The Noodle Curtain

A rather tame Bangkok motor expo

 


I finally got out my Big Gun Canon DSLR, which has been sitting on the shelf for the two months I’ve been in Thailand. Shameful, really.

It seems I really needed the camera practice. Many of my photos were ruined by some sloppy focusing and misremembered technical settings.  It turns out that, desperately needed practice aside, the Canon was hardly necessary at the Bangkok Motor Expo out at Muaeng Thong Thani for there was so little worth photographing.

I and two friends went to Impact Arena Exhibition Centre on Day 2. One has 16 years living in Thailand, the other about seven, and both are car fans and attended both local shows regularly. They were unimpressed by the vehicles and even less impressed by the usual girls that adorn all car show stages in Asia. I have to agree as much as I was looking at the girls instead of the autos.

I’m only publishing photos of one particularly pretty girl at one carmaker’s stand, the name of which escapes me and I cannot identify the maker through my images. The rest of the hostess model lineups, I’m afraid to say, were less than memorable.

 



I wonder what makes girls go for the stringy, lop-sided hair? I guess it’s the in-style, like those high-waisted shorts that many girls are wearing now. To me, nothing is more beautiful on a Thai girl than the long straight, black hair, like that of the girls at the BMW display. Interestingly, all the girls styles matched; in fact, they almost looked like clones. Up close, they were all quite different looking, of course.

I had a couple of pictures of fetching girls at the after-market stands, but that was early on in that day’s camera re-education. Many were quite off in exposure, focus and white balance. Er, um, maybe I should not have been out late the night before. Ahem . . . Or maybe I should just hang up the camera and stick to the point-and-shoot.

 

To fall or not fall for new Kawasaki ‘big bike’

I have been waiting with anticipation for an affordable “big bike” to show up on the Thailand market and it is (almost) here.

A slim 125 cc Honda or Yamaha self-shifter is ideal for threading traffic in this country. But those bikes are so small for a big guy like me (186 cm/6-foot-1), have little secondary road interest and cannot carry much -- if you want to ride safely.

 There are also many scooters from Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and some of the Taiwanese and Chinese makers. They’re quite comfortable for neighbourhood errands and commuting in the smaller cities and towns. Even as a passenger on motorcycle taxis, you are fairly comfortable for getting down the soi or along the major roads for half a klick or so.

There is a shortage of big bikes on the market, unless you want to pay exhorbitant tarrifs and retail prices on such as the Ducati or BMW. There is the Honda Phantom cruiser style bike, but these low-riding, lay-back bikes leave me cold.

Kawasaki, which assembles bikes in this country, has been marketing the ER6n for a couple of years and the various small-size Ninjas. Neither fit my needs, which is to say, I like an upright bike so you don’t  “sit” on your arms (Ninja) or “sit” on your tailbone (Phantom).

By mid-December Kawasaki is supposed to deliver the first copies of its dual-purpose Versys, which has been a good success in Europe and less so in North America. Woohoo! Priced at 285,000 baht (taxes included, which is about $9,800 Canadian), it’s considerably less than the price tag in Canada at $8,999 plus Canadian GST and provincial tax (about $10,200 or 350,000 baht).

I took photos of the bike at the Kawasaki Thailand Big Bike Showroom on Pra Ram 9, about a 20-minute walk from my humble apartment on Ratchada. Unfortunately, I only had my iPhone 3 mobile with me, with its pitiful camera.

The (somewhat flimsy) side and top cases, (metal bar reinforced)  handguards, (convincingly stout) engine crash bars and (useful) windshield extension were extras. The bike itself was a beauty, in my eyes. it comes in red (not shown) and black.

Incidentally, another expat at the shop says it would cost about 7,000 baht a year to obtain first-class insurance. That’s $210 to insure a bike in Bangkok; back home the same bike would cost me about $700 to $900 or up to 27,000 baht in Toronto -- the price of a good new scooter. But you can simply take the mandatory basic insurance of about 650 baht ($20!). Not a good idea. Insurance quotes for the related ER6n (650 cc engine, similar though weaker chassis) from third parties charted at the Kawasaki showroom indicate  about 12,000 baht a year.

Unfortunately, a big foreigner on a big bike (650 cc) is the natural prey of any policeman looking to fund a poker night in Khlong Toie. But maybe a worse scenario is learning to ride Thai traffic in Bangkok. Hmmm . . .

 

Getting motorcycle fever again

If you can believe it, all I’ve been thinking about before returning to Thailand this autumn is motorcycles. I’ve got the fever again.

Motorcycles are dangerous anywhere in the world because you have to be 100% awake and sharp every second. There’s the fear of the car door; the sudden taxi u-turn; the streetcar tracks that become banana peels when it’s raining;  the absent-minded SUV driver (they act like kings of the road) that turns left in front of you despite your blazing headlight and high-viz jacket; the distracted mom who runs a red light; the expressway dolt who doesn’t look (or signal) when switching lanes because his mirrors look down the side of the car instead of into the adjacent lanes; the long-haul trucker at 125 km/h blazes by you in the rain, etc.

In Thailand, no one, and I mean no one, knows how to drive at all. And many don’t have a licence, or wear seatbelts or helmets (photo left of couriers who do wear helmets). Many don’t look when entering a road;  many motorcycle drivers will dive down your inside as you’re turning right or left; motorcycle riders will cut right across your bow because they have to get there RIGHT  NOW because they spotted a dried squid vendor; drivers will move over on you without signal or apparent reason; they will run red lights, green and yellow; sudden stops are mandatory if a 7-11 comes into view; they will park in the middle of a street or lane or doorway or sidewalk, etc.

So I must be crazy. Well, you could certainly certify me thusly if I was going to ride a bike in Bangkok. I’d have myself committed. No, I’m saving this blast of youth (ha!) for upcountry when I return. It’s a cheap, easy way to get around.

My dream motorbike is the BMW R800GS(top image). In Thailand, it’s a ridiculous mount of money, about double that in already absurd Canadian dollars. That’s about $12,500 plus taxes. With taxes, plus PDI, it would be very close to $15,000, about 450,000 baht. It’s 770,000 bt in Land of Smiles. The Kawasaki KLR650 would come a close second. But this is not available in Thailand, despite the fact Kawi has a factory making some cruisers, Ninja models, some trail bikes (see D-Tracker at bottom of article) and the E6Rn.  Apparently the Versys is (rumoured) due to arrive late this year, and this latter is definitely  closer to my needs. But it’s likely to be sitting at around 300,000 bt. Throw another 200,000 down and you can  have a Chevrolet 2-door Colorado compact pickup.

But if I were smart, I’d start out with one step at a time and go with a scooter. Yep, a little 125 cc  half-stepthrough or full step-through scooter (image right of Fino) , either a Yamaha Nouvo (image above) or Fino or Honda PCX. There’s also the Thailand made Boxer 250RS. Not a bad looking bike, sort of a dual sport, with high bars, decent clearance and apparently decent comfort. There’s lots of aftermarket and bike maker accessories. But, it has no sex appeal among Thais -- possibly because the reviled police use them? (small image below) Honda’s No. 1. The Boxer is  maybe a step and  a half above a scoot in terms of my preferences, and there are good reports about it. It is, after all, a more real motorcycle.

Big bikes in a genuine retail environment are not common, most of them could be classed as cruisers, of the Harley variety and I have no desire to try to keep a Harley operating or, if you really want to know the truth, be seen on one. I’ve ridden a couple and wondered how they could be passed by the department of transport. Some people love ‘em though, including some of my friends here in Canada. Other biggies do get into the country all right, but not all enter properly, which is to say, the owner brought it in using means that might involve a lot of money at customs.

Enough of that. It’s about 2 and a half months before I arrive and that will be in Bangkok. There will be a few times I will be out in the country and hope to rent some of my candidate scooters. In the meantime, I’ve booked a KLR and 800GS for some road tests in Canada. I don’t have a motorbike now because I sold my new BMW F650GS last autumn. Not long after it stranded me less than two months into ownership. Didn’t really like it anyway, especially when the 800GS was hiding in the shadows beckoning me with its sexy miniskirt fender, long legs, slim, svelt figure and athlete’s buns of a rear tire. Alas, the price of admission was too much for me.

After selling it and two previous bikes in short order, I lost interest, helped by high insurance costs too. Just didn’t care anymore. But over May and June, I made the mistake of going back to reading the ride reports on ADVRider.com and caught the bike bug. Again.

 

LINKS:

• BMW Thailand motorcycle division price list
• Kawasaki Thailand model lineup and prices.
• Chevrolet Thailand model pricing guide.
• Kawasaki Versys rumoured to be due in Thailand late this year.
• The Honda PCX, a little bigger scooter, is getting lots of good reports as a secondary road cruiser, a bit bigger than the Nouvo.
• Lots of Southeast Asian info for motorcyclists at Golden Triangle Rider forum.
• Get lost in ADVRider.com ride reports on some of the most beautiful, some of the most dangerous, some of the most challenging  trips in the world. Often stunning pictures. They're addictive.

Chery auto display leaves dull image in Bangkok

Spotted a couple of rather dull looking vehicles on promotional display in the huge  Carrefour shopping centre on Rama 4 Road on Sunday.  The Chinese-based Chery QQ subcompact four-door and Tiggo SUV four-door  certainly looked dull against the Isuzu competition up the hallway. The Chinese auto-making giant  is making its first foray into Thailand. The make is already being sold in Indonesia and Malaysia (two Southeast Asian nations where Chery has factories), Vietnam, Laos, Singapore and the Philippines.

The QQ 1.1 L is a five-door hatchback. Its little engine comprises four cylinders, 16 valves and burns E20 gasohol. It makes 50 kilowatts (67 hp)  and 90 Newton-metres (66 lb.-ft) of torque.  It weighs about 890 kg., 153 kg lighter than a North America-bound Toyota Yaris five-door, with manual transmission. The model in display was the AMT, automatic transmission.

The Tiggo (2.0 AMT on the stand) is a five-door sport-utility wagon. Its 1971 cc inline four has 16 valves and also burns gasohol E20. The  four-banger produces 95 kilowatts or 127 hp (online spec says 102 but Thai spec may be different). Torque is 180 newton-metres/sec or about 132 pound-feet.   The SUV comes in at a hefty 1375 kg for the automatic front-wheel driver, but not too much lighter than the popular Ford Escape front-wheel drive, with six-speed auto gearbox Canadian model, at 1503 kilos.

  What about the legendary Chinese pricing? In Thailand, the QQ 1.1 L goes for a rather pricy 389,400 baht or $12,500 Canadian.  A Canada-market Nissan Versa starts at $14,198.  For Toyota’s Yaris five-door, you’d shell out  a reasonable $13,905. The spec is much higher for the Canadian cars so Thais are probably paying an heavy import tariff because they are not assembled there.  So much for the “cheap Chinese car” expectation.  And frankly, looking at the suspect  finishes and materials in the display cars, I’ll take a Canadian-spec car any day.

The Tiggo, an automatic only, comes in at 825,000 baht or $26,600.  That Ford Escape, but with six-speed automatic, starts in Canada at $25,599. 

The display definitely needed those balloons. I don't think there was an original  point of interest anywhere on either vehicle. Look at the logo, for example. How many Japanese logos can you see in the Chinese brand's logo? Just off the top of my head, Acura (pinched "H"), Infiniti (oval around the "A"), Toyota (top part of the Toyota concentric circles), Mazda (turn the Chery logo upside down), etc.

Vientiane a peaceful retreat from chaos of Bangkok

This is the riverside road, a high-traffic, high-tourist thoroughfare in Vientiane. The riverbank along the Vientiane section of the Mekong River (to the right of the trees) is being dug up and reinforced to prevent further erosion. Can't find any confirmation of hearsay that the project entails making a nice walkway along the bank top. In the background to the south along the river is the Don Chan Palace hotel.

Yesterday, which was Thursday in Laos and Thailand, was a stupid day, full of forgetfulness, empty-headedness, inattention and frustration. I could pin most of the problems down to a brain fried by the previous night’s escapades.

Scene: Vientiane, the small national capital of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. I love this town. It has a sunny disposition. First, it’s quiet, despite the ranks of tuk tuks that ply the streets night and day. It’s still peaceful. Visually, it's pleasing, thanks to the Lao, Chinese and French influences of the last several centuries. There are very few tall modern buildings, the hotel Don Chan Palace on the Mekong river front being the biggest at about 14 stories -- I was twice in that elevator heading to the third-floor disco but there’s no way I can remember the top button, but its website says 14. But it's far removed from the core. There are numerous important Buddhist temples, giving the streets a tranquil cast. There are few giant advertising hoardings such as in Bangkok, which has a jarring, unsightly, ugly, look. The air is empty of intercontinental passenger jets and commercial and military helicopters.

The sun beams down warmly and comfortably in winter, with daytime highs of 28 or so, and lows in the mid-teens. Humidity high, relatively speaking. There are occasional breezes along the Mekong. 

There are quite a few trees; some really easy-going, comfortable cafes (for an extreme opposite, visit  Bangkok); not that much traffic, on the outer streets and side streets; there are some truly good restaurants and food; hotels ($20 US to 50-plus a night) and guesthouses ($8 to $18 a night) are reasonably priced (although room fees have been inflated since the SEA games last year, previous visitors and resident expats told me); prices of food and drinks and cigs are very cheap; there are some pretty expensive SUVs on the road and some really, really hot cars (Audi R8, Mazda RX-7 tuned to the teeth, Mercedes-Benzes, BMW Z3, for example); you are rarely reminded of the communist-capital nature of the country (I never saw soldiers or military trucks, and only saw a few police officers).

 

Looking down the river, southward, at the Don Chan Palace Hotel, the highest building in the capital and home to the city's only disco, it seems.

   

There is more construction underway as the country is attracting investors from Europe, China and other Southeast Asian nations, so the capital is getting a bit noisy for that reason. There is a massive project on the Mekong river bank. It is said they are shoring up banks to erect a wall and walkways along it, as Phnom Penh has done on its part of the Mekong (which I haven’t seen but others say it’s been extremely well done) and Toronto is promising to do (this is actually underway). The excavation, which is all I can call it for now,  is on a beautiful elbow inlet of the main river flow. If it gets done properly, that will be one beautiful, roughly 1 km long stretch to the Don Chan Palace hotel, which is where the dig appears to end because you can see the trees and tall grass still standing near there. The Mekong channel just happens to be called the Hat Don Chan. Hmmm . . .

It’s a small capital with only 464,000 people within a 180 square kilometre capital district, according to the website of the embassy of the Lao PDR to the U.S. (The country only occupies 237,000 square km, about 3.5 times bigger than New Brunswick.) The actual city is said to have less than half that. So hardly a city of  dense Bangkok proportions. BTW, I’ve seen the capital’s name spelled different ways in English: Vientiane, the French name that gets Frenchmen around a hard “chan” pronunciation of the correct name, Viang Chan or Viangchan, an English transliteration.)

  My first night in Vientiane I met a bunch of Ernst & Young accountants. English, American and French. They love Vientiane. One English tax specialist on Southeast Asia, went to Vientiane to work and stayed, he said. I love it, too, after visiting twice in the last three years.

They were in stage one of a typical night on the town. A typical pattern goes like this:

Beerlao or other drinks at the Khop Jai Deu, a  lovely patio and bar, as well as restaurant, that is an expat fave. I love the shady, comfortable location. A touch pricier than other places but the better than average food is worth it. In all, good value.

The rooftop bar of Bor Pen Nyang on the riverside of the Mekong in Vientiane. Beer, food, pool and entertainment. But it closes at midnight, as do most bars in the capital. There are alternatives.

Now you can go in one of two directions this night: Three minutes’ walk away is the Jazzy Brick, an upscale cocktail and whisky bar with jazz some nights that attracts the high-so Lao and expat crowd, or the Bor Pen Nyang rooftop bar on the riverfront. From the third-floor (rooftop) side tables you can watch the sun go down over the Mekong or look to the other side at the action at the pool tables, pool not being the raison d’etre of the setup. It’s a meeting place. Do I have to spell it out? Okay, the girls dress really nicely. Food there, by the way, is not so good.

Third stage, if you spin out at the Bor Pen Nyang, you can go to the Samlo bar back toward where you came. It’s sleezy and smoky and frequently has lots of ladyboys. The option is the Don Chan hotel for the third-floor disco.  Bars close early in Vientiane, midnight usually, but the disco is open till 3 a.m. Drinks are double the usual price: small Beerlao 20,000 kip (less than $2.50 Canadian) and vodka and soda, 35,000 kip ($4.25).

If you want to go drown your lame-assed self some more, some of the all-night street-side fooderies might supply you with beer. Seem to be quite a few in what I call Chinatown, on the north side of town, which is to say, not at all far.

So all of the above made my day tough Thursday. Went to the bus station the day before to check on the Vientiane-Udon Thani, Thailand bus service. Six departures a day. Told my Danish friend so the next day we went early and realized in the lineup that people had their passports open. Doh!!! You can’t get on the bus without a visa departure card. Neither can you come the other way without a fresh Lao visa, with arrival and departure cards. More to the point, they won’t sell you a ticket without proof.

Back to the hotel to pack and check out. Then immediately back to the terminal because we needed to be on that 2 o’clock bus to catch a 5:40 p.m. Air Asia flight out of Udon Thani to Bangkok.  3.5 hours should be more than enough. It’s 17 km to the border, then you go through Lao departure, get back on the same bus, cross the Japanese Friendship Bridge over the Mekong and go through Thailand arrival. It’s only 53 km to Udon.

The Morning Market Mall where we cooled our heels while waiting for the Thai-Lao Bus to Udon Thani, about 70 km away. The bus terminal is directly behind the mall.

Ticket bought but we had to cool our heels at the Talat Sao Mall (Morning Market Mall) for nearly two hours.   So much for the leisurely cafe visit.  It’s “three floors of the same thing,” as my friend said. Once you’ve seen your ninth pirate video stall or 14th gold shop or 37th girls’ clothing boutique, it gets old fast.

I’m glad we hung out there because it kind of changed my mind about Lao girls. In my first visit, I failed to see very many pretty girls on the beauty scale and volume of Thailand.  As we sat there for almost two hours, there was a string of them.  Thai girls, aside from having beautiful lustrous black hair, various shades of golden brown skin and beaming smiles,  they know how to carry themselves. They often show a sense of fashion style that’s even evident in the simplest clothes, jeans and top. Some of the  Lao girls I saw  shared some of the other traits of their beauty rivals: straight backs and long legs. Even in the commonly worn Lao traditional skirt, some of them were knockouts. Cool. I’d given up hope after my Tha Khek karaoke experience. But, and there’s always a but, Thai girls still rule. There’s just so many of them fitting this description, in every nook and cranny of the country.

  

While at the Morning Market Mall, Air Asia put on a promo for its new Udon to Phuket air service. And the requisite pretty girl parade consisted of some long-legged beauties. The one on the right is wearing a traditional skirt design, albeit a bit rich, that you'd find many Lao girls wearing to the office, school or government service.

More to come. Decided to cut this long tale into two, maybe three, because I'm starting to get antsy here in Bangkok, where I just arrived last night. Been in the chair for 4-5 hours so it's time to relax.

Crossing from Nakhon Phanom to Tha Khek, Laos

I crossed over into Laos from Thailand this afternoon, across the Mekong. It was so convenient compared with Udon Thani (Nong Khai, actually). The latter involves more stages than necessary. Guess the Thais want a cut of the cross-border action, fueled mostly by expats doing visa runs. 

I am headed for Vientiane where I will meet up with some motorcycle dudes. The plan is to do a loop tour of eastern and southern Laos. I could bus to Udon but thought I'd take the more scenic Lao route. I had one need: get a super express bus to the capital. Turns out there's a VIP bus that runs up and down the country from Vientiane and Paxse. Good stuff. 70,000 kip or $9 U.S., Tha Khek, a small but pretty if dusty border town, to the capital. Tha Khek is becoming a gateway to those with a penchant for wilderness treks and rock climbing and motorcycle tours in the south of the country.

I was visiting the small, lovely town of Nakhon Phanom (more about this later). I stayed at the  Windsor Hotel downtown. It's just a five-minute walk to the Custom and Immigration office on the Mekong shore. Here's the rundow of the procedure:

• Enter the Customs office and buy a ferry ticket (60 baht) immediately inside the door. I missed this part and went through the turnstyle to go to the departure window.
• Hand in your passport and get it back with departure stamp, but don't forget, as I did, to fill out your departure card before handing it over for departure. More fumbling and time wasted.
• Step toward the abyss -- you'll know what I mean. The steps are incredibily steep down to the dock and passenger-cargo boat. Folks with disabilities or infirmities may find this a real challenge. It's a long way down, too.
• The "passenger cabin" just has the kind of plastic chairs you'd find at any roadside eatery. You'll find people leaving Thailand loaded with bags of goods apparently unavailable in lowly Laos. The boat will be filled, to my way of thinking, beyond capacity. Other guys will be humping construction material, home furniture, whatever and piling it on the roof of the cabin. The thudding and scraping will go on for 15 to 20 minutes, Probably more. More and more people will pack the "cabin" until you can't move. And even more will mvoe to the prow of the ferry.
• You cross the river to Tha Khek, Laos to what seems like an even steeper set of long stairs above. The steps are short. But it's a long way up to the Lao immigration office.
• Foreigners need to get a visa on arrival, the first office you see. Get the form and fill it out. You are asked where you are going to stay and its address and phone number. Not knowing the phone number of my hotel didn't impede me. The visa fee for you nationality is listed on the window. It's not the same for every nationality. Canadians pay $42, the highest visa fee of anyone. (No, I don't know why.) By the time you filled it out the visa application, the madhouse crowd of locals will be somewhat reduced. Note: I hereby promise to download the visa application PDF from the Lao website and fill it out before I go to Laos. It will save a lot of time.
• Hand in your passport, with fresh visa stamp, to the next window (they're all next to each other, which is stupid since it's so crowded). You'll get an arrival/departure card to fill out. Same info. Return it to the same window. They attach this to the passport page with the visa. 
• With passport in hand, fresh visa and entrance stamp, bypass the other windows, escept the last one before the street. You have to show the works to a final check guard.

Note: I'll add some photos later. My guesthouse does not have wi-fi where I can set up all the picture processing and I am using a restaurant wi-fi setup. It's the Inthira Hotel. Nice rooms and food but only room they had left was $28 US. No thanks. My guesthouse room is $12.

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.