
Honda Days
I have hankered after a motorbike for most of my adult life. I did have one in the UK in the mid 1980's when I was working in Saudi. I really cannot remember much about it, other than it was a Yamaha.
I never had a bike license, and the rigmarole of obtaining one was enough to stop me from bothering,
so I rode it illegally for a very short time and then sold it on.
Finally, in Thailand, the bike worm somehow got back into my head again. The argument against
2 wheeled vehicles in Thailand is pretty overwhelming. It's like playing Thailand Roulette. There are
over 20 million bikes on the road and the accident rate is in excess of half a million annually with the death statistics on a par with global warfare at circa 30000 every year, costing about 3% of GDP annually. Nearly 40% of riders do not have a license, and about 35% are not insured.
Even after having driven in Thailand for 4 years and seen the antics of both car/SUV drivers and bikers and taking these statistics into consideration, I couldn't get rid of the earworm.
Anyway, after affirming that I was only mildly interested in getting a bike at my ripe age, I visited Honda.... just to have a looksee. That was a mistake.
Sunatcha is such a perfect partner, and allows me to do absolutely anything I want....... no questions,
no criticism, no recriminations, no arguments..... Merv is really spoilt rotten.
My international driver's license had recently expired. So, dutifully, I went through all the requirements
of renewing my driver's license and obtaining a motorbike license. The training course consisted of registering one's presence, taking a rudimentary eye test, and sitting through an hourlong video repeatedly showing actual footage of the carnage and mayhem on the roads, such as a family of 4 generations perched precariously on a meandering bike getting annihilated by a speeding SUV. Unbeleivable.
The New Baby - Honda Rebel 500 cc (2020 model) - was delivered on 2nd of July, a week before my
69th birthday. I had most of the gear.... Sunatcha had already bought the jacket as a birthday present, and we had just spent a lovely long week-end in Bangkok so that I could get a good helmet.




