My partner Carol and I first rode together in Thailand on a trip for my fortieth birthday and it left such an impact on me that I could not let it go; so six months later we went back and picked up where were we had left off. As much as I desperately wanted to take my modified Suzuki SV650, the expense of shipping it out was horribly prohibitive on my tiny budget.
The answer for us was to shop around on Trip Advisor and make a deal with a Russian Motocrosser and hire a Honda CB500 for me and Kawasaki ER6n for Carol. The hire fees came to around £200 which included the returnable deposit and given that we were about to put over a thousand kilometres on them, this was really not bad.
The first day of our ride across Thailand started with the morning ferry from Koh Samui to Don Sak in Surat Thani.
From there our journey took us across Southern Thailand to Khao Sok, on the edge of the national park and into the beautiful Rain Forest. The rainforest is aptly named because when it rains there, it comes down in waves of brittle rain drop bullets that sting as they hit you and fill the road with spray up to about head height. The fun part though is that in the tropical climate the rain usually feels as warm as bath water.
On this trip though and with close to a hundred miles under my wheels, I was soaked to the skin and even in the humidity of the rainforest I was feeling cold. Thankfully after a few minutes hiding from the rain in that bus stop and out of the wind, the warmth eased back into my bones and I was soon ready to ride some more. Now some of you may be thinking that a mere hundred miles is nothing, the engine has barely warmed up by that distance, however after a long haul flight, a sixteen hour train journey, a cramped coach trip and two ninety minute ferry crossings, I was feeling road weary.
When we finally arrived at the lodge where we were staying, I was in need of dry clothes, a good meal and a long rest. The first person to greet us there was our friend Sai, the manageress of the Lodge owned by our other friend Bao. She hugged us and prepared warm drinks as we hung our dripping riding gear up to dry. Minutes later and feeling a lot better, we relaxed enjoying a fabulous hot meal and listening to the sounds of the jungle.
Our over night stay was a chance to catch up with our friends and when Bao arrived after a days work, he could not help but take Carol's ER6n out for a test ride. Large capacity bikes are not common among Thais, most buy themselves a 125cc scooter, currently the Honda Wave seems remarkably popular and there is a real scene for custom work and what we would call Streetfighter building among the owners of these small engined machines.