Today turned out to be quite the treat. My friend Beven stopped by with his bike and asked if I wanted to take a tour of Old Bangkok. Even though I had plans to work on some stuff, this offer was too good to refuse. And off we went flying down the highway towards one of Bangkok’s last remaining ghetto, old school areas in the central downtown area.
Not one to miss a moment, I whipped out my iPhone and tried to hold on with one hand as we careemed through the narrow lanes, barely missing garbage, trucks, a cement truck, babies, carts laden with massive piles of construction materials and plenty more. If you have time, it’s worth watching through to the end as the scenery changes several times throughout our journey.
Driving a motorcycle in Asia is one of my favorite hobbies and one I’ve faithfully practiced for the last 29 years. Everything from crazy street racing NSR’s in Japan around the Imperial Palace to riding all the way up and down India on an old 350 Bullet over a 4 month period in 1999 to a full tour of Vietnam complete with a tour of the DMZ. I’ve seen it all and can tell you, it’s damn good. Bikes are the only way to see Asia. Forget bullet trains, planes, buses are boring and only take you to places everyone else has been.
Even if you live in Asia for years, a bike ride to a new area always will get you excited. There is so much to see and run into. Literally sometimes. Like when I hit a 4 foot tall wall of rice in Southern India and crashed off the side of the road. I found out later that the villagers used traffic to separate rice from chaff and meant us to drive over it. They simply couldn’t afford to buy the threashing machines and did it old school. I picked up my bike, had a laugh with them and headed on my way. It wasn’t easy getting rice out of my chain though. That stuff really sticks in there good.
Anyway, most of my biking journeys pictures have been lost over the years so I’m very happy to have today’s video. Thanks Bevan!
