mae hong son by aussies

Nov 14, 2004
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hi dave, and the collective gt world.
we are back down under, the adrenalin, the hype and the bullshit has subsided, so we are now in a frame of mind to put fingers to keyboard.our trip started about two years ago with meeting dave at the kafe at changmai, i cant remember how i lucked on to the gt website and met dave cyberly, could have been a link thru some bankok school for girls, soi cowbow, rubber nurses uniform site but it happened. after reading the gt handbook and pouring over the maps, i knew that i had some crazy ass mates that had to come and experience northern thailand. i have ridden and driven in a few parts of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd world countries and with the combination of good dirt and good ashphalt and chang beer, you had to be on a winner. so lets cut to the chase.we met dave at the kafe once again and his advice proved invaluable. our crazy idea of seeing the whole of northern thailand in 4 days turned out to be a great crock of shit. dave said to stay with the mae hong son loop for scenery and curves and leave the rest for the next trip, so we did. picked up 4 honda bajas from joes bike hire, tom was good to deal with, no complaints about the bikes at all. headed out from chang mai on the 108, turned off on the 1013 to pai via wat chan,good roads, a great ice breaker to what lie ahead. hit the dirt at huai thong and then played leapfrog with a truckload of monks headed for monkville, loved to see some farang bah on the back wheels or standing on seats. pulled every trick from the book but the tightwad sons of bitches never threw us any money. stopped at khun mae taa for the best feed of noodles and chang that you could get on the trail. so after fuelling up we headed off towards wat chan, roosting each other on this glorified fire trail. generally running a muck and having a hoot as aussies do. chang stop at wat chan, took daves advice and bought the local kids some drinks and sweets, giving kids boiled lollies in thailand doesnt have the same connotations as in australia, nudge nudge wink wink. so after feeling like santa clause, headed off to pai. hit this construction site on the 1265, almost literally, a combination of dump trucks, water carts and excavators sprawled all over the roads, making us ride thru, over, and around them, and as aussies do, amusing them. they had billiard table preperation on one side which they had just ran the water cart over, which turned it to a muddy ice skating rink, and on the other side was pure motorcross, table top size humps, thru the arm of the excavator while still working, he just waved us on. a few k's up the road we hit road rider heaven, beautiful smooth ashphalt with four crazy aussies just lapping it up. curve apon curve of 3rd gear corners, just lapping it up.
Then Matt and myself bought the farm on corner 900! it turned into a double apex and our minds could of been else-where but gravity took over. Matt overshot the runway and scared the crap out of the flora and fauna, and me, i must have gone out in sympathy worrying about his sorry ass going over the cliff. But alls well that ends well. Matt didn't have anything to show for his, and me, i just lost some bark ... so add that to my nasty little rash!
Rode through to Pai, stayed in a funky little hut on the river - great digs for the night! Could have stayed there for a week. Ended up at the b-bop - well ridden, well massaged and full of Chang! This ends day one. Its a saga ....