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Published: November 10th 2007
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The Canyon
classic pose Preceeding Note....
To all my avid readers who have been left poised on the edge of their seats waiting in anticipation of my next blog entry I must appologise to the both of you (mum & dad)...... and to all those 'work break'/bored/'nothing else to do' readers who might have noticed that I haven't published a blog for a while I suppose I must also appologise, the rest of you can sod off......you don't deserve an apology. I have not updated my blog for quite some time now and the reason for this is that I've simply not had the chance, I've been living it up too much people! I've been having an amazing time since I left hospital and I'm now a few blog entries behind. For now I can tell you that I've made it to Vietnam and over the next few days I will do my best to update my blog and fill you all in on my recent antics...........so bear with me.
Pai
My last entry left me in Chang Mai in the north of Thailand, my stitches were finally removed and Greg and I left Chang Mai for our next stop.......
Pai Pai is a
Goon on a moped
It can be quite tiresome traveling with the needy. tiny town north of Chang Mai towards the Burmese border and is a popular tourist spot for both westerners and Thais.
We spent our first day exploring the surrounding area on mopeds and dispite how touristy and busy the main street of Pai appeared when we arrived, a five minute ride out of town and we didn't see another tourists for the rest of the day. The surrounding area was beautiful, mountainous, green and peaceful. We made a trip to Pai Canyon but our journey to the waterfalls was cut short when I suffered serious damage to my flip flops, which had served me so well up until that point. After my trip to the Lagoon with Ben on Railay beach and my failed trip to the waterfalls on Koh Pha Ngan I am starting to think there's some higher power acting to keep me away from these attractions.......for good or bad, I don't know.
Anyway, after spending time in Chiang Mai cooking and shopping in the Sunday market
I was starting to worry that my estrogen levels were running a bit high and that I needed to do something more manly to boost my testosterone. So fresh from
Pai
Beautiful scenery hospital and with my stitches out and my testosterone in need of a serious boost, what better way to spend my time than by taking a trip into the mountains of northern Thailand on 250cc dirt bikes with a trained mad man!!
'Serendipity is the name of the game'......Greg and I stumbled upon
Baan Tawan Guest house on the river in Pai, a beautiful family owned place popular with the Thai tourists. It turned out that the brother of the owner; Kip, was the local motocross champion who offered trips for tourists into the mountains. We were warned that he was slightly crazy, but in all fairness I think that this is a prerequisite for such a sport anyway. But Kip was actually a legend. Having spent many years in the north of Thailand smoking weed whilst in the Thai army he knew the mountains and all it's paths, villages and rivers really well. Having since quit the army (and smoking weed) he now enjoyed entering motocross competitions and taking tourists on trips into the mountains that he knows so well. He was the perfect guide.
For those of you who read of my exploits in the Bakor Nation
Flip flop damage
I sustained serious damage to my flip flops, even my efforts to mend by means of attaching them to my foot with twine failed.........just not the boy scout i used to be. Park in Cambodia
(Motorcycle Diaries - Chapter 2) you will know how much fun I had riding the dirt bike there, however, that was nothing compared to what we got up to with Tip.
Since Greg had never riden a motorcross bike before, the evening before we planned to head out with Tip he took us out to give Greg a quick lesson and assess how good we were so he could decide if we were fit to ride and if so, which root he would take us on the next day.
The following day at 9am we met Tip and he took us back to his house where we were armed up to the eye balls with boots, knee pads, chest plates, helmets and a motorbike each. Me on my bike 250cc two-stroke mean machine and Greg on his mere 225cc girlie toy we set off. Being fully kitted out and riding behind a trained professional meant we had the confidence to really go for it and have some fun. And fun it definitely was. We rode all day through the mountains stopping off at various hill trips and villages. Fortunately Greg was also a quick learner so Tip was able to take
us on some more interesting paths. I won't go into the details, I think the photos sum it up best, all I will say is that this is probably one of the best things I've done since I've been traveling......... beats sitting on my arse for a month watching DVD's for sure. The only bad point is that after doing this I am now reminded of some of the cool things I've been missing out on whilst in hospital and am ever more conscious of my reduced remaining time. But I don't expect any sympathy since I do still have 3 months left 😉
It was such good fun that I'm already thinking of making a trip back to the North of Thailand in a years time to go on a five day trip with Tip in which he takes people right up to the burmese border to stay with the Army and stopping off to sleep in villages.
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