Back to and Busy in Bangkok…

After a few “eye-opening” days in Pattaya, we left “Sleaze Central”, and headed north on the short ride to Bangkok…

We were out on the highway to Bangkok before the Monday morning traffic picked up...

At the speed we were riding, Bangkok was barely an hour away....or so we thought...!!

There was so much we had to do in a single day, as most of Thailand was about to shut down for the five day Water Festival Holiday…

Among the things we had to do was to get our bikes serviced; I had to find and deliver my new tyres to BMW; collect the new sport video cameras we had flown in from the UK; find the Hepco & Bekker dealer to get the replacement catch for my pannier; and last but not least; we needed to get our Thailand visas extended…

All this in one crazy day…!!

We zoomed into Bangkok, for the most part riding underneath the toll road where motorcycles are not permitted to ride on…

Once we had plunged into the eastern business districts of the city, things slowed down considerably…!! Traffic was a nightmare, and we were soon reduced to sitting side by side in heavy traffic, bemoaning our lot in life…!!

Then Trevor’s GPS, identical to my own Zumo 660, began acting up…

He claimed that it was due to us being hidden from proper satellite coverage, but Chenty and I later confirmed that it was mainly due to a recurring bout of TFS, that seems to affect Trevor from time to time…!!

TFS…?? Thick Finger Syndrome…!!

One wrong turning in this maze of streets, highways and slipways, can take you miles off course and cost you plenty of time… And in the searing heat and humidity of Bangkok, this is something best avoided…!!

We eventually found Barcelona Motors, and gratefully sank into comfortable chairs in their air-conditioned showroom…

The BMW team were expecting us, and within a few minutes, both the Big Fella and Big Red were whisked away into the bowels of the building to have their respective services…

From the size of the dealership, we expected the workshop that we had entrusted our bikes to, would be “state of the art”… We were more than a little surprised to find our trusty machines squeezed into a narrow little workshop, where many parts of other bikes lay scattered around on the floor…

The group of mechanics that swarmed over the bikes seemed to be barely out of school…!! Trevor and I exchanged nervous glances as we watched them begin removing parts from our bikes… I was particularly surprised by the fact that they had not bothered to remove our panniers…!!

I would have thought that a 100 000 km service warranted a thorough “going over” of the bike, and could not see how they could do this with all my luggage still strapped to it…!!

After a hot and extremely sweaty ride, we finally arrived at Barcelona BMW, and with plenty of refreshments at hand, planned our movements for the remainder of the day...

The workshop was to our minds a little on the inadequate side...!!

While we enjoyed the far cooler conditions inside the BMW showroom, we checked out the new bikes that were parked amongst the cars…

After riding the big GS for the last few years, the RR1000 felt like a dinky toy beneath me...!!

...and looked like a 50 cc under Trevor...!!

We tried unsuccessfully to get Chenty to take the new GS650 for a quick spin...

No question...!!

Leaving the youthful mechanics to do their jobs, we took a taxi to the Immigration Centre, and spent an interesting three or four hours there, getting photocopies, stamps, numbers to stand in endless queues, and eventually, after lightening our wallets by 1 900 Baht, we were entitled to stay in Thailand for another two weeks…

The guys at BMW had arranged to remove my wheels and send them over to the tyre dealer who had held the new tyres for me… Mr. Phoirot fitted, balanced and returned the wheels to BMW, and by the time we got back to Barcelona Motors, the Big Fella was sporting his new “shoes”…

It was almost 6.00pm before we were ready to hit the road again... Our bikes serviced and ready to take us on another 10 000 km stint...

And the Big Fella had new shoes...!! Another set of of Michelin Anakee 2's...!!

The Sport-Cam... A simple, easy to operate, high resolution video camera...

It had not been possible for me to get the replacement catch for my pannier, as not only did we not have the time to do so, but the cost of the taxi to get to the dealer and back to BMW, was twice the cost of the catch itself…!! I decided to try and get one in Malaysia in a few weeks time…

We took possession of our new video cameras, and planned to begin “playing” with them as soon as was possible…

I had decided to order two of them, one that I planned to mount facing forward on the bike, and the other to use as both a rear facing camera, as well as to keep handy and film from the saddle while I ride…

We had first become aware of these cameras when we saw them mounted on Morgan’s GS 800, and were impressed with the clarity of the footage he had shot since he left on his 10 country, 100 day adventure…

More on these later…

With darkness settling around us, we left Barcelona BMW and headed out of the city, back the way we had come, hoping to get to our hotel resort as quickly as possible…

Dusk in Bangkok, and another hour in traffic before we found our lodgings...

It took us more than an hour to ride the sixty odd kilometres to the Baan Chay Namm Resort, and we arrived there in pitch darkness… Lisa and Simon Thomas had spent time here when they had visited Bangkok, and had recommended that we use it as a base… It was close to the airport, and out of the hustle and bustle of Bangkok…

It was not the easiest place to find, but after a few wrong turns and double-backs, we turned into the wide gravel parking lot and checked in…

After an eventful day, I had been yearning for comforts like this...!!

Over a simple and tasty dinner, we toasted each other on a successful day, despite the hot and humid conditions that we had experienced…

I was back in Bangkok, and planned to spend time here catching up on my website and relaxing in the peaceful atmosphere on the edge of the city…

©GBWT 2011