Low on gas.

A funny thing happened when I took the motorcycle to Pua last weekend.

I hung out with my buddy Roman, who lives in the town of Pua. Its a neighboring town 20 minutes north of Tha Wang Pha by automobile. After dinner and hangin out for the night I say good bye and head for TWP. The time is about 11:00pm. I can ride home, and brush my teeth and get to bed by 11:30. Get a solid 7 hours for school the next day.

It wasn't long after I fired the bike up that I had noticed the fuel gauge. Damn near empty. No problem, I think to myself. I'll just fill up at the Shell station that's on the way out of town.

CLOSED.
SHIT.

Now what to do? At this point my gas gauge arrow is perfectly in line with the glowing red "E". With the only known gas station in town closed, and no gas to waste looking for a gas vendor, I pull over and call Roman. It couldn't have been more than 10 minutes since I left his place. He should be able to help me out.

Ring, ring, ring, ring..... notta.

Ok. So I'm out of town, out of gas, my only friend in town is not calling, and I'm a solid 15 minute walk from his house. I park my bike by the 7-11 and walk the street asking anyone around how to find gas. I'm lucky that I had my Thai phrasebook in my side bag that night. I didn't get a straight answer that I understood but I got some people pointing. By following a couple of leads I wound up on the side of the main street opposite of 7-11 by a late night soup vendor. There were 4 guys sitting down, most likely drunk that were inexplicably stoked to see me. "Farang! Come! Come!" They insisted that I sit down and let them feed me and serve me beer. I obliged.

The new plan: Eat, drink, and wait for Roman's phone call. I'll hang out with the townies and inquire about a possible late night gas vendor. A bowl of soup and a can of beer later, the guys walked me over to a Thai lady standing behind a table on the sidewalk about 20 meters away from our table.

To the untrained eye she was selling discounted whiskey bottles. One local explained to me that the little Thai lady was actually selling motorcycle fuel by the bottle. 40 baht per bottle. "Song" I said. She gave me two bottles, and I gleefully poured the whiskey bottles into the tank.

The local time was midnight by the time I had poured the fuel in my bike and headed home. The next day I was exhausted but had a good story to tell, and a new gas station vendor to tell Roman about.