We’ve had a few folks contacting us recently saying that they’ve not heard anything from us for a while, so here goes. We’ve not really been doing a lot compared to what’s on the horizon, so apologies if it’s not that interesting.

I missed a bit off the last blog so will add it here. Whilst in Chiang Mai, we’ve got to know a few people, and two couples were kind enough to take us out on a ride one Sunday. We headed out to Doi Inthanon, the highest point of Thailand. On the way we stopped for a break and visited a large, religiously significant temple where a relic of The Buddha’s breastbone is said to be housed behind these doors. It’s occasionally removed for ceremonies.



These are the guys and gals that took us out for a ride. Left to right, Peter and Carol (UK/Oz), Phensri and Fred (Thai/ Canada). Peter and Carol have since gone back to the australian winter and the floods in Queensland. I hope all is well.



This is a chedi (?) near the top of the mountain that marks the king’s wife’s 60th birthday. The pic was taken from the king’s similar 60th monument.



It all looks lovely, but the bike disagreed strongly. This point was 2200 metres above sea level with quite thin air. I hadn’t realised, but the air filter had got really clogged riding through Australia and Indonesia, and the engine just ground to a halt. Cruising downhill, it cleared the plugs after a few miles but gave us a few worried moments until we worked out what was going on. The only way to get a new filter was to order one from abroad, and we ended up paying 3 times its value shipping one from Singapore. Hey ho. It’s a washable one though, so will last the life of the bike.

So, back to Laos. After a really confusing run around on the border from kiosk to kiosk getting various stamps and paying various levies, we crossed over the Laos-Thai friendship bridge built (financed?) by the Australians and took a scenic route towards Chiang Mai. One of the first thing we saw was a nelly in a field having her supper. We stopped and watched her for a while then pressed on.







The route took us alongside the mighty Mekong river for quite a way, but she was looking anything but mighty during the winter. It must be an awesome sight in the monsoons.



We stopped in Sukhothai, the ancient capital of Siam and spent a day looking around the ruins of the temples. They cover a vast area, and some are in people’s gardens even. It was refreshing to see that they were all open for worship, photographs or whatever anyone wanted to do without a rope or fence in sight.









The Sukhothai market had the usual delicacies on offer.



On the way the next day, we kept seeing signs for ‘magnificent mountain of columnar’ so just had to investigate. It turned out to be a small hilltop with a similar formation to the Giant’s Causeway in N. Ireland, except this had the usual Buddhist shrines and hundreds of tress decked with saffron ribbons. The most spectacular thing for me about the place was the steep gravel and dirt road in and out of it. It was about as difficult as I’d want to tackle on a heavy bike two-up.



We both did a double-take at this huge statue by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.



Then once back in good old Chiang Mai staying at TK’s Guest House again, it was time to swap the front tyre for a new one. We’d popped into a biker’s bar (Rider’s Corner, Moon Muang Road) for refreshmets and asked Phillip where would be the best place for a 90/90/21 tyre. Hmmm, I’ve got one I could flog you… Thanks!

Half a sweaty hour later and having taught the locals a bit of Anglo-Saxon, the tyre was on.



Checking the front sprocket, I found it was too badly worn to leave, as there'd be none available this side of Greece one we leave Thailand. No problems. The guy at G3 bike shop said with confidence that he'd got a chain and sprocket set. When I got there though, he only had sprockets with non-standard sizes and the rear didn't fit the bike at all! No problem he said, and sent out the old and new rear to a machine shop who made a welded and machined mix of the two. I didn't complain as he only charged £2.20p for all the work.

A blog from Thailand wouldn’t be complete without pictures of locals of questionable gender. This lady/bloke was serving in the pharmacy.



And this buxom ladyboy turned up with a ladyboy friend to accompany a guy home from a bar that we were at. There can't be many countries where this is accepted as ok, and is a lesson to us all in live-and-let-live. Maybe this acceptance comes with the Buddhist philosophy?



The global bike traveller’s meet was a success with a good turnout of riders in various stages of round-the-world travels and we met some fascinating people. One of them, Dr Stephen Moore, is a softly-spoken self-proclaimed double for the farmer in the film ‘Babe’, and as well as riding his bike around Asia with his wife, they run an HIV/AIDS project in Myanmar (Burmah), spending 4 months giving treatment and dispensing medicines that they finance with fund-raising in The States. Stephen is very humble and unassuming for someone who dedicates his life to helping others.



We took a trip up a local look-out - Doi Suthep. The views were good, and the summit was dominated by a huge temple with some interesting statues and followers circling the Chedi clockwise.









We paid a visit to a freighting agent and had a bit of an ‘Oh S%$t’ moment. In the confusion of entering Thailand, we’d not registered the bike, and so it couldn’t legally leave Thailand. After lots of help from lovely Noppakao at the agent’s, we bit the bullet and did a 1200km round trip back to the Laos border at Nong Kai to pick up one A4 sheet of paper..

It was actually a nice ride with lots of twisty mountain roads, and as well as seeing loads of Udon Thani style TukTuks and school kids on a bus dressed for a ceremony, we saw another nelly! This one ambled past me when I parked up and Anita took a photo.







We stopped again at Sukhothai and enjoyed a beautiful peaceful sunset among the ruins that wasn’t even marred by the group of 50 or so school kids on pushbikes that were on a school trip there.



As a bit of a balance, and to show that Thailand isn’t all sweetness and light, this is a picture of a drainage canal that runs by the city centre. The smell of the drains that run under most pavements in most towns will be an enduring memory, and last night Anita spent a happy 10 miutes chasing the huge rats that were picking at the rubbsh bags by the canal.



So, all paperwork is in order, and the bike is being crated up as I write this, leaving us without transport. We left it looking like a turkey this morning, having worked with the excellent guys at DB Schenker to strip it so they could tie it down.





On Tuesday the 1st Feb or maybe earlier, we hope to fly to Kolkata (Calcutta), missing out our original destination of Bangladesh due to visa difficulties. It's going to be a wrench to say goodbye to Thailand, and especially Chiang Mai.

The next blog will be from India, and should be a LOT more exciting, I promise.