Friday 4th December was day one of the ride with the destination being the ancient city of Sukhothai. Sukhothai is the old capital of Thailand dating back to the 12th and 13th centuries. It’s a great place to head for a peaceful break and the historic sights are wonderful to see.
Sukhothai is approximately 400km North of Bangkok and is actually past my place of work being 300km North further North from there. So with that I had decided to break this first day ride in two. No point in driving back home to Bangkok only to get my bike and ride back the same way, I had prepared and packed my bike the night before. Leaving home at 5.30am I rode the first 110km to work and proceeded to complete a days work. Then leaving a little later than planned at 6pm I set off North from work as the Sun begun to set .
It’s never easy riding at night in any country and it certainly has its increased risks too. More so in Asian counties like Thailand where driving disciplines are weaker and street and road lighting is either poor or non existent along long sections of the road. So even myself I would not recommend long night rides unless one has 100% of their wits around them. You can just about expect anything to happen. Crazy drivers coming from behind you out of nowhere. Small motorbikes and even cars/trucks driving along the road with no lights. Even worse , no lights and cing towards you against the flow of traffic. At night especially your eyes can play tricks on you by the lights of cars, trucks and lamp posts so I always take it easy when I am not sure of what’s on the road ahead.
Riding North I took a rest stop for dinner at a McDonalds in Nakhon Sawan. Called the hotel to advise an ETA of 10pm and then proceeded from Nakhon Sawan to Pitsanulok along a 100km long straight road. Very exciting !! The last 80 km from there into Sukhothai where I decided to fill up with Gas before getting to the hotel .
All in all a hard ride but considering that the hardest and worst is out of the way I know I have two lovely days of riding to look forward to .
Motorcycle Chronicles by Jamil Siddique 