Thursday, April 10, 2008

Northern Thailand - The Launch

I've been looking forward to a ride through the mountains of northern Thailand for years, and finally all the planets aligned sufficiently to make it happen.

Large bikes cannot be manufactured in Thailand and not many have been imported. There are some available for rent, however. At the recommendation of a couple of friends, and David Unkovich's website, I went to Mr. Mechanic to start my trip.



This 125cc Honda may not be every biker's "Dream", but I haven't driven any kind of vehicle in Thailand since I lived here decades ago, so I decided to start out small to get used to the rules and culture of driving here. I rode this bike for 2 days to explore the city and a popular nearby mountain. The last Honda Dream I rode was the fantastic Honda 305 Dream, way back in 1966. Curious how that famous name got put onto this little scooter.



Just beyond the popular temple on Doi Suthep, just northwest of Chiang Mai, is the Royal Family's summer palace, Pu Ping. I had visited these places more than once previously, but this time continued up the small, winding road to Doi Pui and a Hmong village. I stopped to wander through the myriad tourist shops and to take a couple photos.



Continuing up the mountain to the end of the road, I took this photo of the village from above.



One objective of this trip is to investigate retirement possibilities. Another objective of every ride is to follow random roads in an attempt to "get lost." In this spirit I set out in search of an air park developing in the Chiang Mai area. With only a few wrong turns I was able to find the little airport, and discovered that the website makes it look considerably better than it is. The potential is great, but I don't see myself buying a plot of land here, as much as I enjoy flying.





Looking down runway 09.

Returning to town, I stopped at one of the hundreds of Buddhist temples to take a couple pictures.



Old Chiang Mai was surrounded my a wall and a moat. Parts of the original wall still remain as does the moat. I stayed in a small hotel just outside the old city, just across from this fountain in the moat. Behind the fountain is part of the orginal wall.



After my 2-day intro ride, Itook the "Dream" back to Mr. Mechanic and traded it in for a Honda Shadow American Classic Edition. It looks just like the ACE so prolific in the US, but has only a 400cc engine. Though I'm used to having more power available, I found this bike very adequate on all but the steepest mountain roads, where I really missed my 750cc Magna.



The good-looking, but under-powered, Honda ACE.

I started out with a one-day loop to the southwest of Chiang Mai, to Samoeng. This is a beautiful road, spotted with several resort hotels and lots and lots of greenery. If I retire in this area, it will probably be somewhere very near this loop.



At the outermost point of the loop, in the city of Samoeng, I stopped at this restaurant for lunch. The absolute quiet in this small town was unbelievable. And relaxing.



Continuing up the loop from Samoeng I stopped at a viewpoint to take a picture or two of the burning mountains. The ever-present smoke took a lot away from the views on my entire ride, not unlike my ride up to Montana last August, when the entire state seemed to be on fire. At this viewpoint I met a Kiwi who was a teacher at the private international school a few miles north of Chiang Mai I had been looking into for the past couple of years as a possible part time teaching job in retirement. He confirmed my suspicion that they are somewhat reluctant to hire Americans.

My last stop on the loop, to the northwest of Chiang Mai, was the Mae Sa elephant camp. I had seen this show profiled on the Travel Channel, so it was very interesting to see it in person.







After playing soccer together, and painting some remarkable pictures, among other tricks, they came over to beg for some bananas.



The hazy city of Chiang Mai from the mountains.

This was one of the best one-day rides ever.

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