Chiang Mai trip & new bike

So I've been looking for a good deal on this bike all year. Missed an opportunity a few months back, but last Monday I saw a 2009 Kawasaki D-Tracker 250 for 100,000BHT (~3000USD) with only 1300 KMs on the odo. These things are 150K new, so saving 33%; I had to snatch it up. It was located in North Thailand, Chiang Mai, 740KMs (500 miles) away. My friend Jay wanted a road trip on his 2 week old Ninja 250 so he came along. We went to the train station in BKK, and he loaded up his bike on the train for $20. We split a first class cabin, a ticket is $35 each for the one way trip. The train left at 6:30PM and got in around 8AM. It would be a lot faster but it must have stopped at 15 other train stations along the way. It's comedy the various noises a shitty old train makes as it moves along. It was impossible to sleep more than an hour before some crazy noises or bumps would wake me up. I actually laughed trying to sleep because it felt like they purposefully put noise making machines under the train. It was hard to get clear pics while the train was moving. Got a decent breakfast on the train for $6 too. Jay told me they literally had guys lift his Ninja off the train. Chiang Mai is the 2nd largest city in Thailand and why they don't have a ramp at the train station is a mystery. Oh yeah, these people are a bunch of idiots.

So the guy selling the bike was Andrew from the UK and he was kind enough to pick me up. He'd been living here for 10 years and the bike is too tall for him. After taking it for a spin and looking it over, I paid the man and we went to get the paperwork done. I decided to keep the Chaing Mai license plate so I can pretend to be a lost tourist in BKK when I get pulled over. Smooth transaction at the DMV, 30 minutes and $20 to do the transfer.

So now that we both had bikes, we rolled into town to find a hotel. We got rooms for $35 a night right in downtown. We got some great German food for dinner and then hit the bars. The town was dead, all the past redshirt activity really killed tourism here. Seriously I saw maybe only 200 tourists the 3 days I was there.

The next day, I wanted to check out the Kawasaki dealer. Turns out its a franchise so they sold a lot of aftermarket parts in addition to the bikes. My friend got a carbon Yoshimura pipe and some frame sliders put on and I got an aluminum TwoBros muffler. Twice the cost as usual but I wanted the extra power for the long ride home.

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So after the bikes were modded, we rode up the local mountain road to Wat (temple) Doi Suthep. The ride up was very smooth and twisty, much like Boulder Canyon Road or Glendora Mountain Road. My GoPro's memory card ran out so I don't have any video of fast riding. Here's a vid of us leaving the temple, but its lame and the sound cuts out for some unknown reason.

This new muffler is the loudest and most obnoxious thing I've ever heard, around 110db where the stock pipe was 86db. I have since ordered a silencer insert. I started to ride with my foot down like the MX guys do, different than the sportbike thing, but just as fun. The wat is on top of a mountain so it had some stairs, but once up top, there were great views of the city.

I was surprised to see a handicap ramp but notice how steep it is and they put two bends in it. Oh well at least they're trying.

After 2 nights in town we started the ride back home. I didn't know what it would be like in between the 2 cities so I brought extra innertubes, tools, gastank, and survival gear. So the bike had some 75 pounds of extra junk on board but I just stiffened up the suspension and it wasn't really noticable. I managed to max out the bike at 142KMH (88mph), it was very stable where my scooter only likes to go 110KMH. The ride out of town was like riding in Western PA, smooth concrete highways and 2 hilly sections, but nothing difficult. At night and the first rain we were taking it easy and I saw a 3 foot long monitor lizard run in front of me. I made a gesture and rode on, but Jay split it in two. It was too late and wet to avoid so he just rode over it. Unfortunately he didn't tell me till later, I would have loved pics of that. After being on the road for 7 hours I called it a night and got a motel. Jay kept going and rode all the way back in a total of 12 hours. The next afternoon I rolled into BKK and managed to see this cool mountain range on the way. My new muffler is so crazy it melted my turn signal, sidebags, and fender. No matter since I'm going to mod the hell out of this bike anyway.

The night I got back I went to a party and they had these FHM magazine girls but I was so tired I left at 10PM and passed out.

Planted nano freshwater fishtank

I'm not allowed to have any fish or pets in my apartment but I caved in and got a 5 gallon (~1 cubic foot) fishtank anyways since its small enough to hide. Too small for saltwater; so I decided to go with a planted freshwater and stuff it full of shrimp and small fish. The tank is cheaper here, ~$70 with the hood, light, and filter but everything else like the dirt, plants, fish, food, etc is about the same as in the US. I probably dropped $200 in all but it was well worth it. Hopefully by the end of the year all the plants will be grown in and it will look like a jungle.

You may ask what that lead weight is doing? Its keeping that moss ball tied to the deadwood. I'm hoping the moss will spread and cover the twig and end up looking like an underwater tree. I had to use toothpicks to keep some plants from floating away as they have no roots yet. I just zone out and watch the tiny shrimp and fish do what they do.

Redshirt aftermath

Well I got out to the Siam area of BKK where a lot of the junk happened. They burned down what was a nice big mall, Central World. Glad I wasn't around when this shit happened. The city acts normally again but I see less tourists now which is a good thing. I'm sure the corrupt government will continue as usual now.