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Damn do I wish I could do that! I guess living vicariously through others will have to do ... for now.
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Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/274.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map274-L.jpg The full moon celebrations are still in full swing in Chiang Mai. Typically throughout the rest of the year, the population here numbers around 400,000 people, but during Yi Peng, an additional 200,000 tourists flock to the city, exploring every nook and cranny during the week around the full moon. We arrived a few weeks before all the mayhem, but because we're travel fatigued, we didn't venture out too much. Now with Iva pulling us out into the city during the few short days that she's here, we're astounded at just how many people are here. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0355-L.jpg The old town of Chiang Mai used to be walled off in a square. You can see the configuration in the map above. Today, most of the walls have crumbled away, only the four corners and a few bits exist along the moat that still surrounds the old city. We still don't know the city very well, but we use these corners and wall bits to orient ourselves when we're navigating through Chiang Mai. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0372-L.jpg Wat Lok Moli. This is the closest temple to us and we pass it all the time when we head to the old city Tonight, we're walking to the Sunday Night Walking Street Market, which is held near the Tae Phae Gate, on the other side of the city. As we get closer to the old town the crowds become a lot thicker. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0380-L.jpg Lanterns at Wat Lok Moli. Some of these smaller, lesser known temples are not as crowded during Yi Peng, but they are still decorated quite nicely |
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Incense sticks at Wat Lok Moli https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0630-L.jpg Every Sunday, the streets west of Tae Phae Gate into the old city close off to vehicle traffic and stalls set up for pedestrians to walk by It just so happens that the bazaars during Yi Peng are absolutely packed. There is barely any room to move! A few times I lost Neda and Iva because while they perused the stands looking for bargains, my eye was glued to my camera. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0461-L.jpg Need shoes? You've come to the right place! These are Hmong embroidered shoes, mostly for kids. The Hmong are one of several ethnic hill tribes that live in Northern Thailand. Each of the hill tribes have their own dialects and style of dress. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0470-L.jpg In the process of knitting hats worn by the hill tribes |
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These are tiny dyed soaps sculptures carved into flowers! We saw a guy making them, it was quite intricate. So small it fits in the palm of your hand. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0482-L.jpg These ladies are from the Karen hill tribe. They seem to wear less embroidered clothes than the Hmong. Some of the Karen hill tribe women wear gold rings around their necks to stretch and elongate them over time. I'd like to visit a Karen village and see this during our stay in Northern Thailand! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0514-L.jpg Heavy full moon traffic outside the Tae Phae Gate See those red covered trucks? They're the most popular mode of public transport in Chiang Mai. They're called Song Thaews, but Iva called them Fire Trucks and the name stuck with us. Having been here for a while, we also found out these Fire Trucks are the cheapest method of getting around. Only rich farang tourists take the tuk tuks, which will cost you about 50 baht ($2) to get you anywhere in the old city. By contrast, hail a Fire Truck heading in the direction you're going and it will only cost you $20 baht (less than $1). The only catch is that you share them with whoever else hails one along the way, and the Fire Truck driver will often take the least direct/most circuitous route to pick up as many passengers as possible. Still, it's a good deal and we feel like such locals willfully ignoring all the drivers who cluck at us as we walk by: "Tuk tuk? Tuk Tuk?" |
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Iva and Neda look for some scarves. Later followed by some competitive rounds of haggling... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0528-L.jpg So back to taking more pictures for me... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0556-L.jpg Thai glass sculpture |
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Buddha art. This is not considered very ethical by Thai people When we first arrived at Bangkok Airport, we saw lots of signs and posters informing us that it is disrespectful to use the imagery of Buddha, either as pictures or statues for decoration. Since it's a very religious symbol, Buddhists only use it for worship. So all of these Buddha paintings and carvings that are sold to tourists to hang on bathroom walls and used as garden sculptures are very offensive. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0594-L.jpg A proper use of the Buddha statue https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0599-L.jpg Incense and bells are two of the most important objects in Buddhism. The bells signify the voice of Buddha are a call for protection by heavenly deities. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0609-XL.jpg Colourful painted bowls. The Bazaar makes for some colourful night-time photography! |
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I'm glad that we took a week off before Iva came to visit us in Chiang Mai. We have quite a full itinerary while she's here... But if it wasn't for her, we wouldn't see any of it! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0613-L.jpg Of course food plays an important part of any celebration! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0622-L.jpg Neda orders some fried dumplings. Mmmm... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0540-L.jpg Gahhhh! So many people! Is it wrong to long for Yi Peng to be over and wish them all away from our city? Yes, it's only been a few weeks but already we've started to think of Chiang Mai like home. But more on that later... |
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Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/275.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map273-L.jpg Sawadee Kruhp! We've been in Thailand for just over a month and not too much has happened. Iva was only with us a for a few days longer in Chiang Mai, so the girls took a cooking class just outside of the city. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0548-L.jpg First stop before cooking class is a trip to the local market to pick up ingredients https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0609-L.jpg I also took a cooking class, so there are some pictures interspersed of my trip to the market. This is our cooking instructor Phern https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0556-L.jpg |
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Neda is getting some good tips on which are the best spices and sauces to use https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0637-L.jpg About 45 minutes outside of Chiang Mai, our cooking school is in the middle of the farm. Cool! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0624-L.jpg Fresh ingredients are picked from the garden just outside https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0639-XL.jpg The class is set up so that all the ingredients are brought to you and all the pots and pans are washed after you're done with them. We should go to cooking school every day! 55555! Oh yeah, I also picked up some Thai Internet lingo. The number "5" is pronounced "ha".... so "55555" = "hahahahaha" :) |
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Neda's cooking up some delicious Tom Yum Soup. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0659-L.jpg I'm only attending cooking class for all the eating at the end. And because I look so good in an apron... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0652-L.jpg Before this class, I had no idea what went into green curry. Basically you pound a bunch of ingreendients and you end up with a paste. Neat! My green curry paste is on the right, Neda's is on the left. Mine's smoother... 555. The only thing I'm better at cooking than Neda is brute force mortaring and pestling. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0665-XL.jpg The format of the class is that for each dish, our instructor shows us what to do and then we are off to our individual stations to make magic I found out that there are just a handful of ingredients that you use for Thai cooking: coconut milk, lime, fish sauce, palm sugar, garlic, shallots and basil. It's the combination and amounts you use to come up with a variety of dishes. |
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Lining up to extend our visa (exemption) Our Thai visa ran out after a month. It's actually not a proper visa, but a visa exemption - since Thailand has an agreement with a lot of first-world countries that allows you to enter the country without having to obtain a visa beforehand. This exemption gives you a 30-day stay in Thailand, but you either have to leave and come back, or you are allowed to extend the exemption once for an additional 30 days while you are in the country for a fee. We would like to stay longer. A lot longer. Because we've fallen in love with Chiang Mai. The northern mountain weather is dryer and cooler than the rest of the country. Outside of Yi Peng, there aren't a lot of attractions in the city - no beaches, no big temples - so not as much tourist traffic as a Bangkok or Phuket. Despite it being one of the cheapest places to live in Thailand, it's a very middle-class city with plenty of amenities all centrally located. We've not felt this at home in a city since we stayed in La Paz, Mexico and Medellin, Colombia. The cost of living here is about 25% of the cost of living in Toronto, with all things being equal. We left a very comfortable lifestyle back in Canada, spending most of the last three and a half years living in a tent and sleeping on friends' couches. Now that we are able to afford the same standard of living that we left behind, that kind of luxury is seductive. We originally came to Thailand not just to escape the European winter, but also to figure out what we want to do with our travels and our lives moving forward. What we're feeling right now is that we are very burnt out and it doesn't look like a few months will solve that. We haven't experienced what Chiang Mai is like all year round, but we are now seriously talking about settling here full-time as ex-pats. It's such a stereotype - the western ex-pat in Thailand. But once you get here, stuff just starts to make sense: The weather, the friendly people, the low cost of living, the high standard of living you are able to afford... And to think, just a month and a half ago, we weren't even planning on coming here! There are a number of things we still have to research and figure out. What do we do with our big bikes in Croatia? Do we ride them from Croatia to Thailand? What are the route/carnet/visa issues involved with that? If we do that, we'll only have a window of time in the spring/summer/fall of 2016. Just talking about planning and doing that ride down here is stressing us out, with all its timelines and schedules. Can't we just ship the bikes here? Are we even allowed to import them into Thailand? And how do we stay full time in our newly chosen home? So much research to do. Also, we are getting sick of haggling with the Fire Truck drivers. We were thinking about renting scooters. However, after our 30-day visa exemption extension expires, we cannot extend it again and will have to leave the country to either come in on another 30-day visa exemption or apply for a proper 60-day tourist visa outside of Thailand. We looked at renting bigger motorcycles and riding out and back into Thailand, but the rental companies don't allow you to leave the country on their rentals. So the plan right now is to buy a couple of cheap, used motorcycles. I've found a bunch of on-line classifieds and also put the word out that we're looking for bikes. We've got a month before we have to leave the country so that should be plenty of time to find two-wheeled transport. Putting the "Ride" back into RideDOT.com! |
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Good luck for the future - whatever that brings...or perhaps I should say wherever that brings you! |
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/276.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map276-L.jpg Sawadee Kruhp! A lot has happened in the last while! Firstly, we've been kicked out of our awesome apartment... :( No, we weren't throwing wild parties or trashing the place. We didn't foresee that we would stay in Chiang Mai this long, so our AirBnB lease expired. When we went online to renew it, we found out the landlord upped the prices for the holidays - it was more than double what we were previously paying! So we opted to move out of Nimman and find other accommodations. We're now staying clear across the city, in the north-east quadrant called Fa Ham. We're staying in a high rise apartment right behind a huge, new mall called Central Festival. Although this change of scenery is kind of a bummer (we really, really liked our old apartment in Nimman), it allows us to explore a new section of Chiang Mai. It's like researching all the different areas to live around the city, so if we end up buying a place here, we'll know the best neighbourhoods. I have a feeling it's still going to be Nimman... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6761-L.jpg This is the lobby of our new apartment building. Very festive! So this is where we spent Christmas. We don't really like our new accommodations. Although this building is newer, it's a lot smaller than our old apartment and it's right beside a highway so there's a lot of noise and dust from the traffic. We have to keep the windows closed and use the air conditioner all the time, which Neda isn't too happy about. :( https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6767-L.jpg Our new place does have a swimming pool though. We make use of it a lot just to get out of the tiny apartment. |
Secondly, the hunt for used motorcycles was fruitless.
We're specifically looking for a couple of 250cc dual sports. While the roads are in excellent condition in Thailand, we're thinking about heading to Laos and Cambodia when our visa exemption expires. We've heard the roads there aren't as developed, so the dualies would come in handy. Plus we want to do some trail riding while we're here as well! We were looking for something like a Honda CRF250L or Kawasaki KLX250S. The reason for these two choices is that they're assembled in Thailand and are exempt from the oppressive import tax that Customs levies on all vehicles coming in. So these bikes are a lot cheaper than their Japanese/European assembled competition. That's relevant information for our big bikes which are sleeping in Europe. The import tax for bringing in used motorcycles is almost 300% of the value assigned to the bike. So to bring in our BMWs, we pretty much have to pay three times the value of what the customs people deem it to be worth (which will probably be a lot higher than what we think it's worth). And the paperwork, wait-times and emissions-testing procedure is a nightmare. By publicly documenting all of this, Thai Customs is basically telling everyone not to bother and buy a vehicle inside the country instead. If we decide to stay here, we'll either have to leave our Beemers somewhere outside of Thailand (Croatia probably) or sell them. Yeah, who are we trying to kid. We're not selling our bikes. Waaaay too much sentimental value. That and we'll get nothing for them because of the mileage... I hit the classifieds pretty hard for a couple of weeks. There were a couple of older, very high mileage CRFs. One KLX looked promising, but the owner flaked out on our meeting - guess he wasn't too motivated to part with his bike... Time was running out on our visa and we were starting to worry. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6771-L.jpg So we went to the local Honda dealership and picked up a couple of these bad boys!!!!! WHHAAAAAAAT!!!!! :) We were hurtling towards the expiration date of our visa so we bit the bullet and bought new bikes. It turned out to be not that expensive (relatively): less than $3500USD including tax, insurance for one year and registration of a Thai license plate. They are $4500USD outside of Thailand before taxes and this doesn't include insurance and registration, so it was a good deal to buy a Thai-assembled bike. I'm confident we can sell a nearly new bike with low mileage and not be out too much money. Especially compared to the cost of renting bikes for many months. And we can ride these ones out of Thailand! A slightly Merry Belated Christmas for us... 555! |
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Riding our new bikes home. So excited!!!! It took a couple of weeks for us to take delivery once we ordered the bikes, as the dealership was out of stock of CRFs, so these ones had to be shipped from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. We paid a few extra dollars for them to install rear aluminum racks so we can mount our drybags and backpacks on the back. The only wrinkle is that we are waiting for the ownership papers (called a Green Book) to be registered to our names and license plates to be assigned to us. Those are mandatory for taking the motorcycles across the border. The dealership is confident we'll get those before our visa expires. So now we're planning our road trip out of Thailand. We're probably going to hit Laos first since we're so close to the border, then make our way to Cambodia and then come back through South-East Thailand and then return to Chiang Mai (because we love it so much here). Ooooh! So excited for our road trip! And it feels way more relaxed since we have a home base that we can come back to anytime we want - that is, once we apply for and receive our new visas... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6779-L.jpg Ahhh, the pride of ownership. Parking our brand, new, shiny motorcycles at our apartment for the first time It's been so long since we've owned new bikes! I'm taking a zillion pictures of them. As any motorcyclist knows, we are now officially in the modding stage of ownership! These are basically trail bikes, so we gotta get them decked out for touring. First thing to address is the terrible seat. Hard as a rock! On the 15-minute ride from the dealership back to our apartment, my butt got sore. There's no way we're doing multi day-long rides with that stock seat. Also, we've got to address secure storage on the bikes. Right now, we've only got soft bags with us, which can be easily cut off the bikes or slashed open. We'll probably get topcases to store our valuables and documents. By the time we're done, we're gonna end up with two Honda GSes... Neda will want to Touratech out her CRF! 55555! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0784-L.jpg Neda's first mod: an elephant key chain she got from the mall. She's named Ellie and she's the official RideDOT.com Thai mascot :) |
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Neda runs some errands on her new ride Having our own transportation really opens the city up for us. We're getting acquainted with the confusing mess of one-way streets around the old town, as well as trying to discover the most efficient way of getting to our most visited spots around town - which these days is the Honda store. It's turning out that there are a million pieces of papers to shuffle between the government and the dealership, especially being a foreigner trying to buy a local vehicle. When all this is done and over with, I'll document the whole rigmarole we had to go through to buy new bikes as a farang if anyone wants to do the same. It's quite a long and tedious process... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6788-L.jpg On one of our forays into the city, Neda had to break out the map to find out where we were supposed to go. Next mod: GPS...! We're also getting used to riding on the left side of the road. All of this isn't new to us - we've already ridden in India, the UK and New Zealand. Also, the style of riding here is familiarly Asian. It feels like a less frenetic version of India. If traffic is like pushing rocks through a tube, the cars and trucks are the big stones and the motorcycles and scooters are grains of sand that slip past them when they get backed up and can't go anywhere. We both love being on bikes and lane-splitting! At red lights, we filter our way to the front and zoom away from the rest of the four-wheelers when the light turns green. Stop-light Grand Prix! Speaking of traffic lights, Chiang Mai has some pretty crazy long red lights. At the stop lights along the main highway, there is a countdown that shows you how long till the light turns greens. It starts off at 180 seconds... Three minute red light!!! Most everyone turns their engine off. The road etiquette here is to look out for the person in front of you and ignore what's behind you. Shoulder check? Wat Pho? Dandruff? This all means that you really can't count on the person in front using their rear view or side mirrors, so you have to anticipate what they're going to do and always be ready. It's pretty crazy, but again, nothing can be as bad as India, so we take it all in stride. Man, it feels so good to be on two wheels again!!! |
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Going for a little night cruise It's peculiar experience stepping down from a 1200cc, 100hp 700lb behemoth to a tiny 250cc, 22hp 300lb mosquito of a bike. Although we used to own 250cc 4-stroke dirtbikes, we never rode them on the street. I'm finding I'm always a gear or two higher than I need to be. On the big Beemer, I got quite lazy with the shifting - there was always gobs of torque available in just about any gear. On the tiny Honda, my left foot is tapping down and pulling up like Fred Astaire in the movies. It's tiring!!! And the single cylinder engine... sounds like a sewing machine. Off the line at green lights, I'm redlining it in every gear: Brp(1st gear is short)-Braaaap-Braaaaap-BRAAAAAAAP tugging up on the shifter all the way to sixth gear. It sounds like it's gonna blow up. My mind is calculating on the fly: 6th gear times a million revs a minute... must be at least 150km/h! I glance down at the speedo to confirm: 80 km/h... 555! It's going to take some getting used to this new bike. At least parking is easy. I just step off the bike, reach over the seat, grab the foot peg on the other side, tuck the bike under my arm, then pick it up and place it wherever I want... :) https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0703-L.jpg You would be forgiven to think that 7-11 is a Thai company In the Chiang Mai downtown core, there is literally (I mean literally in the literal sense) a 7-11 convenience store every 200 meters. Literally. Not figuratively. There's always a bunch of scooters parked outside the 7-11. It's like the Tim Hortons/Starbucks motorcycle hangout equivalent. One thing I really like about our CRFs is that we totally blend in with the locals. I remember riding our Big Pigs around Latin America - everyone stared at us and our alien bikes. Now nobody gives us a second glance. It's nice not to draw unwanted attention! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0702-XL.jpg Sawadee Mac! |
Thirdly (bet you forgot we were counting...): It's New Years Eve!
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0707-L.jpg The mall beside us is throwing a huge party so we walk over and join in to ring in the new year https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0213-L.jpg Cheap meals at Central Festival Mall https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0698-L.jpg The place is packed, everyone is waiting for the New Year's Eve celebrations https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0754-L.jpg If you're wondering what the inside of that huge purple Christmas tree looks like, this is it https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0714-L.jpg There was a stage set up with musicians and people counting down in Thai for the New Year https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0767-XL.jpg Welcome 2016! Fourth New Year on the road! Crazy! It's a brand new year and we have wheels. We also have a (rough) idea where we're going with them. Up next: SE Asia by motorcycle! So stoked!!! |
An unexpected turn of events, look forward to hearing/ reading about the next part of the trip!
7-11 my whisky & M&M saviour in Thailand :-) Stay safe Gino & Fiona |
Awesome! I love those little bikes! I'm not even going to throw in my recommendations on what you should do to them since you've had them for over three months already! You've probably done most of them already and traveled across half the continent by now!
Really enjoying the new adventure and the enthusiasm that's coming across in your writing. I was getting worried for a bit that my regular fix was going to be ending. Glad that that's not the case. :scooter: Love your work. bier |
Thanks guys! Appreciate the encouragement! :mchappy:
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Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/277.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map277-L.jpg Well our Thai visa expired. And we didn't get our Green Book (ownership document) for our new motorcyles. Or our license plates. Which means we can't leave the country on our bikes. It's a long story, but one of the documents that we needed to show to the government expired. It was only valid for a month and I thought we would have already bought motorcycles in that time, but we waited too long and the new motorcycles took two weeks to ship from Bangkok and by the time the dealership submitted all the documents to the vehicle registrar, they had already expired. We're out of time in Thailand and have to find a place to store our motorcycles while we exit the country to apply for a new visa and then turn around and come back in again. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6801-L.jpg This is how we're forced out of Thailand We're feeling pretty devastated. We just dropped a lot of coin to buy brand new motorcycles and now we have to leave the country without them. This was the only reason to get the bikes: to do a visa run on them and explore SE Asia while we're out of Thailand. I feel like we wasted a whole lot of time and money for nothing. Because I was responsible for all the planning and paperwork for buying the bikes, I feel absolutely gutted. So now we're on the overnight bus out of Chiang Mai. Our bikes are parked in the parking lot of our last AirBnB, as well as our riding gear and most of our clothes. While we were walking to the bus station in the middle of the night, I felt like we were unceremoniously being tossed out of a life we were just getting comfortable with. And on top of it, we're leaving our stuff scattered all over the world: two bikes and most of our possessions in a garage in Croatia. Another two bikes in the parking lot of an apartment building in Chiang Mai that we don't even live in anymore. We don't even know for sure if we're going to be let back into Thailand. This really sucks. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6799-L.jpg The bus ride was long (11 hours), cramped and uncomfortable. Neda gives an obligatory smile as the sun rises and we approach the Laos border. We are headed to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. We're on what's known as a "Visa Run", a routine that tens of thousands of farangs perform every few months to continue extending their stay in Thailand. The Thai government likes spendy western tourists. But want to live in Thailand? No. Thailand is for Thais. Permanent residency for farangs is hard to obtain, citizenship almost impossible. And so the farang merry-go-round goes in and out of Thailand. Sometimes it stops in Laos, sometimes Burma, a flight to Vietnam, a bus-ride to Malaysia or Cambodia... all the neighbouring countries that make it cheap and fast enough to travel from and back to Thailand - sometimes in the same day. And the farang, they always return - armed with another 60-day visa, which can be extended for another 30 days in-country and the merry-go-round becomes a quarterly ritual for the western ex-pat living in Thailand. If we're going to make Thailand home, we'd better get used to this. |
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You're not supposed to take pictures inside the Thai embassy in Vientiane, Laos... :) We arrived early in Vientiane after taking all manner of buses and tuktuks to get into the capital city. Our initial observations were that it's not that much different from Thailand - a bit more dated, a lot less tourists. Our first stop was the Royal Thai Embassy. It wasn't hard to find. We just followed the steady stream of farangs to a single building that was open while everything else around it was still closed for the morning. Just like everyone else on the visa conveyor belt, we filled out forms, photocopied our documents and submitted our applications. It takes a day to process them, so we had to return the following afternoon. So it was off to find our hotel. We hadn't slept well on the bus ride over and we wandered the city on foot in a daze, the rising temperature of the bright Loatian morning doing nothing for our weariness. I hate being a backpacker. We're always on somebody else's schedule, waiting for buses, negotiating with tuk tuk drivers. And now we were lost in downtown Vientiane, unable to find our hotel. And we have two perfectly capable motorcycles sitting useless in another country (well technically four). And despite paring down our belongings to a bare minimum, the straps of our laden backpacks dug into our weary shoulders. whine whine whine. We did locate our accommodations eventually after asking for directions from just about everyone we saw on the streets. Despite it being 1 km away from the embassy, we must have walked 3 kms in total in the searing heat because we passed it twice without realizing it. Being on foot sucks. I hate it. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0785-L.jpg Planning out our SE Asia sojourn over Beers Laos Dark We took a pass on the sweltering Vientiane afternoon by napping in our air-conditioned hotel room. Thank god for little luxuries! Feeling refreshed, we treated ourselves to a nice dinner at a restaurant near our hotel where we discovered our new favourite beer. It's called Beer Laos Dark and it's delicious. Maybe it was the alcohol, but I also loved saying that combination of words Beer Laos Dark. I'm kind of captivated by how words sound, especially foreign ones. The "S" in Laos is silent, so I spent the evening (maybe a bit tipsy) just randomly interspersing our conversation with "Beerlaowdark". Which may explain why the waitress kept bringing us new bottles of Beerlaowdark. Beerlaowdark. Something about the way the "laowdark" makes your mouth move when you say it out loud. Something about the way the beer makes your head move when you say "laowdark"... 55555 In between all this silliness during dinner, we vowed to get over our surly backpacker attitude. We are after all in a brand new country, so we formulate a plan for seeing SE Asia without motorcycles. Buses seem to be the preferred method of travel in this region - it's cheap and we have the time. We could also fly into Vietnam. Because they have a 175cc engine size restriction on motorcycles coming into their country, we can't ride in with our CRFs. So it makes sense to do it as backpackers. We may leave Cambodia for another time when we are on two wheels. And what do we want to see in Laos now that we're on foot? Lots to plan. |
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In the morning, we eat a Laotian breakfast of fried eggs and rice while schoolboys laughed and tittered away at us (or Neda) at the next table We're feeling a lot rested now and we can finally see Vientiane with fresh eyes. We don't have to be back at the Thai Embassy until after lunch, so we explore the area around our hotel. There looks to be a temple just down the street. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0805-L.jpg Ever since arriving, we've been seeing the Soviet flag flown everywhere. Being a Sovietphile, I find these fascinating! Laos has had a relationship with the USSR since 1960, receiving funding and military assistance all the way up to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The ruling political party here is still communist and this flag is more symbolic of that rule than the actual former country. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0810-L.jpg This grounds is called Pha That Luang and is a national monument. The huge gold mound is called a Stupa https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0815-L.jpg The actual temple is called Wat That Luang and is beside the gold stupa I also like saying the word "stupa". For obvious reasons... |
Beer Laos Dark...love that stuff
Wayne |
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Come on, Neda! I have kleenex if you need it! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0824-L.jpg Neda likes taking pictures of these patterns, she uses it as backgrounds for her iPhone. Her last one was of the tessellated tiles of Morocco https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0832-L.jpg Originally the temple was built as a Hindu shrine https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0836-L.jpg Get it on. |
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A tuk tuk driver finds some solitary shade from the hot sun of the Vientiane morning https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0853-L.jpg This roaming bicycle vendor laughed when I took a picture of her then she turned around and tried to sell me some drinks :) I think the locals find it funny when tourists take pictures of the most mundane, everyday things in their lives. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0855-L.jpg https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0858-L.jpg Looks like another reclining Buddha https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0859-L.jpg Here's a small one https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0864-L.jpg And here's the larger version - not as big as the one in Bangkok though |
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Taking a moment to pray https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0880-L.jpg Nice details on the outside of the temple https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0885-L.jpg Vendors outside Pha That Luang https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0890-L.jpg Scooting around Vientiane Okay, we're off to pick up our visas. Hopefully we're allowed back into Thailand. It's a major bummer that we don't have our bikes with us, but we've resolved to make the best of it and we'll see the rest of the region by some other means. And I'm sure there will be lots of beerlaowdark along the way! |
Me and Ohmmy had a really good weekend, it was great meeting up with you both. If you get back to BKK let me know, food and drink..
All the best and safe travels Wayne Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk whilst drinking a cold beer |
Where you 2?
Missing your posts! What? Where? And?
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Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/278.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map278-L.jpg https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0478-L.jpg Ok, we got our Thai Visa. Although it was always assumed that we would be allowed back into Thailand, there was still this sliver of doubt that they'd deny us re-entry. We've heard that the Thai government are very picky about who they let in. We did so much research to increase the odds of getting our visa application approved. We read online that they don't like foreigners who can't pay their way through the country and then take jobs away from Thai people when they're here. So for some visitors, there's a solvency test where they check your bank balance. Also, as of a few years ago, they started scrutinizing Russian nationals because they are starting illegal businesses in the tourist areas (Phuket, in particular) and taking money away from Thai businesses. They also don't like hippy backpacker tourists, because they bring drug problems into the country and don't spend a lot of money. I even got a haircut and wore a nice shirt with no BeerLaowDark stains on it specifically because we were afraid of that... :( At the Thai Embassy in Vientiane, there were hordes of dread-locked, sandal-and-tie-dye-singlet wearing hippies in line and all of them got their Visas approved. I bet some of them were even Russian! Wat Dahek! I got a haircut for nothing! Bah, not listening to the Internet anymore. -555. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0921-L.jpg Patuxai War Monument So with our freshly minted visas in our passports, we went back out into Vientiane to see more sights. Our plan is to relocate away from the Embassy which is in the outskirts of Vientiane and move to the downtown area. We had to negotiate with a tuk tuk driver to get us there. It seems like haggling is as much of a national sport here as it is in Thailand. One that we are no good at... I hate backpacking. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0929-L.jpg Patuxai War Monument is similar to the Arc de Triomphe in France, but this one celebrates Laos independence from... France. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0932-L.jpg The Patuxai is decorated with our old friend the Kinnari, which we last saw at the Royal Palace in Bangkok |
Our tuk tuk brought us to the centre of Vientiane's busy downtown core where we checked into another hotel. The ladies at reception greet us with a "Sabaidee!" A bit different from the "Sawatdee Kah" greeting in Thailand, but almost the same.
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0951-L.jpg More reminders of Laos' connection to the Soviet Union https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0945-XL.jpg Stupa right around the corner from our hotel The days are too hot to go venturing out, so we wait until the temperatures cool in the early evening, whereupon our activities mainly consist of eating out. The prices here are surprisingly expensive, about one and a half times more than Thailand, despite Laos being not as well developed. Maybe it was because we were in the capital city? Would it be cheaper in the smaller towns? https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0957-L.jpg Go home, Camera. You're drunk. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0963-L.jpg We did a lot of this while in Vientiane https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0964-L.jpg Scooter hangouts at night Vehicles drive on the the right side of the road in Laos. Our bus from Thailand had to briefly switch sides to drop us off at the border and I found that after only two months in left-hand-side-driving Thailand, I had already switched over mentally. Here in Vientiane, I had to constantly remind myself to look left when crossing the street and traffic looked odd to me. I kept thinking, "Everybody's driving on the wrong side of the road!" Can't wait to get back to Thailand. |
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These spirit houses are everywhere in South-East Asia Spirit houses are tiny ornate temples located on the premises of a residence or business. A priest needs to be consulted as to the location of the spirit house - never build one in the shadow of the building! After the spirit house is constructed, it provides a shelter for the spirits that live on that piece of land. Only then can you build your house or business, without fear that the spirit of the land will inhabit your building. The spirit that lives in this spirit house really likes Pepsi. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0970-L.jpg Visiting more temples https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0972-XL.jpg Laotian Bell tower https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0976-L.jpg Walking around Wat Ong Teu https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0983-L.jpg Monks catching a tuk tuk. Their transportation is free all over South East Asia I have a solution to our tuk tuk haggling and general transportation problems. All we need are a couple of orange robes. I may need another haircut though... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0002-L.jpg Hm... 555 |
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Time to get this gong show on the road https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0995-L.jpg Studying at the feet of Buddha https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_1002-L.jpg I am fascinated by monks! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_1013-L.jpg Pretending to take a picture of these dragons |
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Neda is laughing at me taking pictures of all these monks https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_1007-L.jpg Negative Space Buddha https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_1023-L.jpg A monk in every picture. Neda calls me Monk Stalker |
We've been in Vientiane for five days now. Every morning we walk past the Sabaidee ladies in reception to grab breakfast. Then back to the air conditioning of our hotel room. Then in the evenings, more Sabaidees on the way to dinner. It seems like we're just dragging our feet in Laos, unable to pull ourselves forward.
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0968-L.jpg Cross-section of life in Vientiane https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0006-L.jpg Goofing around in Vientiane We really tried our best to get out to backpack South-East Asia. Honestly. We spent a day or two looking over bus schedules, flight schedules, schedules schedules schedules. All of this traveling on schedules was causing us a lot of grief. When we started this trip almost four years ago, backpacking is not what we signed up for. We have brand new motorcycles waiting for us just across the border and wait... what do we have burning a hole in our passports? A permission slip to return back to those motorcycles? https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6809-L.jpg Screw this backpacker nonsense. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6806-L.jpg We're going home!!! |
Home.
Haircuts are in! Happy travels.
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Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/279.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map279-L.jpg With our first Visa Run out of the way, we returned to Chiang Mai and immediately checked up on our motorcycles. *phew* Still there, right where we parked them a week ago! We were very relieved! We were feeling kinda nervous leaving them behind... We're booked back into our amazing apartment in Nimman, and it's like we've returned home again, ready to resume our life of lounging and leisure. But this time with motorcycles! No more haggling with the tuk tuk drivers! There's still some paperwork to be done with the bikes. We're missing our ownership papers (Green Book) as well as our license plates. We're able to ride around Thailand legally by keeping a copy of the bill of sale, but we need the ownership and plates to take the bikes out of the country. We've also extended our two month Thai Visa an additional month which gives us a total of 90 days to get our bikes sorted out. Then we're kicked out of Thailand yet again. But given our problems with getting the paperwork completed in time before our last visa expired, we decide not to delay things, and we're routinely shuttling documents between the various government offices and the Honda dealership. In between all this administration, we take time to do our first road trip! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6813-L.jpg Welcome to Bosang! Bosang is just east of Chiang Mai... a whopping total of 20 kms! 55555. We are starting nice and slow with these bikes. Gotta get used to the absolute lack of power and the horribly uncomfortable seat. We even got them out on the highway to really flog those tiny engines. Every time we hit 100 km/h, with the bike buzzing like angry bees underneath me, I instinctively tug up on the shifter and my toe hits resistance... nope, no seventh gear on the baby CRF. Every single time :( I like riding motorcycles in Thailand. At every stoplight, we filter to the front of the lineup. Even though we think we bought tiny motos, we are still some of the biggest bikes on the road - our tall dirtbikes towering amidst a sea of 110cc scooters. To make us even more conspicuous, we're the only ones outiftted in full gear. Nothing screams "farang" like ATGATT. At the Stoplight Grand Prix, while waiting for the lights to turn green, all the local scooterists eye us up and down like we are aliens. I thought we were going to blend in with these bikes. I guess not... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0025-L.jpg We are in Bo Sang for the annual umbrella festival! |
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Thailand is known for many things and one of them is the Thai umbrella. Bo Sang is where it all started It's said that a monk (why is it always a monk that starts these things?) brought the technique of making paper umbrellas to the artisans in Bo Sang, and they quickly turned it into one of the iconic symbols of Thai culture. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0177-L.jpg The canopy is made from a special lightweight, durable paper called saa, native to Northern Thailand, and is oiled to make it waterproof. The frame is made of strong bamboo. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0203-L.jpg The handmade umbrellas are also painted by hand. All over town, there were artists decorating umbrellas https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0027-L.jpg Some are professional, some are beginners... :) |
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Umbrellas and elephants, two of Thailand's most well-known symbols https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SCN6828-XL.jpg Neda the Thai-Lady says, "Sawatdee Kah!" https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0063-L.jpg Everywhere you look, there are umbrellas decorating the town. Even above! To celebrate the Umbrella Festival, a beauty pageant was held. But instead of walking down a stage, these contestants rode bicycles up and down the main street in Bosang. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0097-L.jpg Who will be crowned Miss Umbrella Festival 2016? https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0148-L.jpg Wonder if these umbrella girls also work at the motorcycle races? |
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More handpainting https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0190-L.jpg The general public is invited to handpaint their own umbrellas https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0056-L.jpg Neda is loving all the vibrant, pretty colours! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0169-L.jpg This pose is called the "Closed Umbrella" https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6834-L.jpg Awesome road trip! Getting ready for the long ride back home! |
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Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/280.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map273-L.jpg Sawatdee Khrup! We've been in Chiang Mai for over two months now and the weather has been pretty consistent: warm and dry. The temperature hovers around the high 20s/low 30s and not humid at all. And surprise... only 2 or 3 days of rain in all the time we've been here. I know, right? I feel like we've accidentally stumbled into someone else's blog - we're now trundling around on their tiny 250cc motos and savoring their dry weather for weeks on end. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6866-L.jpg But whoever's blog we stumbled into kicked us out and we're back in RideDOT.com weather Thailand has been hit by a freak cold spell. In Bangkok, where temperatures rarely drop below 30C, the mercury plummeted to 16C. On the news and in social media, we saw schoolkids wrapped up in blankets in classrooms, scooterists riding through the city streets also wrapped up in blankets. No one in Bangkok owns cold weather clothing! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...coldsnap-L.jpg Some pics from the news. They bundled the temple dogs up in monks robes! 555! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6870-L.jpg Here in Chiang Mai up in the mountains, it's even colder: it hit 11C and to top it off, it's raining as well. First time in weeks. At least here in the mountains, people actually have a cold-weather wardrobe. In fact, we see people in coats and jackets even when it's 30C outside! I guess when the summer temps top 45C, cold is a relative term. Still, 11C is unheard of here in Chiang Mai. |
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Our motos are our only transport, so we have to ride rain or shine, hot or cold On the motorcycle front, we've submitted all the paperwork to get our ownership and plates, just waiting on the government to rubber-stamp everything. Despite this wet spell, I'm glad we've got bikes. We hibernated for the first couple of months in Thailand, recuperating from travel fatigue so we didn't really need to go anywhere. But now that we've rested for a bit, we're eager to explore once again. Well, at least one of us is. Neda's getting ants in her pants and she's started to get involved in the Chiang Mai community. Me, I'm still feeling a bit lazy, so more couch and TV shows on my menu. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...-in-tree-L.jpg Neda joined a hiking club! Every Sunday morning, the hiking club meets up and they bus out to the Thai wilderness outside of the city to go hike some trails. Needless to say, I don't join the Chiang Mai Hiking Club. I'm fearful that all that exercise will endanger the little pot belly I'm cultivating while lying on the couch chomping down on fried spicy seaweed strips (my new favorite snack). Gaaaahh... so good... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6845-L.jpg I'm so proud of Neda though. Ever since we made the decision to try to make a home in Chiang Mai, she's really made an effort to integrate into the community. Every Sunday is hiking club, plus she's joined a yoga studio and works out four times a week. We also joined a pick-up beach volleyball club together and Neda signed us up for a digital photography club as well. We are also looking for a place that offers Thai language lessons. There's probably a club for that too... Amidst all this preparation for settling down, we talked about what we would do here in Thailand. I've already got my end figured out. I like to do nothing, and I'd like to see that continue here. :) That would drive Neda crazy though. She's doing some research into becoming an English teacher here in Chiang Mai. The cost to get certified as an instructor is kind of expensive, but one upside is that she will be able to obtain a one-year working visa and in turn, I can also get a one-year dependent visa. I could totally get used to being a kept man! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6854-L.jpg Crazy Horse Buttress |
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Great views from Doi Langka Luang https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6841-L.jpg View from Wat That Moei https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6858-L.jpg Taking a break on the way to the Hot Springs Swedish Sauna https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0694-L.jpg Neda is off to another one of her clubs. I am keeping the couch warm for when she returns. |
Now that we have the motos, we're exploring the area outside of Chiang Mai a little bit more. One afternoon, we head out to the Grand Canyon of Chiang Mai!
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0220-L.jpg It's not really a Canyon, but an old abandoned quarry less than 15 kms from the city https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0236-L.jpg The quarry is filled with rainwater and is now a popular spot for swimming and sunbathing... at least for the all the farangs in Chiang Mai https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0228-L.jpg Catching some shade under a fruit tree https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0241-L.jpg The red soil looks like something you'd see in Utah or Arizona! |
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Neda practices some yoga at the Grand Canyon of Chiang Mai https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0243-L.jpg Doesn't look that far down, does it? https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0310-XL.jpg Actually, it's a 40-foot drop. I was totally planning on jumping, but chickened out. Next time! |
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Peering into other people's homes, getting an idea of what's around the area... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0332-L.jpg I saw a T-shirt I want to get for Neda. On the front it reads, "I'm just here to pet all the dogs" https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6882-L.jpg Heading back home after a fun day of playing at the Grand Canyon of Chiang Mai |
Thanks for another great update!
Once you get paperwork for your bikes can you travel outside of Thailand without too many problems? Any idea which countries are OK and which are not? When I was in Chiang Mai (ages ago) I rode dirt roads up to Myanmar border but could not enter. But what about entering Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia? Any updates regards your new Hondas? How are they going? Lots of interest in those bikes here. I know they are made in Thailand. What's the price there converted to USD? Are they available for rent? (sorry for tourist questions!) (I rented 125 two strokes when I was there ... fantastic) Good luck, looks like Thailand agrees with you guys! bier |
Chiang Mai
In 1982 I was on a rented XL250, wandering as you are, I found a spot near to Chiang Rai and fell in love and decided that if my wonderful job and life in Europe fell apart I would live there, reading your blog has reminded me of that promise.
The mountains and trails are worth the effort of the teaching certificate, just so you can stay, (forever) lovely people too, totally envious. |
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However there have been lots of reports recently about a scam the Cambodian border crossing guards are running at the Laos border where they demand a carnet despite all official government documentation stating that one is not needed. So most people arrive at the border without one. They ask you for the carnet after you exit Laos at which point you're stranded in No Mans Land between countries if you don't have a Laotian multiple entry visa and can't turn around and go back. Then "conveniently" lots of hustlers pop up and offer to buy your vehicle for a ridiculously small sum so you can enter Cambodia and continue your travels by foot... I've read that some travelers don't get officially stamped out of Laos until they confirm on the other side that they can get into Cambodia without a carnet. They say that the Laos border guards are hip to this scam and are sympathetic to overlanders and will allow this. Best to check as it would suck to get caught out like this. Malaysia requires a carnet if shipping, but one is not needed if you're crossing by land. Vietnam has an engine size restriction for motorcycles: nothing over 175ccs is allowed in, I've seen a couple of ride reports where people just fly in and rent a scooter. Indonesia officially requires a carnet. Myanmar requires a guide to accompany you around the country and these have to be organized at least a couple months in advance. At the Honda dealership we ran into an Australian rider who recently rented a guide for his crossing through Myanmar on his way from India and he gave us the contact info of the company that provides this. If you are interested, I'll try to dig up the information for you. So on our Thai bikes, we should be good for most of SE Asia except for Vietnam and Indonesia, and figuring out a way around the crooked Cambodian border crossings! Quote:
They do rent CRFs all over Thailand, especially in Chiang Mai. I've seen them go for about 800-1000 baht ($22-$28USD) a day, slightly cheaper if you rent them out for a week or longer. The Hondas are holding up well. Obviously, coming from Big Beemers, they can't compare in terms of power, comfort, quality, features, etc. But for the price and the kind of riding that we are doing, they are a good bike. We plan on doing some off-road, but if you are only doing tarmac, then a better choice would be a CBR250/300/500. I think they used the seat on the CRF as a torture device during the Spanish Inquisition! |
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Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/281.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map281-L.jpg Elephants have had a long history in Thailand, and not exactly a happy one. From very early on, they were captured and domesticated for military and logging use. But in 1989, due to rampant deforestation, the Thai government banned logging, which put many of the elephants out of a job. This coincided with the rise of tourism in the country, so these unemployed elephants were retasked and put to work in camps as entertainment. Neda has done a lot of research into this because this is something we both wanted to see while we were here. We discovered that elephants in these camps are horribly tortured to break their spirit in order for them to be obedient enough to train. Baby elephants are taken from their mothers at birth and are confined to a tight space, like a cage or hole, so they cannot move. They are then beaten with clubs, sticks and bull-hooks, deprived of food and sleep until they become broken. Then they are trained to allow people to ride them and perform acts which are unnatural to them ie. circus tricks like painting. Everyone wants to ride elephants, thinking that they are large creatures and they should be able to bear the weight. After all we break horses and ride them, right? This is only partially true, though. Mahouts (elephant trainers) ride their elephants on their neck where there is less strain. But the elephant in the tourist work camps are forced to carry tourists in a saddle right on their back, which was never meant to bear that much weight. This puts considerable strain on their spine and causes irreversible damage over time. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0422-L.jpg "How do I make myself irresistible to elephants?" We've decided to visit a rescue centre called Elephant Jungle Sanctuary. Their mission is to purchase elephants from the surrounding tourist work camps and provide a safe place to live out their days. Their number one rule is "no riding elephants". We like this a lot better, despite knowing that these are "broken-in" elephants that have been mistreated in a past life, that we are not causing further harm to them. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0468-L.jpg The most popular elephant at the Sanctuary is baby Ni-Na. She's only three years old. Neda fell in love with her Ni-Na's mother died so she was being looked after by her aunt. She worked at two tourist camps before being rescued by the Sanctuary. There were five elephants at the location we were at. Elephant Jungle Sanctuary owns three locations with about 17 elephants in total. |
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Two very happy buddies I read up that elephants flap their ears to express excitement or joy. I think Ni-Na is very happy to see more bananas in Neda's hand! :) https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0507-XL.jpg https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0552-L.jpg These Thai elephants are Asian elephants, which are smaller than African elephants https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0603-L.jpg Why are elephants cute? I think it's all in the eyelashes... I've never spent any time with an elephant this up close before. Just by description alone, elephants should not be cute animals. Tough, grey wrinkly skin. Sparse, prickly hair. Lumbering around ponderously. They're like fat, old men. But it's all the tiny details, the comically floppy ears, the incredible dexterous trunk that is as agile as any human hand, the little fly swatter on their tail and the adorable eyelashes... it's totally the eyelashes that make you fall in love with them. |
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I loved being around the elephants. However, I think they tolerated having people crowd around them and touch them I'm not naive, I know the main reason why these elephants tolerated our presence was because the work camps had previously broken them. If these were wild elephants, they would want nothing to do with human beings. Also, I don't know how the sanctuary treats these elephants after the tourists leave. Are they still disciplined? Although there are fences around the very large space they can roam around in, are they still chained up at night? https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0626-L.jpg The location we were at is called Tranquil Valley. The elephants have free roam of the compound which is 50 acres. Despite my cynicism, while we were there, the elephants were very well treated. They basically ate non-stop, requiring about 150kgs (330lbs) of food every day. They were not beaten or ridden or forced to paint or perform for us. Their primary motivation to do anything was food, which is a good positive reinforcement over the threat of a bull-hook to the face (or other sensitive parts of their skin). I felt good about being there and feeding them. |
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After lunch, we were taught how to make "elephant medicine". First ingredients: smushed bananas and tamarind https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0672-L.jpg Then the paste is mixed with grains, rice and salt. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0678-L.jpg The whole thing is rolled up into bite-sized balls These tasty treats help the elephants with their digestion. They are also sometimes used to hide real medication in case any of them get sick. Elephants have a very good sense of taste and smell and will refuse to eat any medicine unless it's well disguised. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0683-XL.jpg Neda is about to become *very* popular... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6908-L.jpg These tasty banana/rice balls are like crack to elephants. When we brought the trays out, the whole horde of them came bounding towards us to devour them (and any hands/limbs they were attached to) :) |
I think rescuing elephants from the riding camps is a noble endeavour. It's uplifting to see how this new wave of ethical tourism rising is gaining popularity, allowing these companies to provide a service that doesn't cause any additional harm to nature. We saw the same thing in Iceland where old whaling boats have now been converted to accommodate whale-watching tours.
Obviously humans have displaced the elephant population from their natural habitat, but if we can at least alleviate the suffering that the tourist work camps have inflicted on some of these domesticated elephants, at least that's a start. And also spread the word about the damage that riding elephants can cause. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6922-L.jpg After the banana-rice ball treats, it was time for a roll in the mud https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6929-L.jpg Elephant skin is sensitive to the hot sun, to keep cool and to prevent sunburns, they cover themselves with mud. Sometimes with a little help... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6934-L.jpg This little girl needed some cooling down as well https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6953-L.jpg After a mud bath, they tromped down to the river to play in the water |
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Ni-Na looks like she is really enjoying herself under this waterfall https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6959-L.jpg She wasn't the only one enjoying herself https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SCN6981-XL.jpg We spent the entire day in the company of these graceful giants. But now it's time to say goodbye. :( https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...IMG_5855-L.jpg Bye-bye Ni-Na. You'll always occupy a warm place in Neda's heart! PSA: If you're going to see elephants in Thailand, please consider patronizing a No-Ride camp or rescue sanctuary! The more companies find out that it's more profitable to pamper elephants and let them behave in a natural manner than it is to harm them or force them to do tricks, the happier the elephants will be! :) |
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/282.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map282-L.jpg We are seeing some administrative progress for our bikes. We've finally received our Green Book (ownership papers)! We just need license plates issued to us and then we're legal to leave the country. How exciting! We're also taking the bikes out for longer runs. Our first mini-trip was to Doi Suthep temple, which is up the mountain on the west side of the city. It was a pretty shaky ride, we were both a bit nervous about the knobby tires and how far we could lean over on them. The tire manufacturer is called IRC. Yep, I've never heard of them either... I think the tires are made in SE Asia, which is in line with Honda trying to keep costs low for the domestically-produced CRF250L... Video sped up just a little bit so viewers don't fall asleep... 555 https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0337-L.jpg Our reward for reaching the top: Doi Suthep temple This isn't our first time to Doi Suthep. We paid a visit when Iva was here a couple of months ago and we all piled into the back of a Song Thaew, which took us up this very twisty mountain road. Because you're sitting sideways on the bench seats in the back and can't see out the front window, many people experience severe motion sickness. At certain stops along the curvy roads there are these funny cartoon signs of a person with their head hanging over a toilet - designated vomit stops. I think it's actually a game the Song Thaew drivers play to see how many people they can get to puke after their mountain rides. Anyway, the first time we visited Doi Suthep by Song Thaew I was too sick to go inside. So this time, I actually got to see it! Yay for having our own wheels! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0952-L.jpg Pretty, shiny golden temples of Wat Phra That Doi Suthep |
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Prayer flags! Last time we saw this was up in the Himalayan Mountains in India! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0361-L.jpg Shrine to Ganesh, who we also saw in India https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0377-L.jpg Thai Star Destroyer from a Galaxy Far, Far Away https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0390-L.jpg Yes, there is a statue of a chicken in this picture... |
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Is it bad to say that I find the realistic statues kind of unnerving? https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0965-XL.jpg Soup? After a few months of self-imposed rest and relaxation, we are finally going out and making friends in Chiang Mai. Because of the low cost of living here, Chiang Mai is the #1 hub for Digital Nomads - location-independent workers who contract out to western companies, earn western currency but live elsewhere in the world and pay cheaper living expenses. Although we're not Digital Nomads ourselves, we've joined a few social media groups and started making some friends in the community. Although, it is a bit embarrassing having to keep explaining to our new friends how we've been in Thailand for three months and haven't really seen or done anything... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6999-L.jpg Out for a day ride with our new riding buddy, Glen! We made a motorcycle friend! Glen's a fellow Canadian ex-pat originally from Montreal, but he's lived in Chiang Mai for the last 7 years. He was nice enough to show us all the twisty roads outside of Chiang Mai! He rides a Ducati Scrambler, which regularly leaves us behind in the dust when we're climbing hills. Ducati, like Honda, is another manufacturer that has a factory in Thailand to cater to the domestic market. The Scrambler and Monster are made here and sells for the same price as everywhere else in the world. However, the Italian-made Panigale retails for over twice the rest-of-world price because it's imported. Imagine paying $50,000 for a base model 1299. Crazy. |
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On one of our longer day-rides, we battled through the haze of The Burn It's unfortunate that we are starting our motorcycle explorations this late in the season. Around this time of year, Northern Thailand is shrouded in smoke because of the burning season - the time of year when farmers burn their fields after their harvest to prepare for the next year's growing season. This city gets it especially bad because it's in the valley surrounded by mountains which trap the smoke. The Chiang Mai social media forums are all abuzz with Air Quality Index reports, discussions about which face mask is the best to buy and opinions on where else in Thailand to go to escape the smoke. For us, our near-term plans are to head straight into the burning fields of Northern Thailand. The best time to travel would have been in November when we first arrived. *shrug* But what can we do? We have to heed how we're feeling at the time and not force ourselves to travel just because the weather is optimal. That's why we rode through rainy season in Latin America for a year and a half! :( https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7027-L.jpg On our way to Phayao for lunch Glen took us to his favorite fish restaurant in Phayao, a few hours east of Chiang Mai. The ride took us over a couple of mountain ranges, so that meant many twisty roads. Very nice! As we were being seated at the restaurant, the waitress looked at me and asked me some questions in Thai. I responded with a blank look on my face. That's when Glen spoke up and started ordering in Thai to the waitress' astonishment (and mine too). Wow! His Thai was amazing! And boy did I feel embarrassed! Watching him converse with the waitress really motivated Neda and I to learn the language. I was doing some on-line lessons and there are some Thai words that are almost the same as Cantonese, some of which I understand - like counting. Most of the numbers are derived from various dialects of Chinese, others from Sanskrit. Pretty cool. Neda thinks that I will pick up Thai quicker than her. I don't know, she's pretty good with languages... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7003-L.jpg Long ride back to Chiang Mai. 500 kms for the day - on a stock CRF250L seat. Torture! We must get better seats! Our first long ride to Phayao and back revealed some things we need to address on the motorcycles. The seat is the biggest problem and will prevent us from doing long days in the saddle. Also, I'd like to mount a GPS on the bike so we don't get lost. Throttle rocker would also help us with cramping up from gripping the throttle all day. Unfortunately all this stuff is not easy to obtain in Thailand and to ship it in will cost a fortune and who knows when it will arrive? |
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Neda organized a short bike trip just outside of town to Huay Tung Tao Lake, we invited Glen and his wife to come. Glen ordered food for us at the restaurant on the lake! :) https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6994-L.jpg Love getting around on motorcycles https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7010-L.jpg Glen took us for a short tour around Chiang Mai. "This is Sibsongpanna, they have a nice buffet and a cheesy Thai dance show, I'll take you sometime!" https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...IMG_5882-L.jpg And he did! A few days later, Glen and his wife Sue invited us out to the cheesy Thai show along with his niece Katie |
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After dinner, there was a show featuring Traditional Thai dancing. I didn't find it cheesy at all! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0752-L.jpg This is fawn-lep, the traditional Thai fingernail dance. It actually originates from Chiang Mai. Cool! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0728-L.jpg Back at home, Neda's cross-stitch is coming along nicely. You can probably already guess what it is. If you can't guess yet, here's a hint! See the bottom of the page. :) |
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As per Glen's suggestion, we visited nearby Baan Kang Wat market on the weekend https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0703-L.jpg One of Neda's favorite activities: window shopping. Second only to her favorite activity: *actual* shopping... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7023-L.jpg CRF gets naked so a GPS can be hooked up to the battery. Now we can be a little bit less lost in Thailand! We are prepping our motorcycles for our first road trip. A big thank you to Lawrence from ADVRider, and his wife Dasha, who flew in from Toronto for a riding vacation in Chiang Mai. Lawrence contacted me online and offered to be my parts-mule, bringing with them some much-needed moto equipment I ordered from Canada. We cooked them a traditional Thai meal to thank them. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0788-L.jpg Got the GPS mount installed, an AirHawk cushion lurks under the plastic bag (to protect it from birdpoop while it's parked) The bungie cords over the Givi topcase are a necessity because it doesn't feel securely mounted to the rack. There's a lot of rattling behind me when riding, especially over bumpy roads. It sounds like the case is going to shake itself loose! I thought to myself, "That's not Givi quality?"... A quick check on the inside of the box revealed that it's manufactured in Malaysia, not Italy. :( The (lack of) quality is apparent, the plastic is very flimsy and the lid doesn't close properly if there's anything inside the box. It's so poorly made, it seems like you could break into the box quite easily with a wet noodle. There's a lot of co-branding in Thailand because of the import duty imposed on foreign goods. At the supermarket, there's always the Thai version of western food - like Pringles. Pringles licensed their name, branding and packaging to a Thai company. Their version only costs 30 baht ($1), but they taste like crap. Then on the shelf right next to Thai Pringles is US Pringles. These ones cost 90 baht ($3), but they actually taste the way Pringles should taste! I think most people only buy Thai Pringles once. Then it's back to the real deal. So I have a Thai Pringles version of a topcase that needs to be bungied down... Damn you, Thai Pringles! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7005-L.jpg Feels great to be exploring on two wheels again. Up next: our first Thai road trip! |
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Chiang Mai Motorcycle Shops | GT-Rider.com As for burning season doh we did the Mae Hong Son Loop 2 years back in the middle of it all, complete with flames leaping out from roadside ditches & choking smoke :thumbdown: Still had a great time though, as you do :clap:jeiger:funmeteryes: Can't wait to get back there & do it differently in pre- Christmas time, when the air is clear :D |
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/283.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map283-L.jpg Well, our license plates still have not arrived. This is a bit disconcerting, as the timer is counting down on our Thai visa and we'd really like to do our next Visa Run by motorcycle. The Honda dealership did have some information though, namely our plate numbers: 9000-something and they also told us that the licensing office is currently processing numbers in the 6000s. Not sure what that means as to when we'll actually get our plates. How quickly does it take to process 3000 license plates? Hopefully quickly... tick tock.... In the meantime, we are off on our first road trip. We're going to do the famous Mae Hong Son loop! This ride will take us on the very twisty roads that wind through the jungles and mountains of North-West Thailand, skirting south along the border of Myanmar and then inland back up to Chiang Mai. I've read online that the entire 600km loop should take us 4 days to complete comfortably. When I read this out aloud to Neda, we both looked at each other and nodded in agreement: "So it should take over a week for us, then!" We travel slowly. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7032-L.jpg Here's a familiar routine from our distant past: packing our entire lives onto the back of motorcycles We are sadly saying goodbye to our amazing apartment in Nimman that's been home to us for the last three months. Everything we own in Thailand will be stuffed into drybags and loaded up onto the Hondas. Space is at a premium because we don't have the roomy box panniers that are on our BMWs, so the important stuff (documents, electronics) will go in my lockable and waterproof topcase and everything else will be strapped down to the seat behind us by all manner of bungie cords and nets. We have to get used to an entirely new system of packing, figuring out where to pack stuff that we need during the ride (rainsuits, food & water) vs stuff we won't use till we unpack for the evening. I expect we'll go through quite a few iterations of this before we get it optimized. Also we'll have to get used to a brand new game of Tetris as we jam our belongings in new configurations and try to memorize how and where everything fits every morning! So exciting! It's been months since we've traveled by motorcycle and we're eager to hit the road again. Hopefully our license plates will be waiting for us in Chiang Mai by the time we've finished the loop, because we want to continue exploring SE Asia after this short trip. Fingers crossed! So true to form, we're already deviating from the Mae Hong Son loop on our first day. We're going to spend a day at the Mae Ngat Somboon Lake, which is actually a reservoir created by a dam at one end of the river. It's only 70 kms away. We travel slowly. |
It's a fairly boring stretch. We loosely follow the Ping River north out of Chiang Mai, crawling through small towns and cities along the main road. The urban scenery scrolling past us for most of the way until we reach the turnoff for the lake. Then we saw the signs for Wat Ban Den.
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7035-L.jpg Oooh, we have to check this out! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0794-L.jpg Wat Ban Den is a huge temple close to the reservoir, we hadn't really heard about it until we rode past it I love discovering stuff along the way! I'm a bit wary about parking the bikes with all our drybags unprotected on the back of our bikes as we walk around, but they're only clothes. I think the drybags themselves would be the hardest things to replace here in Thailand! Neda vehemently disagrees about the "it's only clothing" part. I think she wants her own lockable topcase for her clothes... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0795-L.jpg Outside of the Royal Palace in Bangkok, this is probably one of the largest temple complexes we've seen |
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Cool elephant/dragon monsters with antlers! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0806-L.jpg We're paying more attention to elephants after having visited the rescue sanctuary https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0814-L.jpg Back to the bikes. And everything is still there. *phew*! I suppose it would be bad karma to steal anything right in front of a temple? |
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Our route takes us through large tracts of farmland which is much more scenic now that we're off the main road. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7052-L.jpg As we search for the boat dock, the road also devolves into a dirt path I think we're lost. My GPS knows where the dock is, but the map is incomplete so I'm now navigating by eyeballing where we are and where we should be and choosing the most direct way there. This takes us through fields and farms. At one point, we have to stop and ask for directions. We spot a farmer by the side of the road. He's watching these two lost farangs on motorcycles with equal parts amusement and curiousity. Out here I know that there's 0% chance that he speaks any English. Thankfully, Neda has previously downloaded an app for her iPhone that has an off-line Thai/English dictionary. It also comes with a speech module, so we type out "boat" and "dock" and have the phone speak it to the farmer. His face lights up and he nods and points to another dirt path that we had missed earlier. I love technology! We say our Khob Khun Khraps (thank yous) and wave goodbye to him as we set off to the docks. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7062-L.jpg These little huts on the farms are like the Croatian Kazuns! |
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We made it to the Mae Ngat Somboon Lake! So it turns out there was a paved road to get here, but my GPS took us the shortest way through the fields. Neda read there was an admission fee to the Si Lana National park that the lake is located on, so she goes in to pay while I stay with the bikes to protect them (which really means I stay outside and take lots of pictures). Almost immediately she comes out. There's no one there. *shrug* okay! Free admission! I think it's because it's the middle of the week, so not many tourists now. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7076-L.jpg Riding down to the docks, the soil beneath our wheels is kicking up an orange-red cloud behind us I think most visitors take a taxi or tuk tuk to get here. There's not a lot of parked vehicles down here. We just stick our bikes behind the huts and hope they will still be there when we return. I think I'm being overly paranoid about the security here in Thailand, but it's our first road trip with these motorcycles, so I don't really know what to expect. Neda listens to me clucking on about locking everything up, "Don't worry so much, it'll be fine!" https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0820-L.jpg A private longboat takes us out onto the lake The coast of the artificial river is sparsely lined by houseboats, floating accommodations that you can stay overnight in and hang out and swim in the lake during the day! The most popular houseboat that was recommended online was fully booked, so Neda just chose another one by random. We're a bit worried because it has no reviews. I guess we'll find out what we signed up for soon! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0829-L.jpg Passing another longboat on Mae Ngat Somboon Lake |
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There are quite a few houseboats on the lake, all of differing standards - some run-down, some really nice-looking. It's not a perfect blue-sky/clear-water day here on Mae Ngat Somboon Lake. The smoke from burning season has tinged the air just a few shades more opaque and the water in the reservoir almost matches the sky. Everytime we approached a nicer-looking houseboat, I secretly hoped that our longboat would stop in front of it. But, it always passed those nicer ones... :( And then when we approached the decrepit-looking ones, I also hoped the longboat would not stop in front of those... In the end, we ended up docking at what looks to be a middle-of-the-road houseboat. Not run-down, but definitely not as nice as some others along the lake. :( We have to plan ahead a lot earlier the next time we do this! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0855-L.jpg Neda exploring our houseboat On each houseboat, there's a restaurant, some recreational facilities like kayaking, a platform to jump into the lake and some snorkeling equipment. But the main activity here is definitely resting and relaxation. Staying on a houseboat is quite a unique experience. Although the houses are securely moored so there's very little rocking on the waters, the tin roof at our place flexes and creaks which gives us a bit of "soundtrack" for when we're trying to fall asleep. We can also look through the gaps between the wooden floorboards and watch fishes swimming in the lake directly below us. From our bed! We're hanging out and sleeping on a house on the water. How cool is that? https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0863-L.jpg Oh yeah, there's also animals for Neda to pet! |
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Neda takes the time to put the last few cross-stitches into her pattern https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0905-L.jpg Voila! It only took six months to complete!!! She's so proud of it! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0929-L.jpg Doing what I do best: nothing. Our houseboat has no Wi-Fi, so I have a lot of time on my hands to organize all the pictures I've taken in Thailand and jot down a few blog posts to upload when we get back to civilization. I'm slowly getting caught up! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0894-L.jpg In the distance, we watch oxen graze by the edge of the lake |
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In the distance, we watch oxen graze by the edge of the lake https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0921-L.jpg Our houseboat has kayaks that you can take out into the lake https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7114-L.jpg We go shopping for another houseboat Neda and I take one of the houseboat's kayaks out and we paddle out to the opposite shore to where we saw some of the nicer houseboats. We've only booked one night in our current place and we thought we could knock on a few doors in person and see if there are any vacancies. Then maybe we could switch for the next evening. Is it bad of us to use their kayaks to shop for a new place to sleep? https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7100-L.jpg Well in the end all the nicer houseboats in our area were fully booked up, and the other ones were of the same quality as ours, so we decided to stick with the one we have and stayed another night |
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Neda says hi! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7132-L.jpg Watching the sunset on the lake. Very relaxing. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0871-L.jpg The light show from our room in the houseboat As the sun sinks below the horizon, we stare at the lights from the houseboats across the lake reflecting off the water. But what really captivates us are the the fields on fire on the hills around the lake. Burning season has become much more vivid at night-time. This is what we'll have to ride through in the next few days! Fun times ahead! |
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/284.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map284-L.jpg On the longboat back to the shore, I keep squinting at the shoreline trying to see if our bikes are still parked behind the huts. Neda is shaking her head at me. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0936-L.jpg *phew* Still there! We're heading back to the Mae Hong Son Loop. The road to Pai (B on the map above) is the twistiest stretch of the Loop. Glen had told us that there was heavy construction all the way to Pai, but we decided to brave it. Glad we did, because it looks like all the roadwork has just finished. Aside from a few construction vehicles and some piles of dirt by the side of the road, it was smooth sailing! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...3m49s347-L.jpg Still a bit hazy though The terrain starts to get more mountainous just west of Chiang Mai and on that 150km ribbon of freshly-paved road, there are 762 glorious curves! We're getting a bit more comfortable on the 250s, even leaning them into the corners a little bit! Still have to be wary of oncoming vehicles crossing the line - two wheelers are definitely second-class citizens on the road in Thailand! We wind the Hondas up and shoot them up the steep climbs, negotiating a combination of tight switchbacks and 4th gear sweepers, passing hordes of farangs on scooters. Pai is a very popular farang destination. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0939-L.jpg Along the way we stop for water breaks, to take in the scenery and of course... pet the stray dogs |
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The landscape around us consists of mountains, wild jungles and farmer's fields https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0951-L.jpg Loving the Loop! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7173-L.jpg Just outside of Pai, we stop for lunch. No, not bacon... Burritos, actually. And Neda stops to pet more animals Pai is very westernized. It's been popularized on a lot of TV shows and movies lately, so it's built itself up as a major tourist draw in the area. Tattoo parlours, bars with live music, burrito places... Not really very Thai... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7178-L.jpg A neat bridge we passed on the way into Pai |
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Pai is a funky town, lots of hippie places to eat and hang out in We don't spend too much time in town. Too many farangs. :) We are actually staying 40 kms further west in a tiny village called Soppong, which is basically a line of shops and stalls in a cluster less than a km across. If you blink while riding by, you'll miss the village entirely! From what we saw of Pai riding through, we like this a lot better! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0017-L.jpg Passing more fields on the way to Soppong https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0959-L.jpg Our accommodations for a couple of nights, right on the Soppong River! Beautiful! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0962-L.jpg The real reason why we are staying here. Neda: "Where are your dogs? I would like to pet them now." |
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Walking around the Soppong River, our little inn above us https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0004-L.jpg A missionary baptizing some hill tribe members in the Soppong River. The indigenous people here are predominantly Buddhist https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0993-XL.jpg https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...IMG_5896-L.jpg Trying to catch up on the blog. Or watching some motorcycle racing... |
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We were told that there was a morning market in the village, so we walked outside to buy some fresh fruit https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0977-XL.jpg From the style of dress, I think this woman is from the Lahu tribe There are many hill tribes in the Northern Thailand, the Karen are the most well-known, but other tribes like the Lahu and the Lisu also live in this area. On certain days, they set up stalls on the main road through Soppong and sell food and arts and crafts. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0987-L.jpg Of all the things in our travels, I am the most drawn towards anything depicting indigenous history and ways of life We are staying in Soppong for a couple of nights, so the next afternoon we ride back into Pai to visit some of the sights that we passed the day before. The road between Soppong and Pai is nice and twisty, so we totally don't mind spending a half hour on the bikes shuttling between the indigenous hill people and the hippie farangs. Having said that, we did drop into a vegan Belgian Waffle place for lunch in Pai... :) Dread-locked, Birkenstocked, Granola-Farangs are a tourist attraction too! |
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Just outside the waffle place, is Wat Phra That Mae Yen, otherwise known as White Buddha on the Hill Speaking of which, our Hondas *used* to be white as well... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0031-L.jpg From the top of the steps by the Buddha statue, you can get a pretty good view of the area surrounding Pai https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0041-L.jpg After the White Buddha, we rode over to the Pai Canyon to hike around a little bit It's not a very big place, just a few raised ridges of reddish rocks that snake around a valley full of green pine trees. We came around sunset, which turned out to be a great time to take pictures as the rocks were glowing with a nice colour and the temperature was not too hot that we could walk around without dying of heat exhaustion. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0047-L.jpg Some places you had to scramble up and down the ridges. Fun! |
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Taking a break from hiking https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0073-L.jpg Brave Neda out on a ledge https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7187-L.jpg On our way back to Soppong, we come across some more temples https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7195-L.jpg The sun is getting lower, so we say good bye to Pai |
Great seeing the photos of Pai Canyon, its been awhile since I was there
all the best Wayne |
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/285.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map285-L.jpg Our days on the Loop are quite lazy. Sleep in, then start off with a nice and late, relaxing breakfast at our inn, watching the sparse morning traffic pass by us. Then mosey on down to the bikes in the parking lot to pack up for the day's ride, which is probably going to total less than 150kms. We probably won't leave till just before noon! Today, we're heading further west towards the actual city of Mae Hong Son today. The rhythm of packing up, moving on, then unloading the bikes is quickly becoming familiar again, like muscle memory. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7200-L.jpg See those memory muscles flexing? Definitely not the physical muscles... This is version 2.0 of our pack'n stack jobs. There's a lot of movement in the luggage behind us while riding. The bungie cords and bungie nets just aren't secure enough, so we ditched them. Good thing I remembered that we brought Rok Straps with us from Europe. We love these things. They cinch down nice and tight and nothing moves behind us now! I like that our bags don't make our bikes wider. We're really getting used to filtering past stopped cars in traffic and big panniers wouldn't allow us to do that as easily. Although we both still miss the comfort and power of our GSes, we love how we are able to squeeze and maneuver these smaller bikes in the tiniest of spaces, in traffic and also when parking. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7207-L.jpg The haze of Burning Season obscures the distant treelines surrounding us Although the twistiest part of the Loop is behind us, there is still enough entertaining curves in the road to keep our throttles happy, as our motorcycles cut their way through the dense jungles of NW Thailand. The temperatures up here in the mountains are perfect for riding, we just need to talk to someone about this damn haze! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7209-L.jpg Before heading south towards Mae Hong Son, we turn off onto a northbound road and head towards the Myanmar border We're going to pay a visit to a small village called Ban Rak Thai. Neda read up about it and told me that it's a Chinese Tea Village. Neda is a tea connoisseur, so we have to go and take a look around! |
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As we ride into Ban Rak Thai, we do a quick tour around the town's reservoir which they've turned into a little lake called Mae Sa-Nga https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0084-L.jpg Although not a big tourist destination, one of the larger resorts in Ban Rak Thai has guest houses lining the hill with tea plants all around them https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0100-L.jpg One of the larger shop/restaurant/hotel in town https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0106-L.jpg Taking a stroll around the reservoir |
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There are Chinese writing and decorations all around town! Ban Rak Thai is not that large, about 1,000 people, most of them of Chinese descent. They arrived here shortly after the Chinese Civil War which ended in the 1950s. The previous ruling party in China was ousted from power and fled to Northern Thailand. Some of them set up in the mountains around here, and the biggest trade back then was running opium and other drugs across the Burmese border. Nowadays, tea is what Ban Rak Thai is famous for, drawing tourists in to sample the brews from different tea plants that grow in the area and also to eat some Yunnan food in the restaurants, brought down from the south-west region of China. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0128-L.jpg Tea stores and restaurants make up the majority of the businesses in Ban Rak Thai https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0125-L.jpg Neda is perusing all the different types of tea they sell in the stores. They are packaged like bars of soap! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0132-L.jpg Walking by the up-turned curved-roofed of some Chinese-styled buildings. I think these were built just for the tea tourists' benefit though... |
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We did have lunch in a Chinese restaurant, then later walked down to the shops to sample some tea https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0146-L.jpg The lady who worked there gave us some free samples! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7237-L.jpg Okay, let's go riding! These crops behind us are tea plants https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7234-L.jpg Riding around the tea fields, we are just a few kms away from the Myanmar border! |
After playing around the the tea fields, we turn back south towards the main road to Mae Hong Son.
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7241-L.jpg Did I mention the smoke here is really bad? https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7246-L.jpg This is not farmers burning their fields, this is just the Thai way of maintaining the grass by the side of the road. We saw this in Latin America as well. Saves them from having to cut the grass. Shortly after this picture, I lost my blue point+shoot Nikon somewhere on the road. :( I usually carry a small camera in my tankbag on my GS, which I can quickly bring out and stash while riding. That's how I take all the riding shots. However, here in Thailand, I didn't want to buy an expensive tankbag for the Honda, so I picked up a cheap bumbag which I use to keep the camera in. When I'm done taking pictures, I just drop the camera into the bag and leave the zipper open. The bumbag is not as secure as a tankbag, and as I was riding I could feel the camera come out. I swear I thought I saw a flash of blue bouncing behind me in the mirror, so I stopped the bike and radioed ahead to Neda to come help me search the side of the road. We must have spent close to an hour riding slowly up and down a 2-km stretch of road, scanning the ditch where I thought I dropped the camera. In the end, it wasn't where I thought it was. Neda found it about a hundred metres ahead of where I originally stopped. It must have bounced or slid down the road past me! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7250-L.jpg These workers by the the side of road saw us walking up and down the road and gave us some suggestions on where to look for my camera. When we found it, they gave us a thumbs up! :) They were really friendly! I took this picture of them with the camera just to make sure it still worked! Yay for shock-resistant cameras! 555! I hate losing stuff. Especially since we don't own a lot of things, so everything we carry with us is something we use everyday. And most of our gear was specially ordered, not easy to find in local stores, even in Canada. I was soooo happy Neda found my camera! But now you know I wear a bumbag... :( There are two things I swore I'd never wear when I starting motorcycling because I thought they were really nerdy: A bumbag and a flip-up helmet... I will voluntarily turn in my motorcycle key if you ever catch me wearing fluorescent yellow non-rain gear. |
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On the way to Mae Hong Son, we saw a little bamboo park, so we stopped for a little break and to walk around If it sounds like we stop every 25kms or so, it's because we do. It's a very leisurely ride! :) And those CRF seats are so punishing on the butt. Even with the AirHawk cushions. :( When we first got these bikes, I was all over the Internet forums researching modifications: Aftermarket seats for more comfort, Electronic Jet Kits to coax more power out of the engine (but get less mileage), panniers, tankbags, etc. But these might not be our long-term bikes if we can manage to bring our Beemers into Thailand, so I don't want to keep throwing money at them. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7251-L.jpg I'm not to be trusted with the small camera anymore... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0162-L.jpg Neda is now the keeper of the bright blue point+shoot camera that she rescued from the side of the road https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0173-XL.jpg Oh yeah, here are the bamboo trees! |
We eventually reached Mae Hong Son. It's a fairly big city and we rode right through it, stopping only for gas and to do some chain maintenance on the bikes. Well, Neda did the chains, I just helped rock the rear wheel off the ground on the sidestand and watched from above because she has more experience than I do. "Lube the chains? Don't all motorcycles come with shaft drive these days?!?!"
Man, we need to do lots of "manual" maintenance on these bikes. No electronic oil temperature gauge, no low oil warning on the dash, no tire pressure sensor. It doesn't even tell you when you need to change the windshield wiper fluid. Our BMWs have really spoiled us... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl.../O/coolant.jpg What do you mean motorcycles don't have windshield wiper fluid? It's right here... We're staying in a really nice resort just outside of Mae Hong Son because all the hotels in town were fully booked. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7259-L.jpg Although it may look rustic on the outside, it was so luxurious inside! We found out at check-in that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt stayed here when they visited Thailand. Probably here to adopt a Thai baby or two. There were pictures of them all over the lobby! Of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, not of Thai babies. Well, if it's good enough for Angelina, it'll be okay for us! The resort, I mean, not Thai babies. Not that there's anything wrong with Thai babies... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0181-L.jpg So this is what happens when you play with all the dogs in the resort Everywhere we went, these hotel dogs followed us because we were the only guests to play with them and pet them. Neda's working on a new cross-stitch, BTW. I'm still pretending to work on the blog. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7265-L.jpg But really I'm doing this. |
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Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/286.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map286-L.jpg After a couple of restful nights spent in movie-star luxury, we're back on the road today. The plan is to forge ahead south, parallel to the Myanmar border towards Mae Sariang. Although this could be considered the "back straightaway" of the Mae Hong Son loop, zooming in on the map of the road reveals that it's anything but straight! More twisties in store for us! Yay! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7268-L.jpg Packing up and saying goodbye to Angelina and Brad's place In Thailand, we're able to afford more luxurious accommodations than pretty much anywhere else in our travels thus far. So when we take advantage of this and splash out on a fancy resort, we really want to milk every dollar's worth and not leave the premises. "Come back'ere Doggy! I'm not finished petting you!!!" We felt just a little twinge of guilt that we didn't venture outside the grounds to visit the actual city of Mae Hong Son. We just rode right by it the day before. Not even sure if there was anything to see there! I think maybe we should stay in lower rent places. More incentive to get out and explore! 555! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...1m57s304-L.jpg Heading south out of Mae Hong Son https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7279-L.jpg Stopping to admire the beautiful mountains in Mae Hong Son province |
About three hours directly south of Mae Hong Son is the small town of Mae Sariang, which is where we'll be spending the next couple of days. On the loop, it's located on the diametric opposite corner of Pai. Not many tourists make it out this far so there's a more authentic feel to the town, however we have to use sign language a lot more because English is spoken less here.
I kind of like that. Neda... not too much. She speaks so many languages so well that when she finds herself somewhere where she can't communicate, it really throws her off. Me, on the other hand, since leaving North America, I've had three years of experience not being able to understand anything being spoken around me, so I'm totally used to it by now! For the first time, I have to give Neda lessons on how to communicate - albeit like a two-year old: Sign language. Single-syllable words. Talk SLOOOOOWWWWly. As I'm dispensing this helpful advice, she looks at me the same way I look at her when she says, "We should go for a hike"... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0189-L.jpg Our little guest room right on the Yuam River If you are pre-booking a hotel in Mae Sariang, you have to remember the exact name when you roll into town. Because most of the hotels and guest houses are located beside the river and *ALL* of them are called "River" something: "River Inn", "River View Resort", "River House", etc. Even now, because of our non-existent Thai, I'm not even sure if we're in the right hotel... But it has a balcony so we're not leaving this place! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0202-XL.jpg Watching the sunset from the balcony of the River-something hotel, which may or may not be where we originally booked... We wake up bright and early the next morning. Big plans for today. We're going to spend the day off-roading in the Salawin National Park, just outside of town. Neda did some research and she forwarded me some great-looking trails. There should be some amazing scenery in the park! And we've finally got the right bikes to do it with, so we're pretty stoked! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0209-L.jpg Passing by the early morning corn fields outside of Mae Sariang https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0205-L.jpg Not sure you can see it because of the haze of The Burn, but there are actually mountains in the distance... |
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Before we left, we stocked up my topcase with lots of food! Neda is preparing breakfast by the side of the road just outside the entrance to the park I think our route for the day is just over 100kms of dirt trails. Normally we're getting about 200-220 kms between fill-ups on the road on our CRFs, which is about half the range of our BMWs! Not sure what our dirt range will be, hopefully a full tank should get us back into town? If not, I'm sure there will be an interesting story to tell at the end of the day... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7287-L.jpg A Buddhist Temple, I think it's Wat Huai Pho. Not many people make it out here, so there are no pictures on the Internet for reference https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7295-L.jpg Running with the bulls, Thai-style! I hope Neda's red jacket doesn't give them any ideas... The road into the park is fairly well maintained until it hits the Thanlyin River, which denotes the border between Myanmar and Thailand. As soon as we hit the river, the asphalt beneath us devolves into a gravel road. We turn southwards, running parallel with the Myanmar border, passing many Karen villages situated on the cliff overlooking the river. I'm so surprised how close we are to Myanmar and how there aren't any controls at all preventing us from crossing the very narrow river into a (another) military-controlled country. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7331-L.jpg Passing many Karen villages along the Thanlyin River There are a few 50cc scooters that travel between the villages. They negotiate the rough roads effortlessly. As we pass them, they stare at us in bewilderment as if questioning: "What are you doing here?" Not in an unfriendly way, just more curious. Because we stop and take a lot of pictures, these scooters eventually catch up to us and as they pass us while we're snapping pics of (what they probably think is) nothing, they can't stop staring at us the whole time. Probably more at Neda... I wave to one of the passing scooterists and he flashes me a toothy grin. Well, mostly toothy, he was missing a few teeth in front! |
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Hey, I guess we don't have to worry about gas! We found an automated gas dispenser inside the park. Since our tanks were already pretty much full, we didn't bother to fill up here. I'm going to assume there are others as we venture further into the park... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7322-L.jpg Looking across the river. That's Myanmar... Just a short water crossing and we're in a different country... hmmm... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7328-L.jpg In one of the villages, a tiny chick has imprinted on Neda's bike and is following her around. So cute!!! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7334-L.jpg Curious kids probably wondering, "What are they taking pictures of?!?" |
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Gorgeous scenery here, despite the haze https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SCN7347-XL.jpg My GPS only has the road to the river, so as we followed the Thanlyin southwards, we were now off the map. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SCN7359-XL.jpg Glancing once again at Myanmar. I can hear the wheels turning in Neda's head... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7363-L.jpg Passing more villagers |
We're not going to cross into Myanmar. We're just too straight-laced for that kind of mischief, but we are feeling a bit adventurous. So when we find a path that leads off the gravel road, we decide to explore a bit. We're now totally off any marked roads on the GPS, so I have to keep my eye on our mileage and which direction we're headed in. If it looks like we're straying too far away from the main road and we're at half-tank, we should turn back, or risk running out of gas. Speaking of which, I haven't seen any of those automated gas dispensers in a while...
I think maybe on our next off-road run, we should carry extra jerry cans. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7371-L.jpg Our dirt road descends quite a fair bit into the valley This is a proper full-on dirt road now, I wouldn't even drive a non 4x4 vehicle down this steep, narrow descent. I have to modulate the rear brake to regain grip as we slide down the slippery slope. All the while I'm thinking, "Is there another road at the bottom that brings us back up again? Or do we have to turn around and do this gnarly climb uphill?" Over a km of sliding down and it's looking like the way is devolving into a foot path that someone hacked away the trees on either side with a machete. We're going to have to turn back. Ugh. The hill climb wasn't that bad. Better than sliding down. So glad we have these dirtbikes!!! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN7388-L.jpg We take another dirt path that climbs up onto the ridge of a mountain range - spectacular vistas on both sides as we clear the forest!!! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0215-L.jpg Posing at the top of the ridge. We have absolutely no idea where we are right now. I zoom zoom zoom all the way out on the GPS. We are directly in the middle of the park heading generally eastwards towards the main road again. The gas situation is okay, not dire. As long as we keep heading east without any detours, we should make it back... |
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