My third Ride

My third ride was a 2005 Honda XR 250. I had never ridden a true dirt bike before, and while the engine could use a bit more power for getting me up hills, it was so much easier riding through the dirt than on my KLR 650. The thing only weighs 270 lbs, and this made changing direction and avoiding ruts and gullies, a cinch. The bike was also so easy to change direction that I pushed it really hard into corners on the paved sections. This I think contributed to my first issue of the trip!!

It happened at about 5:00pm today, 30 km south of Khum Yuam. I at first just felt the rear end getting a bit squirly as I transitioned from corner to corner, and then in a straight bit looked down and saw the tire compressed a bit against the road, and then "poof"... it went flat, and I pulled over to the side of the road. I checked the tire for any signs of a puncture, and could find nothing, I thought it odd that the tire would have gone flat on a well paved sectioned of road, but whatever; I had to figure out how to get from middle of no where Thailand forest, back to a place where I could get the tire fixed. Luckily (or perhaps expectantly) the first truck I flagged down stopped to help. A young Thai man and his wife helped me load the motorcycle into the back of his old pickup truck, alongside a bunch of cabbage :-) We tied down the back end of the bike to the truck via the bike's luggage rack. I them stood in the truck bed holding the metal truck cage with one arm and the motorcycle with my other. This proved pretty taxing after a dozen turns or so, but I figure i got my workout for the day.

The guy had to drive me all the back to Khun Yuam because none of the other little towns had the proper sized tube for my 130 (4.60) sized rear tire. When the guy dropped me off at the Motorcycle shop in Khun Yuam, i tired to give him some money, but he wouldn't take it. I then tried to give him my pocket knife as a thank you, but he wouldn't take that either. I said thank you and he drove off with a smile. I hope he had to go past Khun Yuam anyway to get to where he was going, or else I would feel really bad. Any way the tube change was pretty easy, took all of 20 min, and only cost me $5 for parts and labor!!! The kid, Sam-Bon, who changed the tire wouldn't even take a tip!!!

So I do think I know what happened to the tire though. There was a small tear on the side of the tube, the part that touches up against the side wall. I think the combination of an underinflated tube (reason #1237, not to trust that the shop knows what they are doing), a worn down tire, and me riding the bike too hard, had deformed the tire under the force of cornering, which pinched the tube against the rim, causing the tear. Even though the tire is a bit more inflated now, I think I will take it easier on my way back to Chiang Mai Tomorrow :-)

Sam-Bon fixing my flat tire...

This type of road was common over my three days. It really is more of a dirt path. Going down some of the steep grades was a bit harry, but I managed. I will say the Thai guys amaze me on what they can do, with a passenger, on a little 125cc motorbike!!!
Video: riding a (easy) stretch of the above mentioned road
http://vimeo.com/3028065

Thailand - Northern Highlands

My Second ride

The Mekong River at the Golden Triangle

Rice paddies in what was once opium country

I have spent the past two days riding around The Golden Triangle (confluence of Thailand, Laos, and Burma). My second ride was a bit more powerful than my first. for $25/day I go an early 90's Honda CB400. It had enough power to get me out of trouble, but not so much that it would get me into trouble :-)

I left Chiang Mai at about 11:00 in the morning and headed for Doi Mae Salong, which used to be the opium capital of SE Asia. Set up in the hills, it was isolated and hard to access 25 years ago. Now Tea has replaced opium, and a decent paved road has replaced the old donkey track. I spent the night in Chiang Saen, on the Mekong, just across the river from Laos. Today I rode back to Chaing Mai, passing through, among other towns, Chiang Rai, Chiang Kham, Phayao, and Mae Kachan. The bit of road from Phayao to Wang Nua was a lot fun (see video below)

Overall I was surprised at how well paved the roads were up there. A few of places i had enough confidence to open it up a bit in the twistys. Tomorrow I an renting a dirt bike (Honda XR 250) and heading north west into the mountains, near the Burma border. I will be out for about three days, and hopefully will be able to make it up to the highest peek in Thailand.

Video: Road from Phayao to Wang Nua
http://vimeo.com/2979235

Video: Following a crazy fast kid on a dinky bike
http://vimeo.com/2979647

Phi Phi Island

Phi Phi island was less than a dump than Phuket, but only marginally so. At least there weren't any hookers that I could see. The highlight of our 2+ days on the island was an all day snorkeling trip. I saw a whole bunch of cool fish (puffers, wrasses, etc), a lot of beautiful corals (brain coral, seafans), and 6 Black tipped reef sharks. One of the Six was nearly the same size as me. Even though they don't attack people I was pretty scared swimming alongside it, only 20 feet away. The other cool thing was a cliff diving site in Malam Bay, in the interior of Phi Phi Lei Island. Lief, our guide, said it was about 16-18 meters high which seemed about right when comparing diving off the High Dive at UCSB. Ironically of my three entries, the only one that really hurt was the last one where I went feet first!!! I even ripped my swim trunks in the process :-)

Amanpuri

The Amanpuri resort is with greatest resort I have been to, it also the greates resort I have ever heard of. I am pretty sure it is the best in all of Thailand, and truly the only "resort" I have ever actually liked. I could try to explain it but I don't have the words. I will just let the pictures and video do the talking!

As nice as the resort was, the best part about it was the food. We had a full time chef, who cooked three meals a day for a us. She was helped out by our other two live in cleaning ladies. This place was completely amazing, but it better be at $6500/night!!! (luckily my mom is the amazing lady she is and called in a favor on my behalf)

The following video gives a tour of our Villa!
http://vimeo.com/2902878

My First Ride

So I went on my first Moto-bike outing a couple of days ago. I had the coolest little red scooter. I had never ridden a scooter before, and no idea how fun they are. Going up hill was a little weird as I would have the throttle pined and would just hold a constant speed of about 25mph. I would also forget that scooters are automatic, and would pull in the rear brake lever as if it were a clutch and my left foot would often search for a non existent shift pedal when I came to stops :-)

I was a little nervous because I wasn't sure if my camera set up was going to work properly, but after spending a bit of time getting the camera adjusted, everything seemed to work out fine. I like my set up better this trip where the camera is attached to the helmet rather than the moto-bike. It is harder to adjust and get a flat shot, but now I film wherever my eyes go, the field of view is not confined to the front of the bike

The video below is part of the ride from Surin beach over to Kamala beach

http://vimeo.com/2895819

Phuket Island

Phuket is a dump plain and simple. The beaches are overwhelmed with pasty white overweight Europeans, you can't walk more than a couple blocks in Kamala, Patong, Koron or kata, without seeing hookers (female and lady-boy), encountering a special "massage" pallor, being offered to see a "ping pong show" (among other more disgusting things), passing bye "bars" that have the word Pussy somewhere in their name. To top it off the whole place smells like poop, mixed with dust. I think Amanpuri, the resort we are staying at, is not only the nicest resort on Phuket, but probably the nicest one in Thailand, and the only one on phuket that makes the trip here worth it. Phuket on a whole is a dump, period. we will see about Koh-Phi Phi

The picture above is of Patong, one of the least mermorable places on the island (this is about as pretty as it gets)

Bangkok

Bangkok has some beautiful architecture and monuments. My favorite thing was the The Grand Palace, an amazing labyrinth of temples and spires and guardian statues. The city felt bigger then i remember it when my family and I came to Thailand when I was 9 years old. Bangkok must have really grown, if I as a 9 year old the city felt smaller than it does now. On the whole though bangkok is a relatively crowded and dirty city and while interesting for a few days, it get tiring rather quickly.

Here is a video link to a tuk tuk ride that Adam and I took.
http://vimeo.com/2865708

Picture taken form Wat Arun, a spired temple modeled after Khmer (Cambodian) structures of similar design.


Bangkok at sunrise, near MBK Market


Adam getting ready to become a Thai Kick boxer when he returns home!!!!

Arrived in Thailand

I have a new favorite airline. Asiana is the by far the best airline I have ever been on. I was in transit for almost 24 hours and it was more pleasnat than flights that have taken half that time. Both flights were on time; we were served three meals with free wine and snacks; plus every seat had there own entertainment system, movies, and news stations, and electronic card games. The bathrooms even had sealed complimentary toothbrush and toothpaste kits, as well as flowers. Plus all of the flight attendants were these nice and smiley, young Korean women. Hell on a united or American flight it is hard enough to get of extra pack of peanuts from those flight attendants, where as on Asiana any one of 10 ladies would always serve you with smile. The kicker was, they put on a fashion show mid flight, thats right a fashion show!!! This was one the coolest and at the same time weirdest things I have seen on a plane flight. a third of the way through the flight all of the flight attendants put on traditional Korean costumes and paraded around the airplane for all of the passengers to see. Who thought of this??? I have a hard enough time pulling my pants back up after using one of mini bathrooms on a airplane, and these ladies had to put on complete costumes with hats and scarves etc. It was just too much.