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.


Cross-section of life in Vientiane


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?


Screw this backpacker nonsense.


We're going home!!!

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Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Haircuts are in! Happy travels.

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/279.html



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!


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...


We are in Bo Sang for the annual umbrella festival!

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Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

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.


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.


The handmade umbrellas are also painted by hand. All over town, there were artists decorating umbrellas


Some are professional, some are beginners...

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

Umbrellas and elephants, two of Thailand's most well-known symbols


Neda the Thai-Lady says, "Sawatdee Kah!"


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.


Who will be crowned Miss Umbrella Festival 2016?


Wonder if these umbrella girls also work at the motorcycle races?

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

More handpainting


The general public is invited to handpaint their own umbrellas


Neda is loving all the vibrant, pretty colours!


This pose is called the "Closed Umbrella"


Awesome road trip! Getting ready for the long ride back home!

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

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/280.html



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.


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!


Some pics from the news. They bundled the temple dogs up in monks robes! 555!


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.

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

Thanks!

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Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/281.html



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.


"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.


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.

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

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!





These Thai elephants are Asian elephants, which are smaller than African elephants


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.

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

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?


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.

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

After lunch, we were taught how to make "elephant medicine". First ingredients: smushed bananas and tamarind


Then the paste is mixed with grains, rice and salt.


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.


Neda is about to become *very* popular...


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)

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