2005 Was Not My Best Year!

[username45]

2005 was not my best year!

Up until March last year, my life in Thailand was wonderful. I had everything I wanted and everything I needed for a happy and enjoyable time here. I had my lady, Wun; I had my Apple Mac and my BMW R1100GS. What more did I need.

Only one thing has changed and since that fateful March and although in every other respect my life is still great, I do miss my motorbike.

Bought second hand in Chiangmai in September 2003 for 360,000 Baht, in the following 17 months I rode more than 34,000 k’s around Isan and Northern Thailand, including in one 5-day period, 2,500 k’s.

It was great to have my bike parked under the house; anytime I felt like a ride I could just jump on and see where I ended up.

However in March last year, the inevitable happened, I had what turned out to be a reasonably serious accident. An accident resulting in 44 days in hospital both in Kalasin and in Brisbane, Australia and 7 trips to surgery.

The bike wasn’t that badly damaged (see pictures on web-site) and would probably have only cost 100,000 Baht to put back on the road. However with the hospital bill here in Kalasin of 45,000 Baht and the necessity of doing my regular 3 monthly trips back to Australia to keep my approximately 28,000 Baht/month pension, I found I had no option but to sell the bike.

Taking it back to the place I bought it from, I had to accept his offer of 85,000 Baht as time was against me.

By the time I had paid the hospital bill and paid another 25,000 for my return flight to Australia, I had next to nothing left. Then, having to spend the next 8 months in Australia while I was undergoing treatment. Well, that just about killed me financially. I was really lucky that I could somehow manage to pay the extra to change my flight from a 60-day return to a 1-year ticket.

Still struggling somewhat now, to overcome the financial problems associated with last year and that accident.

The only reason I can keep coming back to Thailand and my lady is that I can live so much cheaper here, even taking into account flying to and from Oz every 3 months.

So here I am some 17 months after the accident and 6 months after my last surgery and I am now just about fully recovered.

However, that recovery has come at a price. During the period of time that I was not able to ride a bike, it was not too hard to handle no longer having my BM. But now when there is no physical reason not to jump on a bike I find that I miss being able to go for a ride and just plain miss having my bike. I guess only other dedicated bike riders would really know what I mean by that.

So, how can I get myself another BMW?

On 28,000 Baht a month pension and a 25,000 Baht return flight ticket to buy every 3 months it looks like, never and not possible are the obvious answers.

Still, I can dream can’t I?

Maybe some of you Thaivisa Forum members would like to help me with that dream of getting another bike?

All it would take would be that some 3000 to 4000 (or more) of the 30,000+ Thaivisa forum members to donate a mere 100 Baht each (or more if you can afford it) and I would be able to buy another second hand BMW.

Hey, it would only take 100 Baht from some 9500 of you and I could even get a new one. Now wouldn’t that be nice!

If anyone is interested in helping me out, please PM me and I will e-mail you the details of where you can send your 100 Baht.

Can’t promise you any return on your money, only that if I am riding in your area that I will call in and say hello and share a beer with you. Obviously, anyone who donates that finds themselves travelling through Kalasin Province, stop in and say hello, the beer will be on me.

Regards to all, Hugh

[udon]

Begging on Thai Visa is not allowed.

Topic closed.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Begging on Thai Visa is not allowed.

Topic closed.

LOL