100cc's is way too puny for the highway

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SO I've rented a motorbike with the intention of doing some day-tripping out from my current base in Korat. It's a 100cc Honda (a very common size of engine here, I believe there is massive tax on anything bigger than a 125). 4 gears, no clutch (i am still not used to that, constantly grabbing where the clutch lever should be). My previous honda (1982 model!) had one gear lever, and with your toe you could push it up or down to change gears. This puppy has more of a see-saw mechanism to change gears which I find considerably more awkward.

I've been tooling around town the last couple of days, getting the hang of Thai traffic. "Don't look back in anger?" actually it's more a case of don't ever look back at all! And just go around any obstacle in your path, be it a bike slowing to park or turn, pedestrian, pick-up truck pulling out into traffic, etc. It's taken a bit of getting used to. One advantage is that at red lights the bikes snake their way up the left of the stopped vehicles so you get to first on the green!

Most people don't wear helmets here, I think it is a recently introduced law, requiring them for the driver only?! It is not uncommon to see 3 or 4 thais piled onto one of these dinky things. In one instance I saw an whole Thai family going for a spin, pop, mama, two kids and the dog was hanging up over the handlebars! I picked up a lid with a bit of an Evel Kineval vibe, will post a photo when available.

I was feeling confident enough to take a spin on the highway today, out for about 3 hours to visit a village specializing in all manner of pottery manufacture and other where they do silk weaving. Dual carriageway, two lanes each way and the curb is reserved for motorbikes, bicycles, tuk-tuks and the like. It was super frustrating because the most I could squeeze out was about 65kph, downhill with a tailwind. I guess it was good that I had a reserved lane?? The bike is a little long-of-tooth, 35k on the odo, and no WAY has the oil been changed regularly. I will defintely have a higher standard next time I rent. The highway btw was in excellent condition, a sign of the health of the Thai economy.

Anyway, I survived the trip but it took almost 2 hours to find my hotel when I got back to town!! I left on a circle route, arriving back at the opposite part of town I'd left from =( Some of the roads are posted in English but the writing is very very small, and most roads are not posted in any language at all. I burned through a full tank on my adventures today, refilled for $3.

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