David Stafford's journal and travel log

David Stafford's Journal of Motorcycle Touring and Technology

Musings brought on by whichever brain cells happen to be firing at the time.

Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - Images of Chiang Mai

John has left for home. His trip has been a great success and he is already talking about returning to Thailand soon.

Tomorrow I'm leaving for Hanoi, Vietnam where I plan to find a motorcycle and ride it south across the country to Saigon. It will be my first visit to Vietnam so I am especially excited. In the meantime I'll leave you with these photos from Thailand taken the last two days around Chiang Mai.

Sunday, January 25, 2004 - The Golden Triangle

John and I rode our motorcycles to visit the (in)famous Golden Triangle.

John reacts to the snack (raw tea leaves) they offered him

Much laughter ensues.

Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - Around Chiang Mai and Mae Taeng

Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - The Mae Hong Son loop

John and I spent the past few days riding the Mae Hong Son loop.

The little monkey is trying to steal my camera!

Can you guess what this is?

Wednesday, January 14, 2004 - Mae Taeng, Thailand

It is March 15 as I write this and I am now- gasp! -exactly two months behind on my journal! It won't be easy to catch up but if you will bear with me I will eventually get there. The past two months have not been idle. I took John on a tour of the Mae Hong Son and Golden Triangle loops in northern Thailand. We had a terrific time taking our motorbikes over mountains and through villages, visiting hilltribe people, enjoying good food, riding elephants, seeing old friends and making new friends. John had to return home after three weeks but the trip was a great success for him and he is already making plans to come back next year. That wasn't the end of it for me. My next adventure was to fly to Hanoi, Vietnam, buy an old Russian motorbike and ride it all the way to Saigon. It was a fantastic journey and far exceeded my expectations. I plan to motorcycle in Vietnam often. Now I'm back in Chiang Mai, Thailand with over 6,000 digital photos to sort through and more stories in my head than I can possibly tell.

I'm going to break this down into trip segments rather than attempt to keep a daily update. This way there is a reasonable (or at least remotely conceivable) chance that I can eventually bring it up-to-date without falling even further behind.

Botter and John

John and I travelled to Chiang Mai and Mae Taeng to visit my old friend, Botter Reeves. Botter graciously offered to let us stay with him and use his house as a base for our motorcycle trips around northern Thailand.

Botter is doing well. It's wonderful to see him again.

John with some of the village children

Can you guess what this is?

At the market - Insects for sale

One of the great mysteries of life is why they even bother to swat bugs away from the tubs of insects at the market.

John goes shopping

A house in Botter's village

Traditional Thai houses are built on poles with the area underneath left open. The houses don't flood in the rainy season and during the hot season the coolest place to rest is under the shade of the house.

Chopping kindling

I wear a point-and-shoot digital camera around my neck as I ride my motorcycle. I get some of my favorite photos while on the move.

This little girl must have thought it so weird that the strange farang on the motorcycle behind her would bother to take her photo.

We visited the local wat

Sunday, January 11, 2004 - Bangkok, Thailand

John Rice, my neighbor from two houses down the street, has a couple Harleys and likes to talk motorcycles. When I return home from a long trip he drops by to visit and listen to my tall tales of adventure. He always says, "I'd really like to do that some time." I tell him the same thing I tell everyone else: "Come with me on my next trip and we'll have fun." It's a perfectly safe offer because no one ever accepts. Never. Ever.

Except this time John surprised me, "Ok, I'll come with you!"

Maybe I should rethink my offer! ;-)

So, here we are in Bangkok, Thailand. Does John really know what he's gotten himself into? Do I?

I'm giving him the tour of Bangkok and then we'll move on to the main event- a motorcycle journey around northern Thailand. We'll do the Mae Hong Son loop and, if there's still time, visit the Golden Triangle.

He's either going to fall in love with this country or run screaming for the airport in three days.