Bangkok oriental city…

Monday 1^st October

Now I’m also as peeved with the shipping agent as Richard. The agent asked when I want my bike delivered to Bangkok and I said Monday (thinking I could then get it out of customs on Tuesday, Originally I told him I wanted to fetch it on Monday out of customs, but knew that wouldn’t happen so resigned myself to Tuesday collection) He sent me an email yesterday saying it would be sent on a flight tonight (Monday) Now I’ve just been called by Korean air saying it can only be sent on Wednesday night AND will take two days to get out of customs, frack, why didn’t the shipping agent know all this and tell me as I’d have then told him to send it a week ago while I was in Seoul DAMN shipping agent.

So I will spend a week in Bangkok which I am not happy about. The last time I was here I did all the touristy things and this time and just not so keen to be in this big ugly smoggy city, I just want to be on the road. But I’ll spend some time catching up on emails and things 😦

I have been surprised at the amount of water around due to all the rains. I didn’t realise I would have to do a river crossing just to get to my hotel. The couple in the room next door have also been entertaining me with their morning, afternoon, evening, night time, dawn antics, quite funny especially the moving furniture noises. Well funny until you want to sleep THANK goodness for earplugs

Thursday 4^th October

I got my bike out of Cargo today and it is a very painless operation. There are guys at the airport hired to help you do not need to pay an agent. From the time the taxi dropped me, to the time I got to the bike was 2.5 hrs, then it took me 1.5hrs to put him all back together.

The security guys introduce you to a guy who will walk you all the way through the process, customs, forms etc etc. The guy who helped me was very nice spoke very good English, he had his truck there so drove to customs warehouse and back it’s quite a bit of moving from here to there and the place is huge.

He will help get all the forms and the Photostats etc. He took me 2 different cashiers 1 to pay a penalty for an amendment to the form as my address was on there, go figure it cost me 300bht. The storage for 1 night cost me 1022 bht. These are all legit at the relevant cashiers you get Thai cargo receipts.

The guy who helped me did get very concerned that I did not have a carnet and that I would have to pay import duties, I stood my ground and said I am not buying a caret and I know I do not need to pay import duties (I am not sure if he was trying to pull something or genuinely thought I needed a cart) I just said no carnet take me to customs. He did and that went though in about 1 hr. Most people speak some English so they just hand you over to English speaking people on the way.

After that I went to fetch Dozer in the warehouse.

They will fork life him bike in the crate to a quite spot out of the way where I took my time and put him back together again. Everyone is very helpful and nice. They even fork lifted my bike to help me put the front wheel on as I don’t have a centre stand. I asked the guy who helped me how much I owed him and he said no you can tip me if you like it is up to you. I gave him 500bht (16usd) as he was a great help and yes I may have been able to do it myself but it would have taken twice as long.

I hopped on my baby and he started 1 st time I whooped with joy, drove him 250m and he died. So someone called a truck for me to help get him somewhere. I thought stuff this I’ve now had enough asked the guy to drive me straight to a Suzuki dealer handed over the keys and said fix this bitch mate. I explained the problem and said I have JUST put a brand new battery and 2 brand new spark plugs into the bike uugghhh I fortunately had the old spark plug in my pocket and said this one has been in the bike for 300km and but I wanted dot put new ones in. He took one look at it and said well here is your probe you can see how bad the spark plug looks the seal on the carb has gone and petrol is flooding back.

We talked through a few other things my one fork seal has gone also, was fine before the flight, but when I unpacked Dozer there was the fluid from the fork all over. Anyway he is going to sort it all out I really liked the guy and the place very clean and professional, so HOLD THUMBS 🙂 I can either fetch it on study afternoon as eh said he would start looking at it right away but they don’t work on Sunday so I may only be able to fetch Dozer on Monday. However I am confident that he will then be in 100% tip top conditions and I can FINALY get on the road. It’s never simple with me is it?

But hey I’m on holiday so no complaining, I’ll have a lot of time to get depressed when I get home 🙂 which is why I’m booking all sorts of fun off-road trips for when I get back.

Friday 5^th October

I went to see Vimanmek I can only say one word about it WOW has to be seen to be believed. You cannot take pictures inside so I’ve downloaded these off the internet.

Saturday 6^th October

Woohoo Dozers back, I am soooo happy. The mechanic fixed the fork seal and the carb, the one seal was stuffed and also the choke cable was broken and some part of the choke was stuck in the carb or something. He also changed the wheel bearing and the back tire. I had the tire that I bought in China with me. He also changed the oil and oil filter. All for usd113 and I liked them they were very professional when I went to see the bike yesterday to find out the problem I was so impressed to see the mechanics tools all perfectly lain out on a cloth under the bike not just thrown around, first time I’ve ever seen that in a workshop. I know this does not make him a good mechanic it’s just something I noticed which I liked 🙂