Knowing it was going to be a long day of traffic in Bangkok, we didn’t stop for photos.
The track
The gruelling two hour battle through Bangkok. It’s hard to describe, different to other bad city traffic we’ve been in. It’s more claustrophobic in some areas than any other city so far, which is harder on a big bike, enduro or not.
The GPS track below is a history file, the GPS was of no use other than being a useful compass. In such super-dense gridlock of small tuk tuks, scooters, small cars, rolling vendors, you have to make decisions at every corner to try and make progress, the GPS recommendation is no good at all. Sidewalks, alleys, anything in that goes in the right direction. It’s on the borderline between fun and frustrating. But I want to do it more again, so maybe fun has the edge. One beer first next time.
The two hour track. The red road is ‘no motos’. The green exiting previously at dawn.
OK, now we’re in Bangkok, tons to do, plus our friend is arriving in 5 days from Phnom Penh.
The problem ahead is finding a firm to ship the bike before she arrives. A recent decision to go home, so we’ve no advance research. It’s a pain in the ass when there’s no rider history, like exiting Bangkok by air. So we need to find a trustworthy forwarder and check them out. Plus Canada isn’t an easy destination with a wooden crate where the materials have to be certified fumigated and a ton of other details as usual. Anyway, we get it done, and arrange a receiver at the far end who can deal with a bike. Cost including airfare was about double the big-distance flight from Buenos Aires to Aukland, which had the advantage of being direct (and un-cased, lol) on an ancient and sketchy LAN Airlines jet. The boat to East timor was cheap as she shared a container with 2 other bikes and cases of booze and cleaning supplies. Panama City to Bogota by air was a breeze and cheap. No case, no hassles. Aukland to Perth was all about quarantine which despite going relatively going smoothly was a mountain of paperwork and licensing I’d rather forget. In theory this time it should be smooth.
Here are the warehousemen. They’ll case her now, ready with disconnected battery, mirrors off, etc. all done at this point. As it happens it was about 100F and 90 humidity when this shot was taken. My sweat drenched suit plus helmet gloves and boots are in a $3 duffle under the bike to ship with her. Always a bad idea but the alternate is a big hassle
Time to pay up. Cash only, as usual.
This is JJ, the manager. She takes care of everything perfectly and she’s very funny. So a strong recommendation for her and Transpologistics, Bangkok. Use them. Negotiate your own price
This is tiny JJ on the bike. I cropped myself out of it and didn’t take the lousy shot
Then I left her.
I get this shot from JJ later. On her way to the airport. Sad seeing her enclosed like this
