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.