(This is a bit of a long one!!!)
It's a few months now since I promised Dave that I'd write a few words about our trip...better late than never I hope.
So, I am 41 yrs old and I have spent the last 5 months sitting behind my husband, Skip, on the back of our 1996 Honda Dominator.The trip was "Cairns to China" and everyone thought that I was MAD!
I must say that the thought had crossed my mind too. Just the thought of Cairns to Darwin (2800km) made me feel saddle sore and then the boredom...
Most people would assume that its a bit of a tight squeeze, 2 up on a 650 but it was never an issue.WE had a newly upholstered seat but with no extra padding. I can honestly say that there were only a couple of uncomfy days, usually when we were stuck on rough roads in 3rd gear and a low speed.
I only suffered from boredom on a couple of occasions(esp Threeways to Katherine in Oz). There was so much to do than just sit there..I was chief navigator and photographer and besides that mentally rode the roads.
The over-riding truth tho' was I was on an exclusive tour. Here I was travellng on my vehicle of choice, chosing where to go (en route to China), when and how fast, and how many "photostops" we made.
As we were travelling Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos in the up and coming wet season I spent any "worry time" thinking about dealing with the wet.
In Malaysia, climbing up to Bukit Frazer I was reduced to a blubbering mess. I was cold, soaked and more importantly out of control. Skip happily took on the single rack road, giggling away at the challenge of a winding uphill climb..likening it to a slow motion xbox game.If I was in the driving seat I would have gone straight to the nearest hotel for a shower and a beer....
The heavy rain did catch up with us in Cambodia and Laos. In Cambodia it was the mud on the infamous Poipet to Anghor road. I spent several hours trying to blank my mind and stay perfectly still...we did stay upright amazingly!!
In Laos , no amount of rain could have dampened my spirit. I really felt privileged to bsitting there having a total sensory overload as we rode through the mountains of the central east.The roads here are every motorcyclists dream but I reckon I had the best trip here.
There, however, was a day that I would not chose to repeat. If you read the GT map there are roads advised as 4wd.Instead of taking notice we listened to 4 cyclists and 1 4wd driver who said..."easy, only 25 bad kms"So we set off from Xam Neua, heading for Vieng Thong...easy...paved...a bit rough....a lot rough...mud...and then we saw the local bus stuck in a gully, sideways at the bottom of a very steep and muddy hill.I hopped off and sunk into thick glutenous red mud!Skip went ahead, not really riding, just sliding and trying to gain speed to get up the hill. He had plenty of weight without me but I didn't envy him.I had collected 8 inch mud platforms on my climb up....there was no space between the tyre and the mud guard on the Dommi.This scenario repeated itself at least 8 times in 25 kms, hrs of pushing, churning, sliding...and did I mention the rain!!
The lesson was to take note of the map.....
In Thailand we used the Thailand Highway Map Ato Z Atlas....excellent.
In Laos we used the Gt map....it is totally exact to the nearest 100m on most occasions.One major bit of advice is NOT to trust the road side markers. JD from Oz thought he would do Pak Mong to Xam Neua in an afternoon...it was marked at 120km...we had clocked over 300km on the same road, as marked on the GT map.
As"the one who sits behind" I was in the privileged situation of "she who must be obeyed"i.e I called directions, no questions asked.This often led to screaming matches as my academic choice of direction didn't always appear logical to "the driver". On the road Pak Mong to Udom Xai the road markers say 230 km (a good days ride), I could see that the GT map said around 100km. I was confident to leave at 1 pm. Skip did his nut, swearing at me, the map and Dave....Thanks Dave you were right!!
Pic above: Skip fueling up near the China border, & trying to guess what the grade of fuel it is?
The most frequently asked question was"why don't you take 2 bikes?"Well, the first answer was double the cost. The truth is , 2 up you can share every experience. WE constantly chattered or used sign langauge, never planned but always understood. We could sing together(always stuck on Barnsy, Bruce Springstein or the Gorillaz>>>???), and then we could argue without looking at each other. ( This latter phenomenon was wierd as we always forgot what we were fighting about when we got off the bike!)
So now you have endured my diatribe..thanks...now to the point...DO IT, DO IT, DO IT!!!!Half the cost, great companionship and whats more your own personal tour!!!!
We have loads of extra info re our trip so ask away...only too happy to make that trip even more special!
Cheers
Rachel and Skip
It's a few months now since I promised Dave that I'd write a few words about our trip...better late than never I hope.
So, I am 41 yrs old and I have spent the last 5 months sitting behind my husband, Skip, on the back of our 1996 Honda Dominator.The trip was "Cairns to China" and everyone thought that I was MAD!
I must say that the thought had crossed my mind too. Just the thought of Cairns to Darwin (2800km) made me feel saddle sore and then the boredom...
Most people would assume that its a bit of a tight squeeze, 2 up on a 650 but it was never an issue.WE had a newly upholstered seat but with no extra padding. I can honestly say that there were only a couple of uncomfy days, usually when we were stuck on rough roads in 3rd gear and a low speed.
I only suffered from boredom on a couple of occasions(esp Threeways to Katherine in Oz). There was so much to do than just sit there..I was chief navigator and photographer and besides that mentally rode the roads.
The over-riding truth tho' was I was on an exclusive tour. Here I was travellng on my vehicle of choice, chosing where to go (en route to China), when and how fast, and how many "photostops" we made.
As we were travelling Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos in the up and coming wet season I spent any "worry time" thinking about dealing with the wet.
In Malaysia, climbing up to Bukit Frazer I was reduced to a blubbering mess. I was cold, soaked and more importantly out of control. Skip happily took on the single rack road, giggling away at the challenge of a winding uphill climb..likening it to a slow motion xbox game.If I was in the driving seat I would have gone straight to the nearest hotel for a shower and a beer....
The heavy rain did catch up with us in Cambodia and Laos. In Cambodia it was the mud on the infamous Poipet to Anghor road. I spent several hours trying to blank my mind and stay perfectly still...we did stay upright amazingly!!
In Laos , no amount of rain could have dampened my spirit. I really felt privileged to bsitting there having a total sensory overload as we rode through the mountains of the central east.The roads here are every motorcyclists dream but I reckon I had the best trip here.
There, however, was a day that I would not chose to repeat. If you read the GT map there are roads advised as 4wd.Instead of taking notice we listened to 4 cyclists and 1 4wd driver who said..."easy, only 25 bad kms"So we set off from Xam Neua, heading for Vieng Thong...easy...paved...a bit rough....a lot rough...mud...and then we saw the local bus stuck in a gully, sideways at the bottom of a very steep and muddy hill.I hopped off and sunk into thick glutenous red mud!Skip went ahead, not really riding, just sliding and trying to gain speed to get up the hill. He had plenty of weight without me but I didn't envy him.I had collected 8 inch mud platforms on my climb up....there was no space between the tyre and the mud guard on the Dommi.This scenario repeated itself at least 8 times in 25 kms, hrs of pushing, churning, sliding...and did I mention the rain!!
The lesson was to take note of the map.....
In Thailand we used the Thailand Highway Map Ato Z Atlas....excellent.
In Laos we used the Gt map....it is totally exact to the nearest 100m on most occasions.One major bit of advice is NOT to trust the road side markers. JD from Oz thought he would do Pak Mong to Xam Neua in an afternoon...it was marked at 120km...we had clocked over 300km on the same road, as marked on the GT map.
As"the one who sits behind" I was in the privileged situation of "she who must be obeyed"i.e I called directions, no questions asked.This often led to screaming matches as my academic choice of direction didn't always appear logical to "the driver". On the road Pak Mong to Udom Xai the road markers say 230 km (a good days ride), I could see that the GT map said around 100km. I was confident to leave at 1 pm. Skip did his nut, swearing at me, the map and Dave....Thanks Dave you were right!!
Pic above: Skip fueling up near the China border, & trying to guess what the grade of fuel it is?
The most frequently asked question was"why don't you take 2 bikes?"Well, the first answer was double the cost. The truth is , 2 up you can share every experience. WE constantly chattered or used sign langauge, never planned but always understood. We could sing together(always stuck on Barnsy, Bruce Springstein or the Gorillaz>>>???), and then we could argue without looking at each other. ( This latter phenomenon was wierd as we always forgot what we were fighting about when we got off the bike!)
So now you have endured my diatribe..thanks...now to the point...DO IT, DO IT, DO IT!!!!Half the cost, great companionship and whats more your own personal tour!!!!
We have loads of extra info re our trip so ask away...only too happy to make that trip even more special!
Cheers
Rachel and Skip
