Should Tip Over 100,000 Miles

Location: Sukhothai
Miles: 270


It’s 7am on a Sunday morning, the rain is holding off and we have a Thai rider on a BMW K1200R to lead us out of the city.  His number plate is “1”.  The bikes are packed and ready to go – they’re running great after the long cargo flight.  Julia is riding a F800GS, with a Scottoiler fitted.  With around 14,000 miles ahead of us, we don’t want to have to carry chain lube and this should be a saving grace to keep the chain in good condition.  I’m on my R1150GS – it’s the Guinness World Record Around the World GS and it’s got over 87,000 miles on the clock.  This journey should tip over 100,000 miles (it’s been a secret ambition of mine for a long time to get the bike over 100k!)

 Anyway, one week in a big busy city is more than enough for any traveller.  A Sunday morning start means the roads are quiet and soon we find ourselves on the northern road out past the old international airport.  Mr K1200R is very controlled, signals well in advance and gives us a brisk “blow the cobwebs out” pace to a main fuel station where a few other Thai riders are waiting with “BMW Riders of Thailand” stickers.  I’m always sticker greedy . . .

We then blast another hundred miles or so to Nakhon Sawan and a behind the scenes local beef noodle place for brunch.  The temperatures are dripping hot.  We ride in the fast lanes - the speed brings some welcome relief and these lanes are shaded by trees hanging out from the central reservation.  Our destination is the ancient city of Sukhothai. 

Sukhothai at sunset is magical and you can’t help feel a sense of calm as the sun silently sinks to the trees casting a golden glow over the stupors and buddhas.  We slowly wander amongst the ancient remains.  In the morning, we are up early and bring the bikes to some spots before everyone else appears.  First the elephant stupor, then the hiding big Buddha and finally back to the heart of the old city.  It’s utterly magnificent.

It’s a short days ride to Mae Sot.  Finally, half way there, we see misty hills appear.  Amazingly, it’s still dry so we can test the bends to the full – bearing in mind animals, people, scooter and the like . . we’re both impressed with the quality of the roads and the backdrop.  The benefit of the wet season is that everything is bright green, lush, growing and alive.  Mae Sot is a stopover destination, but has a small local restaurant with some of the biggest tiger prawns we have ever seen (and eaten!!).  These buggers would cost £5 a prawn back home but here we can a plateful for the same amount.  Utterly delicious.  But why oh why is wine so expensive in this country?  Its easily £40 for a standard bottle of white or red; so far we have stuck with the local beer!

Mae Sot also right on the border with Myanmar.  Kai and Eak, (Kai is the founder of Storm Club and manages what is the only formal motorcycle training with Thailand; Eak is a local enduro racer who knows the jungle like the back of his hand.)  Now rainy season is really not the time to take a R1150GS into the jungle . . .!!)  Anyway, the two of them take us to the Myanmar border a few kms out of town.  It’s a sad and edgy place.  Within easy sight is Myanmar, where the well trodden trails across the water’s edge show clearly where people clearly go back and forth, undercover.  Kai tells us that many people in Mae Sot are from Burma, they can’t speak Thai.  The immigration problem, existing all over the world in different forms.  Standing on the edge of the Meoi River, it is so them and us.  There’s yet nothing special really about us, just the luck of the country of our birth. 

The third day’s riding is the best yet.  We are on the road of 1,864 bends.  Ya Hoo!!  Except the downpour has started and smooth and gentle is the name of the game.  Even in the wet, this is incredible riding.  The road heads directly north, brushing the Myanmar border and another glimpse of the lot of those refugees who have sought shelter from the oppressive regime.  The camp is spread roadside and climbs up the dense forested hills.  Police check points prevent the movement of people beyond a tiny specific area and here they wait out their lot.  I can’t see how those born here now will be able to accept such an existence.  Change in whatever form has to happen.

The road today combines everything a motorcyclist and a traveller could want.  The road is nicely challenging, varies from open swooping bends on perfect surfaces to tiny broken roads, pot holes and mud.  For the most part it is deserted.  It passes small villages and life is teeming on the road everywhere.  You can smell the dampness, the cooked foods and the smoke.   Close your eyes and drink in the smell and you know you are in the tropics.  Our average speed is quite slow and it is a full days ride to do the 240 miles. It’s been a great day.

In Mae Hong Son, we have a day off to explore the many temples and take visit to the hill tribe of the Long Neck Karen people.  Another refugee camp – self-sustaining due to their embracing of tourism, but yet another product of the Myanmar regime.  Again we feel torn between the commercialism of these rare people and the practical need for survival.

Tomorrow, yet again it is north bound to find elephants!