learned to ride the mud

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After the rain let up we rode to the Burma border. 120km of mountain dirt after a heavy rain. This trip takes the locals 8 hours. We did it in about 4 including breaks.

I was having some trouble with the slick red mud. The front tire was sliding out and I'd take a tumble in the mud at about 30kph. I began to tense up and break when I saw the wet streaks. This was the wrong thing to do.
I got the hang of it on the way back. Basicly one needs to make the front of the bike as light as possible. Stand on the pegs, lean back, give it gas through it, stear with your hips. The bike will slide all over the place, but with enough speed it will straighten up in the end. It is pretty squirly, but lots of fun once you get it. It's like slip and slide with a 250lb bike. And if you see a tiger try to make lots of noise, and don't kill the monkeys, or so was the advice I was told.

Today is a rest day in Pai, then tomorrow I head back to Chaing Mai for the festival and to trade the dirt bike for a 125cc scooter to do some road touring. I've still got a week and a half, not sure how to fill it at this point.

I didn't get a photo, but one road we were riding had a whole villiage out with pick axes busting up the ruts in the road, sort of needed to see it to appreciate, but it was pretty cool.

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Photos

Buffalo
On the way up, these were all in the road as we fly around the corner at 60 kph. They didn't seem as suprized as I was.

Bike
Here we are at the last village before Burma. It was a fun ride there. The people are a little shy, but were happy to come out and see who rolled into town. They don't get a lot of visiters here.
It was out there, but they had a solar cell for power. What did it power? A satellite dish for TV of course.

village
More of the village

tire
This isn't near the worst of it, but you can see why it's a bit slippery.