TravellingStrom

Mayan Prophecy Countdown

Tuesday 23rd

After a 3 day ride it was time for some R&R, so I started that with breakfast, they do great ones here, Som being the breakfast cook and as they open at 8am I am there ready and waiting. As I usually wake up at 6 no matter what, I am starved by 8!!!

I retired to my room afterwards as I had a lot of stuff to do, getting the blog sorted was the main thing. I wanted to get everything up to date and I had the previous small loop to do first then this past 3 day loop, a lot of work, but I was comfortable where I was and had plenty of time. I ventured down for some lunch where I was presented with my own copy of the Nan map. These maps are created by the riders from RideAsia.net and produced by Auke. These chaps go out with a GPS and ride/drive the areas for the day, plotting the roads and tracks, they then compile them into a database and then print maps to sell to the travelling public with the proceeds going to charity. They are very well done and this particular map would be my bible over the next week or so when I go there 🙂 That is Auke there in the white shirt taken later that evening 🙂

The rest of the day was the same as the morning, sorting out photos, writing blog entries etc before heading back down for the evening session where some more of the locals and other travellers rocked in for beer and dinner.

One of the highlights was with Phil and Som’s daughter Allysala, I had taken her photo in front of my bike the morning I went off and tonight I showed her the magic of printing it out, she was so happy she wanted two 🙂 Easily done 🙂

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Wednesday 24th

Today Phil sat down with me after breakfast with some maps and mapping software and we worked out some routes and places to see when I head off in the morning. This was very welcome as once again local knowledge from a fellow biker is much better than any guide book. We worked out a nice twisty way to get to Nan, a town about 350km east of here. I would spend quite a few days there riding local loops, then head north on the famous 1148, which I have the shirt but cannot wear it until I ride the road 🙂 After that I would cross the border into Laos next week and ride to the north border area before turning south and working my way down to Cambodia. I had plenty to keep me busy for those few weeks 🙂 Thanks for that Phil.

Now, across the road from the Corner is a type of shrine, and because it is there a lot of people who drive or ride past beep their horns. Phil explained it is a house for spirits to live in and it is always kept clean so they don’t come out. To toot your horn is to let the spirits/gods know you are going past so you will get your share of good luck. If you don’t wake them up to your passing you might miss out. In addition to the beep for good luck (usually 3 short beeps), a beep of the horn can also be an acceptable substitute for a wai when passing a temple or shrine when it would be otherwise too dangerous to take both hands off the steering wheel! I grabbed the italic stuff from the net. A WAI is when you press both palms of your hands together fingers up and in front of you with thumbs towards chest, it is also used as a greeting here in Thailand. So there you go, and just for the record, Thai’s believe in ghosts and most have claimed to have seen at least one. I have no belief either way, but I do believe the honking of the horns is driving me nut, luckily they mostly stop over the night time period!!!

Now, just behind the shrine is an excavation of some of the old city walls. They have been here for centuries and rebuilt many times and are all that remain of the old defensive system, with the moat outside the walls. I went and had a decko and while there spotted a local chap just hauling in a bream type fish, not a bad effort, but I am not sure I would eat anything from that water, although he packed it away pretty quick 🙂

The evening meal was nice, stir fried chicken and vegies with boiled rice, very tasty indeed 🙂

The corner has a cat who is extremely friendly and this is lucky because he would have to be a very patient cat to be treated like a toy by Allysala 🙂

It was a quiet evening until a couple of Hungarian riders rocked in and so that meant beer and stories, nice to meet you there fellas 🙂 It turned into a very late night or early morning and things went a bit haywire as we ended up drinking longer than normal. By late evening, I had already mentally decided I would not try and ride a 350km day through some very nice twisties while hungover and would sleep in today and ride the following day 😉

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Thursday 25th

Woke up, went down for breakfast and went back to bed, too many beers last night.

Late that afternoon I decided I had too much helmet camera footage, it takes forever to watch it all and decide what to keep and what to throw out. Just to find a few bits to add to a movie takes hours and hours, the worst part being I had nearly run out of HDD space, so I needed to sort that out. I prepared to go to an IT market but first went looking for a Geocache, and on the way down to the other northern corner of the moat where it was supposed to be located, I passed a few Wats with some very nice gold work. When they are spruced up they look great in the sun.

Down the road a bit further was this very old run down building that looked a bit Roman to me, it needed some TLC

At the corner near the palm trees I managed without a GPS to locate my first and only so far Geocache in Thailand 🙂

So, now I headed off to the Pantip Plaza(or Mega Mall as Des would call it) in a ute style cab. I had been there last week and today I managed to scrounge up a Seagate 1Tb HDD for just on $100AU. For the record, I bought with me a brand new 500Gb and that cost me the same over 6 months ago 🙂 This one is USB 3 and has 3 years world wide warranty, so I should be able to have a record of my journey when I get home!

Then it was back to the corner for dinner and beers and more chit chat with some different riders and some of the regulars as well. BUT, I went to bed early, around 10pm as I intended to get on the road around 9am and wanted to be in good condition.

Cheers from Chiang Mai
TravellingStrom