Thailand
June
1, 2013 - After a few days relaxing in Bangkok, it was
time to get the bike back from Moritz's place. The next item on
the agenda was to extend the temporary import permit for the
bike, a process
which I was not looking forward to.
My arrival at customs came at an opportune time. There apparently was a strong focus that day on "customer friendliness". In no time flat I was assigned the head of the department, his boss, the boss' secretary and a photographer. After a polite conversation, my paperwork was reviewed while the photographer clicked away in the background.
It was quickly decided that the department head would walk me to the right office to help me out. He apparently had trouble finding the building his underlings were in and had to ask around. When we entered the fairly sleepy set of offices, everyone veered up from their usual slump and started typing away like mad. It was clear this guy hadn't been in to see his staff for a while. After being assigned to a frightened underling, her boss hovering over her, my paperwork was processed post-haste and I was out of there in about half an hour, a world record in Thailand no doubt.
My next stop was Mae Sot, a grotty border town used as a visa run by expats. Aside from the evening market, there was not much there and I pressed on the next day to Mae Sariang. On the way, I came past a Burmese refugee camp, set up against a hill with six thousand people sitting around doing nothing apparently, having built their own housing from scrap wood.
I stopped to take a picture and was immediately swarmed by kids in various states of dishevelment.
The military police came by and hurried me on shouting "No photo! No photo!". I think the Burmese border is a little more porous than last year as there are heaps of military checkpoints this year, all of which waved me through. A situation similar to the one in South America plays out here too. All the guys on guard are immersed in their iPhones or what not and by the time they hear you, it's too late to wave you down.
In Mae Sariang, I went to the same hostel Anna and I went to last year and spent a day looking at the water and working on my pictures.
The roads from Mae Sariang towards Pai and on to Chiang Mai are simply amazing, some of the best roads I've encountered thus far.
All turns and hairpins. They even have a tee-shirt for it.
I managed to break the sidestand for the third time on this trip by scraping it and stripping one of the U-bolts holding it to the frame. I now also know why I scrape the right bag but not the left bag. It sticks out five centimeters further from the center. In Mae Sariang, I ran into an English couple who live in Singapore. We bumped into each other over the next few days and had lots of good laughs.
An evening stop in Mae Hong Son tempted me into experimenting with some freehand night shooting, with varying success.
I decided for the lazy option in Pai and jumped into a nice resort for three days. I don't think they were thrilled with the bike.
Sometimes the unthinkable happens and a very pretty girl came up to me in the street and started talking to me spontaneously. We hung out for a few dinners and since she needed some passport pictures, I volunteered my services.
My next stop is Chiang Mai, where I will be for a month, finally settling down and putting a number of ideas on paper that have been bouncing around in the back of my head. A month of regression testing and other fun stuff. It'll be a busy month on the photography front as well, but no ride updates.