Ride From Udon Saturday 1-13-2007

[ray23]

We will be going to Kallasin for lunch, we won't take the Khan Kean highway, but the back roads more fun less traffic.

We will meet at the Jet Gas station on the Khan Kean highway at 0900

Anyone is welcome to join us.

[ray23]

Well looks like we might be meeting one person for lunch there ( Kalasin) as I said anyone is welcome

[MarcoH]

Well looks like we might be meeting one person for lunch there ( Kalasin) as I said anyone is welcome

Hi Jay

I'll be there after i come home in March if i get my bike to TH already that time.

-M-

[ray23]

This one was really a great ride. Three couples took two different routes, coming and going. I picked the first rout, not bad but not nearly as good one on the other riders who had experience in the area. His route was nothing but good road you could actually make a good drive for a car on it. I will post the route as soon as I figure it out mysellf. Sure beats that long boring ride on the Khan Kean highway. Once you get past Kumpawapi, turns into beautiful rolling hills with great views. The ride was around 400 Klms so we didn't poke around the villages much but I did see some fun that could be had doing just that.

We stopped in a small village on the way, the idea get some coffee. No the ladies decide that it was lunch time and they didn't have a problem one eating a second lunch a hour and half later in Kalisin. One of the posters gave us a lead on several different places to eat at the Living Arts exactly as he described right down to the slow service. But a great place with wonderful people working there, Hey we were taking a break anyway. We got the food as we ordered it not bad considering one guy was a Brit, one American and one Frenchmen. This was really upsacle for us as a norm we have no idea where the good places are when we stop. Heck we even finished off with Ice Cream Sunday's.

Only one near miss in a fairily good size village. Lots of those farm tractor/trucks around. We were in town so the speeds were slow. One of the putt putt trucks lets one of the guys past and then pull out right in front of us taking up the entire road. Some quick braking as there was simply no place to go. Get it slowed down enough to clear it, only to find about six feet of steel for roofing hanging out the back, So I had to really clamp down front and back. This is where you really appreciate a good bike. On the 750 I would have hit it no doubt about it, with the 535 heck I had inches to spare. LOL Only incident of the day, but you always have to be ready for it, cause you simply don't know when they are going to happen.

The guys teased me a lot as we have a friend who ran into something similiar he ducked and went under the bar and his wife didn't. So I got his name for awhile LOL.

The ride back was just wonderful some of the best country roads I have been on in Thailand not a pot hole to be found. Just gorgeous country.

We stopped off at Kumpawapi so I could see the monkies, what a bunch characters and they are not confused about who is in charge. That was the first time I had been around them free like that. Dogs don't mess with them, must be a story there somewhere. The ladies just had to feed them boy have that got that down pat. These monkies were on the roofs of the houses in the area, in the electrical wires and the trees in the park. Just sit down in the middle of the road and only moved inches when they were going to get hit by a car. One greedy guy managed to steal an entire bag of goodies right out of the wifes hand.

Headed back to Udon and had dinner at the huge BBQ place here, my first time there. The French guy has thing about eating crocodile, so we went there but come to thiink of it he had fish LOL.

You know it just doesn't get any better, great hobby, beautiful country, great friends and a wonderful experience. My back is paying big time for it today. So I will kick back for a few days but I will be out there again this weekend.

Sure beats sitting in front of a computer everyday and vegging in a bar. Thailand and Issan are what you make them.