BANGKOK – NAKHON RATCHASIMA

In three hours we patch our bikes together, pack our luggage and are ready to push ourselves to the last control point, towards our freedom. It’s not allowed to fill the gas or to drive inside the terminal, but we don’t really care: by now we would even carry our bikes on our hands. It’s very hot outside and in approximately one kilometer we are totally wet and sweaty. But there are the last seals, last signatures, and we are out on the streets. Free at last! To get to the Laos highway we have to cross the entire city. It’s rather impossible since it’s our first time here, that’s why we hire a cab to lead us through. Another thing we have to get used to is left side driving. And we have to learn it with the bike in Bangkok city! However, it’s not that bad, the only problem is that after letting the cab go, we are not sure whether we are allowed to drive or not in some places. It’s definitely prohibited to ride the motorcycle on the city trunk roads. Since we are not sure, we just drive randomly until two smiling policemen stop us and ask for penalty. Also this time our sticker helps us out: the policemen only ask us about our itinerary and let us go. Beyond the city traffic is not as heavy and we speed up to 100–120 km/h. The roads like this after the desert! Frankly, I have even missed them asphalted roads; it seems, our bikes did, too. 

Now they are driving free and grunting happily. 

Now we have to figure out as to what to wear. Our biking shoes are obviously too heavy for such a heat, and so are our jackets and long pants; we’ll have to send them home. So far, the best we have found are tracking half-boots, long sleeved shirts and shorts or thin pants. By the roadsides, instead of apple-trees and plum-trees, various exotic fruit-trees are growing; just few of them are familiar to our eye. With the darkness we get to the city and begin to look for the hotel. There is another problem: most of cheap and good guesthouses don’t have parking lots, so we are pressed to use bigger hotels. This city obviously falls out of tourist guides since there is no single white face out there. Locals are kind and easy.