Myself and Nuth got to chatting today, we were looking through my Thailand guide book from a couple of years ago and it was apparent that she hasn’t seen an awful lot of her home country.

I thought about this a little bit and realised I haven’t seen as much as I would have liked too either. So and idea started to form. On the way back from lunch we popped into the local metalworkers and asked how much it would cost to have one of the sidecars they build for scooters made, they are a metal frame and are used to carry cargo or people. I decided the price was good so ordered one. So we are going to take the scooter, with the big add on side frame, and myself, Nuth and little Leon will go on a 6 week tour of Thailand.

I have to say, I’m rather excited!

After 4 weeks of constantly calling them to hurry them along Honda finally fixed my CBR! Well almost, this is Thailand, you didn’t expect it to be perfect did you? They replaced the fairing, headlights and windshield. But they forgot to order a decal set for it. So my poor bike is naked! Actually it looks quite cool in pure black without the graphics.

This really is good news though, I have to make a visa run to Ranong next week and I can now go on the bike! Hop on the ferry over to Surat Thani and then about a 4 hour cruise over to the Mynamar (Burma) border. I’ll stay overnight there and the wander across the border and back the next morning.

I have made a concession to safety though, I bought myself a crash helmet, I was damn lucky with that last accident.

I called them up this morning and told them the CBR they sold me less than 2 months ago needed some slight repairs. Well ok maybe a little more than slight, it looks like a complete replacement fairing, new forks and some light fittings replaced.

Let’s see how much they come up with for a price, the whole bike cost 70k Baht new, they can’t charge more than about 5k Baht to replace some pieces of plastic.

I bet they do though.

One of the worries of living in Thailand for me, especially somewhere with so little infrastructure as Koh Phangan is what would happen if I was ill? It’s not like being in the UK where all you have to do is trundle off to the nearest hospital and have a chat with somebody who speaks the same language as you. Here it’s all very different.

So I was a little more worried than usual 4 nights ago when I finally crashed my motorcycle. I guess it’s been overdue for a few months now and a lesson I knew I would inevitably learn at some stage.

I hit some sand on a tight bend, going pretty slowly, the bike slid, not a problem in itself, but then it slid onto the grass verge and flipped over, this catapulted me off the bike, but unluckily there was a long drop down a steep slope to the beach that I flew down.

So I crawled up the verge and lay there groaning, something was definitely wrong with my back. I called Nuth and she came and picked me up, not a single scratch on the bike but I can’t even stand up.

So I have just spent 4 days laying in bed trying to decide if I am going to throw myself on the mercy of the local hospital. I have sprained my back before and recognise the pain, nothing much can be done except painkillers and rest. We shall see tomorrow, if it’s no better I might have to go and see a doctor.