When I got to Chiang Mai I hired a scooter. Soon I progressed on to on to bigger and better bikes, gradually getting hooked. The idea brewed in my mind to buy my own bike and tour Thailand and surrounding countries on it. It took a couple of weeks but finally it’s all come together.

I’m now the proud owner of a motorbike. Nothing to write home about (sorta) but it does the job very nicely. It’s a Honda Phantom, known in Australia as a Shadow. I’ve geared it out with some saddle bags, a luggage rack and a colourful collection of bungee cords to hold my shit down. I also invested in a cool looking helmet and a riding jacket that kind of looks like combat armor. I opted to not get full leathers considering my proximity to the equator. I might look like rambo with a beer gut but at least I’ll keep most of my skin if I come off.

My bike

Getting the bike into my name was a bit of a saga.  I bought it cheap because the owner hadn’t bothered to transfer the ownership to him.  It just meant I had to find the previous owner with nothing but a photocopy of her Thai ID card.  I like a challenge so I accepted.

The address was in Chiang Dao, about an hour’s ride north of Chiang Mai.  When I got there I went to the police station and asked (in pidgon) where I the address was.  The guy looked at me, my bike, the address and then laughed.  At this point I started getting nervous; had I made a bad choice?
I got out my map and gestured for him to mark the location of the address.  He put an “X” at the top of the mountain about 50ks from anything resembling a road.  Crap.

Asking for directions

I left the cop shop and went to have dinner.  At the restaurant I asked two different people where the address was and both gave me an “X” on the map in very different locations.  By this time the amusement was taking over the nervousness.

It was getting dark so I found myself a guest house.  After checking in I spoke with the owner of the place and she told me a different location again, but also said she had a friend that lived in the village.  It was a hilltribe village not far from where the cop placed his “X”.  Seizing the opportunity I asked her if she’d like to come for a ride in the mountains with me the next day to see her friend.  After a little encouragement she agreed.  You ripper!

Not a dirt bike!

We left at about 8 the next morning and rode for about 3 hours through some absolutely stunning mountain roads before arriving at a village where she asked for directions.  She hadn’t seen this friend for 6 years.  The guy we were talking to, or rather she was talking to (no English spoken out there!), thought it was amusing that I wanted to get to that villiage with my bike.  He tried to hire us his 4WD for 3000B (about $130) but that was far too expensive so I gave it a shot.  See photo.  Epic failure.

Back home we went and after having a bit of a laugh at the guest house with her parents I embarked on a mission to find a 4WD for hire in town.  Should be about 700B ($25) for a day.  I pulled over and asked a random white guy (not many in Chiang Dao) where I could get one.  He told me that he’d only been there for a couple of hours but the Dutch guy who ran his guest house had lived there for 4 years and would definitely know.  Off I went to find the guest house which wasn’t signed (wtf?) and was rather hard to find.  When I got there the Dutch guy told me he didn’t know, but he knew a French guy who’d lived there for 7 years and he’d know.  He jumped on his little scooter and I reluctantly followed him.

Nature Home guest house in Chiang Dao

Eric & Ameema

So I pull up behind some shop where there’s a couple of blokes having a glass of wine, staring at my dirty bike.  I was introduced and my Dutch friend departed.  I explained to the French guy what it was I was trying to do and how much he’d charge me for his 4WD.  He asked me what the name of the villiage was – I couldn’t remember.  He asked me the name of the woman I was looking for – I couldn’t remember that either so I fished out the photocopy for him.

He looked at it for a moment then pointed to my motorbike and said “That’s my bike!”.  I thought he was playing funny buggers; some dodgy French expat trying to pinch a travelers motorbike.  Then he yelled to the house behind him; a woman emerged.  I was introduced to “Ameema”, Eric’s wife and the lady I was looking for!

Turns out he bought the bike and put it under her name.  They’d been living in Chiang Dao for ages running a clothing shop there.  They were both extremely helpful with sorting out my papers but not before we polished off a large bottle of whiskey to celebrate my luck.

View from Cyril's house

Woohoo! I'm legit!

So now I have a small group of friends in Chiang Dao.  The other French guy who was at the table owned a home up in the mountains and invited me up for a night.  I went and stayed, talked and took some photos.  I attempted a time lapse of the sunrise over a mountain but my laptop went into standby mode after 17 photos.  Crap!

Anyway, with all the papers sorted I visited the appropriate office in which no English is spoken and transferred the bike to my name (neccessary to take it to other countries) and got myself a Thai driver’s license.  Because I don’t have an Australian motorbike license I was required to take some tests and demonstrate that I could ride.  I circumvented this by explaining that it was a motorbike license while smiling a lot and being very gentle and patient (which is greatly appreciated here). It took about 10 minutes to take my photo and print the license.

Chiang Dao mountain, hidden in the clouds