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Kiat, who had been riding with me since KL, will now fly to Chiang Mai. I’ll go the slow and fun way, slowly making my way up north village by village and through minor highways. This upcoming section is something I’ve looked forward to doing for a while: the long and narrow part of Thailand which connects the broader asian landmass to the Malay peninsula.

Today’s ride in blue

But before the riding, the day started by tying up some final loose ends in Phuket. I’d booked in a service with Ducati Phuket a while ago, and had a whole list of things to be done.

1. Standard service: has been due for a service for a while, and I’ve finally put the KMs on it to make it worthwhile. They replaced brake/clutch fluid, oil filter, oil change, a gasket somewhere, and generally gave the bike a good look over.
2. Adjusting the clutch level upwards: my riding boots are quite cumbersome and thick (by design - maxes out on protection this way), but this has the unintended consequence of making shifting a lot harder to do accurately. I’ve had moments while riding from Malaysia to Thailand, where I’d accidentally downshifted when meaning to upshift. Quite scary when going from 4th into 3rd at ~160-180KPH.
3. Resetting the PIN code (when I purchased the bike, the grey importer did not know the PIN code, and did not feel particularly compelled to find out what it was. To add insult to injury, Wheels of Arabia, the Ducati dealer in Dubai, refused to help. If one is in Dubai, and wishes to purchase a Ducati, I strongly urge you to be cautious with Wheels of Arabia; it seems like they do not know how to maintain bikes (the ones they have for sale have unaccounted for-defects, very poor quality maintenance, etc. They are also not particularly service oriented. Rant over…)
4. Trying to raise the side stand/change the profile to be less upright: this wasn’t possible for them to do unfortunately; they suggested getting a centre stand for the bike. This is quite an inconvenience, as the bike tends to stand VERY upright, and when I have luggage on the bike, will be very close to tipping over, unless I park on a downwards slope. Not sure how to fix this one…

Think they were updating the ECU…don’t ask me what for

While they were busy working on my bike, I walked down the road to Thailand Post, to ship some of the excess luggage I’d accumulated. This included my upper body crash pads (which are redundant, because of the armour built into my airbag suit), some extra clothes I’d replaced with Uniqlo dry-tech (this is amazing kit) shirts, and a drink bottle I received as a gift. All in all, about 3kg of weight I was able to drop…every bit counts!

Only 1500 baht ($50); vs DHL which was 10,000 baht ($300)

Back at the dealership I had quite a pleasant interaction with an old kiwi named Michael. Michael was 74, and had been in Thailand the last 20 years, spoke decent Thai, and rode a 660cc Royal Enfield. He was quite a talkative bloke, and shared a few of the stories across the years, all through Thailand on all manner of bikes (vespas, postie bikes, his triumph, etc). He seemed content and had a positive energy about him.

This morning’s pour over (courtesy of my travel coffee thermos)

Then - it was time to hit the road. We finished up about ~12PM, which was about 3 hours earlier than what had been initially guided - so I was very pleased.

Me in my riding kit.

The going was good; a sunny start, which held for the first 2 hours. I stopped for a late PTT lunch at Phang Nga, and decided to jump back on the bike when I saw clouds starting to roll in.

PTT motorcycle-cart lunch

**A humble pad thai + fried banana/sweet potato

As I entered Ranong province, the landscape turned from a mixture of palm/rubber plantations to lush and dense rainforest. It also felt like I was riding into a dark forest, as I had entered a section with thick clouds overhead and fog laden on the landscape.

A massive waterfall in the mountain-rainforest

Then, the rain turned on. Nothing too crazy by monsoon standards, but probably what you’d call heavy rain back in Sydney. This kept up for about an hour, and I am very pleased to report that apart from my gloves being wet, everything else held up, and stayed dry. With the number of things that have been breaking on me (most recently my GPS unit got water damage, even though it was specifically designed to be rugged/all elements…grrr), I’m glad that the pants+suit combo I got held up. Bloody well that they did, as they cost ~1.5K EUR!

Reaching Ranong town at ~5:30pm gave me time to check in, explore the local hot springs (what a way to end an afternoon of riding), purchase durian + snacks from the local market, and grab a late dinner from a local Hokkien/Thai restaurant.

Hot springs in nature. Was great until the mozzies came out in full force.

**“Evening market” that closes at 8PM

Very aesthetic durian stall at the evening market

Ranong is an interesting place. It is about 30-40% Hokkien Thai (settled in the 19th century when Tin mining was big), with Burmese heritage being another major population group, being just across the river from Myanmar. The first governor was actually Hokkien (although didn’t seem like a good dude - the Chinese migrants that worked the tin mines were basically indentured labour, and he was the guy who “squashed the rebellion”).

You can definitely see the Chinese influence here; red lanterns, Chinese characters, roast pork and pork belly in all the dishes! Other facts I discovered while researching during dinner: It is the wettest province in Thailand (8 months of the year are wet), has the lowest population density, and its economy is driven by fishing, as a trade outpost with Myanmar, and a small amount of tourism (mostly Thai tourists visiting the hot springs and national parks).

Hokkien-Thai restaurant for dinner

Tomorrow; Kanchanaburi! (If I make it…otherwise I will stop in a town along the way)

Stats:

• 29.2L fuel added
• 30g coffee consumed
• 1 uniqe interactions
• 331 KMs travelled
• 0.5 durians consumed (4.5 total i think)

Some photos:Hot & Sour pork soup + stir fried curried soft-shell crab

Much tastier than the roadside-van durian i had in Phuket

Horseshoe crabs…i think these are the ones whose blood goes for $16K per litre and is used to detect bacterial contamination in medical devices/vaccines/implants etc.