T_Dog

Forgot to add this photo of one of the many happy children.

Thank You to the organizers and coordinators. It was a fun outing and surprising in many ways. My wife talked to one of the two teachers there and she was so appreciative. Apparently they were able to provide a list of articles that the school needed which was greatly surpassed. The blanket give away seemed to be a big hit too. At any rate, glad to see a group of kids that normally no one would know about get a little extra help in life. The adventure part of the event was a lot of fun as well for all involved.

Songtow taxis have long rack on the roof...you can see them transporting lots of different things...

Appreciate the suggestion, but too much to go on a red truck.

Anyone in CM have a connection to a pick up truck with a rack or a light truck that can haul some long timber for me? It's not heavy, but too long for a pick up without a rack on it. All help appreciated.

What? All those cars and no in-car video of the mayhem happening? In Japan yet!

Muchogra... Great thread you started, and a lot of good advice, although some posts contradict others. You are right that a motorcycle in Thailand is a great way to explore and sure gives one a feeling of freedom. Regarding your question, the answer for you is THAT BIKE that you like to ride in the way that you use it as well as how you like the look of it. I am still trying to answer the question you posed myself, but for me it is a light bike that can handle highways fine and still turn off the road at Mae Salong and follow jeep trails through the mountains. Motorcycles are just machines so find one that works well for you.

By the way, saw dozens of motorcycle groups up north over the past few days enjoying the long weekend. Big bikes, the Suzuki Speed Club from Bangkok, and 4 separate Thai groups from Bangkok headed to Pai on bikes smaller than 135cc. Looks like a lot of folks on all kinds of bikes were out having fun.

Yesterday there was a downpour at 7 AM just south of Mae Taeng that soaked me through on the motorcycle. I never even considered rain when I left CM so no rain gear. Today it is quite dark up here and a few sprinkles of rain falling now and then.

We love to go to chk. out the dams around here, bring our Mt. Bikes and a picnic and sometimes stay overnight and always looking for new places to go. What's the name of the this one your referring to?

junglechef... check out this thread on house boat info:

http://www.thaivisa....-created-equal/

Oh, T_Dog, you are too modest to point out your own thread in addition to the one above.

Here it is folks:

Great thread that one is.

Muchogra....Okay, if it's modesty you don't want, check this one out in case you missed it! Dam: It's big.

KJDK... Check out your PM's for some info on Hoy Tak.

Anybody have any recent experience with how long Siam Commercial is taking to process wire transfers?

Credit union in the US. Made request Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 6:17 PM (Thai Time)

Funds Available in my SCB account: 29/11/2011 09:15 (Thai Time)

LM... That is my exact scenario except the dates. 8 days now and still not here. Outgoing instructions are correct and the banks are looking into it. I've done this a half dozen times before and this is the first time anything like this has happened.

We love to go to chk. out the dams around here, bring our Mt. Bikes and a picnic and sometimes stay overnight and always looking for new places to go. What's the name of the this one your referring to?

junglechef... check out this thread on house boat info:

I suppose they might do things differently in the sticks. Like no engineering analysis...... just buy a transformer, put it up, and then run the overheads on bamboo poles to your property with whatever local knowledge they have. Maybe that's what they told your wife and why you are making your own tea!

Not to worry SBK.. The event will still go on. Needy kids will get toys, blankets, toothbrushes, pencils and paper that they will use and appreciate. The village people will enjoy the distraction. A bunch of people on motorcycles will have fun in the process. It's all good from my view.

cardholder.... Go to the PEA and tell them what you want. They will then have an engineer look at what is possible and give you a engineering drawings and cost. More than likely, they will want to mount the transformer at the street and run low voltage overheads to your property line. From there, you can run them underground if you wish. The main message here is, work with the PEA as they need to decide what is possible. We just went through this and found them very good to work with. Once they give you an estimate, make sure you know how long that estimate is good for as we went past the expiration date and had to pay more.

Just as an update, Siam Commercial did great. It took less than 18 hours from submission in the USA until I saw the balance here in Chiang Mai.

Here's an update. Last August had an 18 hour transfer. Now have been waiting for seven days for my account to be credited. Anyone else seeing long delays on wire transfers?

T_Dog, I must say I enjoy your posts very much and those of Ian Forbes on 'adventurous' places to visit.

Like hellodolly says, please post more for we armchair tourists.

You are welcome! ThaiVisa was such a helpful place when I was moving here years ago for places to go and to find how to get things done. Just trying to do a little pay back.....

When our kids come visit us either in Jan or Feb, we plan to spend a night or two at the dam that you and Ian Forbes talked and gave substantial information on. Seems like a peaceful place to chill out. I wonder if one can do barbecue near there. Thanks.

Lots of open beach area there and I doubt anyone would mind. Some good restaurants too. The boat houses on the other end that you could stay at overnight would be a good experience as well. We got to see one that they just built (before they towed it across) and the quality is quite impressive.

Lost in LOS.... Those LEDs certainly do look bright. How is the color? Is it bright white or is it more a natural yellow? I recently bought some Chinese LEDs similar to yours and although the color was pleasing, the brightness was rather poor.

I brought the white since I thought they wouldn't be very bright, exchanged them for they which are labeled warm white. Very, very bright, brighter than my 50w halogen but use 1.5W but I may change the back if I cant get the light dimmer. I really like mood lighting but my house looks like a supermarket with these they are so bright

the lens is on my mind but I have to figure an simple way to do it, and keep some air flow. they do have them in red, yellow and blue and I thought blue but it will screw up the colors on my art

great lights, just way too bright

LOST.. Thanks for that info... appreciate it as we are building a house and want to have photographs lit up in the same way as your paintings. I have yet to see that brand for sale in Chiang Mai but at least now I know what to look for.

Also... Since they only dissipate 1.5 watts, I think you will be okay with a lens or diffuser as long as you leave a half centimeter or more of space between the light and material. They do need a bit of airflow but 1.5 watt is not much heat to get rid of.

Lost in LOS.... Those LEDs certainly do look bright. How is the color? Is it bright white or is it more a natural yellow? I recently bought some Chinese LEDs similar to yours and although the color was pleasing, the brightness was rather poor.

Hog Head... Always fun events and for a good cause. What time will the group leave the X-Centre? I'll try to time a rendezvous on 1095 up past where you will come in.

Are you sure the engine is a Honda? I am not familiar with a V-Twin 750 engine with a single overhead cam. (At least it looks like a SOHC from the photo, but it is a bit grainy.)

T_Dog, I must say I enjoy your posts very much and those of Ian Forbes on 'adventurous' places to visit.

Like hellodolly says, please post more for we armchair tourists.

You are welcome! ThaiVisa was such a helpful place when I was moving here years ago for places to go and to find how to get things done. Just trying to do a little pay back.....

Cardholder... The lines across your street are likely 3 phase high voltage transmission lines and that may be why a transformer is needed to step it down for household use.

Pretty interesting tracks! I bet a snake on a slippery tile floor uses a variety of techniques to get ahead. Since there is no pad print of some kind, I would expect a snake, but I am no expert.

http://www.wildernesscollege.com/snake-tracks.html

T Dog.. These are excellent scouting reports for cyclists. Thanks for posting them and please post more of them for places near CM!!!!

How is the Klein holding up?

Anyone see many 29ers out there? Everyone seems to be converting from 26 to 29 in the states but the tires and rims seem largely nonexistent in CM. Decisions Decisions.

The Klein is doing great after putting in the new rear axle. Thanks for asking! About due for brake pad replacement. Haven't seen any 29'rs, but ran into a couple touring near Mae Taeng on Fixies.

Here are some KMZs of where I think we went in, and where the peak is. Not 100% sure about these as this was supposed to be a short ride so I didn't record a GPS track.

Doi Mon Ngah.kmz

Doi Mon Ngah In.kmz

MT River Out.kmz

MESmith... Once I reposses my map, I'll do that for you. Google Earth has poor resolution for this area and I didn't capture any waypoints on the ride.

Okay... Here is more...

We follow the stream down to the Mae Taeng River and it is indeed only 12 kilometers from the last village. A beautiful ride down a large drainage, and we come out almost 40 kilometers from HWY 107 according to my GPS. We ride downriver toward the elephant camps, and we see hundreds of rafters enjoying the white water or queuing up on shore. The river is busy as we slowly motor along the rough rutted road along the river. I ask my wife how she is holding up but she is fine and continues taking photos from her small perch.

Passing the elephant camps and finally hitting good pavement, many buses and mini-vans are parked along the road, more than usual it seems. We surmise many tourists have elected to avoid Bangkok and vacation in the North. Hitting HWY 107, we see that we have covered over 100 kilometers of road on our short little exploration. All of the people we encountered in the hills were friendly and curious as to how we came to be up there. We have done a lot of long jaunts to different places in Thailand, but these short trips can be just as much fun and more relaxed as you don't have to put in the hours of highway miles to get to a destination. Lots to explore in the nearby hills of Chiang Mai.

We get back on the Honda and cruise into the second hill tribe village down from the summit. We ask around for gas and food and a nine year old boy tells us precisely where to go. We roll in and ask first about gas, seeing the two barrels in the shop. (We have filled up often like this, but usually on longer trips where we semi-planned it.) "Sorry, all out." Well, we are probably okay, so we sit down to have some noodle soup which they do have. The shop lady is friendly and she soon sends her eleven year old daughter to the next village on a Click to get us two liters of gas. Hill tribe residents stop by to check out the foreigner and stand around as we eat. It feels more like back country China than Thailand at this point! The lady tells us that we don't have to go back to HWY 1095 and can instead go on toward the Mae Taeng River. She tells us that the road is not good but that it is only 12 kilometers. Okay, that sounds good, but at this point I am really wishing I had my GT-Rider map along. Always good for exploring, we set off for the "not good" road with two more liters of fuel and two full stomachs. We quickly find good road, bad road, a few more hill tribe settlements, and a high end coffee shop and guest house under construction. In one hill tribe village, the road goes down to two meters wide and suddenly ends in jungle in someone's back yard. We beat a quick retreat and then find the turn down a small stream a few hundred meters back.