Chiang Mai

I hadn't slept much and spent most of the night with my brother trying to fit the TV panel board to our living room installment. Then I got up early to prepare the trip, pack my stuff, get the car ready, have took write me a paper that would hopefully ease the way into Laos with the Jimmy. I still didn't make it on time and picked up Arno and his new friend half an hour later than agreed. In Thai time, that was still good. Whatever kept us from going, we didn't hit the road before almost eleven.


The going was good and we made good way. I had chosen a smaller street for the beginning and besides the occasional pot hole, it wasn't too bad. Lucy, who joined the trip for two days sat up front with me and I was improving on my Thai. Arno and his friend lay and relaxed in the back. We had a good lunch somewhere on the road and didn't do much more than driving, until shortly after we had passed through Lampang we ran into problems. We had just stopped for a quick toilet break, but now the car refused to start again. It was my old known problem, the engine wasn't getting any petrol. We had a shop repair that, but noone had ever been really sure, if the problem was really fixed or even what the problem had really been.

I had a look at the hoses and cleared the way into the tank. Together with Arno, I managed to check the complete pipe between the tank and the fuel pump and everything was good. We found a minor problem between the pump and carburettor, the hose was leaking air and we changed it. After that we retried starting the car, without success. My best guess was the fuel pump now and I wouldn't be able to fix that and if I was, it was unlikely it could be fixed easy and rather not by the roadside.


We were lucky, anyway. Just across the street was a market and next to that two repair shops. Soon, we had a mechanic at the truck and he confirmed my guess, the fuel pump was gone. He pulled the car over to the shop and removed the pump. Minutes later he was on his way into town, some 25 kilometers away, to find a replacement. We were waiting at the shop.


We passed the time buying food at the market and eating. Arno felt brave and bought some fried insects we all tried, except for his friend who couldn't even really look at them. It seemed ages, before the mechanic returned. He did have a replacement, but not the part he'd removed, but an electronic pump he put in next to the old one. It took him a good while to make fittings and the like while we were still trying to pass the time. I had originally assumed to be back on the road within an hour or two, but now we were nearing three. In the end, the mechanic's wife had to make another trip to town to buy fuel pipe before we had the car running again, paid and were back on our way.


We got to Chiang Mai after an hour and found a guest house quickly. The place was crowded with backpackers and everything that comes with them. Check-in and refreshing cosumed quite some time and before we knew it, it was almost midnight. We had some dinner and went to bed, as I was tired from a long day driving and waiting.

The next day passed easy. We had a look town and it's many temples. After, we went back to bed for a while before getting up for some dinner. Tomorrow, Arno and I would hit the road towards the north and leave the girls behind.