Paul Arden | Tuesday, 26 March 2024
I’m not convinced that going to Thailand, where they have some of the world’s deadliest roads, having never ridden a motorcycle, renting one that has been crashed numerous times, donning a swim suit, no helmet, getting stoned and driving on unfamiliar roads, with potholes, loose sand and gravel, usually without insurance, is a particularly sensible idea. But it seems to be very popular amongst European tourists!
5% of all deaths annually in Thailand, are a result of traffic accidents. One in twenty deaths, which is a staggering statistic. In the UK it’s 0.5%. Thailand is certainly not a safe place to learn to drive a moped. And it’s simply insane to do so in a swimsuit and with no helmet.
It was a nice holiday but far too many tourists for me. And what a crazy drive yesterday back to Malaysia! We returned via a different crossing point and the Thailand side didn’t take our temporary Snakehead Truck import papers. The Malaysian side suggested we return them to our original crossing point, otherwise we would have problems returning to Thailand in the future (maybe the non-tourist season). So we drove to our original crossing point, Betong, which is sort of on the way back to Gerik, departed Malaysia again, reentered Thailand, immediately departed Thailand and reentered Malaysia! Just what you need after 10 hours driving!!
This week I’m sorting out the Hot Torpedo rods in Spain. I’m working on new decals too. We have a couple of lumilines left, so if you are quick you can grab one. I have a Canadian guest coming on Friday to visit me for five days.
So I have a big day today of organising both food, petrol, linen and towels. I also quite fancy a 21km evening run. And then it’s down the lake to the Battleship! I have a coupe of days of fishing and Zoom coaching lined up, and then I’ll head over to Penang on Friday to pick up my next guests and a second camp bed for the Battleship.
We will try to make the rod building transition to Spain as smooth as possible. Pretty soon we will have stock of all rods ready to ship as standard with faster turnaround times for our custom builds.
Have a great week. And be sure to eat a crash helmet when nymphing.
Cheers, Paul