Bikes, Buses, Boats, Beaches and Beer, on a Budget - Noddy's (mis)Adventures in Asia

THE ROAD TO MYANMAR BY SCOOTER

DAY 1 - PATTAYA TO KANCHANABURI

I will skip a couple of stories and head straight for the current road trip, a crazy mission to ride from Pattaya to Mae Sot, then cross the border into Myanmar on the bike and ride around for a month. We are now 3 days into the ride, in Sangkhlaburi...

We eventually left Pattaya around 12.30pm, after getting well hammered on our last night in town, not part of the 'early sober night' plan at all, but surely no surprise to anybody. Some of mine and Noi's friends thought it would be funny to buy her a'few' drinks, knowing she rarely indulges and the poor girl had spent the night on the floor with a bucket having the occasional spew!

I heard nothing though as I was well and truly in a beer/sangsom/sambucca induced coma, oblivious to everything except the pounding headache I had upon waking.

A slow start and a few stops early and we were heading up Sukhumvit before turning to the coast at Bangsaen Lang rd and following the the ocean views as far as possible, not rejoining Highway 3 until just north of Bang Sai, near Nong Mai Daeng.

After that I had been going great until I hit my first toll booth on the expressway, only to be told what I was starting to suspect, 'no motorbike here, you go back'!! So go back I did, the wrong direction down the tollway shoulder, to some very bemused looks from everybody. Silly farang!

We then kicked a hard left at the NE corner of the gulf, apparently this is also still Hwy 3, which follows across the top of the bay past Bang Pu and onto Samut Prakan, a cool section though a little busy with trucks. The GPS took me somewhere near Bang Hua Sua where we ran out of road at the river... no worries we were now parked on a barge and crossing over with a bunch of other bikes for 10bt.

From here I have no idea where we ended up or what roads we took, all I know is, I hope to never do that shit again! What a nightmare, the traffic being so hectic I didn't mind - we just kept getting so jammed up and unable to get any speed up it was so frustrating, ok a little nerve wracking on a few occasions also.

OsMand had proved to be an amazing GPS app so far, but I think due to my settings, it was really struggling with the overpasses and major highway crossovers, regularly stuffing my route up and causing a 10-15 minute loop to get back on track. Other than that it has been brilliant, I highly recommend it.

About the time I was ready to really blow my fuse with it all, the traffic thinned out a little and Nakhon Pathom was in my sights, there was light at the end of this tired, hungover, slightly rattled, ready for a beer, day on the bike! We finally rolled into Kanchanburi at around 7.30 pm after many stops, fuck ups, turn around's and getting stuck in crazy Bangkok traffic, but it was still a great ride.

Some sights along the way, day 1