 I slept for 1 hr the night before our big trip, woke up at 5:30 am and felt terrible; I thought for sure I was about to get sick. Drank two M150 and we left BKK around 7:30 am. Usually I need at least 3 hr sleep minimum to get by and was worried I would conked out on the first day of our journey; however, some how I manage to make it to our destination at Tak. The only thing I could think that kept me going was the nervous energy / adrenaline that has been building up inside me for the pass month, finally we are leaving after 9 months of planning.
  slept for 1 hr the night before our big trip, woke up at 5:30 am and felt terrible; I thought for sure I was about to get sick. Drank two M150 and we left BKK around 7:30 am. Usually I need at least 3 hr sleep minimum to get by and was worried I would conked out on the first day of our journey; however, some how I manage to make it to our destination at Tak. The only thing I could think that kept me going was the nervous energy / adrenaline that has been building up inside me for the pass month, finally we are leaving after 9 months of planning.
There was only three things that I remembered about the first leg of our journey: 1) it was hot as hell 2) Hui & I drank a whole lot of water 3) I kept on yawning all the way from BKK to Tak. Once in Tak we traded our big bikes, a Honda Blackbird & Hornet, for smaller off-road Honda’s XR250, the following
day we were to do our first off-road riding from Tak to Mae Sot on the infamous Pink Route. Although the distant is only roughly 150 km, it would take use 2 days to cover this part of the journey. With my adrenaline still kicking I slept for only 4 hr that night and woke up the following morning at 6:00 am. After breakfast we met up with Pek and his 4Wheel off-road crew at the Muser Market 40 km outside of Tak. Pek is our guide who will be taking us through the treacherous Pink route over the next two days. This is the first time I would be riding off-road in my entire life and to be honest I was a bit nervous. The first 40-50 km was quite easy and I thought to myself this’s going to be a “piece of cake.” Riding off-road requires a whole different set of skills from riding on road. I had one lesson with the guys from DIRTSHOP a week before leaving BKK and felt it was paying off on the pink route. The longer we went the more confidence I got and I started going faster and faster. I had my front foot down and was hitting each corner fast and hard. However, at one blind corner coming down hill I was going too fast not leaning the bike over enough and the inevitable happen. The bike went flying over the cliff and I went crashing hard on to the dirt road; the last thing I remember was hitting my chest hard on the ground. Hui was right behind me and he told me it was quite a nasty crash. Yet, I was lucky, somehow I did not go off the cliff with the bike and secondly the bike got stuck between a few bamboo branches, which kept it from sliding all the way down the hill. Pek and the guys arrived a few minutes later and everyone helped pulled the bike up. The general consensus was that I was lucky I did not seriously get hurt and that I should try going slower. I dusted myself of and we all continue on our journey. 
For the rest of the day I fell about 5 more times with one serious incident; going up a very steep hill and coming down steep on the other side resulting in the bike falling on me and twisting my ankle. So much for my one lesson in BKK. Its normal for me to ride 800-1000 km a day on the road but after 80 km on the pink route I was out of it. We got to our campsite at 5:30 pm and I was glad it was over for the day. We set up camp, had an amazing dinner by one of the guys from the 4 wheel crew and went to bed early. One last thing- I was supposed to be looking after Hui, my riding partner, but he was the one looking after me. Not once did he fell while I on the other hand was the laughing joke of the day. 
We got up early the next day and right away I learned today’s riding will be tougher than the day before. There was one hill that for the life of me I couldn’t get the bike up, neither can Hui and we both ended up pushing the bikes up. The 4wheel guys called it “Sukie Hill.” I called it ‘Dante’s Hell.” We finally got out of the Pink Route at around 3:00 pm and were about 40km away from Mae Sot. I fell so many times over the pass two days that I’ve lost count. However, I’m a strong believer in if you want to learn something you just have to get out there and do it. Although I was in over my head, the Pink Route was great fun- it introduced me to off-road riding and a dirt bike is now new on my shopping list. 
The following day we rode from Mae Sot to Mae Sariang- this was the route that took me 8 hours back in July during the rainy season with all the mudslides, but this time with the good weather took about 3 hours. From Mae Sariang we headed East for Mae Jam. This was a great winning road through the mountains with the river on one side. At Mae Jam we were to meet up with Rak Thai/CARE representative who would be taking us to Ban Mae La Op, a Karen village deep in the northern mountains. Next week we will continue north across Thailand heading for the Laos border. After crossing northern Laos we will end this leg of the journey at the Laos/Vietnam northern border. I’ve learned that we will be the first Thais ever to use this Sop Hun/Tay Trang border crossing.
Last update : 18-05-2008 06:50
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