MY FIRST MOTORBIKE EXCURSION

My biking experience

The day began typically for a day in Asia, I woke up fairly hungover not knowing where, who or even why I was¹ (for an example of what I got up to click here ). All I knew was that today was going to be an adventure. I had arranged an excursion with this Dutch couple from my hostel. We were going to ride to Mok Fa waterfall. That was about 60 km (or an hour’s ride) away from where we were through the middle of Thailand’s second largest city, Chiang Mai (to find out how I ended up there click here).

I was apprehensive, my only motorbiking experience had been me driving around a parking lot for a few hours in suburban Pretoria. This was definitely a bit of a step up.

Riding out

I strapped up, put on all of my safety gear i.e. an open helmet and a jacket²… and met up with the Dutch couple. Yesterday, I had hired a motorbike and barely managed to drive it off the lot. The agent thought he was going to make bank because I rode like a top heavy pendulum. Now, I was going to follow this couple through the city and onto a major Thai highway. Damn, was I nervous.

We headed out, me following close behind. I had no GPS and was solely relying on them for directions³. Just as we were about to get out of the city on the main road police officers pulled us over. Obviously they had to, we were Farang. Even more obvious, they wanted a “cooldrink”⁴. They critically inspected us.

A common mistake foreigners make is not having the appropriate licence to drive in a foreign country, an IDP. They tried to do that with us, probing for a bribe. Thankfully, just before I had left South Africa, I had completed my bike learner’s. I flashed it in front of the AA to convince them that I was fully licensed. They believed me and gave me my IDP⁵.

With all the confidence in the world I whipped my ill-gotten IDP out. I saw the disappointment on the Thai officer’s face⁶. We drove off. I don’t remember much else of the journey there except that it was uneventful. The roads were well-maintained and really windy in some areas.

Mok fa waterfall

Honestly, the waterfall was lackluster. There was water and it was falling, that’s about it. The Dutch people were overjoyed. If I remember correctly, it was the first waterfall of that size they had ever seen. No shade to them but… it was tiny⁷. I did not let my shock dampen their joy. We waddled around in the small pool at the bottom of the waterfall and had a great time. Thereafter, just as we were about to leave we met some other backpackers. They were doing something known as the Mae Hong Son loop. It sounded incredible, I was starstruck. I quizzed them but at that time I was a nervous rider, no ways I would be doing it.

The journey back

After our day of fun we drove back. The trip to the waterfall was a walk in the park by comparison. We inadvertently ended up driving during Chiang Mai’s rush hour… it was hectic. I lost my Dutch friends and somehow ended back at the hostel. That shook me to the core, moreso than the fact that I survived ⁸. I was safe to drive another day.

1. #deep ↩︎
2. And a quick prayer ↩︎
3. Thankfully the driver was a lanky Dutch dude so easy to spot ↩︎
4. As we saffas love to say ↩︎
5. Which they did ↩︎
6. And then everyone clapped ↩︎
7. One of the first times that made me truly feel grateful to be South African – things I had taken for granted were not as common as I had believed. ↩︎
8. Usually I can barely tell up from down, the air must be different in the Northern hemisphere. ↩︎