While eating breakfast (banana pancake, more like a crepe really [for Kirk] and french bread with butter and jam [heather]) we learned that the ministry of health was coming by shortly to ‘fog’ the area for mosquitoes. Apparently, a little girl down the way a bit caught dengue fever, so when the Thai government hears that, they come and spread poison everywhere. Our plan for the day was to rent a motorcycle and head out to a park near Ban Phu, where there are some crazy rocks, and a great view. Just before leaving we learned that another guy was doing the same thing so we decided to go together in a convoy. His name was Francois and he is from France, near Geneva, a nice guy.

Anyway, renting the bike was easy, we walked to the end of the lane (soi) and paid Noui (a man) 200 baht for the use of the bike for the day. I took the bike for a short spin (30 seconds) to learn how to ride, change gears, steer, etc and then Heather got on and we started on our way. Soon I started looking at the various dials and readouts on the bike and discovered that we had no gas. We stopped and asked directions to the nearest petrol station and quickly filled up the tank for less than 2 CDN (50 baht). Once again on our way, I quickly figured out that it was best to constantly watch to make sure that the ditch was always on my immediate left (they drive opposite here). The other main concern was the rather large potholes that happen every so often. Some of them would be very damaging to hit. But I managed to steer around them. » Read the rest of the entry..