Second day of ride from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai

 

We had just topped another long hill when we had a problem to solve. The distance from this morning’s starting point to Chiang Mai is 84 km or about 51 miles. Problem for us would be the next 12 miles of constant climbing after noon time and it was already getting hot. This climb is about 2,000 feet over 12 miles and would probably take us 4 hours, putting us at the summit around 4 PM.  We had no idea if there was any accommodations along that 12 miles so when we saw a sign for a homestay only 300 meters down the road we decided to stop for the day. We plan to hit the road tomorrow at around 6:30 and be over the summit before the day really heats up. We have had some long fast downhill runs, but so far nothing that has been as fast as coming down Casper Mountain.  We will see about tomorrow as this will be the highest and steepest point of our tour in Thailand.

So how hot can it be right?  It is after all winter here.  Well I took this picture of the entrance to the homestay and I will let you be the judge.

  The owner of the HS is picking his own strawberries to make smoothies for us.  Just noticed that Casper is in the middle of a hot spell also.

This is the room we are staying in tonight.  It is sort of a family style setup.  Notice the stone work on the walls.  We have a porch outside overlooking a pond full of fish. The sleeping platform is just high enough that weary cycling knees to have trouble stepping up or down.  Windows and screens seem tight tonight and no signs of mosquitoes so no sleeping nets needed. Time for me to get up, stumble off the platform and take a shower. 

Windows Live Writer an offline blogging tool is nice to use, but it is unstable. Twice now it has disconnected from Google Blogger and in doing so corrupted the configuration files and web addresses.   I keep getting a “invalid blog id configuration” message, even after removing the program and reinstalling it. I noticed the id it was reporting was not the same one I could see when I logged into my Google Blogger account.  Looked around the net for hours until someone had posted that the address needed an “S” in the web address because Google Blogger was a secure website. I could not understand how that could be related to what seemed like a mismatch of IDs so I ignored it.   Problem was Windows Live Writer was not picking up that Google Blogger is a secure website when it was doing auto configuration. Went into the program blog setting and sure enough there was no “S” in the address. Just for the hell of it I inserted the “S” in the address and 3 hours of struggling was finally done. DAMN is the politest thing I can saw about that waste of time.

WLW is now posting blogs again and downloading themes from Google Blogger.

Mai Sai to Chiang Rai to the resort

 

Over the last two days we have travelled only 88 miles.  Day one was as planned at 44 miles from Mai Sai to Chiang Rai.  In Chiang Rai we stopped in to see a fellow trike rider James Bolf. He has several trikes here in Thailand and rides the one that suits the terrain he plans to ride on.  We went out to dinner at a nice restaurant that had good food and later some classical Thai and Burmese dancers.  I tried for video, but between the customers making noise and the wait staff constantly walking into the shot I don’t have anything I want to post.  This is the first 44 miles of our travel from Mai Sai to Chiang Rai.

 

After dinner we went back to our guest house called Ben Guesthouse.  This is a unique place in that most of the wood is recycled teak from a time when even common villagers used teak before it was mostly cut down in Thailand.  Teak is highly water resistant and will last a long time as boat decking or house posts to keep you house above the yearly floods.  It is my understanding that most teak now comes from Laos.  The rooms are very small with limited outlets for charging electronics.  Worst part was the door had openings around it large enough to almost let a cat walk in.  With the Dengue issue in Thailand we decided to setup our mosquito tents for the first time in Thailand.  It is nicer than sleeping in mosquito repellent.  

We got up later than desired, had a good breakfast and when it was time to ride, I could not find my cyclometer.  I looked through both pannier twice, the side bag twice and was just about to go check the room, when I decided to check my dirty clothes.  It was in one of the pockets of my dirty riding pants.  Good thing I found it as I would have most likely thrown my clothing in a wash tub to rinse them out and destroyed it.  Not the end of the world if I can not see my cadence or mileage, but it does let us know how far to go so there is some sort of advantage to having it.  This of course is subject to the terrain one is riding on.  Flat and level goes by fast, hour after hour.  Long up hill slogs are another thing. If you have been slogging up a long steep hill for two hours getting sunburned and soaking wet from sweat and then look down and see you have only travelled 4 miles it is a huge disadvantage to realize just how little distance you have covered and how far you have to go.

We stopped to see Wat Rong Khun.  (taken from the internet)

About 13km south of Chiang Rai is the unusual and popular Wat Rong Khun . Whereas most temples have centuries of history, this one's construction began in 1997 by noted Thai painter-turned-architect Chalermchai Kositpipat.

Seen from a distance, the temple appears to be made of glittering porcelain; a closer look reveals that the look is due to a combination of whitewash and clear-mirrored chips. Walk over a bridge and sculpture of reaching arms (symbolising desire) to enter the sanctity of the wát where instead of the traditional Buddha life scenarios, the artist has painted contemporary scenes representing samsara (the realm of rebirth and delusion). Images such as a plane smashing into the Twin Towers and, oddly enough, Keanu Reeves as Neo from The Matrix, dominate the one finished wall of this work in progress. If you like what you see, an adjacent gallery sells reproductions of Chalermchai Kositpipat's rather New Age–looking works.

 

After taking some pictures and having ours taken by a hundred or more people we pushed off towards Chiang Mai. 

This is the three day planned ride from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai.

End of first day on leg from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai.Along the way we spotted a Chinese grave yard so we turn of the highway and went to take a look.

Sorry about the toe in the picture.We pulled into a resort which is a real resort.  The word resort is over used in Thailand.  Many places claiming to be a resort are too noisy or cluttered to be what I consider a resort.   After two days of listening to dogs bark and roosters crow at 4 AM this place is a jewel.  The loudest thing I have heard so far is big leaves falling out of the trees.  The whole resort is surrounded by some sort of orchard.  There are trees as far as you can see of various types and it it QUIET! We are so tired that we have not gone down to the pool or even out to the restaurant for dinner.  I am thinking I will walk down to the restaurant and get a bite, but Myron is not going.  I think the heat got to him today as I know it got to me.

We make it to Mai Sai

 

After an overnight train and a van ride we finally make it to Mai Sai. 20 feet behind us is Burma now called Myanmar. Off to the left of this picture is the road going into Myanmar and there are semi trucks, cars, rickshaws, bicycles, motorcycles and people by the hundreds traveling into Burma.

This is one big border town, something like Tijuana with an Asian twist. Everyone is selling something no matter how small or large.   A man of undetermined nationality just came by and flashed a “little blue pill” in his hand at Myron and when he didn’t show any interest in it closed his hand and moved on.  Don’t know if the little blue pill was meth or an antihistamine. 

Because we arrived late and the afternoon and it was hot and muggy we decided to get a hotel room. Tiptida and her sister are with us so they negotiated the price and we ended up staying in a very nice place for $15 each.  We are staying at the Wang Thong Hotel in Mae Sai.   It is so close to the border I think we could jump out a north facing window into Myanmar.  It is a very nice place off the main road and therefor relatively quiet.  My mistake, the local rooster just decided to serenade us with his call. At lease we are not hearing endless truck traffic like the place we stayed at the first night.

After walking about and trying various fruits and veggies we walked back to the hotel while my wife and her sister continued wandering from stall to stall.   We sat down and had some chestnuts from Japan, local pineapple, a light lunch, some Thai coffee with sweet cream and then a Singha beer.  Singha is the first commercial beer in Thailand and was originally  brought to Thailand by German brewers who used local ingredients. Today there are many other brands available such as Leo, Chang  and of course all the imported beers. Here are what most would consider the three best local beers.I prefer Chang or “Elephant” brand, but the two others are also very good.

We travel to Chiang Mai and my friend gets sick

 

Well I managed to introduce my friend some sort of food related illness.  Don’t have a clue where he picked up the bug, but it came on fast and kicked him hard. Had to make a quick run to a hospital in Bangkok for medication before getting on the train.  Within 24 hours he is feeling better.  Feeling even better today.  Tomorrow will be another no riding day as we travel to Mai Sai for the beginning of the trip south. We plan to meet James Bolf in Mai Sai who will ride up 38 miles to take some photos with us and then back down to Chiang Rai.

Bumbled around Chiang Mai today.  Dropped into a local restaurant famous for Khao Soi.  It was very good. Went to a couple of places to look at leather good for sale.  All types of leather from snake skin, alligator and crocodile, stingray to ostrich.  Didn’t buy a thing as I already own more clothing than I can put into my closets.  Did get over to where they weave and sell silk. Had an interesting display of the whole process of raising silk worms, how they are feed, how they are harvested, the silk unwound from the cocoon, dyed and then spun onto bobbins for the weaving process.  I am always extremely interested in watching silk cloth being woven by hand. This 30 second clip shows a lady working on a loom.  I asked her how long it took to weave one meter of silk. On a simple pattern she can finish 1 meter or 3.28 feet in two hours.  The pattern she is weaving has six major colors strung on the loom and she is using 3 other colors on the shuttle cock spindles which she changes from one to another to achieve the desired pattern.  She uses a simple paper gauge to determine how long each color patter is before changing out spindle colors.  Unless both the silk on the loom and the shuttle cock spindles are the same color the final product turns out a blend of colors.  New spindles are added by tying the end of the last thread to the new thread with a sort of slip knot that can be pulled until it slides inside of the weave to show little or no knot in the fabric.  Any excess ends sticking out of the fabric are cut off close to the fabric so there is a minimum of high spots in the finished fabric. Modern polyesters can be dyed and woven to look like silk so well that an untrained eye might not spot a non silk product, so buyer beware if the fabric is too cheap.

Weaving silk on manual loom

Finally getting up the hills

 

Today I decided to take Myron on a 30 mile round trip ride.  I had ridden this route before, but had forgotten how steep the road was on the other side of the mountain.  It was also very warm for us and the sun is trying to “tan our hides”.  We were riding with a helmet, a neck covering called a Buff, a baseball cap to keep the sun off our foreheads as we can not use sun screen over our eyes or we spend endless time trying to clear out eyes so we can ride.  We also need sunglasses for the glare. Our heads are so covered that people are trying to guess whether we are Thai or Farangs (foreign people).   Farang is neutral word and used to describe all non Asian people.

As luck would have it this was my day to have some trike issues.  First I could not get into my lowest gear in back.  Finally after climbing up a hill for what seems forever I had to stop on the road and make an adjustment to the gearing so I could get into “granny gear”.  That is a great description for low, low as after using it for some time I feel like granny.  Next I could not get into the lowest gear on the front chain ring.  It was beginning to look like a conspiracy to make me work harder and maybe blow out my knee early in the tour.  Finally I reached down and pushed the front derailleur over by hand to get into low gear and we proceeded up the mountain as a blistering pace of 2.75 mph.

I don’t mind climbing steep roads if I have the gears, but I just hate to give back any of the vertical I worked so hard to gain.  Most mountain roads in Thailand follow ridges, which means they are up and down like a roller coaster.  One spends 20 minutes in the heat climbing what seems like an endless hill to be rewarded by a 45 second downhill run to begin the process again. It is usually the 4th hill or so I begin to wonder what it is I find so alluring about touring and begin to wonder if I might be much farther along towards senility than I suspect.  Being both a retired mechanic and engineer it is these long slow tedious climbs where my mind begins to think of how I can get a Honda 3.5 HP motor on the bike and not have anyone see it.

Once and a while life is good and we hit a long stretch of road that has about .5% down grade and we can get into our highest gears and move right along with minimum effort.  These are rewarding times that help me forget those long hot hills. If all else fails one can always call for backup.

Jetlag and being 61 years old

 

I can remember the time what seems like so many years ago when I first came to Thailand.  Jetlag was not an issue when I was 21.  It didn’t seem to matter if I was up for 24 hours or 12 hours out of my normal time zone.  I just slept when it was time and played when I wanted.

Well at the age of 61 those days are gone.  Myron and I are still fighting to adjust to our new time zone, especially with regards to sleeping.  I am now  more or less adjusted to the 14 time zone shift.  More, in that I am no longer wandering about the house or country in a mental fog.  Less,  in that I am dead tired at 6:00 PM and falling asleep only to wake up 7 hours later around 1:00 AM and unable to go back to sleep.  It is now 2:00 AM as I write this blog. I am sitting at the kitchen table eating left over fried bananas and “Salted Crispy Rice” along with fresh bananas and coffee. So I am still at least 5 hours out of synch with Thailand. The low battery warning just came on the Notebook so I had to wander into the bedroom and get the charger and camera without waking Tiptida who is fully adjusted to the time zone changes and sleeping at normal times.

Here are the snacks I am eating while writing this blog.  Thailand has more varieties of bananas than any other country I have ever visited. I find these are the best for eating.  They are very small and I refer to them as “thumb” bananas as they are so small.  The skin is a little difficult to get off as it is very thin and stringy, but the banana is sweet with a strong odor of banana.  I can sit down and eat 10 at a time.

The snack below is made from bananas.  I am guessing that ripe bananas are smashed into a mash and then rolled back out flat and then baked or semi dried. They are very sweet and have a strong odor of banana.  They have the consistency of a fruit rollup.

These are the “Salted Crispy Rice” rounds I am snacking on.  The rice is slightly puffed, lightly salted and then pressed into little round flats and baked.  They are very crispy and slightly salty.  Thai cooking is the art of balancing sweet, sour and salty. Again this is the main reason why I will be lucky to maintain my weight this trip even with riding as there are so many good things to eat in Thailand. The other reason is just plain lack of will to not snack on different things.  Thai people are in general still very fit.  There are few overweight people in Thailand and only after getting old do most start to gain weight and then moderately.  It is rare to see what is termed morbidly obese people in Thailand.   If you do see someone who fits that description they are usually tourist from Europe or the states.   I often wonder what the Thai people think when they see someone a hundred pounds or more overweight walking around Thailand.  I am aware that in some cultures being overweight is a sign of wealth and status, because only wealthy people can afford to eat so much.  Just a few years ago I remember a news story where the king of American Samoa came out and asked the people of his country to start thinking about their weight and what they eat as everyone in the country was grossly overweight and suffering the related health problems.  I myself constantly run 20-25 lbs above my ideal weight.  If you factor in my age it might be about 15 lbs, but by any standard I am too heavy.  I have never seen a young girl in Thailand running around with a “muffin top”.  I can only attribute the slimness of the Thailand people to a much more active life style and eating habits.  Most people in Thailand do not own a car and many walk a fair bit to get to bus stations or other forms of public transportation.  It is not uncommon to see someone walk a mile or more to the market to shop for vegetables and that brings me to the eating habits of Thai people.  Thais eat a lot of veggies either raw or cooked. Small amounts of meat is eaten by any Thai with less than 1-2 ounces in any given dish.

Just now I can hear the train passing by the house about a mile away.  I can hear the wheels clacking as they pass over the rail joints.  Most of the rails in Thailand are of the old style, where 8 men can pick up on rail and move it to the rail bed to be connected together one by one. In Thailand due to termite problems concrete ties are used as in the states, but I have seen men still driving spikes in some places.  In the states most rails today come in long sections that are hauled on long trains laid onto the rail beds and then set and spiked to the cross ties by machine.  In Thailand this work is still mostly performed by hand as it was years ago in the states.  It is possible on the more travelled sections that new and less labor intensive methods are being used, but I have not seen it.

Home again in Muak Lek

 

We have been in Muak Lek now for two days suffering from jetlag.  I have been trying hard to force myself into the new time zone which is not easy with jetlag fogging my now more mature mind (read old and slow).

Putting our trikes back together was a challenge.  I can usually get mine in one piece within 3 hours, but this year it took nearly 5 hours and two days due to jetlag. We stopped for dinner the first night and by the time we had finished dinner neither I or Myron were able to stay awake any longer.  On the second day in the morning we finally got our bikes together and went out for a shake down ride.  All seemed OK until the next morning when I noticed that the idler on Myron’s trike was laying over at a 40 degree angle.  At first I thought the bolt had come out of the frame, but it was still in and badly bent from the chain torque.  These bolts are fairly large, but made of stainless steel which is very soft.  Stainless is used to prevent seizing of steel on steel so when ever the idler should need to be replaced the bolt will not have seized in the steel frame.   Of course we could not find the proper stainless steel bolt in this little town and in fact could not find any proper bolt at the local hardware store.  At last I remember my Thai friend that owns a motorcycle shop and we wandered over to see if he might help.  First we had to remove the bent bolt which meant cutting off the bent part and removing the remainder from the idler and two bearings.  A grinder with a metal cutting disc made short work of the bolt, but finding one the correct length and thread pitch was harder.  My friend turned over a large pile of spare bolts salvaged from every kind of motorcycle and eventually found one of the correct thread pitch and length.  Lucky for us the original bolt was metric and we are in the land of metric so finding the bolt was much easier than say in the states.

 

Took Myron down to the local creek which runs through Muak Lek.  People come from many places to play in the water and cool off.  Remember this is the dead of winter January 2nd, 2014.  Can’t imagine swimming in the any river in Wyoming at this time of year.