TALES OF THAILAND – A motorcycle trip from Bangkok to Pattaya

By Teacher Charlie

As 2010 comes to a close I thought I would start a series and what I will call ‘Tales of Thailand’. Having been in and out of my beloved home Thailand for nearly 20 years, I thought I would try to share with the world my observations of how this place ‘ticks’.

My first part of the series will be a tale about one of my greatest joys in being here; riding motorcycles.

This past year I collected well over 20,000 kilometers on two different bikes, one a Honda Wave 125 FI and the other an older Honda CBR 150. Both of which are excellent choices for this part of the world.

Let me start with my most recent acquisition, the CBR.

From Tales of Thailand

A CBR 150 in Thailand is famous because it is the bike of choice for many of Thailand’s police. Strong, light and quick, it gets you where you need to go with no fuss, no muss at a miserly clip.

The new models of both the 150 and 250 versions have just been introduced here. I spotted both at the Honda showroom in Jomtien this past week. Beautiful bikes with the 250 decorated with red, white and blue colors and the 150 in a charcoal grey.

When I inquired with the young lady there that speaks a bit of English, she informed me that the 150 is 75,000 baht and the 250 is 100,000 baht. Back a few months ago when I was looking for the same bike, new ones were nowhere to be found and I was told I would have to wait for the new arrivals.

On that particular weekend I was specifically in Pattaya to find a CBR and although not finding any new ones, I did manage to find a used one there at the same Honda shop as well as two newer ones along Sukhumvit in two of the countless motorcycles sales shops along that highway as it blasts through Pattaya.

I ended up buying an 8 year old bike for 24,000 baht (just about $800 USD) from the Honda shop on Thepprasit Road instead of the newer and significantly higher priced bikes on Sukhumvit. One reason I went with the 8 year old bike as it looked amazingly well maintained (previous owner was a German) and the mechanic there who I know and is one of the best, told me it was a great bike. He was ‘very sure’ I was getting a good solid bike and as it turns out after having put nearly 2,000 kilometers on it over the past 2 months, he was right.

It has purred like a kitten every step of the way, with gas consumption nearly matching that of its baby brother, the 125fi. It does have another 25cc though with a much larger fuel tank holding, at today’s prices, 300 baht compared to the 100 baht tank on a standard Honda Wave. I can cruise comfortably at 120kph with 140 possible on a good stretch of road.

Let me give you an example of a ride from Bangkok’s Morchit (Chatuchak or Jatujak; Thai: จตุจักร weekend market) to Jomtien and back. I’ll also let you in on a ‘secret’ way in and out of Bangkok that is perfect for a bike rider (motorbike riders can’t use the motorways or elevated highways) and makes you feel like Tom Cruise in the movie Top Gun.

From Tales of Thailand

It took me many times trying different ways in and out of Bangkok but the ‘secret short cut' is a road that parallels the main runways at Bangkok’s relatively new international airport of Suvarnabhumi.

I started the trip from home with 48,767 on the bike heading down Phahol Yothin Road (Phaholyothin) to Phetchburi Road which most foreigners know because of the huge computer plaza at Pantip.

This road is wide and easily maneuvered even with the heaviest of traffic. I have never seen a police ‘checkpoint’ on it either. All but one of the flyovers are ‘bike friendly’ allowing you to ‘fly over’ the congested and lengthy intersection below. If I remember correctly there are 4 major flyovers that eventually take you to where this road deadends into what is called ‘On Nut Road’. Take a left here and follow the signs for the new airport. My mileage at this point was 48, 874 km for this particular trip.

Just point the bike towards the airport for another 12 kilometers but DO NOT take the first big intersection and curving flyover that points to the airport. Continue a bit further past and under it until you come to another large intersection with two, right turn lanes with signs indicating ‘airport’. You will notice a large police box here which is a stone’s throw away from the new, large Thai police complex that ‘serves’ the airport facility. This road is an access road to the airport’s runways and facilities and parallels the main runways that point north to south.

The only trick here is you need to go down the access road until you reach an intersection where you need to turn and head closer to the runway, terminal and the huge Thai Airway’s maintenance hanger. Get to that road, hang a left and open it up and do your best Tom Cruise imitation as you have a total of 17 kilometers of fast road and little to no traffic before you reach the Chonburi/Bangna road and elevated highway.

From Tales of Thailand

Once again, hang another left and stay in the left lanes outside the ‘main road’ which is underneath the elevated highway. Why you might ask? The answer is bikes aren’t allowed on certain stretches of the main road and it is very difficult to ascertain just where or when bikes are not allowed although I have done it as well as others do it. If you don’t have an extra 100 baht for the police, play it safe. (This inside section of road is always called 'Frontage Road'.)

I won’t get into all the details of my trip from here but suffice it to say, 3 hours later and with the odometer showing 48,911 kilometers, I was sitting at the intersection of Jomtien’s Thepprasit Road and Sukhumvit Roads. Another 144 kilometer road trip completed.

In the day I was there, I put another 40 kilometers on the bike and combined with the 144 kilometers home, my fuel cost was less than 250 baht. Pretty economical I would say at less than 1 baht per kilometer. I might also mention I use 95 in the older CBR instead of 91. I also prefer to stop at PTT stations and use their facilities on my road trips and avoid at all costs the Caltex stations as on a road trip many months ago as I was returning from Koh Chang, I was refused use of their air bottle to put air in my rear tire. Only cars were permitted this luxury EVEN THOUGH I had just purchased a full tank of gas for my Honda Wave.

Trip to Pattaya/Jomtien

48,767 Start at home on Sunday

48,784 The intersection of Petchburi road and On Nut Road.

48,796 Airport road

48,856 ChomBuri intersection

48,911 Thepprasit Road and Sukhumvit intersection in Jomtien

Jomtien to Morchit

48,938 Honda in Tapasat Road 08:30

49,041 Airport cutoff from Bangna road

49,055 Airport road end onto On Nut Road

49,067 Petchaburi Road entrance from On Nut Road

Home 11:30

Exactly 3 hours to get back – Four police checkpoints on the way back (getting close to the end of the month). Never stopped although the last one on On Nut Road came close as a cop was walking out to stop me but didn’t. I think my police bike look, shades, etc. made him think twice.