Bob on a Valley Spokesmen Ride in Thailand 2005

We left SFO on January 11 and arrived in Bangkok late evening on January 12. We were originally scheduled to arrive a day later, but JAL asked us if we would leave on the 11th if they would book us into business class. Of course we agreed. Some of Dick Weiss's friends or inlaws picked us up at the airport and drove us and our bikes to the Federal Hotel. We checked into our rooms, had a brief meeting and then went to bed.

The next day, we put our bikes together and oriented ourselves to the surrounding Sukhumvit area. We found the closest internet cafe (very inexpensive), the nearest girly bar, the closest restaurants, the nearest street vendors, the best Thai masseuses, the best place to buy beer, and many other things. Barbara Wood and I visited the travel agent in the hotel and booked two tours for the next day - a morning tour of the Bangkok wats and an afternoon tour of the river area. A lot of people live in houses on the canals. Some were real shacks and others were palaces. We rode the canals in a small, narrow boat and then transferred to a large rice boat. They served us drinks and had a fruit buffet with about 20 different kinds of fruit. Very tasty. The weather, of course, was hot but not too humid.