Araynaprathet, Thailand (Cambodian border) (Day 51, 6905km)

My bike sounding to my ears like it had just left the factory, I left Nakhon Si Thammarat at about 3 in the afternoon, and aimed for Surathani - when I got there, however, I found that it seemed altogether too similar to the past few days of urban lifestyle, which, while it had been a grand experience, was something I felt like a break from. So I pushed onwards into the dusk, and stopped for a celebratory KFC - the real one this time (my first of the big fastfood chains on this trip), with a statue of the Colonel himself welcoming me through the doors. The menu breakdown seems slightly different, but at the end of the day what features is fried chicken, and I am all in favour. The Thai motorway up the narrow part of the peninsula is a good four-lane one, and the traffic was not overwhelmingly heavy, so I easily made another 150km or so before deciding that Bangkok was now within a day's ride, and starting to wonder where I'd sleep.

After a few half-hearted spots, I saw a nice grassed area inside a well-lit, low-walled property - it turned out to be the local hospital, and I asked the guard by sign language whether there was a chance I might be able to put up my tent for the night. He wasn't too sure, but went off to get the manager, who very nicely showed me a grassy place around the back, as well as where I could find the toilets, so, pleased, I put up my tent. I had a broken conversation for a while with somebody whose mother was in the hospital, and took a few scenic night shots of the lights - word had gotten out about my trip, and a few passing nurses thought that was a little crazy. They offered me a meal, but I said my tummy was already full, and went off to a warm and humid, but reasonably comfortable night.

In Surathani had been where I'd met my first international motorcycle travellers - at least I think they were, but unfortunately it was just at the traffic lights, and after trying to yell at one another for a moment or two, the lights turned green and they zoomed off. The next day was when I met the first Kiwi in a while- he's married to a local lady who owns a rubber plantation in the area - they were able to provide me with a little information on trying to bypass Bangkok. It was also the first day I had real rain - enough that I had to stop after a while from the cold (which was a first in many months!), and poured about half a cup out of each of my boots. After the downpour lessened, and I'd changed my clothes for dry ones, including my polarfleece neckwarmer, I pressed on towards Bangkok. By this stage I had actually decided to go to Kanchana Buri, about 120km west of Bangkok, alongside the River Kwae (or Kwai) and home to the famous bridge. This day also happened to be the western-most in my trip, at 99 degrees east. Hamilton, NZ is 175 degrees east, which means I have gone across five "logical" time zones, although I think the difference was six with daylight savings. From now on every day I will be closer to the Land of the Rising Sun.

The "main road" way to Kanchana Buri was of course to Bangkok, and then out again to the west, but I was keen on avoiding the big city as much as possible, so I took the side roads - my first real venture away from the main highways. The roads were still good (and the weather was now dry), but I found the Thai markings hard to follow. On the main road the English subtitles had been barely sufficient, and often it seemed like one had to know not only one's final destination, but what town lay next on the path, and then the signs were good. Off the main road, my map wasn't nearly detailed enough, and my GPS showed me making very wide "tacks" towards my goal. Still, it was a pleasant ride through the Thai countryside, and a few locals helped me figure out where I was going, once we collectively figured out what I was really trying to pronounce and how to pronounce it... Somewhere on these roads I saw my first motorcycle crash - it didn't look that spectacular, just a small bike on the road with police standing around with tape measures - up until this point the only evidence of road strife that I had seen had been two trucks on their side off the road, one in Malaysia, and one in Thailand.

When I arrived at Kanchana Buri I chose to pay a little extra for hot shower water, and with it got my first air-conditioned room of the trip - usually I try to avoid them, as the locals think they can charge tourists exactly double for having one - I know they use a lot of power, but not US$5 per night, surely! Anyway, I ended up with a lovely room right on the side of the river, which was clean and comfortable, for just over NZ$11, a lot more than the NZ$4.50 I'd been paying at the hotel for the past few days, but my piggy bank was not broken... The hot shower was lovely after the few hours I'd had in the rain (which was apparently totally unseasonal, but still wet me just as effectively as the usual kind). I had dinner at a lovely restuarant all lit with fairy-lights, and was thinking how good it would be for Wendy to be there around the same time as she was eating at a Thai restuarant in Tokyo, thinking of how nice it would be for me to be there...

A few other random Thai bits and pieces - English being quite limited here, calls of "Hello!" are as normal as in all the other non-English speaking countries I've been to, and I haven't been too exhausted yet by the smile/wave/"Hello!" routine. I've only once so far gotten the infamous "Hello, I love you!" line, but I did get a smiling "Tsunami! Tsunami!" a couple of times, possibly that being the only other "English" word that they knew?

The next morning I met a Canadian tourist who gave me some tips for Cambodia, and then paid a quick visit to the bridge, and attempted the day's challenge - to bypass Bangkok! After a few uncertain turns, and some directions from the Honda people (who like all the other Honda people don't sell oil filters for Honda motorcycles - 2-stroke bikes is pretty much all they know), I eventually found my way onto the "Outer Ring Road No. 9" that I had seen on my map - 8 lanes of flyover motorway, each lane wide enough for a couple of cars - woohoo! It had been just difficult enough that I was relieved that I could now find my way past Bangkok, when all of a sudden, the highway ended, and dumped us down into the Bangkok traffic. Grr. After an hour or so of going one way and another into dead ends (I could see on my GPS which way to go, but not the road, of course) I found a promising expressway... but the man at the tollgate was not impressed - I gathered from his displeasure that motorcycles are not permitted on their expressway, so I showed I understood, and tried to go forward to turn around (by this time there was a car behind me) - but the silly man grabbed my handbrake, and wouldn't let me go anywhere, while the cars backed up and started using their horns. eventually I managed to let him understand, and went back out the way I came in - a silly communication break-down, but adding to the day's stress. I found a payphone and called Wendy, as we had been trying to contact each other by voice for weeks, and my Thai phonecard would be no good once I left Thailand.

After a wondeful conversation, I asked a policeman for a few more directions, and got sent back (again!) the direction I'd come from, but off down a side road to a small ferry (!) so I could get across the river that only the big expressway has a bridge over. A few more stops for directions, which led to a few more fun encounters (like some guy at the end of the road with a bit of English who said he'd been to Canada to work, but found it much too cold!), and I found the ferry, paid my 30c, and suddenly found the Number 9 Ring Road again! Hooray! I couldn't continue on the tolled 4-lane upper level (as I found out the fun way) due to motorcycles not being permitted, but there were 8 lanes at the bottom which makes about the largest road system I have yet ridden or driven on. Well after dark I felt far enough out of Bangkok to call it a day, and at the next town, Chachoensao, found an average, but slightly overpriced, guesthouse. The next morning bright and early I hopped on my bike and without much incident rode the 200km to Aranyaprathet (where I found out that it was a Thai bank holiday, and I couldn't exchange my Baht for US dollars), and the Cambodian border.

So, that was my experience in Thailand - lovely people, great food and good roads, and except for Bangkok, nice traffic conditions. I fully recommend a visit, and I hope to return here in the not-to-distant future. The only downsides for me, the self-propelled tourist, were the slightly difficult road signage, and the traffic and road situation in Bangkok - the reason I'd been trying to avoid it. It was in the Bangkok traffic that I first started getting sore hands, from gripping the handlebars too tightly!