Behind the Noodle Curtain

Images: bars and other features in Surin, Thailand, Part 2

Back in Surin, but this time my photos show the streets and other features of the small city. Most of the photos were taken in March this year, during the hot season. Whoa! 38, 39, 40 C every day.

I stayed at the Thong Tarin for two weeks and just wandered around, relaxing mostly, going for espresso at a shop closer to the bus station, owned by a Lao-speaking  lady and her sister, and one on the other side of the station, owned by Canadian Brian from Vancouver. Then it was brekkie at the Farang Connection or  N & N's on soi Kola. That got me to 1 in the afternoon, then it was back to the hotel to cool off for a while and a nap.

Then I was back out around 4 or 5 for a beer, then my second and last meal of the day.  Then a break at the hotel for shower and bit of TV watching. Then it was out to the bars on Sirirat and Kola till the wee hours. Sometimes, I had a noodle soup or other meat and rice dish in front of the 7-11 on Sirirat  very early in the morning. Good food. And just sat there watching the arrivals and departures of the local female population on their motorcycles. Strange but most of the travellers were girls.

Couple of curious Bangkok buddies came up for a few days to see what Surin was all about. I don't think they were impressed but were happy to check it out anyway. Or at least that was what they told me. After two weeks, I was ready to pack it in because touring in the heat of the day was just too harsh, as my friends found out one day when we walked the city. I was going to go on to Sisaket and Ubon Ratchathani, toward the Lao border.  But I'm keeping those visits till this coming winter when the daytime temps are under 35.

So here we go (by the way, all pix were taken by my trusty Canon point and shoot, namely SD850is):

 

Brian and partner, shown, at their espresso shop, which drew a lot of Thai businessmen and ladies. It faces the Majestic Hotel and bus station. It's also a 10-minute walk to the train station, behind this building.

Walk away from the bus station to the rail station along this soi and turn right.

       

 

Hmmm, came across this on a tour of town.

     

Left to right, the Surin Mall that looks like a KFC (pix 1 & 2); a Chinese temple near a night market; and the sign of an elephant, the city being famous for its annual (November) elephant roundup.

  

Came across this spectacular dinner setting  being readied  for the evening. Don't know what the celebration was for. Anyone read Thai?

   

Must transportation in Thailand, motos are used for everything and anything, this one being modified for hauling whatever.

 

I came across this "temple," still under construction. Don't know what it is for as there was no English on the signs. I asked several residents and they could not tell me -- or they didn't understand me, which is the more likely. Anyone know?

   

   

That's it for now from Surin.

I leave you with a bit of "elephantics". I had a barside view of our be-trunked friend eyeing our beer on our table at The Oasis in Surin. And, no, that's not his scooter. Photos taken with iPhone so not so great.

 

 

Motorcycle adventures in Asia through words and stunning photos

I'm a motorcyclist of dubious skill. My particular love is for dual-sport bikes. They're the hybrids of asphalt and dirt. While I do love riding, I know my limitations in terms of the loose stuff and challenging roads or lack of same. So I let others do the really adventurous stuff and read about it here at home in air-con comfort and on a more stable platform such as a five-wheeled office chair.

The best resource for such entertainments is Adventure Rider, advrider.com, a global forum focusing on for dual-sport riders. A subforum called Ride Reports, and pics, pics, pics contains just about the most entertaining reading you can imagine if you like exotic lands and people and food. There are some truly awesome reports by truly awesome  riders (some might say nutters) willing to attempt anything. The reports are complimented by much stunning photography, and I say this in the best professional sense. Wow.

There are many riders with a taste for Southeast Asia, some living there and some passing through on two wheels. I will list and link here some of the best reports on riding in Southeast Asia and nearby Asian routes. Warning, especially to those in Thailand with slow download speeds, the reports are loaded with high quality images and that may take some time to DL.

Another thing to keep in mind is that these stories do not dwell on motorcycling. They almost entirely focus on the people, places and things found along the way.

Here's an absolute must report, well written with panache, self-deprecation,  gut-busting humour and  complete lack of confidence in the halfway-round-the-world scheme.  Currently, there's a lovable English maniac riding from Australia to home on a 110 cc Honda named Dot. He is tracing a route through Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and beyond. Video Treat: The author, Nathan the Postman, takes you  on an axle-level video tour of Bangkok on Dot, his red Honda (scroll down to the video post).

Thailand and a little adventure: Newbie heads for Europe but chooses  Thailand instead and shoots gorgeous photos in Bangkok, Chumphon and Chiang Mai. (Heavy image load!)

Tour of Thailand on GS1200: A gigantic tour from Hat Yai, to Nong Khai, Mae Hong Son and back south. Phew.

Batang Kali Malaysia: off-roading in Malaysia

Easter Mekong Delta Tour, Vietnam. First timer rides 125 cc Chinese bike and provides some very personal potraits of people and places in southern Vietnam.

 KTM 950+Cambodia+flats=trouble...... : BeemerBoy from Chiang Mai tries to ride his KTM to Phnom Penh but flat tires and oil leaks decide otherwise.

Vietnam (Hanoi to Mai Chau): Area populated by White Tai tribe

Riding in Laos, or Why is there dirt all over me? : BeemerBoy from Chiang Mai again

Newbies from Indonesia: A 2000 km tour from Jakarta to Yogyakarta and return

North from Singapore: Malyasia and Thailand seen through gorgeous shots of scenery, buildings, food and people.

The Streets of Vietnam: Mobile Vietnamese up close and personal.

The Amazing Ujung Genteng (Indonesia): A gathering place for surfers and wind surfers becasue of teh fab beaches.

OK, that's enough. This will keep you reading all summer. One more thing: I cheated a little bit here and decided not to link to the other Asian reports because it would be just too much to cover all in one post. So part 2 will include the fantastic ride reports of those travelling through Tibet, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, China, eastern Soviet Asia and others. Enjoy . . .

Easy transition back to Canada from Thailand -- sort of

Jetlag problems were minor since coming home to Canada two weeks ago today, which was a pleasant surprise. I usually suffer for seven to 10 days. I had even come home a week in advance of resuming work to reorient myself. And I fell into the work mode quite easily, with "finger memory" carrying me through the daily grind of computing and creativity.

This is a different planet here in Canada compared with Thailand and Southeast Asia. For one thing, temperatures here are cold, with April nights dropping toward zero Celsius. Bangkok was hitting the mid- to high-30s and humid in daytime and dropping only to 25 or so overnight. That was a real shock to the body. My skin here was drying out severely, my hands even cracking. I had to resort to oiling my skin with shea butter. The worst of it was over in about 10 days or less. In Thailand, the air is so moist you never have to worry about "moisturizing."

I had also forgot about how many layers of clothing you had to throw on. Leaving in the warmish sunny late morning for work, you had to be prepared for the cool or cold evening walk home. At times, I forgot where I was. I remember one morning  wearing my walking shorts and no shirt and opening the balcony door to go for a smoke and retreating like a scalded cat from the brittle cold breeze. 

Another shock -- I don't know why it is every time I come back home -- is the price of everything. Ten- and 20-dollar bills fly out of your pocket. That's 280 to 500-plus baht. You could actually eat three times in Bangkok in one day and only spend 100 baht. At the Londoner Brew pub, you can down four pints of a very good lager for a little over 300 baht, taxes and tip included. That would only get you  a pint and a half in Toronto before  tip. 

A single TTC fare of $2.75 would get you four trips in the Bangkok BTS Skytrain or MRT subway. That $2.75 (77 baht) would get you two air-con taxi rides in downtown Bangkok. In Toronto, the taxi pickup rate starts at $4 or 110 baht. The pick up rate in Bangkok is 35 baht and that gets you a long way before the meter starts its slow rise.

One nice thing about Toronto is that I can take transit all the way from the airport to home for $2.25 (token fare). (Limos are about $60 and taxis about $50 to my home.) Can't do that yet in Bangkok, although they are extending the Skytrain out to Swampy (nickname for the main international airport because it's built on a  . . . right . . . a swamp . . . a cobra swamp, in fact.) It's official name is: Suvarnabhumi (phonetically: Suwannaphum).

One not so nice thing is the oppressive regulatory environment here. A friend picked me up on the street and offered to drive me to work during a heavy rain. He dropped me off at the office and had to park momentarily on the bicycle laneway in front of the entrance, after rush hour when traffic is, frankly, quite light. Only other choice is block one of two traffic lanes. We sat a minute and talked and up behind us came a Parking Enforcement van, honking its horn. He honked a second time and I finally got out and ignored the officer. He was probably ready to give us a ticket. We caused exactly no problem for traffic. What's wrong with a cyclist, if there were any, riding out around a momentarily stationary vehicle? In all honesty, I prefer Bangkok's chaos. That's all I'm saying. For now.

Things to look forward to in Canada after six months in Thailand

My days in Thailand are dwindling. Down to seven more after today. Thought I'd take a look at the positives of that, in other words, I am thinking of the things to look forward to in Canada.

One of the easiest positives is the coolness of the weather back home. I am ready for a break from the high heat and humidity. You don't want to be too active outdoors from about 11 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon. But in the evenings the humidity hangs really heavily. Still it's better than direct blazing sunlight of the daylight hours. And this is Thailand's peak heat season.

Consequently, one is going through shirts and other clothing at a fairly high rate, doing laundry more often and showering three, four, five times a day, if only to shower off the sweat. So it will be nice to get back to more normal frequency of all of the above.

One of the things I miss are the natural products, whether food or toiletries or cleaners.

I haven't really found products to replace what I have back home. I am thinking of the natural shower soaps, laundry detergent, deodorant, toothpaste, etc. Some of that may be available here but I have failed to find any, other than crystal based deodorant. There is a natural toothpaste but it is truly unappealing in appearance, looking like rolled up dirt and weeds. Still, last trip, I got used to it. This time I went with a commercial product when I ran out of the Canadian natural paste.

I have been using standard brand-name laundry powder and liquid detergents, which leave a chemical smell and often lots of white residue. The local commercial shampoos and hand soaps don't feel right. Although I did find an anti-bacterial soap, Asepso, that has been pretty good.

I  really look forward to food that is unadulterated by sugar. Juices are often heavy on added sugars, although I did find a couple of brands (Malee and Tipco) that have no sugar added. Still though, you often find the over-sweet grape juice as a prime constituent. Juices and just about every other food product are so heavy in sugar they are almost undrinkable or inedible. For example, 7-11 has a good variety of refrigerated prepared foods. But the spaghetti and chicken in tomato sauce is sickeningly sweet. Thai people love sweetness. I once saw a Thai spoon six heaps of sugar into his morning noodle soup.

I look forward to becoming relaxed pedestrian in Canada. You do get used to walking in the Bangkok traffic chaos. But it will be nice to go back to far more orderly traffic back in Toronto where the sidewalks are mostly free of dangers and you don't need to constantly weave around obstacles, duck under low overheads and step up then down all the time.

I also am looking forward to the mental stimulation of work. Being on vacation this whole time, I depended on my blog writing to simulate the mental processors. That was fun and very engaging because I tried to keep track of the details of everyday life and activities of both foreigners and Thai people. In the process, I started to understand a little better the Thai culture and appreciate it more.

I will also welcome getting back to an English-speaking environment. Whether shopping or eating out or just being able to read all the signs, it will be a bit of a relief, frankly. I do like the Thai langauge, but I have so much to learn yet and look forward to when I can go beyond the simple language of meals, taxis and shopping. Unfortunately, there are no Thai language courses in Toronto. I hope to find a tutor and raise my game a little while back home.

 And last, I am really, really looking forward to getting on my 800 cc motorbike, a real motorbike, unlike the putt-putts of Thailand. When I get home, the first thing I will do after dropping the bags is visit the garage and gaze upon (and maybe even ride) my blue dual-sport bike.

Some images from small-town Buriram, Thailand

This post is way out of sequence from actual events, and so I apologize.

I visited Buriram Feb. 28 to March 3. It's east of the big city of Korat (short for Nakhon Ratchasima), gateway to Isaan or northeastern Thailand. Afterward, I carried on to Surin, revisiting because I had such a peaceful, relaxing time there. Neither provincial capitals has many remarkable sites to see, but their respective provinces are rich in features, such as Khmer temples, basketry and silk villages, and various beautiful national parks with waterfalls. And the Cambodian border is within an hour or less of the towns. They are popular destinations for ex-pats doing visa runs into Cambodia. The less said about visa runs the better.

Why Buriram? I touched on this before, but I will review briefly. The province is very poor. Families try to scrape out a living on rice farms and other agriculture. Between harvests, family members, especially the women head to the cities and often end up working in small shops, mall boutiques, mobile phone shops, hotels, bars and restaurants. You will recognize them from their relatively darker skin. They also feature largely in the hostess and go-go bars. They are quite beautiful and it was interesting to see where they come from.

Some images of Buriram:

I arrived by train, my preferred transportation. Buses are faster but I prefer the train routes, which take you through more scenic countryside and the passenger cars are more comfortable and roomier. And the train takes you right to the main street of towns, usually.

This clock tower greets the visitor at the roundabout outside the train station, it being up the street to the right of the clock tower.

Thani Road is a main east-west  street. On it are several western restaurants, the entertainment complex (night life area) and at the other end is my hotel. One frustration was the lack of public transportation to get around at night. It seems there were no motorcycle taxis, tuk-tuks or sahmlors operating at night; the local ex-pats complain, too. So everyone rides a motorcycle, scooter or drives a car.

Here's the Bamboo, my favourite meal place in Buriram. Good food, good selection. I frequently sat under that Canadian flag! Run by Englishman David, who also runs a good hotel in the west end off town. See image below.

The Siam Orchid Hotel is in a very nice, quiet setting, which is surprising considerring the four or five karaoke places on the adjoining street. Rooms start at 500 baht ($15 Cdn).

Motorcycles (250 bt a day) and bicycles are available for rental. That blue number, second from left and below, was given to me free to ride around. Probably because I frequently went to the hotel owner's resto. A very nice man is David though and his Thai wife, who spoke very good English, was a great host.

 

The bicycle was too small for me and the tires desperately needed air but I'll be darned if I could find an air supply in town. probably on some little soi somewhere. The owner said their repair man was not around.

      

Above is Wat Klang, Buriram.

In my last hours of a four-day stay, I came across a lovely set off ponds and lakes in the middle of town but didn't have my camera. The sun was going down and I had to head out the next morning so never got a chance to photograph the town's nicest features.

Another feature of Isaan is that it's one of the hottest regions of Thailand. Everyday the sun bore down and temperatures hovered beween 37 and 40. It's also a dry part off Thailand and farmers only get one rice crop in per season. Others do at least two.l

Have to cancel motorcycle tour of Laos

For a bunch of seemingly mundane but nevertheless vital personal reasons, I've had to cancel my participation in the motorcycle tour of Laos.  In summary, the timing of the tour at the end of my six-month stay in Southeast Asia comes when my funds are waning and I must transition back to Canada without any fresh income for some time.

It hurts knowing I cannot ride into northern Laos but I simply cannot afford to risk spending the money and leave myself open to an even greater financial risk should something happen to me or the bike. You break it, you pay for it.

At least I now have a project for the next visit. Oh, lots of projects.  Like visit China, Vietnam (again), Cambodia (again) and go back to Laos. See more of Thailand, too. Many things to look forward to.

Reflections on Buriram, Surin and Thai women

Buriram and Surin provinces (the provincial capitals  carry the same names) are on the route to the eastern Thai border -- Cambodia, next stop. The next easterly neighbouring provinces are Sisaket and Ubon Ratchathani. All four border Cambodia on its northwestern flank.

There are a lot of fine monuments, temples (mostly Khmer), forestry parks, silk and basketry villages and natural phenomena to see. Most sites are within an hour or two of the cities. I have yet to make it to Sisaket and Ubon, and I'm not sure I will. Things, or people, have intervened.

For one, two Bangkok buds (Canadian and Danish) are heading to Surin this week to visit. We may have access to a two-seater Toyota Vigo 4WD pickup owned by a local. Free.  Roads are pretty good here, the only challenge is driving from the righthand side of the vehicle.

Second, a 35-year-old Thai lady, who owns the vehicle, has become a regular companion, which is a first for me in six trips to Southeast Asia. She comes from a well to do family in Pitsanoluk province, in northern Thailand, but lives in Isaan.

About the only thing I can say about her -- other than she knows quite a bit of English from having been a tour guide for Koreans and Japanese -- is that I have learned how different we are. As a westerner, you must pretty much forget everything you know. Added to my experience is interacting with the wives and girlfriends of other foreigners here in Surin, mostly Norwegian. Quite the contingent from Viking Land.

As one long-time Norwegian ex-pat said, Thai ladies "know how to take care". Seems to be inborn. No quick explanation will suffice, only personal experience will partially help you comprehend and it will certainly make you appreciate them

On the other side, if you can call it that, sense of time is way off the scale. Virtually non-existent. She went to her home town by bus, a 6-7 hour gruelling trip, last Saturday morning. She'd return with her truck early Sunday evening. By midnight I'd not heard anything. Typical westerner, going by the clock. Called her about 12:30 am Monday (see how a westerner thinks!). No answer.

She calls 9:30 Monday morning, something about family and lawyers. Who knows . . . because  I think I was a little hung over and short of sleep, causing my brain to short-circuit.  She'd call me later. It's Tuesday afternoon and nothing. But, I must try to think, or not, like a Thai. Mai penh rai, as the Thais would say. No worries, no problem.

I really try not to think like a westerner. With practice, it comes easier and easier. Otherwise, your sense of logic, order, behaviour, customs and practices, and expectations in general would drive you crazy. It's actually working.

I know what can happen, thanks to the wise tuition of others who have come before. I live my trip as I want and whatever happens, happens. I don't get worked up about things because it's just no good for the heart or mind. In fact, loosening up is good for the soul. I'm not perfect in my acceptance of things "same same but different", but who is?

On other hand, I cannot suppress my western side, the one that sends up red flags. I'm just ignoring them at the moment.

Motorcycle tour of northern Laos coming up

Coming up in about a dozen days is our motorcycle tour of northern Laos. There will be about five or six of us, all Bangkok residents, except our leader, who lives in the States. We will rent bikes in Vientiane, which seems to be a burgeoning source of motorcycles for touring.

Our route will  run from Vientiane to Vang Vien, Phonosavan, Chom Thong and Luang Prabang. Then it's back through Vang Vien to Vientiane. As far as I'm concerned, any route is a good route, as long as I can get onto a real bike.

I've spent some time on the prevalent small bikes, Honda and Yamaha 125's. They're not much fun and the bikes you can rent are hardly maintained very well. Also, traffic in Thailand is, uh, bloody dangerous. The Canadian embassy  told me back in the fall how at least two Canadians had died in motorcycle accidents in the first eight months of 2008.

Some ex-pats here in Surin are dyed in the wool riders, but all of them have had to lay down their bikes after "idiotic" moves by local drivers. One very experienced rider -- living in Thailand for 10 years --  was in hospital for 11 days.

So, in the interests of maintaining function of all my limbs, I've limited my exposure to traffic incidents by renting scooters only sparingly. And not in Bangkok at all. Some ex-pats in the provinces stick to four wheels and metal cocoons.

But Laos is a different story. Traffic is very light because private auto and bike ownership is very low. Even in Vientiane, there is little traffic.

A daytime pictorial of Huay Kwang market, Bangkok

When you start taking pictures of the food and hardware at Huay Kwang market, you realize how big it is. The actual market, it seems, is small, but all around it, for blocks and blocks, outside vendors are set up and offer the freshest fish (still breathing), meat (with feathers still on it in some cases) and  vegetables (greenest) and fruit (redest and yellowest).

It is a very Thai neighbourhood. Saw one paleface the whole two hours or more. And it's not a very well off 'hood either. Old apartment buildings sprout laundry on the shakey balconies, with eletrical wires running between them and show signs of distress, the worst being burnouts and abandonment.

Nearby there are some brand new apartment buildings that probably house more well to do Thais and palefaces. Also nearby are some of the city's biggest, flashiest massage services.

Well, I headed off to the market earlier today, after language class. It's an easy four-stop trip on the MRT from Sukhumvit to Huay Kwang station.

Look at the map, exit 3. You leave the station, do a 180 and head for Prachasongkhro Road and turn left. It's about a 200 metre walk.

Street vendors crowd the sidewalks on way to market building, which as far as I can tell, is only a small part of the overall market experience.

   

Above, first image, looking back toward Ratchadaphisek Road intersection and the MRT station from where I'd come. Shoppers out early for supper shopping.

      

Fruits, shellfish and vegetables. Fresh . . .

 

   

. . .  or ready to eat: veg- and fruit-shaped candy or prepared meals. Yes, that food sits out in the boiling sun and humidity. And yes, people have been known to get food poisoning, especially in the hot season, which is just simmering now. 

   

Vendor stalls are covered in tarpaulins to keep out the sun. Across the street from the tarp-coverd stands, a local prays for a good market day or luck in love (not kidding here . . .).

      

Here's one sub-soi (alley) filled with knock-off clothing and other cheap goods, including fake flowers in third image. Bob Marley t-shirts featured.

       

Ahhh, plastic chairs and tables. Bangkok would be unrecognizable without them at every corner and sub-soi food cart. Hardware shop, first image, has every size and colour. Lots of meat products in this alley, second image. Veg vendors set up in front of (lucky) gold shop. Every centimetre of pavement has potential revenue, for both property/business owner and outside vendor so you will see sellers in the strangest roadside locations, like using the steps of a gold shop.

 

Old apartments stand in background of nearby street of Huay Kwang market. This sub-soi was filled with mobile phone vendors.

 

More clothes . . .

 

Why walk when you can ride up to the shop? The moto rider was just checking prices before I could bring my camera to bear.

 

Soi dogs always sniffing for handout, although these ones seemed to look better than the average mangy ones.

 

This Honda Shadow, I believe (I forgot to double-check the nameplate) gets pride of place at the entrance to Huay Kwang market. An unusual bike in Thailand.

A few tidbits from shuffling around Bangkok

Just tidying up my mental shelf and found a few stray thoughts here:

There are three Isaan-Lao restaurants in my area of Bangkok, Khlongtoei district and I have yet to go two of them, including the one I should have gone to long ago, Vientiane Kitchen. It features very good food, according to friends who have been there. It's a bit pricy -- plates are in 100 baht range and beers about the same. Every night there's an Isaan/Lao band, with its infectious music featuring drums and strings, and dancers, beautiful as always in their colourful gold and red long skirts and pretty sashes and head-dresses, set against golden brown skin. I've been to Thai-Isaan kitchen (Krua Romai) for the cheap, good food, and cheap beer, set in a garden-like eating area. 30 to 50 baht for various plates, plus some of the famous hotter than hot Isaan salads, such as Som Tam.

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I still haven't been to many of the typical tourist sights of Bangkok, found in all the guide books. I'm just not a tourist, I guess. I've seen dozens of temples (city of Chiang Mai has a golden temple on every block; or go to Sukhotai or Ayudhya), buddhas, Thai traditonal costumes, silk clothing and souvenirs, tuk-tuks till I'm tuckered out, taken khlong taxis and river boats, on and on.

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I've found at least two good places for hamburgers. I had missed those delightful treats. Yes, McDonald's outlets are everywhere, but I can't eat their products unless I'm hammered and it's 3 a.m. and my judgement is, well, overcast. Bourbon Street restaurant on Washington Square, off soi 22, so far is the best. They grind rib steak for hamburger, the owner tells me. And believe it or not, the Burger King in Emporium on the fifth floor. A bit pricy at 149 baht but worth it. Other BKs are probably equally decent. A third one I've only experienced once. The Nana burger, at 80 baht, was pretty good one night when a friend and I ended up at the  go-go bar district off soi 4, Suk, after hours of liquid refreshment. We'd just bought a couple of bottles of San Miguel Light, strolled out onto soi 4 and watched the action from the Nana Hotel parking lot. The girls there welcomed us as one, us joking how we were looking for customers. Thai girls are like that. So we saw the Nana burger cart sign and weakened. Our hangout, the Londoner, has pretty flavourless burgers for an outrageous 380 baht.

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I'm always amused by the construction projects with safety signs attached to the entrance that announce that slippers are banned. You will see why it's important when you look at other projects where they are not banned. Construction workers, whether at big or small projects, such as repairing sewer pipes, digging trenches, climbing utility poles, operating heavy equipment, sawing stone or painting the sides of buildings, will not wear safety shoes.

You will see men and women wearing those little beach thongs, climbing over re-bar or gravel or strewn lumber or walking at perilous heights on bamboo scaffolding.  I wish I were kidding. I doubt they can afford the safety shoes  since they earn a pittance, of around 175 to 200 baht a day. I can only assume that big foreign companies supply safety shoes.

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One day recently a friend and I ventured out to a motorcycle accessories shop at Huay Kwang MRT stop, on Ratchadaphisek (part of a great ring road around Bangkok). Whoa, it was pricy. Name helmets by Shoei and Arai ran $800 to well over a $1,000 Cdn. I thought Canada was too expensive. The Arai  XD, which is well over $500 back home was close to $900. Now, it's a small market in Thailand, and only ones who could afford such a pricy but necessary piece of equipment, would be the farangs (foreigners) and a very few rich Thais. Armoured jackets at the very low end of quality ran into the low teens, over $400. My friend was looking to outfit himself and we decided on a decent 60% off HJC half-helmet, a half-price cheapish mesh jacket with armour and discounted gloves. We came to about 15,000 baht or over $500.  

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While at out at Huay Kwang and with time on our hands, we decided to go to a nearby dim sum Chinese restaurant. In a word, terrible! When we finished, we rated it 5.5 out of 10. An hour later, it was 3.5.

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We left the resto and headed to the MRT when I spotted a map of the intersection area, something that's at every MRT subway station outside. Huay Kwang market! Let's go! Well, we were knocked out at how huge and cheap it was. Must have been 20 blocks of vendors. And loved the  fact this is a very Thai neighbourhood. No tourists, unlike the well trodden paths of Sukhumvit Rd. I will go out there again soon to take pictures and report. Didn't have camera with me at the time.