According to Bob Smiley, who I have played golf with twice, and who has written two books, one of which I have purchased, and gave to my mother, but  got it back after she died, the introduction is critically important.  With the introduction, I need to have you, the reader, take an interest in my story. Thus it needs to pull you in and make you feel that you’re a partner in this journey, when in fact, you’re not.  So I need to do this right. I only have one chance, and fortunately, I feel up to the task.

They call me Bob. They being 1. People that call me and 2. People that know me by my name, Bob.   For the sake of brevity, I was born in California in 1960, and now live in Thailand where I have a wife and four cats, although I suspect that by the time I return home, one cat, named Scotty, will have succumbed to feline lukemia and kidney failure.  I stay in Thailand using a Non Immigrant O visa, that allows me to stay in Thailand for 90 days at a time.  My time is running out and thus the impetus for this trip, a short jaunt around Southern Thailand in which at some point I will jump across the border into Malaysia to get my next 90 days.  As I am no longer working, my main preoccupation in Thailand is studying the Thai language.  Oddly, this is done primarily as a way to provide focus to my life  and a sense of structure, with learning the language a major after thought.  The classes are intense with three hours a day, for 20 days per section.  I’m not a driven student, and although my Thai skills are more than adequate for what I use it for, I should be much further along.

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At this point I realize that this isn’t exactly a 'winning' introduction, thus I will keep it shorter. 

I am in Hat Yai, way down south in Thailand.  I start my ride tomorrow and will continue to ride until some time at the end of this month.  On the 20th I will meet up with Frank and Andrew, and will ride with them for 5 or 6 days. And by Frank, I mean Frank, the German guy that has a journal going on here.  Unlike Frank I am not very Germanic in my planning.  I have to leave the country before the 11th and I have to meet Frank on the 20th in Trang, So those are my two exactitudes, the rest of the trip will be planned day by day.

So that’s my introduction, over the course of the trip I’ll go over my bike and gear and maybe something else.  Whatever.

Oh! And for you Reddit users, I created and moderate a subreddit there that I encourage you to subscribe to: r/crazyguyonabike. It’s a bicycle touring subreddit that grows exponentially each time there is a new subscriber. For the month of April everyday there will be a new post, or more, of original and exclusive content about Thailand.  Mind you the subreddit r/crazyguyonabike has nothing to do with the website of the same name, or it’s creator, that extremely nasty piece of work, Neil Gunton.