This the final day of the ride, when I got up my body was definitely feeling the effects of the previous two days of riding. Every part of my upper body was aching. It was as if I’d been in the gym lifting heavy weights. A person can easily forget how much of your body and muscles are needed to handle such a bike through the roads that I had travelled. The bike itself weighs close to 270kg. Add on a full tank of gas, a rider and gear, the weight can easily exceed 350kg. So it can be quite an effort to man-handle the bike through mountains, twisties and the dirt roads.
After a very nice breakfast at the hotel, I packed and set off around 8.30 am. I said goodbye to the staff, had the obligatory photo and set off. Originally I had planned a ride to head East towards and through Khao Kho. But I decided to head straight home which would get me home for about 1pm, giving me a whole afternoon to relax and unwind before getting into work the next day. Usually I would have gone via Phitsanulok and through Phichit straight down to Nakhon Sawan. But on this occasion I decided to head South through Khiri Mat along route 1272. After Khiri Mat head South Westerly along route 101 down to Khamphaeng Phet and onto the major road 1 which would take me all the way to Bangkok.
When I set off I had around 90km of fuel left and I missed a PTT station in Khiri Mat. And so, as always happens whenever you need a fuel station you can never find one. By the time I got into Khamphaeng Phet I had about 15km of fuel left and stopped at the first decent station I saw, a Caltex. It was off route, but better to make a detour than be stranded without fuel. Then as always happens 2km further along the route and there is 4 petrol stations all within a kilometre of each other !!!!
Then on joining route 1, I just made a bee line home. Pretty much plain sailing all the way, there were a lot of roadworks along the way with some contraflows in place, but nothing that slowed progress. I arrived home just before 1pm. All in all I clocked up 2132km, at a pace of 5.9 l/100km. I have a habit of registering mileage and fuel used.
End of ride. A great ride and experience having travelled new roads and seen new parts of Thailand. An amazing country with amazing people.
Motorcycle Chronicles by Jamil Siddique 