Day 23 - Tue, Nov 25 - Addendum (by Pierre), or It Pays to Pay Attention

I remember learning to drive with my father. There were some hairy moments, like when I tried to take a turn off the highway at the last moment and quite a bit too fast, and there were some cool moments, like when I'd help him jump start off a dead battery. I never did memorize that latter procedure through those lessons, but I always thought it would be good to know. Regardless, I'd never needed it, so I ended up getting through life without the knowledge until sometime not too long ago when I read, inadvertently, the theory behind the process. Again, I thought to myself: "that would be handy to know..."

So, as Dianna has previously mentioned, to get around Phanom Rung we rented a UK-style manual truck without power steering. Everything was fine until one particularly bendy hill where I didn't downshft quickly enough and stalled the engine, which isn't so bad by itself, so long as it starts again, which it didn't. There I am, thinking about how screwed we are to be stalled on a hill with nobody around who speaks English, not to mention around at all. My next though is "I don't even know how to jump start this thing", but I quickly amend to think "No wait, yes I do know how to jump start this thing." I then proceed to do the following (and hope I've remembered correctly) :

1. turn the key to just before ignition
2. hold down the clutch, making sure the transmission is in first gear
3. get the vehicle rolling to a decent speed (just a few kph will do - good thing we were just at the top of a downward slope at the time)
4. release the clutch slowly, while turning the key to ignition

note: you can also get it rolling in neutral and invert steps 2 and 3. Should also work on any vehicle with manual tranny.

To my great relief and excitement, it works and I feel awesome for having dredged the whole thing from memory and give myself a pat on the back for getting it right on the first try. In all fairness, it's not exactly rocket science, but it was pretty satisfying. Maybe it will help someone reading this sometime. Never hurts to be prepared.