Ni-Na looks like she is really enjoying herself under this waterfall


She wasn't the only one enjoying herself


We spent the entire day in the company of these graceful giants. But now it's time to say goodbye.


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!

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Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/282.html



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


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!


Pretty, shiny golden temples of Wat Phra That Doi Suthep

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Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Prayer flags! Last time we saw this was up in the Himalayan Mountains in India!


Shrine to Ganesh, who we also saw in India


Thai Star Destroyer from a Galaxy Far, Far Away


Yes, there is a statue of a chicken in this picture...

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Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Is it bad to say that I find the realistic statues kind of unnerving?


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...


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.

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

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!


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...


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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Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

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!


Love getting around on motorcycles


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!"


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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Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

After dinner, there was a show featuring Traditional Thai dancing. I didn't find it cheesy at all!


This is fawn-lep, the traditional Thai fingernail dance. It actually originates from Chiang Mai. Cool!


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.

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

As per Glen's suggestion, we visited nearby Baan Kang Wat market on the weekend


One of Neda's favorite activities: window shopping. Second only to her favorite activity: *actual* shopping...


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.


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!


Feels great to be exploring on two wheels again. Up next: our first Thai road trip!

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

G'day Gene you've probably got it all sorted by now, but I've provided a link to some of the good shops listed on GT-Rider

Chiang Mai Motorcycle Shops | GT-Rider.com

As for burning season 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 Still had a great time though, as you do
Can't wait to get back there & do it differently in pre- Christmas time, when the air is clear

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My memory is becoming that good, I should be able to organise my own surprise party soon

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/283.html



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.


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.

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

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.


Oooh, we have to check this out!


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...


Outside of the Royal Palace in Bangkok, this is probably one of the largest temple complexes we've seen

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Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Cool elephant/dragon monsters with antlers!


We're paying more attention to elephants after having visited the rescue sanctuary


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?

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Our route takes us through large tracts of farmland which is much more scenic now that we're off the main road.


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.


These little huts on the farms are like the Croatian Kazuns!

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Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

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.


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!"


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!


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!


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?


Oh yeah, there's also animals for Neda to pet!

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com