* I am really getting lazier and lazier in updating this journal and also the blog ... somehow when the travels has been a while ago .. its nice to reminisance but at the sametime painful to write about it when not being able to travel*
From the border I thought I would be spending the night at Chantaburi which was a short 80km ride away but once I reach and locating the hostel which had no parking and the doors were locked, I decided to continue the journey improvising along the way.
Pattaya or Rayong was the easy choice since both were now within my comfort zone as I have been there before but I wanted to avoid the detour going slightly south to Rayong or Pattaya. To be honest I also wanted to avoid the crazy tourist area and find some quiet time as Cambodia slow pace has made me really lazy.
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| Bang Sean Beach Downtown |
Chon Buri was the obvious choice but somehow all the hostels or cheap accommodation was so darn expensive. Further digging at every stop en route east made me found the cheap hostel in Bang Saen Beach which was somewhere between Pattaya and Chon Buri. Bang Saen it is.
Bang Saen was a surprise like a hidden gem with so many local tourist visiting the beach, full of amenities that it feels like a proper beach town. I stayed two nights there since I manage to save a night from Chantaburi so I could now afford to relax and rest up before hitting Bangkok which was less than 100 km away.
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| Bang Sean Beach further out to the far fringe |
Bluey became a bit shaky near to Bang Sean but I thought it was just bad fuel after running on low RPM so long in Cambodia but the more I ride, it was obvious that something was misfiring. With extra time in hand in Bang Saen, I started looking for a motorcycle workshop.
The first workshop, supposedly a Ducati specialist that also does bike modification and customization said it was the carburetor. I highly doubt it and suspected the spark plug. Changed the spark plug, opened and washed the carburetor but could not fix the problem of a jerky engine when the speed goes up to 60km/hr. Mechanic said it was the faulty carb that need to be changed but he did not have the parts.
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| Big Bike Shop ... wrong diagnostic of Blues misfiring |
Disappointed, I headed back to the hostel but somehow ended up rounding and rounding Bang Saen looking for workshop. It was a good thing too since I found a very small little shop that had the skills to diagnostic the bike properly. One old man and his son which maned the shop, had a look at Bluey and I tried my best to explain the issue of the jerky engine.
Needless to say it was hard to communicate but some gestures and a good trust of handing of keys over, they test ride the bike and I said to push it to 70km/hr to get a feel. When they return they started checking spark plug, washed out the carburartor as before and test ride again.
Carb ok ... spark plug ok .... CDI maybe problem ... need to leave bike overnight to fix since it was already 6pm. Somehow I managed to understand that without translation.
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| Replacing the CDI in Bang Sean |
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| Replaced CDI of Bluey .... With the new red wire it looked like Bluey got a heart bypass. |
Seams like plans were not going well since I had to leave the next day to Bangkok. Taking a chance since I saw this father and son work very systematic in analyzing Bluey’s issue, I left the bike and came back in the morning.
11 am although they told me to come the next day at 3pm, Bluey was already fixed up and all good. They showed me the faulty CDI that was stripped apart but I could not see the new CDI that was placed underneath the fuel tank.
CDI – Capacitor Discharge Ignition and the power coil was changed new and now Bluey runs smoothly on high speed but seams to start cold most times in the morning. I guess its a ups or down type of problem with CDI.
Traveled on: Apr 2019
