Newsletter 9

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After a very long time a new story from us.
First the route we took: We stayed on Apri-22-01 a few days by the drunken guesthouse owner in Nang Rong, from there more to the north to a place called Tat Phanon: Niyana guest house, save parking and the owner is a Thai women (also a English teacher) a very nice place.
Than we followed the Mekong for a while and had an overnight in Beung Kan we slept in  "don't  no name hotel" for only one night. We followed the western border of Laos for a time through Thailand and we stopped for nearly a week in Non Kay on the Mekong river, we stayed in a very cozy guesthouse named Mutmee, run by a English owner 'Julian' the place have a nice garden, nice bungalows and a friendly atmosphere we could park the bikes over there. On the moment we where there -May 5-2001 he was building a new building with three more rooms. Very recommendable.
We left the place on May 14 to go to Laos and despite al the horror story's -it was not allowed to drive the motorbike over the bridge??!!, we should loaded the bikes on a pickup truck???  only god know why!- We will drive to the friendship bridge and will see what happens. We said to each other.
 The Thai customs wanted to see our "white paper" (We get this paper when entered the country, instead of using the carnet the passage.) On this white paper is written that if we lost the bike, we should pay 500.000 bath for each bike whatever the bike looks like, or how old the bike is.
500.000 bath is aprox.  11000 u$ and that is a lot of money for our bikes. So we have to be extra careful. We could go with the motorbikes over the bridge and lucky for us: no pick up trucks after all. 

In Laos we have to use the carnet again and because the officer didn't no how to handle with the papers, Jolanda have to tell him where he has to put the stamps and that a piece of the document paper was for him. The problem is that one custom officer knows about the carnet, so he want to see the document and the stamps, and the guy who's job is to give the stamps doesn't know anything, so we have to tell them how to deal with the papers.

On May 14-01
It was a very short ride from the border to Vientiane we found a cheep good guesthouse Salomyen with parking, -a room with cold shower was 6$, with hot shower 7$-
In Vientiane we also asked for a  2 months visa for Thailand and we get a 60 day visa the next day. We stayed a few days in Vientiane and we visit the Buddha park, a impressive place recommendable!! 

On May 19 we drove more north to Vang Vieng it was a drive of 160 km trough the mountains and it took us a few hours to reach the place, we made a mistake to take the guesthouse what was recommended by the lonely planet (Na Na guesthouse) this guesthouse was too big and thus perfect for big groups, and as always bigger groups makes big noise and big noise made a worse sleep possible. So this was not a good plan. 
Vang Vieng  is a really tourist place, don't believe the story's that Laos is not discovered by tourist!! Many, many tourist are there. 
And because the tourist are there, a lot of attractions can be done, we did the kayaking trip. To get there was quit simple, first in a pick up truck, to drive us 60 kilometers south, there we get the kayak the guide and did the beautiful tour with the kayak, (we started with a small fight because Jolanda and I had different ideas how to kayak the right way). The water level was not that high so it was not a very hard stream. Slowly, slowly down the river just like that song a few small rapids makes the trip more exciting and along the way, we found out was there were no living animals to see in comparison with boot trips in other countries. It seem that Laos people eat all the living creatures they can catch. Except for the butterflies. Later on we have seen on a local market -except from the regular animals-; Bats, Squirrels; Frogs, Rats, Beatles and so on, as eatable animals.
In spite of this we had a wonderful kayak trip, a few good laughs, and no rain at all. And after a few hours we have to get back with the pick up truck. We stopped in a small village and waited there for transportation to the main road, the vehicle -a small tractor/plough with a cart- brought us to the main road. The pickup driver was even more insane than the guy who brought us down here, he drove this pickup truck as a real idiot trough the mountains and I get really car sick together with a few locals. Now I know what it is to do a trip like this in a bus. 
A few days later we rented two inner tubes  to get us down the river, it was good fun we loved it. Vang Vieng is famous about the caves, the village has many different caves worth to visit them. We had a really good time over there.

We blamed the rainy season not to go anymore North and after all, this was a mistake. So we skipped Luang Prabang later on we heard from other travelers that the road was fine and the place beautiful. Shit happens.

 We drove back on May 26-01 from Vang Vieng the same route, it was a pity to see a lot of  the mountains where deforest. 
The border on Laos site no trouble at al, but the Thai border takes us a hour, they want to see the famous "white paper" again. They concluded that we have to pay overtime because the bikes where longer in Thailand than the 1 month period on the paper, we could easily proof with the stamps in the carnet that the bikes where in Cambodia and in Laos and that it is not our fault that nobody in other borders never asked for the with paper. So after this 1 hour delay we continued the trip back to Mutmee guesthouse. Now we managed get away from this place more easier, so after two nights we left the place to see more of the northern part of Thailand. 

We followed the Mekong river for quit a while to get us self's in a two days drive to Sukothai.(May 23-01) Sukothai is the old capital of Thailand a lot of ruins can be visit and some of the places has been renovated, we slept in -tough finding- Ban tan guesthouse don't take bungalow nr 12 -this room have some heavy noisy equipment to keep you awake the whole night long and they don't give you your money back. But there are more guesthouses so check it yourself.

After a few days we left Sukothai to go more North direction Chiang May, over here we want to visit Joe Bike shop. On the way to C.M. Leon's bike started to get us some trouble the bike was not running constantly he lost for a short moment a bit of throttle and pick up the throttle half a second later. Joe, a German guy, owns the place. He  lives here now several years and he rent big bike out and he can repair big bikes, we need some maintenance on the bikes so we visit him and he supplied us some spark plugs we checked the valves -they where still ok- and checked all the bolt and nuts for two bikes in not even one day. 
Here we met Martin, Barbara and Gion again, the first two we met in Turkey about ten months ago it was nice to see them back and catch up with all the stories. 
Jolanda didn't like C M very much to big and not a nice atmosphere, in the days we where there we were lucky to see a few movies from the Europeans film festival also a Dutch movie called Lek it was fun to see and listen some Dutch again on such a big screen. After a few days we decided to hit the road again.

On Sunday June-10-01, we entered a small village called Pai a bit more in the North of Thailand and a little bit more to the Burma border, the village is mentioned in the Lonely Planed and it's trough, we arrived there and it looked nothing special but after a few days the place catch us, it has a good atmosphere so we liked it, but we where there in the rainy season and this must make a lot of difference. We counted to many guesthouses, so in the high season the place could be a mess. Now it was a friendly -not so many tourist- small place with a Jazz bar, good music, nice food -baguette- and filter coffee.
We did a Burmese/Thai massage course from 4 days by Mr. Jan this was really good hard working study and practice.

June 19-01 It was time to drive a bit more and make some kilometers after a week Pai.
We wanted to do the Northern loop Mai Hong Song, Ma Sariang and Mae sot, to reach Ayutthaya. We didn't regret it all, the nature was beyond beautiful, it looks like the traffic stopped and we where there all alone.
The weather was perfect sometimes a few showers, but most of the times it was dry but cloudy and cool, we had to take some roads with landslides and that was very special, it was slippery but without falling from the bike we made it. It was also real nice to have the experience how it is to drive into a cloud and within half a meter the rain started. Anyway the trip is recommendable but make sure the area  is save, because the trip is following the Burmese border and passing several refugee villages.

Ayutthaya is the old capital of Thailand and is a worth a visit. Plenty of ruins from wats can be found here and a lot of wats were renovated and are now in a good shape. We liked to sleep in Tony's place a bit noisy till 12.00pm but after that it was perfect and only u$4, for a room, nice staff, good food, and a everything is not a problem atmosphere, we liked it.
On June 25 we rented two pushbikes to look around we have seen some beautiful temples in a very good condition and what the day made special was a visit to the elephant camp. Most elephants where in town to work with tourist, but some of them were still there -some mothers with there kids. We discovered also a little orphan elephant she was standing beside the rest and the small guy was in a playing mood. She opened our sandals with his trunk and she pushed the trunk to Jolanda side she nearly lost balance it was really fun to be here. 

From Ayutthaya we took a small minibus to bring us -in less than one hour- back to Bangkok, it was much cheaper than drive our own bikes.  We have to be there to get our money back or to get a new camera because the one we bought broke down after a few days when we where in Cambodia. 
Off course the guy in the Nikon shop told us it was not possible, we told him that it was possible, because the camera he sold us was a shit camera for to much money and when you buy a expensive Nikon camera -with excellent service said the book-  you don't expect a camera that will break down in a few days. So he called the boss and explained what was going on in the shop and the boss a clever Thai lady told him on the phone to change the camera for a new one.  The same day we picked up a few books left there by Cristoff and Dani -thanks a lot for that-.

June 29 01 On the road to Prachuap Khiri Khan -about 380 km. from Bangkok- the bike from Leon started to give more problems sometimes the engine started to sulking it looks like the engine doesn't get enough fuel. So we removed the fuel filter and the engine start again. A little bit further -it started to rain more and more- the engine stopped completely he tried to shift to a lower gear but when the back wheel found some grip the bike slipped away and Leon felt, it was a perfect sliding the only problem are the aluminum panniers he found out, it is very easy to get your leg hurt with those panniers. But beside from this he was all right and showed that to Jolanda who was running to him.
It took us three hours to get the handlebars of  and back on the bike, because this part looks bended and need some investigation luckily everything was in the shape it supposed to be, and we put everything back on the bike. The leg was hurting, but as long the leg was moving it was all right.
We couldn't find why the engine stopped running, but it started without problems so we give it another go.
In the night we visit the Ranong hospital to make some x rays to be sure if the leg was not broken and the x rays showed nice -in one piece- bones.

We arrived on July 1 01 in Krabi without any problems on the bike, we had heard from Patrick and Lorenz that the Laughing Gecko in Ao Nang a good place is to get some rest so we went over there. Two hours later -till our surprise- Jolanda and Rool (Dutch couple) also arrived. We slept the first days without working on the bike to give it a good thought.
We send email to Nick the Welshman and he replied us that had planned to come to the laughing gecko and we should have no worries we will solve the problem. 
We also send some emails to friends in Holland and also they were very helpful with ideas what could be the problem. Leon didn't bring the in German repair book from the bike because the book has a lot of old information from elderly models and for example a complete wrong electrical scheme -wrong colors- A wrong book is better than no book at all, we found out .
 But we were lucky that Nick was in the neighborhood, he helped us and teaches us a lot of the motorbikes Thanks a lot and we hope to see you in Australia!!

A wrong book is better than no book at all, we found out 
Inside the carburetor we found an jet -we cleaned- and an interesting mechanism to hold the float into the of the carburetor, under the float we could see a screw we didn't want to touch, -it looked to complicated to build it back in- without any book, under this screw is a fuel filter and this was causing the problem but as a I was telling we didn't pay attention to this screw. We changed everything what was possible (carburetors, fuel tanks, sparkplugs, coils, cdi, diaphragms, and I'm sure that I forget something)  with Jolanda's bike made some test-drive to find out the problem was still there.
Hours and hours of trying and testing and driving but no result made it not easy to fall in sleep, and after 14 days of trying we nearly give up, Nuy the owner of the Laughing Gecko told me "go to Krabi and find yourself a repairman they will solve the problem, I'm sure" and because we run out of possibilities, Leon went on July 19 01 with Martin Rooiman (Dutch guy with a BMW 1100) to Krabi to find this repairman.
A guy told us go through Krabi, make a right -direction Trang-, go over the bridge and 400 /500 meter on the left-hand side you will see a motorbike shop called Bank Big Bike Shop. This guy will help you. And as he was saying,  it worked; we found the shop, he found the dirty fuel filter inside the carburetor, he cleaned it and put the carburetor back on the bike and took the bike for a test run. The bike was not falling out anymore but the sulking thing was still there, he made the mixture a bit richer,  -more fuel less air- and Leon was almost happy.

He drove back the 20 km. back to Ao Nang and it looked that the bike was fine. So we spend a few more days at the Laughing Gecko and we prepared ourselves for the drive to Malaysia. Nick was so friendly to tell us a lot about how the Malaysian people drive cars and that should be good fun like in India!!!

So another nice thing to tell is that we are going for Holliday back to Holland, we are flying 13 sept from Bangkok to Amsterdam!!. 
So the next newsletter is a short one from Malaysia and a long one from a strange small country without hills and everything is flat over there, all the people are using drugs and walking on wooden shoes on the wrong side off the road. Could be fun over there???!!!!

see you  Leon and Jolanda.