canuckamuck

Three years ago, i lived in a hill tribe village 39 kilometers in the mountains east of Mae Hon Song.

No electric in the village except at the school (solar).

I was amazed how many times different groups gave blankets to villagers, but still nobody had blankets!!!

Because they were taken to MHS and sold on the sunday markets.

Next cold season they got more!!! What a joke that was.

Have just returned from a trip to Chiang Rai and the night time temperature was never lower than 22 c . The roads are superb, and I guess that is because they depend on government work, annual handouts are part of the system I expect. I can't see how there can be a market for blankets unless they are bought back into stock for next year by the organisations who supplied them.

Last year it was 6 degrees in my house several morning in a row. I have nice warm blankets on a big comfy bed. But I am surrounded by folks that sleep on a mat on a bamboo floor. I am pretty sure the blanket they got that year was especially appreciated.

In a country that has no social safety net and almost no consideration for the needy, I am amazed to see posters from first world countries begrudging these people a few blankets. Yes some of them are not needed, but if they do get sold I am sure the money they get is useful. Why don't you save your ire for the officials that probably skimmed half of the budget before the first blanket was bought?

I would like to test drive the sh1t out of it.

I think all the sh1t fell off already.

Been thinking about it a long time; I even started a couple of threads to see if anyone else had bought a quad here. I didn’t get any action so I just had to get one to see. In my case a quad is useful because I have a field out the back side of town which is tricky to get to by truck (without scratching it up) and even though it’s only about a .5k walk, when you have to carry something out there it gets tedious.

So I was going to get a K-Lion 200CC 2x4 quad, the biggest I had seen here. When I got there Panther had released the Big Bear which was also 200CC. It looked much sturdier and even had a 60mm ball hitch. It seemed the obvious choice. I did notice that the two quads shared quite a few parts like mirrors and mags; likely coming of the same assembly line. But the Big Bear was my choice.

They delivered it the next day I was kind of busy when they showed up so I only started it up and puttered around the yard a bit to get the low down on how it was setup. But later when I had more time and took it on the road, it shook pretty bad. I gave it some time because I thought maybe it was something you get used to, but that didn’t happen.

I checked the tire pressures and I was quite surprised to see them at 32PSI I remember my last ATV (20+ years ago) the tires were at 2-3PSI so I thought they must do it different now. Nope, I check the tires and they were rated for 5PSI. So I took them down to 5 and that sorted most of the shake. So I played with it a while, getting the feel of it and getting more aggressive. When I went inside for a bit my wife found a lug nut and put it back on the quad (hand tight). But she didn’t tell me. I took it out again with the kids and when I got back she told me about the lug nut. I went to look and now I was missing two on the right rear. We found one and I snugged three of them up properly (they were all loose on that rim). That fixed more of the shake, it’s hardly noticeable now, possibly the tires are still slightly distorted.

At this point I should have gone over the whole thing and tightened everything. I didn’t do that though until I had run it another 20 k or so. My bad. When I finally gave it a good check I had lost a screw for the head light mount, a screw on the trim, and a nut holding up the front rack. Nearly all the trim screws on the right were loose too.

So it sounds bad, but I have got it all sorted now, and I have to say I do love the thing. I have been running it back and forth to the field and doing odd jobs. I can nearly maintain 30kph on the tricky road to the field whereas in the truck I would be lucky to do 10. The top speed is just over 60kph by the way, so it isn’t a highway cruiser. But it really is a lot of fun off road; I have nearly got my skills back from 20 years ago when I ran my ATV daily and aggressively.

Now I need to build a trailer, but I need a receiver for that 60mm ball hitch. Anyone know where to get one?

Said one annoying avatar to another

The blankets are nice to get, we already got ours. I don't need it but people in our village definitely do. It does get freakin cold up in high altitude villages. Last year was really bad. However this year it has been unseasonably warm up here, so a little early on the blanket campaign. It did get down to 12 a couple of weeks ago though.

If you are wondering why they need em every year, partially it is because it is expected; so new ones are not purchased. And secondly they are not thick blankets so people usually use more than one. And they get used all year, just less layers when it is hot.

So some old ones get replaced every year. Is that so terrible? Are you all jealous?

They might try enforcing moving violations... nah that would require some effort.

The reasons tourism is down: Martial law, dead tourists, corruption, pollution, greed/scams.

The answer: Clean gas stations toilets, no ATM fees for five days (after Christmas), and selfies?

Clueless