Tuesday 8 november
I woke up at 8.30 and had breakfast at the vegan restaurant "Earth Tone"👌 I'm driving back to Chiang Mai by doing the Mae Hong Son Loop. I want to do it in 2 days.
After breakfast I bought a GoPro harness for filming and was ready to hit the road. The weather was not good at all in the beginning. Rain and fog which was really hard for my bike I notices I didn't have much grip at all. I tried to be as carefully as possible but after 1 hour driving I lose control over the motorbike in a curve. Shitt! I crashed on the asphalt with 30km/h i think. The frönt brake and the right step broke off, but surprisingly that's the only thing damaged on the bike. I only had some scratched on my hand elbow and knee. Pff that sucked. Gladly the weather was better after. The road was very nice with beautiful views. At 17.00 I arrived in Khun Yuam This is just a small village and I didn't see any other tourist there. I stayed in a guesthouse with a ultra kingsize bed😁 in the evening I got dinner at a sushi restaurant where no one spoke English. And menu was in Thai. It was so funny, I thought I only ordered some chicken teriyaki and pork, but it turned out that I ordered a buffet, which I had to cook by myself on the table😂 Was such a funny and awkward dinner haha. When I was done I was so tired that I went to bed at 20:30.

Wednesday 9 november
Last night I didn't sleep to good because of my knees. After getting breakfast I went to get some bandages for my knee. After that I was ready to go. Goals for today: drive 180km back to Chiang Mai before 20:00, fix the front brake and step. Get my backpack from the busstation before 21:00. It had been raining all night and luckily it was dry when I took off. The route wad very nice. I hardly saw any tourists on the road. I made some stops at restaurants with very nice viewpoints. 60km before Chiang Mai I visited a temple which had very nice gardens. Around 17.00 I arrived in the front part of Chiang Mai, after going to 2 garages I found a place where I got a new front brake handle for €3. I tried several places to find a step, but no one had one. I was really tired at the end and around 18:00 I arrived at the bus station in central Chiang Mai. The battery from my phone was almost empty and I barely made it to the busstation. I was looking for my backpack which the Dutch guys in Pai shippes for me. At the bus station there was no one speaking English. I couldn't find it and then someone said that I was at the wrong bus station, great!! I quickly showed on my phone where the other bus station was, but I couldn't use navigation because the battery was empty. I drove in the direction of the bus station, completely exhausted and annoyed. In the traffic I asked a local guy on a scooter where it was and luckely he showed me the way👍When I arrived there I again couldn't find where I had to be. At 19.00 I went to the "found luggage", and my backpack was just standing there, THANK GOD! I still had to bring my motorbike back and had no idea how to get there. I just asked a TukTuk to drive there and I followed him. When I arrived at the rental place, they were closed. I looked at the door and it said opens 8 closes 5.30. And the girl said to me close at 8. English and miscommunication, those things are very related in Asia😝 Okay I accepted the situation and headed back to the Deejai Backpackers Hostel. I got some streetfood and went to bed early.

The next morning I went to a big garage and got the step fixed for €6. After that I brought the motorbike back. They didn't even really looked at the motor and I didn't have to pay for the extra time I had it. Before I knew it I walked out outside, with my passport 😎 So everything turned out really good at the end!

Later in the morning I bought an 1 terabyte external hard disk to make backups of my footage. I've been making alot of photo's and videos already and definitely don't want to loose them. I had some good food at the vegan restaurant "the birds nest". In the afternoon I got to the airport and flew to my next destination: Laos !!!!!✈🏞

Geschreven door FrankArends