Off road on the bike

The second video is kinda cool.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/482457-almost-drowned-the-dtx250-today/

Khao Yai weekend ride. First real dirt experience.

Me and some dudes rode 100 miles NE of BKK and I got to try dirt bike trails.

This whole offroad thing is pretty fun, I'm sold.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/455571-khao-yai-weekend-run/

I dumped my friend's motorcycle on the racetrack

It's all here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/454267-cbr250-vs-ninja250-vs-dtx250-brc/

Damage cost me $300 in various parts/body panels, and $300 for a new frame.

Idiotic locals lead to 4 stitches.

So my last muffler suppressor blew apart on me at the racetrack. So I brought it to a metal shop all in deformed pieces. I also brought a CAD drawing of the new one I wanted made. We discussed every dimension on the drawing which was printed to actual size. Essentially I needed this guy to make a 3" circle out of 2mm thick steel and have 3 holes in it. The last one that blew apart was 1mm thick steel, too weak. I showed him this piece all deformed. So 1 week goes by and the guy duplicates the exact thing that had blown apart but maybe with thinner metal. So I asked why he didn't use the 2mm steel I had drawn for him. He showed me pieces he bought but they were too thick or small. He didn't have the forethought to just buy a small sheet of scrap steel and cut the 3" circle out of it.

So I go down the same street and bring only the CAD drawing as to not confuse this new bunch of idiots. We discussed every dimension on the drawing. 2 days go by and although the 3" circle is there, the other holes were smaller than specified on the drawing. I wanted 6mm holes drilled but it came back with 5mm holes. Why can't they just buy or bring it to someone with a 6mm drill bit?

So then I take it home, buy a 6mm drill bit and drill out the 5mm to a 6mm hole. As I was reversing the drill to get it out of the hole it slipped and the metal spun in my hand. 2 hours later I had 4 stitches in my left index finger.

I used to think most Americans were stupid, but these people take it to another level. They simply forget or pretend to listen and then just do whatever they please. They are too lazy to refer back to a drawing or follow clear instructions. God forbid they pick up a pen and take notes on what a customer might want.  I live in a land of retards. I may be a little harsh here, but these stitches were not a fun time.

Vietnam sucks but has great sandwiches

So in February I had to leave the country to get my new ED visa. I was thinking Vietnam might be the next place to live when I get tired of Thailand. My friend Jay and I went to HoChiMin/Saigon for a week. Hotel was 20 bucks a night and walking distance to most things cool. Land must be pretty expensive or they're just smart enough to maximize it. This little pink hotel we stayed at was 12 floors high. The parts of the city a tourist wants to see is very small but it's a big city with about 7 million people.

There seems to be less traffic than Bangkok since there are less cars and the streets are designed properly. The traffic is slow chaos.

Independance Palace. From what I understand this was the old US Embassy since they had pictures of American fools fleeing this rooftop by helicopter. Although nothing more than a museum now, it was used as a political palace/command center in the past.

War Remnants Museum (aka. US War Crimes Museum)

I have never been embarrassed to be an American until I came here. This is the shit they don't teach you in school. We're taught by TV and Hollywood that Hitler was the devil, but after walking through this place and almost crying; I am now aware how bad the Lyndon B. Johnson administration was. I'd say its a tie or close second for the the worst entity of the modern world. There's good reason why the rest of the world hates the US. You'd think after experimenting with nuclear bombs on the Japanese that the US gov't would relax. Nope, they used Communism as an excuse to exercise an illegal war on people used to war and oppression. The US needed to test biological weapons and figured a bunch of rice pickers wouldn't care much. My camera battery died so I didn't get to take pics of all the fucked up shit Agent Orange did and still does to this day. There were pics of deformed kids trying to live their lives. I noticed how rare and expensive seafood was through the week, but I still ate a plate of snails, hopefully land snails and not from the rivers. The only irony is Vietnam exports most of its shrimp to the US.

Cao Dai Temple: 2 hours drive away from the city is a special temple. There's 4 religious types here (Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, and Catholics) and this temple was built for all of them to go. It looks like a Rainforest Cafe/Disney World inside. I thought it was retarded, but I'm Agnostic.

Cu Chi tunnels: Learned how the Vietnamese dug over 100 miles of tunnels and the dirt here is hard, almost concrete-like. Well if I was being bombed everyday, I'd be digging tunnels quickly too. Some creative booby traps and use of ordinance. I shot an M30 machine gun, pretty cool. It was fun to crawl through a tunnel but my back was killing me from crouching. Notice how small the trees are? That's because no vegetation is more than 40 years old.

Conclusions. Considering these people were colonized (enslaved) by the French, then a few years of Japanese control during WW2, then at war with the US, and throw in some Cambodian skirmishes; there's only been ~30 years of freedom in this country. I'm impressed by how modern and clean most of HCMin is, unlike the ghetto called Bangkok and many other SE Asian cities. Unlike the lazy and stupid Thais; I respect these people. They were smart enough to rebuild with Western logic; the streets and infrastructure make sense and I can at least make out the letters on signs and menus. Also, the people work hard like Americans. Many mom and pop stores were open at 8-9AM, Thai shops don't open till 10AM and many street vendors don't come out till 4PM. Even little 5 year old kids were trying to sell me stuff here. You won't find a Thai kid trying to sell something until they're out of high school. The only drawback is these people are not happy, but its understandable as the last 100+ years of history was mostly controlled by foreigners. I didn't see too many people laughing or smiling here. Thai people seem to be pretty happy since they have easy lives; eating cheap, living cheap, and not working hard. Things cost a bit more in Nam and the people are not as friendly. I think they hate all foreigners...as they should. So I don't think I'll leave Thailand anytime soon as Nam sucks, China is a bunch of rude bastards, and Singapore is too expensive. I did eat about 12 of these French/Vietnamese streetcart sandwiches and they were all delicious.

Smokey the Cat

So I moved to a new part of town last Fall so I could get a cat. I went to the pet shelter that's run by foreigners, but the first time they had no cool cats. So after I came back from America in November I went to the shelter again and saw a kitten called Goong (shrimp) and it was very friendly. So I signed up for the cat and picked her up the next week. The pets are free but I donated $30 since it had most of its shots and was spayed already. Cost me $400 to give my old cat, Colonel Mustard, his shots back in LA. Goong was soon renamed Smokey since she has such colors. Unlike Colonel Mustard, Smokey doesn't chew up all my cables. She is also OK having her ears cleaned and nails clipped so she's easy to care for. So after 3 months she's pretty much settled into a mellow life of napping and eating. Smokey is the best cat I've had so far.

New Bicycle

So I wasn't diggin my gym since I'm lazy and it was overcrowded even at 11PM.

My theory is to ride a bicycle around and learn how to do wheelies on it.

It's all theory of course but it's in detail right here.

http://tricktrack.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1218&p=158550#p158550

was this

is now this

Never Fly China Eastern Airlines

I had to take this airline from Shanghai to BKK and it was the worst flight ever. I swear this plane was built decades ago but hadn't been revamped since the 80s. It had one central TV on the front bulkhead and it only showed Chinese infomercials. The meal consisted of prepacked snacks which doesn't sound bad until you realize onion flavored cookies, yes onion, and pickled turnips don't make for good snacking.

The worst bit was all the Chinese people on the place were rude and loud. It was 10PM and usually people are quiet and sleeping on a night flight in the US. Since many of these people had never flown before they were all talkative and rowdy. Yelling to friends several rows away and getting up constantly.

Now I know where Monty Python comes from because I swear it was like a flying circus. If I was supposed to die on a plane, that was it.

Note: Even on an international transfer; in Shanghai you have to deboard, get your luggage, go through customs, and recheck all your luggage on the next flight. Pay the extra and skip China as a layover.

10 Nov. Marshall comes to BKK

My old roommate from RI came to visit for 5 days. So we did some tourist stuff. First night I took him to Soi Cowboy where all the nudie bars are, he was impressed by the hot chicks. The next day I just showed him some malls as he was hung over.

Then we went to the Jim Thompson House. This guy introduced the West to the Thai silk industry in the mid 1900s. He vanished in the woods one day; I assume he was eaten by a jaguar. We also caught Wat Pho, where the reclining Budda does that.

Later we went to the old capital Ayutthaya and saw some temples with my buddy Bob. Lots of large cock, as in chikens, statues in this town.

Then we hit up some Muay Thai boxing. We paid $60 for ringside seats and saw 6 fights. These guys were from 12 to 20+ years old and 90-139 pounds but they all fought hardcore. They fight 5 rounds, 3 minutes each round. The second fight we saw lasted 15 seconds as a guy got knocked out from a kick to the temple.

We later took a river boat ride around BKK and saw Wat Arun and the Grand Palace in BKK. I also showed him Nana, where all the ladyboys hang out. Although married with a kid, Marshall now knows he's gay because the ladyboys are seriously good looking. Check the Picasa for all the pics. http://picasaweb.google.com/ttakata73

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.