Before
After
I then rode North along the same racetrack road that I had ridden last time with Carlos. It was still fantastic.
Together once again, we attempted to visit a long necked tribe village. We followed signs along some dirt tracks and came to an army border post. The soldier on duty was reading a paper but explained to us that the Burmese border was a couple of hundred meters further on.
A lady in a shack wanted 500Baht for us to see the long necked tribes people. We decided against paying for the privilege of taking photos of people.
There was a bridge, it was just more fun to ride through the river.
We set off then to the 'fish caves'. It turned out to be a hollow in a rock with some big fish in it. Pretty much any slightly out of the ordinary feature of the landscape is a big tourist attraction around here.
We camped that night in Pai and set off the next day to follow the Burmese border North. We explored many small mountain roads and camped down a dirt track about 200 metres from the Burmese border according to my GPS. George attempted to set a hammock up between mine and his bike and just ended up pulling mine over.
Whilst creeping through the jungle clutching my roll of toilet paper the next morning on my way to perform my daily ablutions I was wary of any border patrols who might literally catch me with my pants down.
Before we descended from the mountains we took a gander at a big golden buddha and a small fat white one.
Once again we followed a border road and ended up in a very small village with paved roads. An irritated dog with too many pups was the only thing that greeted us.
Shortly after lunch we discovered a burmese military outpost. This was literally the border with Burma. The Burmese had craftily erected sharpened bamboo poles together with tin cans to deter any invasion attempts. The Thai's countered this threat by reversing their giant Humvees with with 50 cal machineguns into covertly into bushes where they could monitor their foes.
George popped over the ditch next to said base to have a look down the hill. Someone shouted out from the Burmese side so we quickly hotfooted away before being arrested as British spies.
A covertly dressed British spy creeping into Burma.
We headed up for a gander at the golden triangle, the cornerstone of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos and what was once the hubb of the Opium trade.
A man from a small shop selling cold drinks demonstrated that it is actually possible to milk a cat. I had always wondered. Strangely the proprietor and the cat looked rather pleased with themselves.
We then followed the Mekong in an attempt to find a beach to camp on. Annoyingly all the good ones seemed to be on the Laos side. We slept in small raised hut used by farmers for their lunch breaks. George reversed over a plastic irrigation pipe so we had to fix it with gaffa tape and rubber gloves. For some reason none of us got a very good nights sleep on the wooden decking.
'Don't worry Morgan, I'm a plumber!'
We headed on down to Chiang Mai stopping at petrol stations to look cool.
At one scenic stop we observed some Thai army scouts being drilled whilst standing in a river whilst confused picnickers looked on. Must be another attempt to fool the Burmese.
Just short of Chiang Mai my bike turned 80,000km old. Thats a lot for a single cylinder thumper. A rebuild will be required in Oz.
In Chiang Mai we met Adam, an Israeli going round the world on a BMW HP2, one cool looking bike. A BMW boxer twin engine in an enduro chassis with a dry weight of only 170kg. Pure offroad power. Me likes!
We went for a Traditional Thai massage. It was more like a beating. I never knew my feet could touch the back of my head.
Tonight is a Horizons Unlimited meeting, there are a few overlanders in town so it will be good to share stories and photos.
And despite the horrendous amount of time it takes me, I'm trying to add photos with my entries from now on. Here's are a few artsy shots I did on a beach.
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