Podcast: Learning to Ride a Motorbike in Thailand

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Tina has been wanting to learn to ride a proper motorbike for a while now, so on a cloudy Saturday morning in Chiang Mai, I gave her some lessons in the road that we live in.

Earlier this year we spent some time trying to find an official driving school in Chiang Mai where we could both learn. In the end, having searched everywhere, we came to the conclusion that not only were there no driving schools geared towards foreigners here, but that there were no driving schools at all. This realisation fitted well with the general level of road chaos in Chiang Mai.

On the BBC website, there is a guide to ‘Driving Etiquette’ in Thailand. It states:

The first rule of driving in Thailand is: Don’t!

The second rule is: Don’t!

The most incredible thing about driving in Thailand is that a people who are so lovely, friendly and forgiving turn into complete monsters when sitting in a car or complete idiots when sitting on a motorbike. Actually driving in Thailand isn’t quite so bad as its reputation would have you believe, but it still is not to be undertaken by the faint of heart.

Tina learning to ride a bike in Chiang Mai

Despite know this, I ended up buying a bike to learn on, the bike in the photo – a Honda Phantom 200cc. I had already been driving mopeds around Chiang Mai for a year. After a quick lesson from a friend, and a few thousand kilometres in the surrounding countryside (including a mountainous trip to Pai) I decided it was worth trying to get my Thai Motorbike license. I drove on my moped to the test centre, and immediately got issued with a car license based on the fact I had a UK car license. Easy!

However, as I didn’t have a motorbike allowance on my license, I was told I would need to do a motorbike test. They sat me in a room and tested my reaction time and eyesight with various archaic-looking contraptions, before taking me to a room full of computers. I had 30 minutes to answer 30 multiple choice questions chosen randomly from 80 questions in the system. To cut a long, frustrating story short, the pass mark is 23 out of 30, and I got 21 the first time and 22 the second time I took the test. I therefore failed.

To compound my misery, I realised that some of the questions I had got correct had been marked as wrong – for example – a picture of a blue circle with ’30’ inside apparently means “You must go a minimum of 30km/hour” in Thailand. When I questioned the examiner on these surprising answers he replied “Haha! Computer in Bangkok wrong….you want to do test again?”

I left the test centre on my moped, promising myself I would never return. I could now legally drive a V8 Toyota Landcruiser out of the test centre, and park it illegally on a junction just like everyone else, but alas, not my 100cc moped.

For more information, check out the Golden Triangle Rider website for excellent maps and tips on some of the possible motorbike trips in Northern Thailand. Take it from us, don’t go on a ‘elephant trek’ in Chiang Mai – hire some bikes and head out into the mountains!

The Shift, movie trailer

A massive worldwide phenomenon is in progress, offering seeds of great hope for the future. The movie “The Shift” portraits this change in the world. Please take 5 minutes to watch the trailer for the movie and you will understand: http://theshiftmovie.com

Millions of individuals, organizations and corporations around the world are waking up and embracing a new outlook with an emphasis on their responsibility to contribute positively to our collective future.

We are in the middle of the biggest social transformation in human history, The SHIFT.

At this critical point, it is imperative we make the masses aware of this global movement quickly. This evolutionary phenomenon is broader and deeper than the most visible SHIFT, the environmental movement. It involves our very understanding of who we are as human beings, and our responsibility to the world and to life itself.

THE SHIFT movie raises awareness to the story of our roles in an evolutionary shift in our collective consciousness.

As it chronicles the faces, the stories and leaders assisting in this social transformation, the film reveals its emergence & meaning.

The movie is interesting because it also deals with the exact same things as Earthoria-namely the shift to having a healthy mind in a healthy body in a healthy world – all of which is connected and without one the others will never be complete 🙂

A day at Huay Tung Thao lake, Chiang Mai

Huay Tung Thao lake, Chiang MaiWe often head out to Huay Tung Thao lake, about 12km outside Chiang Mai, to escape the heat of the city, have a swim and relax in a hammock. The lake is set at the foot of a mountain, and has some beautiful views of the surrounding countryside.

There are quite a few simple restaurants set around the lake, with huts on stilts in the water that you can sit in if you prefer some shade.

To get there, you head North along Canal road about 10KM, and take a left. After a further 2kms you will arrive at a ‘toll booth’ where you pay an entry fee of 20 Baht per person.

For those of you into more adventurous activities than swinging in a hammock or swimming, around the other side of the lake is a small painballing (that was not a deliberate spelling error but it seemed appropriate so I left it) range (why anyone would want to go paintballing in the Thai heat utterly escapes me), and some Kayaks for hire. There are also ‘cute’ little pedalo (pedal-powered) boats that look like swans if you like that kind of thing…

Mike, Huay Tung Thao lake, Chiang MaiIt is rumoured that there is some off-road back route up to Doi Suthep from here, but we haven’t explored this rumour further at this time!



Google Map of how to get there


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Video: Spending a day on the beach in Denmark

Today was an amazing day in Copenhagen. The sky and sea were blue, the people smiling and the weather hot…32 degrees! I spent the day on the beach with my wonderful sister Gitte and thousands of other Danish people who had gotten the same idea.

This video was filmed on Amager strand (Amager beach) in Copenhagen and it shows you Sweden in the background and lovely Danish beach life.

Enjoy…we did 🙂

Video: Khaosan road in Bangkok, Thailand

This video shows Khaosan Road in Bangkok.

Khaosan road is what you can call a traveller’s mecca. Some people hate it and some people love it. It is located in the old part of Bangkok in an area called Banglampu. It is well connected to major attractions in Bangkok by bus number 2, 15, 47, 73, and 511 just to mention a few. Bus no. 53 goes to the main train station.

I always stay around Khaosan Road when I visit Bangkok and have previous lived in the area for 4 months. I love the buzzing atmosphere – you can find absolutely everything here: restaurants, cheap guesthouses, old and new friends, clothes and handicraft shops, massage places, tattoo artists, internet shops, travel agencies (it is cheaper to by bus tickets from here than from the government run offices at bus stations) and places to have a fun night out.

It is a very vibrant place and a crossroad for travellers from all over Asia. I highly recommend you to stop over in Bangkok when you are in Thailand. This city has a lot to offer. Enjoy

Copenhagen, Denmark

In July, whilst on our trip back to Europe, I flew over to Denmark for the first time to see Tina and her family. We ate loads of food, saw lots of the sea and countryside, and met lots of people.

Copenhagen

Cycling around Copenhagen was fun, although I couldn’t get used to braking by backwards-pedalling on an upright bicycle. I nearly crashed twice on my first outing.

What were my general impressions of Denmark? “Blond, potatoes, friendly, bicycles, sea” would sum it up I think.