We headed as far east we are gonna go and it’s time to turn around towards San Fran/Monterey so we can make the races at Laguna Seca starting July 22….Pretty much our plan was to make it back west as soon as possible (3 days) and maybe hang in San Fran for a couple of days before the races….But plans never go as planned, do they? We left Mt Rushmore on Sunday and were going to see how close to Salt Lake City we could get, we made it to Rock Springs Wyoming…not much to speak of here, just a lot of Interstate riding….Next day, back on the road through Salt Lake City with a stop at the Bonneville Salt Flats…If you haven’t been here before, it’s a pretty weird sight to see. For those of you who don’t know The Bonneville Salt Flats is a densely-packed salt pan in northwestern Utah that is a remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville. It is the largest of many salt flats located west of the Great Salt Lake and is known for land speed records at the “Bonneville Speedway”.

Adam at the Salt Flats.....

Me at the Salt Flats.....

All you can see is white!!!! About 7 miles behind me is the Bonneville Speedway...

About an hour past the Salt Flats at a gas stop, I noticed that my chain was makin a lot of noise, a quick glance down revealed that my chain was slowly coming apart and looked like it would go any second….this wasn’t good, here we were just into the state of Nevada, it’s about 5pm saturday evening and we have to find a motorcycle shop for a new chain….We tossed around the option of just continuing on and hoping the chain would hold till Reno (another 250 miles) but the idea of being stranded in the middle of the highway didn’t sound too appealing….luckily, at the gas station, the people there were very kind and helpful (unfortunately I didn’t get their names) and the owner went to a lot of trouble to find us a bike shop and get them to open up and sell us a chain (they were already closed for the day)…I can’t thank those people enough as we may have been stuck there till the following Monday…After all the calls were made, we back tracked a bit to a town called Elko in Nevada where I got my new chain..by then it was too late to continue on and we spent the night in Elko at the Red Lion Casino Motel (they have casinos everywhere in Nevada!!)…Next day, back on the road to Lake Tahoe for a couple of days rest and some riding throughout Lake Tahoe….not sure why, but I didn’t get any pics while we were there?? In Tahoe, we found out that the Vancouver Whitecaps were playin the San Jose Earthquake and thought it would be a great idea to go see them….So off to San Jose to catch a soccer game!!!

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Adam on his wayb to San Jose....

Adam again...action shot....

Break time!!!

San Jose Earthquake vs. Vancouver Whitecaps...it was a lot of fun and the game ended in a 2-2 tie.

Tomorrow it’s to San Fran to catch a Sound Garden concert for the night……

I’ve been a little lazy the last couple weeks and I haven’t posted for a while….To tell you the truth, it takes a little time to update this blog and we have been putting on a lot of miles lately, so I’ll try to summarize what we’ve been doing this past week. After Colville Washington, the four of us made our way into Idaho and ended a full day of riding in a quaint little town named Orofino which started out as a little gold mining town…the goal was to make our way to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming…still a long ways away!!! Over the next couple of days we hit the asphalt and packed on the miles to Yellowstone, nothing too much to report other than the fact that we ran into one of the worst rain/hail storms I’ve ever been through, cars were pulling over but we pushed on to at least the closest motel we could find….maybe not the smartest thing, but it sounded much better than getting pummeled by hail at the side of the road…Anyhow, we did eventually make Yellowstone safe and sound and experienced Old Faithful (even though it was pouring rain at the time)…

The crazy twisty "Spiral Highway" in Idaho on our way to Yellowstone....

Top of the "Spiral Highway"

Adam passing me and my slow KLR.....

Old Faithful in "standby" mode....the weather kinda sucked, it rained all day long...

"Thar she blows!!!!"...Bill and Liz are posing....a little hard to see cause of the weather...

In the visitor center drying off and warming up......Adam, Liz and Bill

Leavin Yellowstone, we run into a few of these guys....they were all over the place!!

It had been several days into our trip and it was time for Bill and Liz to start making their way back to Vancouver (they had to get back for work) and Adam and I to start making our way to Mt Rushmore in South Dakota….We spent part of the day making our way out of Yellowstone (and running into a lot of buffalo) and by mid day, we hit a fork in the road….Bill and Liz continued on north towards the Canada/US border, Adam and I headed east to make our way towards South Dakota…..

Road work delay on hwy 212....notice all the bikes on the road.....

Hwy 212 criss crosses the Montana/Wyoming State line climbing to over 10,000 ft...hence the snow...it was a little chilly, but the views were incredible!!

More snow heading east on Hwy 212.......

We were hoping to make Spearfish South Dakota that day, about 400 miles, but once again we ran in some bad Wyoming weather….lightning, thundershowers and hail…once again the crappy Wyoming weather cuts our riding day short…we veer off to a town called Sheridan and booked into the Best Western for the night….Next day it’s into Spearfish, Sturgis and Mt Rushmore in South Dakota…All of these stops are relatively close together and make up an incredible area of small western towns, beautiful motorcycle roads and incredible scenery (this is probably one of the reasons why Sturgis is home to one of the largest motorcycle rallies in North America)….definite deserves a return visit!!!

Riding thru "Main Street USA".....

Mt Rushmore....here's the boys....most common comment "I thought it was bigger"

Us with the boys in the background.....

Riding around Mt Rushmore....some of the roads/tunnels were barely big enough for car to get through....

So after touring around South Dakota for a couple of days, it was time to start heading back west towards Monterey CA for the races at Laguna Seca…….

Petrocan Station gettin ready to head out for the MidWest USA..left to right, Bill, Adam, Liz, me

It’s Saturday July 9th and I’m parked at the Petrocan on Burrard and 2nd meeting up with Adam, bill and Liz to begin our trip into the US heading east…… It’s been a few days since I have returned from Thailand and I am barely over the jet lag but after a little maintenance on the bike and a few good nights sleep, I am ready to go!!!! My return from Thailand actually was extended by a day courtesy of Air Canada…my flight from Thailand to Japan (Narita Airport) was late by a few minutes and Air Canada closed the gate for our connecting flight…..from the looks of it, it sounds reasonable, but we had plenty of time to get to the gate and to add insult, the flight left late!!! So anyhow, after much “discussion”, we (there was 5 others supposed to be on the flight as well) basically got no where and had to spend the night in Narita… In the end it wasn’t a huge inconvenience for me as I didn’t have to be back right away, but there were others who did and it just screwed up their plans…..anyhow, I got to see Narita (about 2hrs outside of Tokyo) and experience a little bit of Japan….Will definitely have to go back….

Got on the road about 9:00am and headed south towards the border, skies clear, temp mild, generally a beautiful day for a ride!!! The plan was to make Spokane Wa. that day, about 700 km, but we would take all scenic country roads…no interstates!!! Adam and Bill have ridden thru Washington State many times and are quite familiar with the neat little roads in the state, so I was just a follower cruzin through all these scenic byways making our way east….we only made it to Colville Wa (about 70 miles north of Spokane) the first day, but had some great roads to get there…..not too many pics as I concentrating on road  makin sure I didn’t end up in a ditch….
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Back in Bangkok again on election day......

Left Chanweng Beach yesterday and now back in Bangkok for one last dentist appointment before I catch my flight back home….It just happens to be election day here in Thailand and the police are bracing for any kind of riots after the results are announced….If you remember from the previous few years, Thailand has experienced political unrest and demonstrations that has involved the military, several deaths and many injuries…I am curious to see what will happen after the elections today (as is everyone else), although it seems like the people will accept whatever outcome the election brings, you just never know….anyhow, I am hopping on a flight to Tokyo tomorrow morning, so more than likely, if anything does happen, it’ll be after I have left….

Just to sum this whole last minute trip to Thailand…as for the dental work, I ended up having to get more work done that I had anticipated, but everything seemed to work out fairly well. The dentist here found that I had to get a root canal done as well as a crown on a different tooth than what my dentist back home suggested… I was a little hesitant, but my tooth was really bothering me and the thought of waiting till I got home just didn’t cut it…so I went ahead with it all and I am really glad I did… If I had gone with my dentist back home, I probably would of had gotten two crowns as well as a root canal which, without a dental plan, would of cost a small fortune!!! Here, I got the work done and probably saved enough money to cover a good part of my trip….and I wasn’t in pain!! So all in all, I would do it again…maybe not make a special trip for it, but if you’re already here, go for it!! Btw, they do a booming business in cosmetic surgery as well, so if you are looking for that kinda stuff, it might be worth checking out…
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I have really enjoyed my stay here and would recommend it to anyone…I got to see a little bit of everything Thailand has to offer…from the big metropolitan city of Bangkok to the rain forest jungles of Chiang Mai to the white sandy beaches of Koh Samui, Thailand has something for everyone…I would recommend this to anyone!! (wow, I sound like a travel brochure)…I would definitely come back and maybe plan some trips to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos as Thailand seems to be a natural base for visiting those countries….one thing that I did realize while on this trip was that I found that I need to keep moving…I found that a week in any one location was too long for me and after 3-4 days I was checking the maps to see where else I could move onto ( I almost took off to Malaysia for a few days, but couldn’t work the flights into my schedule), so when I do come back, I plan to have a lot of destinations in store…..

Tomorrow I make my way back to Vancouver and that will end another little trip in my adventure….I will be back for a week then back on the bike to head south again into the US. This time I will be with a few other riders and we are gonna see how far east we can get before we have to start heading southwest (try to make it to Mount Rushmore).From there southwest to San Fran and San Diego….anyhow, more on this next week…

See ya at home….

Beautiful white sand beaches.....

and it’s not raining!!! I’ve been here at Chanweng beach in Koh Samui…It’s the largest and most popular beach here on Koh Samui and with it is all the nightlife/tourist stuff that goes along with this popular beach destination…Koh Samui is only second in size (and popularity) to Phuket but has all the amenities of it’s larger cousin. Koh Samui is located in the south east in the Gulf of Thailand as opposed to the westcoast where Phuket is located…apparently during the “rainy” season, the east does not experience as much rain as the westcoast which is why I ended up here…so far, so good….we’ve only had a few thundershowers since I’ve been here and those were usually during the evening, still lots of sun and heat (and humidity!!).

Everyone should be able to work like this....not that I'm working!!!

I’m staying at the Muang Kulaypan Resort which is located on the north end of the beach which is the quiet end yet only a five minute walk to all the main action of Chanweng Beach. The resort is model with a Japanese zen like theme including lots of waterfalls  and mats…I almost felt like meditating out by the infinity pool everyday!!! ( for those who really know me, that would never happen) but it was nice none the less….

Chanweng Beach in Koh Samui really reminds me of any beach resort town in mexico, just in a different language….the usual bars, souvenir shops and restaurants that you would find at any beach resort, having said this, the locals are really nice and not quite as “pushy” as some other places ( I can only speak of mexico really).

After a few days of getting my “bearings” and getting acquainted with Chanweng Beach, I decided to do the usual tourist thing and rent a scooter for a couple of days at the cost of about 200-250 baht/day, equivalent to about $8 cdn, quite an economical mode of transportation…the one caveat, Thailand has the highest number of scooter accidents and an alarming number of fatalities, this in part due to the number of tourists as well as the driving habits in Thailand, but, I think if you play it safe and don’t be stupid on the roads, more than likely you’ll be ok (oh yeah, experience riding motorcycles would help as well)…

Here's my ride for a few days.....110cc of raw power!!!!!

So off I went touring the Island, it really doesn’t take that long since the island is really small and takes about 2 hrs to drive around the whole thing…There’s really not that much to see other than a few temples, waterfalls and beaches….

Big Buddha stands over 12 meters tall on the northern part of the island

One of the many waterfalls on the island...had to hike for an hour to get to this one!!

Grandfather Rock in Lamai Beach....what does this look like??? There's a female version as well (Grandmother Rock) but I couldn't get a pic...

Quaint little cove by Grandfather Rock....

One thing I did find interesting was at Wat Khunaram, a monk that died over 20 years ago in his meditation pose has been preserved in the same position and is on display in a special enclosure…..

Dead for over 20 years!! This monk is remarkably preserved, they say due to his meditation and veganism...they put sunglasses on him cause the caretakers found bugs in his eyes....

So, the scooter has been returned and I just plan to hang on the beach for the next few days and relax….then back to Bangkok for a few days before I return to Vancouver.

Oh yeah, one thing I forgot to mention, if you have been to Ko Samui (or Phuket for that matter), you would of noticed that 90%…ok, more like 98% of the scooter riders do not wear helmets (tourists and locals) even though it is officially the law to wear one. Pretty much it seemed like one of those laws that is just ignored (helmetless riders routinely ride by police without any action at all)….until the cops need to replenish the kitty. The scooter I rented came with a helmet but it was two sizes too small, I inquired about a larger one but was told they only had one size…so I just tossed it aside thinking “what the heck” and everything was fine as I passed many policemen…until the second day…the cops actually had a road block setup specifically for helmetless riders just outside their station (how convenient). They were pulling over so many riders that there was no room to park!!! The fine was 300 baht (about $10 cdn) which had to paid right away…what a cash cow!!! They barely even wanted to know your name…maybe payday was coming up and they were running a little short….at least the locals were getting fined as well and not just the tourists….hmmf, first ticket I’ve had in over ten years…

Pouring rain!!!! Just like Vancouver

Who would of thought??? Just because it’s rainy season and all…..hahaha ….. usually the only rain I’ve seen has been the tropical downpours that last about 20 minutes, then it clears up and dries in about 15 minutes….this has been going on all afternoon, glads it my last day here cause the forecast calls for rain in the next few days…..So today I got my zip lining in. The tour company showed up this time and this morning I was whisked away to the jungle about an hour and a half outside of Chiang Mai. The tour was called the “Flight of the Gibbons” and was actually a well organized, well run outfit,  basically 3 hours of zip lining, a waterfall hike and a decent lunch. Fortunately I caught the morning run and missed all the rain in the afternoon… I know we’ve got zip lining at several spots in Vancouver/Whistler and I never had the inkling to go, but it’s something about being on vacation that you do things you normally wouldn’t (hmmm, maybe when I get back i should be a tourist in my own town????)

Waterfall hike before the zip lining.....more dammmm stairs to climb!!!

After the hike it was off to the zip line platforms…..

Who's that dude with the ugly lookin hat???

One of the short little lines to cross.

A day at the zip lines!!

That’s all I got for Chiang Mai….tomorrow I catch a plane to Koh Samui and head Chaweng Beach to lounge and relax….not that I haven’t been relaxing this whole trip!!!

Got up early this morning as the tour bus was supposed to be at the lobby for 8:30am….I signed up for the Jungle Safari Zip Line Trek which has about 5km of zip lines strung in the jungle canopy…It’s 9:oo am, still no show on the tour bus…I talked to the girl I booked the tour from (hotel lobby) and she says the van went to the wrong hotel and will be here in 10 mins…back to waiting I go….9:30 am and still no signs of a van, just a bunch of taxi drivers looking for a fare, back to the lobby and now the manager is involved (at least I think he was since he was dressed differently) and he ends up calling the tour company and hands me the phone….what am I supposed to do?? I only know two words in Thai and the girl on the other end knows about the same amount of English. Anyhow, after babbling into this cell phone (and obviously getting no where), I handed the phone to the girl who booked for me in the first place…well, I don’t know any Thai, but from what I could gather, their conversation probably would of made a trucker blush, there was all sorts of yelling and screaming and in the end, the explanation to me was that they didn’t understand the schedule…seems like a little BS to me, so I just told them to cancel the whole dam thing…in the end, I’m booked with a different tour company for tomorrow to do zip lining as well…we’ll see what happens….funny enough, the outfit that I am booked with tomorrow just happens to be the more expensive one as well…hmmm, all part of their master plan??? Probably not, just my conspiracy paranoia acting up…

So now that the zip line tour is kyboshed for today, what to to??? Well, it just so happens that I was talking with one of the hotel employees about Muang On Caves…It is located about 35 km outdie of Chiang Mai and contains several fossilized animals including a full dinosaur skeleton, it was also the favorite meditation place for a very well repected monk from 80 years ago “Pra Khru Ba See Wichai”….his remains are even enshrined at the entrance….After negotitiating a tuk tuk to take me out there, off I went….

Here's my transportation for the day...this thing had a full stereo with flip out LCD screen!!

45 minutes later (tuk tuks aren’t very fast) I’m standing at the base of the stair case that leads up to the cave entrance, my immediate thoughts were “Grouse Grind” for those that don’t know, the “Grind” is a bit of landmark in Vancouver. It is essentialy a hike up the side of Grouse Mountain in Vancouver that resembles a staircase and lasts for about 2.9 km and is commonly refered to as “mother natures stairclimber”….So, off I went and the further I got, the more I felt I was on the Grind, huffing and puffing with every step!!! Fortunately the cave entrance was no where near 2.9 km so I reached the entrance in no time….

The start of the stairs leading to the cave entrance.

Entrance to the Muang Cave system.....

It’s a little earry when you first enter as you have to descend down a steep long stairwell that is pretty much like climbing down a ladder into this dark cavern,but once your eyes get accustomed to the darkness, everything is well lit with flourescent tubes strung along the walls…

Descending into the caves.....there is one spot where you literally have to get on your back to pass..

This is how it looks before your eyes get adjusted...

Once down into the depths of the caves, you will find a myraid of little shrines that are dimmly lit, some ancient writings on the walls, a huge lying buddah, a big fossilized dinosaur skeleton and of course this huge 30 foot staligmite that has been turned into a shrine….

One of the many little shrines in the caves....

The sign say 1000 year old turtle....believe it or not!!!

Walking through the main cavern

If you look closely, you can see the "writing on the wall"

Another shrine...this one was a little bigger...

The famous staligmite turned shrine...it's 30 feet high and 10 feet around.

It's there somewhere...this is the dinosour fossil, if you look closely, you should be able to see the head on the right side of the pic...

When exiting the caves (same as the entrance), there are two options, continue down the stairs and back to the parking lot, or option two, continue up the stairs to the top of the mountain…..option two is where the climb really reminded me of the grouse grind!!! Basically a staircase up the side of a mountain. I took option two and had my workout for the day….

Totally reminds me of the Grind, except maybe a little more manicured, but still the same workout!!!

It took about 40 minutes to get to the top which had great views below to the villages and (you guessed it!!) a couple of shrines….unfortunately, unlike the Grind, there was no bar up top to have a drink and no tram to take you down to the bottom, so I had to do it the old fashioned way, a bottle of water and taking the stairs down….

Views from the top of the mountain...

The top of the climb...this is whats here....it's a long way to go to pray...

Here we go, time to head back down...

Tommorrow, I’m gonna try the zip line thing again then leave Chiang Mai on saturday….We’ll see how it goes….

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lookin for some bananas!!!

I think he just stepped on a little rock!!!!

Just cruzin through he jungle......

This guy has more talent than I do.....

Just posing for the camera

Who the hell is this pesky tourist bothering my sleep time????

I think he likes his belly scratched....

I have had a lot of time off recently and I hate to say this, but I am starting to lose track of time…..I had to think about it for a while, but I finally figured out it’s Monday June 20th!!!

Happy Fathers Day!!!! (I’m not late, we’re just one day ahead in Thailand) Hey pop, I’ll see ya when I get back…..
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Left Bangkok today and hopped on a flight to Chiang Mai up north ( flew with Thai Airways and the service was impeccable!!). I haven’t seen much here yet, but i like it already…It’s much more  laid back than Bangkok (the air is cleaner too) which is more my kinda pace… I plan to stay here till Saturday, then off to Koh Samui for some beach time. I have booked an elephant thing for tomorrow morn and want to get some dirt biking and zip lining in as well in the next few days…..more to come….

To take a quote from Hangover 2….as they say, it’s tough for the sequel to match the original, but this one’s not bad…..I’ve been in Bangkok for a few days now and I am starting to get the hang of the transit system, it’s actually pretty good and with the subway and skytrain system, it’s fairly easy (and cheap) to get around. This is the first time I have really been to a city of this size (about 11 million including greater Bangkok) and I gotta tell ya, this place is big and dirty which is both good and bad…the traffic is constantly jammed, the smog is horrific and the city is dirty….on the other hand, this is a world class city and you can find anything you want here, the shopping is incredible and mostly relatively cheap and there are many beautiful sites to see within the city limits….

One of many huge shopping malls, MBK has 7 floors of "everything"

Metal detectors at all the mall entrances....life in a big city I guess...

I've never seen so many scooters in my life!!! This is just a small group of them and they weave in and out of traffic like madmen.

These shrines are all over the place...their numbers would rival 7 elevens and Starbucks put together...

The rainy season brings these thundershowers that don't last long, but dump a whole lot of water...it was much worse than the picture shows!!!

Just a highrise I thought was neat looking...

A Muay Thai boxing match just outside MBK shopping mall....just out in the open air.

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A "scooter taxi" they can only take one passenger, but they go anywhere, even sidewalks!!

Khao San Road....well known within the backpacking community...hostels, cheap food/beer and lots of bars...what more could you want??

Takin a ferry up the Chao Phraya river.....Don't think I'd wanna go for swim in that...

One of those long boats with the crazy outboard motors..made famous in a James Bond flick (can't remember which one)

Was this in Hangover 2???

Weekend Chatuchak market...35 acres!!!!...are you kidding? this place was huge...I needed my gps just so I wouldn"t lost...everything could be bought here, from scooters to animals...

Something grilling on one of the many food carts all over town...cheap and tasty!!! I only stuck with eating the stuff I could identify...

So, I’m a little mixed on my visit to Bangkok….I am definitely glad I am spending some time here, but I kinda can’t wait to leave….don’t think I would come back unless just passing through, but that’s just me…..I still have a day or so left here to finish up my dental work (turned out that I needed a root canal as well) which is why I have been here for about a week, then I’m gonna grab a flight up to Chiang Mai (northern Thailand) and hang out there for a little while…gonna see if I can find me an elephant!! maybe even do some trail riding in the mountains…