Peter’s Blog

Similan Islands

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:39:18 +0900

A 4 day trip to the Similan Islands in Thailand, near Phuket was a great way to enjoy some vacation time. Here are the pictures.

Bike Weekend

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:59:00 +0900

The weekend started out with a ride to Koseki-san’s shop where I spent some time practicing TIG welding and making parts for the new bike I am making. Of course I had to ride home so that was two rides plus some shop time for the new bike. The parts don’t seem like much yet but they are for the bike which will be a take apart 26” wheel bike that will fit in an airline legal suitcase. I’ll post the drawings later.
Sunday Kumi, Takashi and I when to a trail near Ome, Trail 7. Takashi-san and I went mountain bike riding. He doesn’t have a mountain bike but did pretty well on the general purpose bike. There was plenty of mud and the temperature was perfect.

October Party

Sat, 4 Oct 2008 21:04:04 +0900

It had been a long time since I had a party at my apartment. After a trip to Costco in the morning and a little straightening up the place was ready. By counting shoes it looks like at one point we had 42 people at the party. Here are the pictures.

Sleeping Buddha

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:29:33 +0900

Back in Bangkok today to have the stitches taken out and to make sure everything is healing well. Turns out I was healing faster than expected and everything was fine.
With the dental check complete the rest of the day was for Kumi. We set off to look at the sleeping Buddha and the surrounding temple. After that some shopping.
The sleeping Buddha was fairly large but not very inspiring. We wondered around the grounds and took some pictures.
We also came across a young kid in a monk robe. He suggested I take his picture with Kumi. After than he asked for money. I was not impressed but I could not talk Kumi out of giving him money. The kid was pretty brazen. Kumi offer a dollar and he kept asking for 3. To be fair, his behavior was completely contrary to Buddhist teaching and not necessarily representative.
Next, shopping at maybe the biggest or most expensive mall in Bangkok. It has US or Japanese prices for most things or at least prices close to that. While Kumi was shopping for a hand bag I sat and listened to a young band playing in the department store as part of some promotion. Entertainment in a department store, perfect for the guys so they aren't completely bored while their girlfriend shops.

Another Ride

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:10:24 +0900

The last ride was a repeat of the first downhill section but more slippery and on a slightly different route down. It was generally wetter than the first day.

The riders were a bit faster in this group too.

It would be nice to have my own bike next time but I think gears are essential in this part of the country unless you want to do a lot of walking. The heat is what really does it. You can't get rid of the heat so powering up a hill will burn you up in no time.

Despite it being a downhill ride there were a lot of uphill climbs and some uphill hikes as well that were too steep to climb on a bike.
I liked the look of this dragonfly so I had to take it's picture.

Zo-san (Elephants)

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:21:21 +0900

Today was Zo-san day or elephant day, zo being the Japanese word for elephant. We went to see an elephant show and then to ride elephants. Thats how the day started but we also did a few others things as well.
The elephant show was more interesting than I expected. I was surprised at how well trained the elephants were. We were told that they were raised and and at age 4 they went to a 6 month school and came out ready to join in the show.

We watched the elephants do tricks, paint pictures, and play football (soccer). The painting was directed by the trainers but the elephant did the painting with the trainer only giving direction on the side of their head or by pushing on a tusk.

The football game was very well done as you can see from the movie.

After the show we went to another place and took an hour ride on the back of an elephant.
On the way back we stopped for a few minutes at an orchid farm which also had a small butterfly section.
Next, on to the river for a boat ride. When we got back Kumi wanted to set some animals free. That seems to be something they do here. The idea is to set an animal free that would normally be killed and eaten. It has evolved to catching animals so that they can be set free again. Kumi really enjoyed setting the birds free.

For dinner that night I ate part of an ostrich from Australia that was not set free. It was really tasty.
All the pictures are here.

Down the Mountain

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:14:09 +0900

I woke up refreshed on the top of the mountain with clean air and a somewhat cloudy view of the little valley I was on the edge of. I decided the best way to spend my time until the next group arrived was to try to make it to the very top of the mountain. The guide had pointed out a single track that he said would take me there. It didn't and I ended up mountain climbing caring a bike until I finally gave up and came back down on foot after an hour of climbing. At least I was ready for the noon ride.
The ride was downhill all the way. Right. Not a chance. We had a fair amount of climbing but nothing like the day before. Most of the up hills were rideable as were most of the downhills. The roads were slippery with mud though so you had to be careful. Again it was nice to have the gears.

Mountain Biking

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:05:20 +0900

One of the main reasons for coming to Chiang-mai, for me anyway, was the mountain biking. I signed up for one over night and one single day ride. I was picked up at the hotel in the morning with my bike clothes and helmet and we headed to the shop where I did the paperwork and was given a bike to use. The bikes were not great but not terrible either. They had We went on a 2 hour ride or so to get to the trail head. The ride was in the back of a pickup truck with the bikes on a rack above. There were bench seats in the bed of the truck. Pretty much the same as half the taxis in town.gears too. That would be different.
The ride was to be a climb. We gained about 3000 feet and had several down and back up sections. Probably around 4000 or 5000 feet of climbing all together in hot and humid weather. Basically there was a continual stream of sweat pouring out of our bodies. We had to check for leaches after the more over grown sections too.
There were, I think 5 people in our group and three guides. The guides were in amazing shape. All muscle and no fat. Myself, I was glad for gears and even used the granny gear a few times to make it up some of the steeper sections. Some sections even the guides were walking though. At the 90% mark or so of the climb the rest of the group headed back down the mountain while I and one of the guides went to the top and he dropped me off at a coffee plantation where a shack was waiting for me.
The shack was pretty primitive but it did have hot water provided by a gas operated flash heater. It also had electricity from 7 to 10 at night. Not a place for Kumi but it was comfortable enough for me.
There was a little village 1 kilometer way that I walked to and took some pictures. I even stopped at one of the two stores in town and had a drink of some nasty clear liquor with some old guy name Okur. I bought him a few rounds and he treated me to some local snacks.
I was prepared for the mosquitos that night but the rain started at about 7:30 and kept up for the whole night so there was no problem with the mosquitos. I went to be early and got up at sunrise.

It was interesting to see a father and son pair grinding dried corn on a hand operated stone mill.

Chiang-Mai

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:35:58 +0900

The first thing I noticed about Chiang-mai was that it was much greener than Bangkok. It had an air of being more rural. We got to our hotel and were helped by great staff who helped us organize a trip to one of the temples for that afternoon.
The temple was, well, a temple. Lots of time an money had gone into it over the years or centuries but like all temples in asia the theme seemed to be "give me money". Gift shops, more donation boxes than you could count, and monks selling trinkets at high prices. I respect other cultures and their religions even though I am atheist but all the hard sell for money really turns me off. I guess my expectations are wrong. I should expect people with their hands out instead of expecting some sort of spiritual place.
The butterflies did help lighten the mood though.

Despite bad feeling I got from the place it was pretty amazing all the work that must have gone into the place over the centuries.

I also found one creature rather interesting. I guess they don’t think much of their mothers here. Don’t worry Mom, in Thai I’m sure MOM has some other meaning.

New Tooth

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:28:47 +0900

We came back to Bangkok yesterday and today was the day of the dental work. It went smoothly and even though I refused the pain medication the new implant did not hurt that much. A cold ice pop was enough to take the edge off. I ended up with a temporary tooth that will have to be replaced with a permanent one after at least 3 months. We ate off the street at the little stalls. Probably not the most sanitary but we did not get sick and it tasted good.