Day: The Fourth To The Seventh, Part Tree

In the morning we breakfast, and grab a tuktuk to the old city (a Nigel aside here, maybe two... A tuktuk is an ancient three wheeled auto-rickshaw that are all over Thailand, powered by a simple two cylinder Subaru two-smoke engine with a distinctive sound, hence the name, with one wheel at the front and two at the back. They are steered by handlebars, and have a car type gearshift and foot pedals but a motorbike style twist grip throttle. There is a low roof over top and a single seat in the back designed to two people but in practise can seat oh, about a dozen I'd guess...  They have not been made for years (decades?) But there are so many thousands of then in Thailand there is a complete industry dedicated to keeping them on the roads. No taxi meter means price is set by negotiation... The Thai are honest people which means if a tuktuk driver can get you to agree to an outrageous price, then its technically NOT ripping you off. Usually the driver hopes you will just jump in so they can set the price once you get there. If you ask how much to get somewhere, the usual response is "yes yes, get in". If you ask again, they realise you are at least a bit savvy and will give you a price that would make a locals eyes water. After that, you get down to some serious negotiation.)

We agreed on a price to get to Tony's Big Bikes  and by the big grin we know it's a lucky day for this guy, but when you have absolutely no idea of how far you have to go (250m? That's happened to me!) you just have to be happy with the outcome.

Tony's had two bikes waiting outside for us, and as we had them booked for give days, they were  B150  a day, $6. Two Honda Waves, one 125 and one 100cc. These are grown-up Honda C50s, step-thrus with auto clutch but four speed gear boxes, manual shift. April was not happy with the all-down-front-pedal-for-up-and-back-pedal-down-for-down gear shift (those of us who grew up on Honda CT 90 farm bikes will know what I mean). She's over it now... She was also not happy with the empty fuel tank... We went off to find some waterfalls and the butterfly farm. It was an instant lesson in Asian traffic. Lane marking is for sissies! Don't wait for gaps in the traffic, the traffic makes gaps for you! Roadsigns, what roadsigns? Speed limit? Helmet laws? As foreign a concept as we were! Needless to say, we immediately got lost and ended up about 30km past the turnoff we wanted. After back tracking, we started looking around. Found a very up-market coffee and at gallery, and had a truly great espresso (sorry upshot) and ice cream, then off up a side road into the hills. April had spotted a little sign saying waterfall, but I don't think many people do because the lady at the gate was really surprised to see us. It seems you pay to see natural attractions (or was it just this one?) So we forked out B120 each and walked off to see the falls. Nice, but smallish. However, the sight of April spotting a spider with a leg spread about the size of the palm of my hand was worth the price of admission alone!

There ride home thru rush hour traffic ended up like some mad computer game, but getting lost in the alleys and crazy one way system for nearly an hour was not so much fun. The one way system, put in to get traffic to flow through the old narrow streets does really strange stuff like dump you out into streets were you end up on the wrong side of the road, were the lanes are reversed and for a block you drive ala USA! Now that's freaky.

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