Motorcycle diaries

Thailand - Golden Triangle Motorcycle diaries DAY 1 Chiang Mai - Chiang Rai - Mae Sai - Chiang Khong -- 370km 100%tarmac when I woke up yesterday, I still had to pack my things in Pai and get to Chiang Mai, figuring out what to do about my visa and getting a bike. Now I'm in Chiang Khong at the Mekong river looking over to Laos :) when I arrive, the bikeshop that I called and had a bike for me, didn't have it anymore, but luckily there was another shop close by and I found the perfect ride!! :D a 250ccm dirtbike. just right for the job! I travelled at a 60-80km/h but I figure the best speed to cruise might just be 50-60km/h :) beautiful out here!! perfect weather.. just a bit cloudy today and the same visibility that I experienced 5 years ago when cycling during this season: at highest 20km :P ..why? because there's so much smoke in the air, because everybody is burning stuff (dry leaves and leftovers from last harvest in order to fertilize the ground). will probably be done quite another while.. so until monsoon starts and washes the air clear, you see the mountainranges just as mystical, foggy shapes raising from the background :) anyway.. I figured, doing the north of Thailand on a bike is a totaly worth it and kinda an achievable thing ;) gives me also a good warmup for 250ccm in Cambodia. I drove the bike 100m back and forth and then took it, because it's in good shape and drives excellently! after one day still no complains, just the seat has to become softer ;) doing this tomorrow with the yoga mat I brought along ;) I left most of my things at the motorcyicle dealer.. travelling very light and being happy about it! :D I will keep on riding the next days and drive further down than my map reaches. starting a bit later than today, because until the sun showed itself at the horizon, it was pretty chilly and I got numb fingertips (no more heated handlegrips ;) hehehe ;) wow.. it's a bit more expensive as I expected (as this 12USD guesthouse, but nicely seated on the riverside) ..so I pay 18USD per day instead of first offered 6USD for 150ccm diferent shop. but now I feel it's totally worth it to go for the higher class, because waaaaay more comfortable and as well safer! :) listening to nice psy trance while riding through the hills and along the rice paddies ;D visa-stuff all very confusing and I paid like 40USD more for doing it before the boarder.. kinda accidently got into that, but when I realized I can just get it there, I decided to do so and safe me going into Mian Mar for Visarun.. well.. now I haven't been there, but was a good choice :) around here there are more podholes in the street, but the bikes can take them easily, but most of the time I swiftly cruise around.. OMG! I'm looking forward to Cambodia!!! :D yes.. doing all this countries on a bike is truely a great thing! just have to watch out and drive carefully! so far so good.. it's much easier to handle a bike and luggage when it's just half the weight :D before I realized today that the new tyres are shitty before have driven them a couple of 100kms, the bike shortly wiggled it's tail when I had to brake firmly. but managed well and tomorrow I hope I can finally give the offroad tyres all the dirt that they desire! :D DAY 2 Chiang Khong - Phang Hat - Muak - Chiang Kham - Pang Tham - Ban Mao -- 240km 90%tarmac 10%offroad even better than yesterday!! :D of course, cuddeling during the night would be nice, but didn't have any time today to think in past and gone things, instead had a great day of riding until after many hours of pure joy my butt starts hurting ;) todays accomodation is even more expensive than yesterday (18USD) but I'm glad they gave me some discount and honestly, I didn't have a lot of choice, because I'm outside of my map and it was getting dark. I successfully finished my yoga excericises of today and I'm drinking beer now, worshipping jah, sitting on my privat balcony of a simple hut (shagshack ;) having moon and stars over me (Orion watching and protecting me!). yes.. great day, great ride and sweet ending! :) I'm totally on my own here and well.. would probably giving or getting massage if not alone, but now having time to write these lines and sort out the few pictures and movies I took. I guess, I captured some nice stuff, even if the first attempts were very unsuccessful (don't have a GoPro, just some taped handicam on my helmet ;) hahaha ;D after the first day I met a Swiss couple that lives 10km away from my hometown (on similar bike traveling), I had the pleasure to meet an artist couple from Holland yesterday. was nice to chat.. or let's say to talk. to free my mind and clear my view. hey.. view was also better today! or maybe it was because I was totally in the mountains, taking hundreds of curves!! :D gladly checked the oil, because it seems it may use up to 1/2liter every 500km. can this be??!! well.. anyway.. will take care to have enough oil and gas and water and then there are few things that can stop me. The Golden Triangle is a really sweet ride!! doing the north of Thailand on a bike might be considered to be put on the bucket list :) I have plans for the next days. If I arrive 1 day early in Chiang Mai, then I'll do the shopping and save time later. Will be riding a lot and looking forward to it! the Cambodia-things turns out I have to go to Phnom Phen and set it up myself. it's gonna be cheaper and more adventurous anyway! :D about traveling on- and offroad. I find it like this: when running with a horse, wether you nor the horse should have any luggage to carry (it will shake a lot). the same is with bikes.. if you want to go crazy with a bike, have it completely unoaded. so traveling I find it way more comfortable to drive on asphalt roads. you don't need to watch the road all the time as offroad and it's less tiring and you get further. the other thing might be for a daytrip with a 150ccm or 250ccm not loaded. and no elastic straps for tightening your backpack. it will move with every bump towards somewhere and not stay in place. I already got some ideas (slackline-type straps) and should organise sidebags for low center of mass). today I managed to keep it all tight and safe, but at the cost of some smashed bananas ;) so when I go to Cambodia, I'll figure out where to drive during this approx. 30 days. but there won't be too many excursions, venturing out deeply into the jungle, because then I'll have to leave all but the most necessary things behind. looking back, I found my 650GS well loaded and it was pleasant and exciting to travel this way (having some toys and instruments along). still the asphaltroads here are pretty nice, lovely and exciting at the same time! beautiful views offer themselves as you go hill by hill, curve by curve. I stayed yesterday in the same place when I was here 5 years ago. Now I'm driving a route, a part of Northern Thailand, that I haven't seen and not on a bycicle, but a Honda XR250 (considered a big bike here ;) ..not a single PS too much, but also just suitable for the ride. ..I noticed that the gear range is very different from the 650GS. it's made for offroad climbing and descents. so it's the same as with bycicles: mountainbike, citybike, racingbike they all have different characteristics and behave differently. I'll be doing fine with a 250ccm in Cambodia (I should get a 400ccm if possible ;) but probably won't do a lot of crazy things like high mountains, deeps rivers and jungle-mazes. let's see ;) but for traveling and seeing stuff, staying in places where noone else stays, I think it's a good way and there should be plenty of route to travel along.. fuck yeah! this is gonna be a BLAST! (another one in my life ;) DAY 3 Ban Mao - Nan - Chiang Muan - Phayao - Wang Nua -- 270km 100%tarmac today I got a little bit of everything. The morning was very sunny, becoming a bit cloudy then. When my fingers got numb, I stopped for coffee :) the ride to Nan is beautiful through the mountains! then it flattens out and I turned towards the mountains again. It was a bit complicated, because I was outside of the map and then asking for directions is more difficult :) but anyway, was a nice little tour around and coming back, I found a lot of beautiful, hilly, curvy roads :D at a certain point there was even some rain. I should have stopped 3 minutes earlier to prepare myself. This way my socks and shoes were soaked in no time. but dried already on the last of the trip. Was just a microclimate and after 10 minutes driving through the rain, it stopped. Streets were dry again and I continued in sunshine. It seems though that the helmet-cam has been damaged :( well.. I was about to send it back home anyway, because extra weight and I don't use it too much, but for capturing some rides it would have been handy. but somehow it's broken now and I don't have to think about filming the next days, but can enjoy landscape naturally :) when I got here in Wang Nua, I was a bit enthuiast about celebrating the day and got so quickly drunken that I passed out before eight o'clock and I'm awake now at about 4 o'clock in the morning :P at least I can write these lines, because tomorrow will be something different along the way. There was a lot of good riding today.. only yoga stayed out :'( couldn't motivate myself wether in the morning nor the evening. When I got up (was sleeping outside almost the whole night ;) it was just in time to see the spectacular sunrise at 7am, have some coffee and rice soup. Then I started riding at 8am and enjoyed many hours on the bike. Can't await doing all of this in Cambodia!! Tomorrow I might make it to Pai.. haven't opened the other Map, so I don't know how long the other loop is going to be. But I'm doing pretty fine and my butt got's a bit more used to the hard seat ;) I guess Phayao would have been nice. it's the biggest lake in Thailand I heard (well, they don't have too many lakes anyway ;) but I drove through, because there were some more nice roads ahead and it was still too early to stop. There's more and more Thai coming back as I'm travelling here on my own. I wasn't that bad five years ago and I still feel I can speak the most important things :) people are very friendly and helpful and it's fun to be off-the-track and just go and stop wherever I want! :D to be on my own is not that bad. Of course it's nice to share and being with somebody you want to spend the rest of your life with is really fulfilling, but also this way, being on my own is good. Having time for my thoughts (mostly happy thoughts ;) and space for upcoming plans. So far so good! now I'm getting some more hours of sleep and in about 4 hours, I'm on the bike again! :D