So headed out of town about 6am the thermostat said 27.3 c, yep could be a hot day. Cruised out of town and out onto the open road, it was about 20km to breakfast stop. At about the 15km out of town mark came across my first road block, now these are just barriers which people have to go around and if the cops don’t like the look of you over to the side of the road to be searched.
Sweet I just ride straight through, with Hello from all sides. The best one is Hello where are you going and that’s all the English they know. So I just yell out Hello back and carry on going. Now the town where I was stopping for breakfast was call bak bin or something, as I came into town, guns were blazing there was screaming, blood in the streets, people running everywhere and little old me just riding through.
That’s what you want to here, there was road blocks and lots of military, with big guns, who all waved and said hello as I rode through. So I found a nice restaurant, and ordered rice with chicken, eggs and vegetables with a young girl who could say a few words in English. She looked at me rather blankly and said write down. I think they had a Thai English dictionary because there was some discussion and the ten minutes later my food appeared. Nicely cooked with good flavors.
As I sat there and ate, a few patrols walked by, and I thought to myself this is more then you every day amount of soldiers. O well it’s not as though I can just ask someone, no one spoke English. Sometimes it’s best not to know. On the bike and off I went again, Now I have pulled muscles in both my legs, it’s the same muscle and I think it is because of the new riding position.
Once my legs warm up it’s not too bad it’s just really hard starting and stopping. For the next few km’s there was a pretty high military count, Hummers with roof mounted guns, road blocks with sniper posts and machine gun posts all fully armed and ready for action. Well some of them were, some of the guys looked half asleep.
I had clocked off another 30km and decided it was time for another stop and refreshment before I carried on, the road blocks were becoming further apart now and not so much military action. After the break it was back on the bike and off down the road. Up until now I had not really minded all the military things going on, everyone seemed friendly and I had lots of hello’s. The next thing this ute drives by with a guy sitting on the back, now I don’t know if he was joking or what, but he made his hands into a gun and shot me. The Bastard. I must say it put the willies up me a bit.
Nothing else like that happened for the rest of the ride, I got some GI’s to take a photo of me for my 1000km and rode on. The clouds were starting to look heavy and the air got that smell of rain to it. It was not long before it started to rain and then came in heavy. I stopped underneath some trees and it looked like it would pass quick. Some coppers in their car pulled up and asked if I wanted a lift. What the hell.
So we pulled the bike and trailer apart and put them on the back of the ute, yes everyone drives a ute in Thailand so far. I jumped in the back sits with 3 of them two up front in the double cab. Had a M16 up against my leg and another gun I am not sure what it was, and another M16 sitting in front of me. All these guns. So I have to point out it was still raining.
They took me about 10-15km down the road, then there was some chattering on the radio and a minute later I was on the side of the road with my bike and gear and they were off in the other direction, all waves and smiles. So luckily the rain had stopped and I only had 5km to go to Pattini, sweet.
I arrived it Pattini and just about rode straight passed it when a guy yelled out from the side of the road. So after a viewing of all the hotels that were out of my price range we settled for the palace Hotel, run down and I think a brothel. The guy who took me to the hotels name was Matt (Ahamad), he was learning English and wanted someone to talk to. So after a shower me meet up for lunch, it was pretty good and we chatted and then he showed me around town.
There was not that much to see but it was nice to get out again. He dropped me back at the hotel a bit later on and we were going to meet up for dinner later and his friend was going to come along. He friend could speak better English then him. I thought Matt was pretty good anyway I understood most of anyway.
So I got picked up and we headed out to a place he hangs out in, I was feeling a bit tired at this stage after a long day out in the sun and the rain. His mate was running late so we just hung out. Now there was a police stop across the road and two cops came across. One of them came over to our table to introduce himself. Now I am normally a fairly placid guy but for some reason the way this guy looked at me got me Pissed. If I was a dog all the hair on my back would have stood up and I would have been growling. Now this was just meeting him.
Matt started talking to the cop as he could not speak any English, The guy keep looking over at me. You know when you start running over scenarios in your head, like breaking his jaw or neck well these started popping into my head the only problem was that it all ended in my going down in a hail of bullets as his mates shoot me to pieces. Any way normally cops will ask where you came from where are you going. This guy was asking where I was staying, who I was with, what were we doing after the restaurant. I thought very cagey stuff.
After the cop left I got Matt to drop me back at the hotel, I just had to get away from there and now this guy knew where I was staying and everything. I mean what would happen if he showed up at the hotel he could get my room number easy enough. When I got back to the room I could not relax, thoughts kept running through my head.
So if I stayed here I would just lie awake wondering if this cop was going to show up. I decide bugger it I’m moving out, I did not want any trouble in this place and he had freaked me out. So I packed up real quick and headed out the door, I pulled up at another hotel I had seen on the way back and got a room there. Call me a wuss or what every but I prefer to stay out of trouble. I managed to get to sleep a bit later on.
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