Dalma writes posts for a Facebook group called “Easy Coast Female Riders”, describing to her motorcycling community her experiences of riding in countries. This is the first from Thailand covering Bangkok to Chiang Khan.

So if anyone is interested, I will report about riding around Thailand this January in several parts as we advance. We left Sydney on the 2nd, had a fraught trip that included a delayed flight and missed connection, an unplanned overnight in Singapore with accommodation and meals organised by the airline but with no change of clothes, and arrival to Bangkok a day later than planned and with three half-nights of sleep. Bangkok is… well, Bangkok. As in most big cities, it was busy and loud, and we spent most of our time there recovering. We bought some colourful helmets because this seems to be the thing we do: buy helmets locally to avoid the hassle of carrying ours from home, spend a fraction of the Australian price on higher, EC safety-certified models, and then take them home because we like them too much just to discard when leaving. My choice was, unfortunately, more colour than comfort-motivated, so two days later, I filled the top of the helmet with a scarf to help the padding raise it from sitting on my eyebrow. All is good now, and for the first time, I also have a camera (my Christmas present) on the helmet, which is exciting and annoying to handle. We picked up the two little 160cc Honda scooters we rented on Friday. David went to buy some screw he left home from his camera – and experienced riding in the night city traffic on his way back, which made him giddy and proud – and we took off on Saturday, the 6th.

It’s been a long time since I posted, and 2023 has been a very long year. Some of you may remember my enthusiastic reports about our month-long ride around Rajasthan last January, which left me humbled but with the distinct feeling that if I can ride in India, I can ride anywhere. Well, apparently, that is not how my brain works. After returning home, I bought a Himalayan (same as what I rode in India and what my partner has), then went for a multi-day ride, got caught in a deluge in the mountains, dropped the bike, injured my hamstring (again) and lost my mojo. And I mean lost it. I had no desire, interest, or willpower to get back on the bike for the rest of the year – that proved to be too busy and unkind to my health. So naturally, against this backdrop, we now took off to ride around Thailand for a month. No practice, preparation, or riding mindset – well, not on my part, anyway; my partner has been living through this dream for the last four months. But now that we are here, I thought it would be nice to share this trip with you as I did with India a year ago because riding tours do change people, and I must admit, for the better. 

The first day was Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima – or Khorat, by its popular name – a total of 262 km, which took us 5 hours 40 mins. It is the dry season in Thailand, so the weather is perfect, but it does get hot during the day, and unlike solar panels, we are drained by the power of the unforgiving sun. My mesh jacket (thank you, Vicki!) made a huge difference, even if cooling myself meant riding with my elbows up like a chicken nurturing dreams of flying. We rode on highways, where we were likely not supposed to be, as we saw no other bikes, and cars seemed quite annoyed by our presence. They do not like that we take up car space instead of riding on the narrow verge outside of the lane, even if we do the same or higher speed than them. It does take some balls to ignore the noticeable feel of the superiority of car drivers, but traffic – while busy – is a lot less aggressive than it was in India and we have thick skins. The lightweight little scooters are agile and quick, and apart from the feeling that you sit on a child’s chair, they prove to be suitable for the environment. I must admit, though, that outside of freeways, back roads are rugged and rough and made me think more than once (or ten times) that this would be so much better done on a Himalayan. Oh well… when in Rome… have painkillers for your spine being rearranged in the shape of the scrambled eggs you had for breakfast and your shoulders burning as if you decided to carry the sun with you inside upon arrival.

On the road to Khorat
Stopped by the roadside for lunch

Khorat was an unpretentious, smallish city. We stayed at a super comfortable (and cheap) hotel with excellent food, a leisurely pool, and Thai massage that rips you apart and then puts you back, leaving you uncertain whether the aches and pains got better or worse from the treatment. We wandered around the city and a night market, had a beer at a local terrace (which may have also operated as a brothel), and then visited the ancient Khmer ruins at Phimai, 61 km away.

The next destination was Chiang Khan (where I am writing this post). We broke up the trip here into two legs. On the first day, we did 270 km to Phetchabun (5 hours 40 again), then 221 km in 4½ hours all the way up to the Laos border. This last day was probably the best ride I ever had: we were smart enough to stop every hour and have lunch halfway instead of pushing ahead. The roads were just magnificent. We took to the twisties on the mostly immaculate tarmac, rolling up and down in steep succession and through tight corners, with mostly no one else on the road. We rode through lush green forests, flower farms, and banana plantations and giggled in sheer joy. We arrived energised, and we now spend two days just resting, marvelling at the Mekong from the deck of a little bungalow and just thinking how wonderful the world is. 

On the banks of the Mekong
The view we woke up to every morning

Although I’ve been to Vientiane (just 200 km on the other side of the river) for work in the past, I am more than certain that if it were not for David and motorcycles, I would never have visited this amazing little corner of the world, nor would I have giggled my way to here. So if you ever feel like you may never ride again for whatever reason, let a crazy person talk you into a long riding tour, and your mojo will return.