July 26th, 2016
Tuesday July 26th-back on the road
I’m so bummed I have not had a chance to figure out HOW to get photos back into my blog. My story about today’s adventure would be nicely supplemented by photos. Troy, Ian and I had planned out an awesome day of riding. (ok-full disclosure-I don’t do any planning-the guys do that part and I just rubber stamp it). So we get up, pack up our stuff as we have to move rooms AGAIN and leave our bags behind as our new room isn’t ready and we need to go. They assure us they will move our stuff when the time comes. I feel bad for them (just a tiny bit) because we have so many small lose bags of stuff from shopping etc, but it’s only a one floor move, so it is what it is. We stop at the bakery for a breakfast pastry and something yummy for the road/later. We make our way over to the cafe where Ian is getting ready too. We decide to rent bikes from Danny bike rental across the road from the cafe, he is the same price as POP rentals. (200b/24hour) He accepts a photocopy of our passports also and only 3,000 baht deposit, so as it turns out this is better than the other day where we have to leave 6.000 baht. I think Tee had to vouch for us, he would have preferred our passports….
So now we are all set, and we head off towards the moat road that circles the old city. We are literally on the bikes less than 90seconds and troy and I are pulled over at a checkpoint. Now we have heard about/seen these “checkpoints” many times. They are literally a shakedown of the Farangs (foreigners) by the police for cash. Thai Corruption at its finest….sure enough they indicate that we have to pay 1,000 baht each or face 30 days in Thai prison for driving without an international drivers license. Omg. Yea yea, we know we should have gotten one, we have in the past and I even have our expired ones here, they were just in the room. So historically (and perhaps according to the actual law) the standard fine for this is 400 baht, but these guys had a nice laminated card that said 1,000b-undoubtedly something they printed up at the local copy shop this morning when they start around deciding how badly to rip off the Farang today. But there really is no arguing. If it wasn’t this, they would have found something else. In hindsight I wish I’d had the GoPro started up, because then it would have been caught on tape and they don’t like video of their corruption going viral, so they would have waived us on. The guy literally just put the 2,000b ($60 USD) in his pocket. They wouldn’t write us a ticket or a receipt, it was textbook shakedown. Good thing we had the money on us I guess. Many wouldn’t have….chalk this one up for the record book. Maybe I should have said “I’ll take the jail time” and seen how long it took the Canadian embassy to get me out. 2 hours? 24 hours? Less than 48? Hahahaha. Just kidding mom…..😘
So this annoying bit aside, we carry on with our ride to Lamphon. We rode an amazing gorgeous road that followed the river. Everything we stopped to look at something, or get gas, or a drink or use the hangnam (washroom), we felt the heat hit us like a wall. You get this false sense of relief when cruising along at 60km/hr on a bike. Knowing the sun is baking you, we all had sunscreen on, but were not “hot”, until we stopped. We rode from 10:30 until about 5:30 and stopped at several cool things, temples, viewpoints etc. once again, hoping to add photos…..
Upon our return to city, we quickly returned the bikes, not wanting another 2,000 baht fine, and then walked over to a Mexican place called Miguel’s where we felt margaritas were in order, along with some fine Mexican food. Then we wandered over to the Crazy German’s which is the place I usually manage to avoid and just let the boys go, but tonight I was swept up in the fun. So all in all today was kind of an expensive day, 120 baht for pastries, 2,000 B to the police ballroom fund, 400 b for the bike rental, 300 baht for gas, 1,000 B Mexican food, 1,000 jack Daniels and coke, 700 B crazy German t-shirts, an awesome day with my guys-priceless…..
