Cars, Trucks and Motorcycles

 The Thailand Baptist Missionary Fellowship (TBMF) had a good system for providing and maintaining vehicles for their missionaries. An average cost per kilometer had been calculated and adjusted as needed. This average included the cost of fuel, maintenance, repairs and eventual replacement. If we used a vehicle for work purposes, we would use work funds to cover the cost of the kilometers driven. Using a vehicle for personal reasons was allowed, but the funds to pay the cost per kilometer would come from personal funds.

Of course, this system required recording the kilometers driven so every TBMF vehicle had a notebook where everyone that drove it would record the beginning and ending kilometer reading and whether it should be charged to work or personal. Each person responsible to oversee a particular vehicle would then periodically tally up the kilometers driven, total the charges that needed to be collected and noted who was responsible to pay. The system seemed to work pretty well and enabled Thailand missionaries to use mission owned vehicles much longer than other mission fields (where missionaries largely had to fend for themselves for vehicles).

On the road with a load of people.

For the Irrigation Project and associated agricultural work and especially considering the state of roads in Northwest Thailand, a good, 4 wheel drive pick up truck was needed. We were meant to cover a wide geographical area while transporting materials to build pipelines, water tanks, irrigation flumes, dams, water filters, etc. We’d also transport fruit tree seedlings, seeds, fertilizers, cement, sand, gravel and people. Sometimes lots of people!

When we were first in Chiang Mai, I don’t remember what, if any vehicle was assigned to us, but we at least had access to a Toyota 4 wheel drive pickup for work related needs. As we moved to Mae Sariang, we also had access to a truck that we came to love as it carried us on so many adventures. It lasted for years and after it was fairly well used up in the mission’s eyes was used by local buyers for many more years roaming the mountains around Mae Sariang.

We also had intentions of doing some personal exploring of Thailand. To that end, we bought a well

The nose of our VW is in the
background. We'd driven it to
Goshen village where this
young lady was dressed to
celebrate the new year. 

used, rather old VW Beetle. For just the two of us, it was great and it took us around to a number of sites and attractions as well as to market and shopping runs. It was this car that gave us an inkling as to how hot it could get in Thailand as we went to shake some of the debris off the floor mats and found they had melted to the floor! I also remember driving the VW downtown and hearing a shuffling sound. I turned toward the sound to see a mouse on the window ledge right by my shoulder! We were eye to eye for a few seconds but then he took a peek to see where we were going, then disappeared. I never saw a hint of him again. Unfortunately, we figured the road to Mae Sariang where we would soon be moving, would be too much for the old VW. So we sold it to the Broyles, some long term volunteers who were teaching in Thailand. They used it to ramble all over for all the time they were there.

Roads, even those requiring 4 wheel drive, by no means reached all the villages where we would be expected to go. Some villages however, had worked together to widen footpaths enough that they could be used for motorcycles. All our Irrigation Project workers and many evangelists had motorcycles so they could reach more villages than our 4 wheel drive trucks. I wanted to be able to keep up with the Karen workers so I also bought a “dirt bike” style motorcycle that I could use around town or on mountain trips.

The problem with motorcycles at the time was that Thailand limited the size of the engines to 125 cc. For someone my size, it was OK on good roads, but when it came to going up steep mountains on narrow trails, it just didn’t have enough power. Too many times, I would charge up a mountain giving it as much gas as I could, bouncing, jostling, and barely hanging on the path only to have it “peter out” way too far below the mountain top. The only thing I could do was hop off, keep the motor running, hold on and run beside it the rest of the way up the mountain. The much smaller Karen workers had no such problems. They would cruise comfortably up the mountain and patiently wait for me at the top where I would eventually arrive, jelly legged, panting and sweating profusely. Still, it was easier (I think??) to use a motor cycle rather than climb the whole mountain walking the whole way.

My 125 cc motorcycle. Too bad it wouldn't
take me all the way to the top of the 
mountains!

I kept a diary at the time and had this to say about a motorcycle trip on July 20 – 21, 1984:

Friday, July 20 – Up at 5:30 and leave on motorcycle at 6:45. Arrive at Baan Pa Pae and meet Prasong (our project worker). We travel together to Mae Wae Khee arriving about 10:30. We have a bite to eat then go to Boong Sah. We leave our bikes and about 1:30 or 2:00 leave on foot and walk about 2 ½ hours to Mae Ii Law. We rest a bit, then look over a project site where an irrigation dam is to be built with a 1200 meter irrigation ditch. We walk back to village for some dinner. Sleep on bamboo floor about 10 pm.

 
Saturday, July 21 – Up about 6, breakfast about 7 and leave for Boong Sa at 8 am. Stop outside Boong Sa to look over a completed irrigation project and take some photos. Arrive at Boong Sa about noon, have some lunch then ride back to Mae Wae Khee leaving about 1:30. Take a break, then leave for Chiang Mai at 2:45 arriving home about 6. Get rained on near Pa Pae but no trouble.