Chickening Out

I left Tak in the morning planning on spending the night in Mae Sot and then onto Umphang (อุ้มผาง). I instead finished the day wondering if I no longer have what it takes to be a traveler.

I was riding a route I had done before and really enjoyed but in the opposite direction this time. I blogged about my ride from Mae Sot to Kamphaeng Phet along route 1175. I didn't take many pictures on this ride in the past so did try to capture a bit of the ride in the following short video I uploaded to YouTube.



I did take one picture in addition to the video.

At the end of Route 1175 I reached the village of Mae Ramat (แม่ระมาด). I rode through one small gas station that appeared to be out of fuel and then onto Wat Don Kaew (วัดดอนแก้ว).

Wat Don Kaew is famous for the marble Buddha image, which was brought from Myanmar. There are 3 of these marble Buddha statues. This one at Wat Don Kaew and one in India and the thrid in Pakistan. If I'd not read this before arriving at the temple I would have not known there was anything special about this Buddha statue from the ones in all the other temples I visit.

After visiting the temple I headed into the town to fill my motorbike since I was down to 1/3 of a tank.

The first station I stopped at was out of fuel and the second I went to had a line of pick-ups out into the highway. I went upto the pump to see if I needed to wait in the que or not and there seemed to be a second que of people filling gas cans. I think I joined this 2nd que until about 15 minutes later this pump seemed to run out of fuel.

All the guys with gas cans in this que moved over to a different pump that seemed to still have fuel. I decided joining the que on the other pump was useless so decided to take my chances of finding another station with fuel before my tank was empty and headed in the direction of Mae Sot.

I found a gas station about 20 kilometers away that was out of the 95% octane fuel that is recommended for my bike but had 91% so I was able to fill the tank. It seemed to be a little bit more expensive than what I usually pay for the 95% fuel but I was happy to not be pushing the bike.

I rode on into Mae Sot trying to look at every gas station I passed to see if they had fuel and it appeared to be about 50-50.

I stopped at a mall in Mae Sot and soaked up a bit of free air conditioning while deciding how to proceed. I quickly decided to give up on the idea of going to Umphang. Umphang is an isolated part of Thailand south of Mae Sot and north of Kanchanaburi along the border of Myanmar. There are no roads that go south into Kanchanaburi and I can't go into Myanmar. I have no way of knowing if fuel hoarding will be an issue in this isolated part of Thailand but I am too much of a chicken to find out.

I have been to Mae Sot before so have seen the sites that I find interesting. I decided not to even look for a hotel in Mae Sot and just to return to Tak.

I am a bit ashamed that I am aborting another trip and wonder if I just don't have the guts that are required to travel any more but I enjoyed the ride back to Tak down route 12 the main highway in this part of the country.

The first gas station in Tak was out of 95 but the second one had it so I was set for another 150K.

I found a hotel in Tak and will decide which direction to travel tomorrow.

Tak (ตาก)

Trying this trip again and hope to make it a bit further this time but not sure it will go smoothly.

This time my concern is fuel. It seems Thai people think that the war in Iran will cause a fuel shortage so Thai people are out stocking up on fuel like Americans stock up on toilet paper.

The first place I stopped was out of the fuel I run in my bike but the next gas station about 5k down the road filled my small tank.

I am going to try and fill my tank at the half full stage on this trip. That means I will be stopping a lot for gas.

I stopped where I aborted my last trip and had to wait for at least 20 minutes with each pump filling one of these big barrels.

Even though I was a bit concerned I made it over 400K on my first day of travel never going below a 1/3 of a tank.

I spent the first night in the city of Tak (ตาก). I have ridden by the city on the other side of the river but this is the first time I have stayed here.

I went out get something to eat and stopped by the river as the sun was setting and snapped a couple pictures.

I find Tak City to be a pretty little place.

Temples on the Long way Home

My first temple stop of the day was at Wat Nong Fai (วัดหนองฝ้าย) but have no idea why I saved this temple on my phone. I didn't find this temple special in any way and did not even a picture. I sometime save sites that are going to have a festival with a band I like but that is just a guess.

My 2nd stop was at Phra Ruesi Park (อุทยานพระฤาษี) and google maps included this in the name of the place "The world's first large hermit park".

I found the following to describe this site. "Phra Ruesi Park in Suphanburi, Thailand, is a unique and culturally significant attraction that offers visitors an immersive experience into the ancient tradition of Ruesi, or hermits The Ruesi or hermits, ascetic sages believed to have achieved enlightenment through rigorous meditation and self-discipline. These figures, often depicted with supernatural powers and deep wisdom." I may look a bit like these hermits but I lack the enlightenment, the rigorous meditation, the supernatural powers and have very little self-discipline but I like to think I have the deep wisdom. On 2nd thought maybe my wisdom is only shallow.

It was really too hot to be wondering around the hermit park taking pictures but I still did it and following are some of the photos I took.

After visiting my fellow hermits at their park, I went on to Wat Sa Long Ruea (วัดสระลงเรือ). The main attraction of this temple is the large boat like structure that is supposed to be a replica of the King's dragon boat.

There is also the very large monk statue but I have not been able to find the name of this monk with google searches.

Following are a few of the pictures I took at this boat like temple.

My last stop of the day before heading home was at Wat Thipsukhontharam (วัดทิพย์สุคนธาราม). The huge standing Buddha image is the main attraction which is surrounded by what I would call a garden or park area. This site was built in 2012 to honor His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej on his 84th birthday.

After visiting these temples on a very hot day I was really happy to get home and cool down. I will try and do a bit more planning so the next time I attempt a trip and hopefully I will not abort it after only one night of being away.

If nothing else this short trip did cure my itchy feet feeling for at least a week.

Aborted Trip

I was sitting around home and got a bit of that itchy feet feeling where I needed to get out and do some traveling. The problem is I don't enjoy planning that much which can cause a bit of an issue and in this case it caused this to be a very short trip but more on that later.

I have ridden up the left or west side of the Srinagarindra Reservoir but had not done the right or east side so decided to start with a ride up the east side of the the reservoir.

This is the route that I traveled from home up to the Samphao Thong Chedi Viewpoint via the longer route that was close to the reservoir. I always think I am going to have great views of the water from a lot of my travels along rivers or lake in Thailand but this was another case where I didn't often see the reservoir.

My route took me by the Ferry to Si Sawat District over a bit of the Srinagarindra Reservoir. Following are a few pictures of the ferry crossing as well as a short video.

This is a couple of pictures at the Samphao Thong Chedi Viewpoint which was the end of the first part of my ride.

My plan for the day was to go to another view point and then onto Lan Sak in Uthai Thani and spend the night. The following is a screen shot of what should have been my route and I think I may have followed it but am not sure. My issue was that there was no internet on my phone at the Samphao Thong Chedi so could not use google maps for planning my route when leaving the viewpoint.

I have dealt with no internet before and thought I had a work around but for some reason I could not get my work around working on this day. I later played around with the phone and think I have figured out what my issue was but never will be sure until I hit the no internet issue when on a trip.

I had an idea of how I was supposed to go so just kept going that way and stopping frequently to see if I had internet and after about 30K was able to use google maps again for finding my route.

I have made the ride down past Phu Toei National Park in the past and it is a really pretty ride but didn't stop and take any pictures until the viewpoint a bit north of the national park.

I had gotten drizzled on while riding to the 2nd viewpoint but shortly after leaving the viewpoint the sky started pelting it down and I was drenched within a minute. It was raining so hard that it hurt to ride and I wondered if it was hail but don't think so. I saw and stopped at a coffee shop to let the worst of the storm pass and left a puddle under the place I sat.

The rest of the way into Lan Sak the rode was littered with branches leaves and what I think were nuts. I am really glad I stopped when I did and didn't get hit with all this stuff in the middle of the rode.

I stopped and took one picture just outside of Lan Sak.

I have stayed in Lan Sak a number of times and have stayed at the same hotel each time and have never booked it in advance so was surprised when they told me they were full. I stopped at 2 other hotels on the same rode and they were full as well. The 4th hotel I asked did have a room but the price was a bit higher than I expected it to be but was happy to find a room.

I don't like booking rooms unless it is somewhere I know I will have problems finding a room like for some of the festivals. I like to have an idea of where I will stay but being able to walk in and get a room without having booked one. I like to have the flexibility of stopping when I am tired, hit bad weather or have any type of problem on the road. Having to ask a number of hotels for rooms in Lan Sak and also my last trip to Sangkhlaburi where I found rooms but could not stay as long as I wanted to had me scared.

I sat in my hotel looking at the places I thought I would be going in the following days and seeing what rooms were available and didn't like what I was seeing. It seemed that rooms within the towns were not available but I could stay around 15 kilometers outside of the town. Even the places outside of town seemed a bit expensive.

I didn't find any rooms online to book at the one town I was really looking forward to going. The hotel app I use was suggesting places over 3 hours ride away from where I wanted to stay. This distance would make going there and back in one day difficult.

Not sure why rooms seemed to be unavailable but think it may have to do with Makha Bucha day. Makha Bucha day is a Thailand holiday that is on the 3rd of March this year. My guess is that a lot of people are using this holiday to take a long weekend and the reason I was having problems finding rooms. I left home without even knowing this holiday was next week.

The lack or rooms made me decide to abort this trip and try it again sometime later. I decided to take the long way home the following day and stop by some of the temples I had marked on google maps but that I had not yet visited. I will post about my stops on the way home in the next blog entry.