Matt and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Hey there everyone!
This post's title takes after a book that I am reading right now, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I thought it to be quite fitting that I am reading this book at this time. In the book the author talks about how being on a motorcycle is so much more beautiful than riding in a car. You are out in the open air not behind a frame. He describes it like when you see something with you eye and you think to yourself "man, this would make the best picture ever!". Then you take the photo, go get your film developed (or nowadays just look at it on your little screen) and it looks so unimpressive. Nothing like what your eyes saw. This is what it IS like driving on a motorcycle in the middle of northern Thailand, surrounded by beautiful mountains and surreal imagery. It was like nothing I've ever experienced before. I was IN the scene not just observing it. I will try to post pictures of our adventures but I am sure they will not do it justice.
I did this little venture with four other from here in Pai. Cat, Jenny, Itamar and Nadav. Cat and Jenny and from England, we met in the park in Chiang Mai and ended up going to same way at the same time. We came up to Pai together and have since been traveling as a sudo unit. I quite like them! The other two guys are from Israel, they are pretty cool guys, it was their idea to get the bikes and head to a cave one hour out of Pai.
Me and Jenny split a bike, the total cost: 270B for the bike, insurance and gas there and back. We split this cost so it was quite worth the bill.
The cave... breathtaking. I have never been in anything like this before. We entered the cave via bamboo raft and then walked around within it. There were bats and stalagmites, stalactite, and pillars. It was pretty much awesome!

What wasn't awesome:
On the way back, Nadav was driving with Cat on the back of his bike, and they took quite the spill on the side of the road. The bikes mirror came off, and Cat flew down into the ditch (not a grass ditch but a concrete one...). She injured her arm quite badly, we thought it was broken but when we eventually got back to Pai and went to the hospital we found out it was a sprain. I was super worried for her, I felt so bad... and I'm sure Nadove didn't feel to great either. Ill post some pictures of the whole adventure (including the crash... I felt bad taking photos of it but it will make great memories down the road... she also had three others attending to her at the time so it was okay... I think)
Here they are, in no particular order.

Thai Cooking School

Hey all!
Today I went to a cooking school with two girls that I met from England. It started at 9:30 with about 10 other people that joined us. We began the day with a tour of the local market. I saw all sorts of weird veggies and stuff, things I've never seen before in my life! We then took off to the teachers house to do some actual cooking. We got to choose from quite a lot of dishes that we wanted to prepare and learn about, everyone can pick what they want. I started off with making Coconut Milk Soup, sooo good, and I don't even like coconuts at all! I then made a dish called Cashew Nut Chicken, also amazing. After I made a Green Curry with Chicken dish (Mom, you would LOVE this, and you will love it when I cook it for you when I get home!). Then we all helped out in making spring rolls and some other app's. Then we all pretty much learned how to make Pad Thai, it was some of the best stuff I've had in all of Thailand so far. We prepped all the food, cooked it all ourselves and everything! It was quite the experience. The best part was that I got to take a recipe book of ALL the recipes (even the ones I didn't choose to cook) home with me. I'm very excited to make all of these dishes when I get home. It should be quite fun, not to mention tasty beyond belief!
Here are some pictures of the day:

2 more pictures

Pictures to catch you up!

Playing Bass Randomly in Chiang Mai

Hey there friends and family! I hope you are all doing very well at home.

Journal Entry - Thursday, October 25th, 2007:
Time: 1:30pm
I just got back from my nights journeys! Things went really well tonight. I started off the night by going to a little place called UN Irish Pub, I had a pot of tea and talked to the manager there, very nice fellow. After I started randomly walking the streets of Chiang Mai and eventually came across a little place near Daret's house (my place...right now). There was a guitar player playing along with a little beat machine, I bought a beer and sat down to watch. Then the power went out! Hahaha. The guitarist started talking to me and eventually, long story short, I ended up on bass once the power went back on! We jammed for a long time, it was quite fun. Then i played three songs on guitar; Blackbird, High and Dry and The Oak Tree. Once done I sat down at the bar to chat with the bar girl. We talked for a long time until a guy (must have been 30ish) sat down beside me to chat. Then a girl as well about a half hour later. From Scotland and Germany respectively. The bar girl, Yeing, once done her shift asked me to come to the disco bar with her, how could I say no to such a lovely young lady. On the way she kept telling me how very beautiful I was. Well she didn't say beautiful but I forget the word she used... it was one of similar meaning I assure you! The disco bar was very fun, we had a drink and talked the whole time. Good thing she can speak fairly good English. Thai girls seems to love white guys, you have to be very careful with what you get yourself into here. I think the main reason, besides our stunning good looks, is because if they marry us we are able to bring them back to Canada, America, England, wherever. She told me to come visit her tomorrow during her shift, 1-10pm. I said yes, so I probably will. Being alone made all of tonight happen. If I were with any other person I wouldn't be able to do what I did tonight. People don't approach you when your in a group, when alone it is very easy. I'm excited to travel alone.

That was my night yesterday. Good all around!
Bye everyone. post comments cause I love to hear from you.

Ko Samet to Chiang Mai

Hey there friends! I'm now in Chiang Mai at the little internet cafe that is close to our place. This is the first time I've used a system like this before. How it works is; you buy a certain amount of time (such as 5 hours for 100B {which is amazing by the way!} and they give you a user name a password that you can use until the time on your account expires!), I rather like it this way. I am then not forced to use an hour every time I want to post.
Well, as you can tell by the title of this post, I am not in Chiang Mai! How did I get here you ask? Well, thanks for asking by the way. We took a ferry back to Ban Phe for 70B, a taxi for 20B to Rayong, a bus to Bangokok for around 130B, then another overnight bus to Chiang Mai for 400B. The overnight bus was air-conditioned which was very nice! I slept and wrote in my journal about some issues of my own that I will not bore you all with! I also wrote a new song... well the lyrics to it anyways. I didn't want to wake up the others on the bus with my "stellar" guitar playing...
When we arrived in Chiang Mai it was morning, and a beautiful one at that! Absolutely perfect temperature!
When we got here we found a room at a place called Daret's House, a VERY cheap little place. Only 150B per night, so only 75B for me and the same for Ben. Now remember that our dollar is worth about 35B, so this is "cheap cheap" as the locals say. Another expression that they find funny and they use a lot is "same same" hahah. I'm not sure why it's funny but it is apparently.
I wanted to go to the Zoo here in Chiang Mai, so we did so. 100B entry fee. Cool animals. I will post the pictures that I took there if I can get this memory card reader that I bought today working... it doesn't seem to be though. 190B price tag on that little item.
Today we went to the elephant camp and watched a show, a little touristy I must admit but still cool. Then we went for an elephant ride for about 40 minutes or so. Fun, but slow... hahaha. price tag - 700B total... a little pricey but whatever.
We then took off to a snake farm and saw all kinds of snakes, poisonous and non, this was accompanied with a 200B fee and a snake show.
That was my day today.
I'll get some pictures posted once I get this card reader working... I may have to take it back, if that is indeed possible. I'll post pictures for all of my posts.
sorry for the delay.

bye now

matt

Bangkok to Ban Phe

Journal Entry - Thursday, October 18th, 2007:

What a day! We made it to Pattaya but then so much farther. After stepping off the bus onto the streets of Pattaya we refused the usual taxi driver requests. Sometimes I just humor them and kind of go with it then end up leaving. Cruel I know. We were told to just start walking down the main street and look for a bus that would take us to Rayong, where we wanted to get to . All of a sudden a bus came out of no where with no english writing on it at all, only Thai. It stopped beside us and a little Thai man popped out.
"Where you go?" he asked.
"Rayong" we answered.
He nodded and shuffled us into the bus. He asked us for 20B from each of us, we complied and then say down. About five minutes later he came over, asked again where we were going and then forced us out of the bus along with two other young Phillipino men. AFter we were out one of the two others said:
"He's a bad man."
We were the victims of a scam. Luckily only 20B but it definatly opened my eyes a little bit. The Rayong bus came five minutes later (clearly marked in English). We got on along with the other tow guys and were in Rayong two hours later.
We found a taxi to Ban Phe for 20B each and then a ferry to Ko Samet for 50B each. We had come from BKK fo Ko Samet in one day and for a total of 266B. Not bad if I do say.
We are now going to bed in a small concrete room with one bed, a toilet, sink and cold shower that we paid 150B each for.

Journal Entry Saturday October 20th, 2007:

I'll start with what we did yesterday. Motorcycles, 200B each, we bough 2 for the day. They are so much fun but kinda dangerous at the same time. We basically just rode around Ko Samet the whole day, it was quite the journey. We left Na Dan to Sai Kaew, wandered west till we reached the VERY expensive beach of Ao Prao. Dead end. Came back and made our way south, slowly, having no idea where we were going or what was next! The lonely planet was in my pack back at the bungalo we were staying at in Na Dan.
This was one of the best days so far, the bikes were worth every penny! We eventually stopped at Saeng Thian to take a walk down the beach and I'm glad we did! This beach is PERFECT!! Quiet, with nice locals, not many tourists. We found a place to stay for 450B, such a nice little bungalo, right on the beach. The bed is big enough for two.
With a room secured we headed back to Na Dan to retrieve our packs then returned. Upon arrival we ran into another traveller from Canada. Brenden from Calgary. We say together and enjoyed a few beers on the beach. Brenden has been to Ko Samet a couple of times and has gotten to know a few of the locals and introduced them to us. Naam, a funny little Thai lady, okay English, very loud and talkative. Mein, Naam's little sister, very cute, no English.
After getting to know some of this beaches locals, us and Brenden went back to his place in Nuan to chill and then to a restaurant called Puay for smoothies and to watch its fire dancers perform. so cool.
We enjoyed a "bucket" of some local drink called Sang Som. Very tasty.
Today, I got up around 10 and went for breakfast down the beack at Naam's Aunties place. It has since become a regular place for us to eat and socialize with locals!
I'm excited but nervous to travel alone.
We also just secured a place to stay for the next two nights, 1000B in total. Not bad, not great. Some locals from Chaing Mai just moved in next door and I am them had a good chat, Ben was gone somewhere else. One very flirty eyed girl keeps looking at me...
Time for guitar now, bye!

TukTuk's and busy streets

Hey there friends! Ben and I made it safely to Thailand after pretty much 24 hours of straight flying, crazyness i know.
Before we got on the final flight to take us into Bangkok (BKK) we met 2 other travellers. One actually making her way back to Thailand, her home country. Aom is her name. Pronounced Ohm. She and I talked the whole way from HongKong to BKK, quite a nice girl. She was living in Canada for a year taking english in B.C.! How cool is that. The other guy, Dylan, also from Canada just got an inheritance and is now travelling for a whole year! he is in Phuket(sp?) right now and he and I are planning on meeting up once Ben gets into his Muay Thai training camp. I am also planning on going to Aom's home town and staying with her for a week or so since she is out of school right now.

Journal Entry from this morning:

I'm standing on my balcony on the 5th floor of the New World Hotel. A rooster is cooing in the nearby streets about every 15 seconds. The sun has risen and so has Bangkok's people. We arrived here yesterday at around 2.30pm and checked in. After getting checked in we went on a walk, just us and our money belts, down the streets of northern BKK. There are stray dogs everywhere, and they all look so tired and hungry. They barely move, most of them laying lazily in the center of a busy street. I remember passing one when we left for our walk that was in the exact same position when we returned hours later.
The most surprising thing for me was the traffic. NO one signals or bothers to shoulder check. People make mover at their leisure. It is pure organized chaos, if that is indeed possible. 95% of the cars are Toyota.
Yesterday on our walk we passed numerous TukTuk drivers all of course offering us a "discounted" rate. A couple of times they offered us "free" rides, some sort of scam im sure.
We ate at a packed little restaurant on Khao San Rd. We both had Phad Thai for 80B, I a coke, Ben a Banana Milkshake. 25B and 45B respectively. The food was amazing!!! I also couldnt believe the price. Ben later bought a pak of cigs for 45B and a lighter for 10B
I see the occational monk walking barefoot down some of the dirtiest streets I've ever seen, wearing nice orange robes.
This morning I also witnessed about 5 police on motorcyles arrive, followed by a police truck to arrest three Thai people. I'm curious as to why.
Ben just got up so were going for our free breakfast downstairs. bye!
-end of entry-

p.s. - the breakfast was delicious.

ill post again soon. thanks for reading.

-Matt

1 Day...

Hey there friends and family! My going away party went so well, and now I only have 17 hours left in Manitoba! All of my gear that was stroon around my room has now been crammed and jammed and alakazam! okay....so that last one didnt really fit, but you get the general idea.

The stuff is in the bag.

My little guitar will hopefully fit in the overhead compartment on the plane, if not ill be forced to check it...which I am a little scared to do. Its such a little fragile guitar, as well as my only instument that I'll have constant access to on this trip...

What is ahead? I have no idea.
Who will I meet? I have a slight idea...most likely dirty hippies and even dirtier locals. im sure ill also see a side of Ben that I didnt bargen for...
What will I think? POSITIVE THOUGHTS!!!! WOOHOO

Ive never been a huge blog reading fan, and writing in them is even harder for me. I'll be posting mostly my journal entries on here, and the occational photo.

And with that, I leave you.

3 days left!

Hey all! with only 3 days left I clean my room, organize my various goods that will need to be packed away in a couple of days. It will soon journey with me far away from all my other possesions. Junk left behind in my room, car and life will soon be forgotten... temporarily. If you dont already know and are reading this post before 8 pm tonight, I am having a going away party tonight at 8 at my place. my cell # is 999-6953 if you need directions.
IM SO PUMPED!!!!

16 days left!

Hey there, this is my first post on my new blog, an exiting day indeed! With only 16 days left until I leave for my first overseas trip ever!! If you are reading this and saying to yourself "Wow, am I ever gunna miss Matt!" then what you should do is call me over the next two weeks and we will get together before I leave. I am having people over on friday the 12th of october for a little going away party, hope to see you there.
Thats all for now. ill post more soon.