SE ASIA - DAY 47 - BANGKOK - Free and Easy

This morning, a friend sent me this sad news about a couple who tried to ride from Singapore to Krabi and skidded at a bend in Thailand during New Year's Eve.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/singaporean-couple-killed-in-motorcycle-accident-in-thailand-9824398

The rider died on the spot and the pillion rider passed away on New Years day from the injuries after being sent to the hospital for treatment. The bike they rode were the same model as the one I used to ride before the Triumph Tiger 800. This reminded me on the importance of constantly on the alert for safety and keep my speed to a safe level. Rest-in-peace for the couple.

Now, back to fixing my fuel gauge issue as it is annoying not knowing how much fuel I have in my fuel tank while I ride. Although I can roughly gauge by observing the amount of distance I have traveled, the fuel consumption can vary accordingly to road condition, speed and traffic.

I googled the Internet for possible causes of malfunctioning fuel gauge for Triumph bikes. There were apparently quite a few people encountering the same issue. There are two possible causes of the fuel gauge not working.

1) The float inside the petrol tank is stuck
2) The clutch switch contact point is oxidized/corroded and does not have the required contact, yes, it does affect the fuel gauge for some reason

I did tried to shake the bike hoping that it will reset the float position but so far it did not help.
The clutch switch contact probably explained why I was unable to start the bike yesterday. Tried removing the clutch switch cable to clean the contact points but the catch locking the switch cable is very tight, couldn't remove it without the right tools.

So I decided to ride the bike to the Triumph workshop nearby. Halfway through, after a few bumps on the road, the fuel gauge is showing the fuel level again 😆. Shaking the bike doesn't help but riding on the road bumps did allow the fuel tank float to be shaken back to normal position again.

Well, now that the problem is resolved, I turned around and rode back to the hotel instead.
I could have rode it to the Bangkok Chinatown I have wanted to visit today, but the Bangkok roads are really confusing and inflexible on the turnings. As the MRT station that is 100metres away from the hotel goes all the way to a station that is near to Chinatown, I would prefer to take the train instead and walk around in flip-flops and bermudas instead of riding pants in such a hot weather.

7 MRT stops later and walking about 400 meters, I am in the heart of Bangkok Chinatown.
This place is packed with people, both locals and tourists.

Saw many people buying gold here. Is it an auspicious day to buy gold on 02 Jan for Thai culture ??

 I usually don't eat snacks, but each time I come to Bangkok, I normally get a packet of this pork floss sticks. The Cantonese called this dog-poop biscuit(狗屎饼）due to the shape of it. There is a spicy and non-spicy version for 150THB per small packet. There is a bigger package version as well but I don't really have much luggage space left. The challenge is how not to crush it in my already packed pannier boxes.

It's lunch time and there is a long queue at this shop which sells braised duck, pig spare parts and roast pork. There are locals queuing and I guest the tourist also joins the queue judging the popularity by looking at the length of the queue. I really don't like queuing.

So I continue walking, looking at all kinds of things there sell there.

Until I got really hungry but still couldn't find any suitable food for lunch. There are fish ball noodles but I doubt it can satisfy my appetite.

So I went back to the long queue stall and joined the queue. 😋
Luckily, the queue move fast as most of the people have finished their lunch by then.

They passed around the menu while you are queuing, an effective way of spending time queuing for those that takes a long time to decide what to eat.

Many people tend to order impulsively whenever they are hungry, I am one of them. 😐
I ordered a Duck thigh with rice, Roast pork and pig blood soup, as well as a beer.

Hah, I ate a piece of the duck before remembering to take a picture of it.

The soup was without the blood, the waitress said that they ran out of blood, give me the mixed soup instead. 😑

The roast pork was good, very crispy skin.

All worked out to be 300THB with the big bottle of Singha, quite a good deal.
A very satisfying meal, one of the best lunch I had for this trip. The ingredients were really fresh, probably explains why this shop is so popular.

Then I recalled that I have quite an amount of laundry to dry before moving on, decided to go back and dry them while finishing the remaining episodes of "The Walking Dead" series.

On the way back to the Hua Lamphong MRT station, I passed by the Hua Lamphong train station. This is the place to load your motorcycle up a train to Hatyai if you wish to avoid riding the long stretch of boring roads from Bangkok.

Unlike Singapore or most places, the MRT and BTS in Bangkok are two different train systems and you will need to exit the station to change from one to the another. Yes, you will need to buy the ticket again if you do so.

For me, it's all the way MRT, no need to change to BTS.

I will be heading out of Bangkok to Hua Hin tomorrow.

Better do so while the weather is good. Just don't want to be stucked at the terrifying floods again 😭.

Day 48 - Bangkok to Hua Hin