 30 days. One thing for sure, both of them being camera/photog buffs I'll have better pics for my blog....hehe. Maybe I can finally fulfill my secret ambition of being a camwhore.

We plan to cross the border on 6 April. Right now the weather is wrecking havoc over South Thailand with rain and flooding in many parts. We're hoping it clears up by the time we leave. Wish us luck and stay tuned for updates.