Feeling pleased with myself for not giving in to the cops, I head on to Kanchanaburi, home of the famous Bridge over the River Quai. At first, I think I'm looking at the wrong bridge as it's really not that impressive and then realise that I must be thinking of the one in the movie which is a bit bigger. After a walk along the bridge (which is still in use) I take a look at the wonderfully inappropriate tourist tat for sale which includes ninja throwing stars, guns that are lighters, huge knives etc. I'm staying at the Jolly Frog hostel which is a really nice place by the river and incredibly cheap at 70THB a night. I end up staying a few days and check out Hellfire Pass, a couple of hours away which was one of the tougher cuttings the POWs had to contend with. I hadn't realised that it was mainly Korean guards who dished out most of the abuse to the POWs as they were on the bottom rung of the power ladder within the Japanese army.
The people I meet at the hostel are also good value though its too easy to lay about in hammocks with a beer in hand so after 3 days, decide to move on to Mae Sot further north. It take a couple of days to get there as I stopped at Erawan Falls on the way up. There are 7 waterfalls in all to see, each higher than the other and it soon becomes apparent that I'm just not dressed for this kind of activity and get out of my bike trousers and boots and go for a swim. I stop off in Don Chang as it was getting dark and there didn't seem to be too much else around. I find the only hotel in the place and go out to eat at the street stalls finding one that does a tasty soup and end up having two bowls. While I'm eating, locals come by with elephants and sugar cane which they want to sell you to feed to the elephants. Its an unusual dinner distraction, I'll give it that.
The following day, I make it up to Mae Sot and get to meet a few other biker travelers staying there. They are all doing volunteer work with the Burmese refugees. I'd wondered what the road blocks were that I'd been seeing and it turns out that they're for catching escaped Burmese, after which they are rounded up, put in a van with a cage on the back and driven back to Burma. I stayed here a few days catching up on things including doing my valve clearances. As it was the first time I'd done it on this bike, I completely stuffed it up, resetting the clearance on the wrong stroke making the bike sound like a bag of spanners falling downstairs. I give up for the day and redo it again early the following morning, this time doing it right. Well you live and learn eh?I head off towards Mae Hong Son getting a bit lost on the way. I found out I had to retrace my route to get back on the right road but I spotted a small dirt road which looked as though it was heading in the right direction. It turned out to be a great wee road with some lovely scenery plus it got me back on the right track. The road there is pretty twisty in places so it takes the whole day to get there but despite having to redo the valves this morning, I still make it before dark. Thanks to Peter in Mae Sot, I have some new maps and waypoints installed on my GPS and its easy to find Friends Guest House when I arrive. I'm glad meticulous people like Peter exist as I'd be far too lazy to deal with all the techno stuff that goes with using a GPS. The next day, I ride to a Long Neck Karen village about 25kms away. The women fit brass rings to their necks and it gradually pushes the collarbone downwards giving the impression of having a longer neck. Its interesting to see but like most of these things, they're there to make a loving off tourists and the village is taken over by stalls selling jewelry and handcrafts.
My last stop in Thailand before Laos is Chiang Mai and again as I'm still in the hills, the road twists and turns all the way. I'm finding that I'm getting completely knackered by the end of a days riding and have to crash out on the bed for a couple of hours. I guess its a combination of the concentration of trying to stay alive on the roads and the heat. I meet John, the Aussi owner of the hotel I'm staying at who tells me about the accusations of bribery and all the corruption they had to deal with to get the place built. Unfortunately John is a former maintenance engineer who thinks he can also design plumbing systems- lets just say after my first test, the system failed...
Chaing Mai is a fairly lively place with a good music scene so I was able to take in a few good bands. I met Tak, who is a partner of one of the establishments here who's a great guitar player and it turns out, he used to study in Edinburgh back in the late 80's. He even remembers my favorite haunt of the time, The Preservation Hall where one could watch some great blues acts till the bastards sold out and turned it into an Irish theme bar. Walking to the food markets is no easy feat here either as you have to run the gauntlet past the girlie bars and lady boys so it certainly makes you walk with a certain sense of purpose!
The people I meet at the hostel are also good value though its too easy to lay about in hammocks with a beer in hand so after 3 days, decide to move on to Mae Sot further north. It take a couple of days to get there as I stopped at Erawan Falls on the way up. There are 7 waterfalls in all to see, each higher than the other and it soon becomes apparent that I'm just not dressed for this kind of activity and get out of my bike trousers and boots and go for a swim. I stop off in Don Chang as it was getting dark and there didn't seem to be too much else around. I find the only hotel in the place and go out to eat at the street stalls finding one that does a tasty soup and end up having two bowls. While I'm eating, locals come by with elephants and sugar cane which they want to sell you to feed to the elephants. Its an unusual dinner distraction, I'll give it that.
The following day, I make it up to Mae Sot and get to meet a few other biker travelers staying there. They are all doing volunteer work with the Burmese refugees. I'd wondered what the road blocks were that I'd been seeing and it turns out that they're for catching escaped Burmese, after which they are rounded up, put in a van with a cage on the back and driven back to Burma. I stayed here a few days catching up on things including doing my valve clearances. As it was the first time I'd done it on this bike, I completely stuffed it up, resetting the clearance on the wrong stroke making the bike sound like a bag of spanners falling downstairs. I give up for the day and redo it again early the following morning, this time doing it right. Well you live and learn eh?I head off towards Mae Hong Son getting a bit lost on the way. I found out I had to retrace my route to get back on the right road but I spotted a small dirt road which looked as though it was heading in the right direction. It turned out to be a great wee road with some lovely scenery plus it got me back on the right track. The road there is pretty twisty in places so it takes the whole day to get there but despite having to redo the valves this morning, I still make it before dark. Thanks to Peter in Mae Sot, I have some new maps and waypoints installed on my GPS and its easy to find Friends Guest House when I arrive. I'm glad meticulous people like Peter exist as I'd be far too lazy to deal with all the techno stuff that goes with using a GPS. The next day, I ride to a Long Neck Karen village about 25kms away. The women fit brass rings to their necks and it gradually pushes the collarbone downwards giving the impression of having a longer neck. Its interesting to see but like most of these things, they're there to make a loving off tourists and the village is taken over by stalls selling jewelry and handcrafts.
My last stop in Thailand before Laos is Chiang Mai and again as I'm still in the hills, the road twists and turns all the way. I'm finding that I'm getting completely knackered by the end of a days riding and have to crash out on the bed for a couple of hours. I guess its a combination of the concentration of trying to stay alive on the roads and the heat. I meet John, the Aussi owner of the hotel I'm staying at who tells me about the accusations of bribery and all the corruption they had to deal with to get the place built. Unfortunately John is a former maintenance engineer who thinks he can also design plumbing systems- lets just say after my first test, the system failed...
Chaing Mai is a fairly lively place with a good music scene so I was able to take in a few good bands. I met Tak, who is a partner of one of the establishments here who's a great guitar player and it turns out, he used to study in Edinburgh back in the late 80's. He even remembers my favorite haunt of the time, The Preservation Hall where one could watch some great blues acts till the bastards sold out and turned it into an Irish theme bar. Walking to the food markets is no easy feat here either as you have to run the gauntlet past the girlie bars and lady boys so it certainly makes you walk with a certain sense of purpose!
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