BURN IT!!!
December 25, 2014ag00176
This blog is dedicated to our motorbike. It has to be one of the worst motorbikes ever seen on this planet. How it passed its last MOT (are there actually any MOTs in Thailand?) I will never know! The breaks are slow, the front lights are non-existent and it is full of unwanted stickers on an awful faint mauve colour. The seat can only be lifted via a chord and a “special way” of opening it. It takes on average 5-10 mins to start the dam thing on these “cold” winter mornings and by that time we have embarrassingly woken up most of the neighbours, some of whom occasionally come out of their house to give us a hand. Every time it starts a plume of black smoke dart out of the exhaust. It should definitely be made illegal. However, it does provide us with some good entertainment!
Saffron and I decided to explore the Thai countryside on Saturday, heading to Khon Buri. About 5km in we needed to stop for fuel. What should have been a routine stop turned into half an hour of problem solving in how to get the seat open without having the chord to open it with, which the previous fuel inputter had “neatly” tucked inside, he thought. The garage staff loved a challenge though. Clearly overstaffed, and probably sitting on their arses for a good portion of the day, a good number (about 5) crowded round the bike eager to solve this problem. They used big sticks, small sticks or sometimes just pure strength just to try to force it open. There were times when I definitely thought that it wouldn’t open. Eventually however, it did, via the chord we managed to scoop out, and we were on our way!
After visiting Khon Buri, a small town quite similar to Chok Chai and 30km to the south of it, we decided to go back a different way through the country roads. However, disaster was to strike. About 20 minutes from Khon Buri, after pushing the bike to its absolute limit of 60kmh/40mph (who knows the speedometer wasn’t working!) we turned off the main road between Pak Thon Chai and Khon Buri. 2 minutes later the bike chugged to a slow halt. In the middle of f**k*** nowhere! Hmmm… what to do? We cooled the exhaust down (it was a standard hot day and it was roasting!) and tried and tried to start it again. No luck. Shall we ditch the bike and walk? Where to? The next field? Shall we walk 10 mins to the main road then hitch hike it? Not ideal, all guide books I have read have recommended against this option. Again we tried to start it, but then it worked! Great news! Well… kind of. It chugged along for 200 meters then stopped. Then it started again! But then it stopped. There was no way it was ending up back in Chok Chai, 40 km away at this point. However this time it was different. A few Thai locals had seen our predicament and came over to give us a hand. (They probably hadn’t seen white falangs in months!) Fortunately, one woman could speak English. The rest were farmers. And farmers are mechanics! Infact, luckily when we had got back to the main road we turned left instead of right, heading back to Khon Buri (where we had just come from) and had actually broken down right outside their farm! The bike had run out of oil (not fuel) but it still wouldn’t work! They twisted a few nuts and bolts, then to prove that miracles do happen the bike started to work! Hooray! We gave them a tip to thank them for their kindness and generosity – without them it would’ve been an awful day! They said they would buy a bottle of whiskey with the money which I thought was a lovely present to share. Relieved we drove back to Chok Chai.
Just when we thought we had had enough action for the day we got stopped by the police just outside Chok Chai. S**T. WHY!!! I was worried as I don’t have a license here in Thailand, but then again no one does! However, after analysing the bike and noticing that we were “Falang” all the police officer said was “Where you go?” to which my “correct” reply was fortunately Chok Chai only 2 km away and they let us go. Back safe and sound!
For all it’s faults, the motorbike is only 1,000 baht a month to rent so I hope it can stay alive until the end of February when my contract ends. Hopefully, I can get a new one next semester then I won’t have to hear “Very Old” again and maybe take the advice of a friend from basketball who even recommended that I should burn it!
BURN IT!!!
December 25, 2014ag00176
This blog is dedicated to our motorbike. It has to be one of the worst motorbikes ever seen on this planet. How it passed its last MOT (are there actually any MOTs in Thailand?) I will never know! The breaks are slow, the front lights are non-existent and it is full of unwanted stickers on an awful faint mauve colour. The seat can only be lifted via a chord and a “special way” of opening it. It takes on average 5-10 mins to start the dam thing on these “cold” winter mornings and by that time we have embarrassingly woken up most of the neighbours, some of whom occasionally come out of their house to give us a hand. Every time it starts a plume of black smoke dart out of the exhaust. It should definitely be made illegal. However, it does provide us with some good entertainment!
Saffron and I decided to explore the Thai countryside on Saturday, heading to Khon Buri. About 5km in we needed to stop for fuel. What should have been a routine stop turned into half an hour of problem solving in how to get the seat open without having the chord to open it with, which the previous fuel inputter had “neatly” tucked inside, he thought. The garage staff loved a challenge though. Clearly overstaffed, and probably sitting on their arses for a good portion of the day, a good number (about 5) crowded round the bike eager to solve this problem. They used big sticks, small sticks or sometimes just pure strength just to try to force it open. There were times when I definitely thought that it wouldn’t open. Eventually however, it did, via the chord we managed to scoop out, and we were on our way!
After visiting Khon Buri, a small town quite similar to Chok Chai and 30km to the south of it, we decided to go back a different way through the country roads. However, disaster was to strike. About 20 minutes from Khon Buri, after pushing the bike to its absolute limit of 60kmh/40mph (who knows the speedometer wasn’t working!) we turned off the main road between Pak Thon Chai and Khon Buri. 2 minutes later the bike chugged to a slow halt. In the middle of f**k*** nowhere! Hmmm… what to do? We cooled the exhaust down (it was a standard hot day and it was roasting!) and tried and tried to start it again. No luck. Shall we ditch the bike and walk? Where to? The next field? Shall we walk 10 mins to the main road then hitch hike it? Not ideal, all guide books I have read have recommended against this option. Again we tried to start it, but then it worked! Great news! Well… kind of. It chugged along for 200 meters then stopped. Then it started again! But then it stopped. There was no way it was ending up back in Chok Chai, 40 km away at this point. However this time it was different. A few Thai locals had seen our predicament and came over to give us a hand. (They probably hadn’t seen white falangs in months!) Fortunately, one woman could speak English. The rest were farmers. And farmers are mechanics! Infact, luckily when we had got back to the main road we turned left instead of right, heading back to Khon Buri (where we had just come from) and had actually broken down right outside their farm! The bike had run out of oil (not fuel) but it still wouldn’t work! They twisted a few nuts and bolts, then to prove that miracles do happen the bike started to work! Hooray! We gave them a tip to thank them for their kindness and generosity – without them it would’ve been an awful day! They said they would buy a bottle of whiskey with the money which I thought was a lovely present to share. Relieved we drove back to Chok Chai.
Just when we thought we had had enough action for the day we got stopped by the police just outside Chok Chai. S**T. WHY!!! I was worried as I don’t have a license here in Thailand, but then again no one does! However, after analysing the bike and noticing that we were “Falang” all the police officer said was “Where you go?” to which my “correct” reply was fortunately Chok Chai only 2 km away and they let us go. Back safe and sound!
For all it’s faults, the motorbike is only 1,000 baht a month to rent so I hope it can stay alive until the end of February when my contract ends. Hopefully, I can get a new one next semester then I won’t have to hear “Very Old” again and maybe take the advice of a friend from basketball who even recommended that I should burn it!
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