2012 Indochina Tour - Day 2

Saturday 15/12/12 - Day 2 - Phattalung to Bangkok

This will be like series of 1st for us as this is the first time we are riding into Bangkok and also the first time that I'll be riding 900 odd kms in one go. The longest distance I've ever done before that was 700 kliks. So knowing what faces us we started off early, about 7am.

Looks like another wet ride for us.

What's odd was there were sighting of strange creatures lurking around our bikes

Another one of those creatures.

Many might think that with 900km to go we would blast our way, tearing through the hiways like a cat with its tail on fire, however that is very very far from the truth. You see we keep our speeds around 100-120kmh on the hiways, it's just that we take a longer time. If you're the type to do 150 or 160 avg speed, you would hate riding with us.

There seems to be a Harley gathering going on somewhere coz we would be bumping into huge groups of em on the hiway. Beautiful machines, but you can't pay me to ride that 900km. My ass would literally leave my body and kill me.

The other thing that I screwed up was that I forgot to check my fuel cap after filling and it appeared that I had forgotten to close it. Shit....over 70,000km done on the bike and I still make a rookie mistake. Easily a few litres spilled out of that tank. Humph! so much for conserving petrol.

It's actually on long rides like this that your are free and alone with your mind. Well I can't speak for others, but this is when I feel somewhat at peace. No distractions. Thinking about what I wanna achieve in life, where I want to be, should I get married (my parents will say yes you fool!)  and all that mumbo jumbo la. You know, when you're in the saddle for hours and hours on end there's plenty that you can and will think about.

Attack!...(after 6 hrs on the bike you then to go a bit wonky)

We were warned to stay of the hiway into Bangkok with these words from Husref's friend "Whatever you do, stay the fuck off Hiway 34!"....hehe ok boss! So it was hiway 35 all the way for us until we joined the road to Phra Pradeang and after that it was all the small roads before we joined Rama III heading our way to Sukumvhit Rd. If you're not aware, Sukumvhit Rd is pretty much the central of Bangkok and boy did we feel the traffic.We were stuck on it for an hour just to move 300 meters. Even the small kapchais and scooters got stuck so let alone us.

That's us on Sukumvhit Rd

Silly boy!

Immense relief came to us as we turn into Soi 8 and head up to our hotel. We stayed at Citadines, a very nice place. It's RM250 a night which is definitely wayyyy over our budget but Husref said he's buying so, after 900km and 12 hrs on the bike I am not going to argue.

Yummy PadThai Gung for dinner.

The original plan was to head into Sihanoukville, Cambodia the next day but during dinner we decided to swing by into Pattaya for a night. I guess that's the beauty of a flexible travelling plan. Husref has never been there and the last time I was there was in 1990 la. So why not eh?