4:30 AM. Meeting in front of my office for trip to Wang Nam Keow. Students arranged the time. Why am I the only one here?
Category: Exploits
Buddha Bridge
At a beautiful weaving compound in Thasawang Silk Village, Surin province.
Great Grandmother’s House in Surin
Justin Yoshida’s location@11:00am,1/3 http://m.google.com/u/m/BiQc8d
To Surin
Donna and Keilie are rolling with us to see M&M’s great grandmother and visit the big elephant village in Surin province.
As a sidenote, it’s always great to come home to my trusty rainhead shower and flash water heater. 220V FTW.
Khao Soi for Lunch
When in Chiang Mai, do as the Chiang Maianese (do).
Lavender Lanna Hotel (formerly the Tokyo Sri Hotel), Chiang Mai
We are in, according to one internet review, the “premeire (sic) gay hotel of Asia.” First impressions: Very nice and clean.
Beer gardenesque @ Lavender Sky Bar, Chiang Mai
Feels like Nara or Kyoto. Cool breeze, too.
About 3 hours to Chiang Mai
Justin Yoshida’s location@2:26pm,12/26 Huai Rai, Den Chai, Phrae http://m.google.com/u/m/AL6Y8s
Everybody warned us about the long, windy mountain roads on the way to Chiang Mai, but they aren’t bad at all. I guess it’s because there isn’t a hill in sight standing on the tallest building in Maha Sarakham (my uni’s admin building). I’m moblogging this and eating with Mina right now, and we are in the windiest roads of the whole trip.
The scenery in these mountains looks a lot like Japan, except for the abundant banana trees. I’d rather be sliding around these corners in my old Silvia with speakers blaring ADF instead of bouncing around in a university van, but then again, who wouldn’t?
BTW, Max and Mina are being veritable angels so far.
The Accidental Motorcycle Thief
The other day, I wanted to go for a quick lunch at the canteen (cafeteria), so I asked one of the students interning for the Japanese course if I could borrow her scooter. She gave me the key and told me where it was parked, along with a description. She said the license plate number was 85, and that it was a 100cc Honda Wave, with a manual transmission, in gray.
I found the 100cc manual Honda Wave almost immediately, but noticed that the license plate was actually 58 and that it was blue with gray accents. I chalked it up to the student remembering it wrong, or me hearing it wrong, and decided to test it by trying to start it up: No problem. I rode off in the direction of lunch, happily upshifting with my foot in this age of boring automatic plastic bi-wheeled conveyances.
When I got back on the scooter after lunch, the key was harder to turn. I had to work at it a bit. Then, when I got back to my building, I couldn’t turn the key to the far left to lock the steering column. I tried for a few minutes doing the jiggle-turn maneuver, but finally just gave up. When I went back to my office, I told the intern that I couldn’t lock her bike and asked if she’d had problems with her key, but she had no idea what I was talking about. A warning sign flashed briefly in my head.
“You said your plate number was 5-8, right?” I asked.
“No, I said 8-5,” she said.
Uh-oh.
I looked down at where I’d parked the bike and saw a girl wiping tears from her eyes, our building’s custodian trying to console her, and a security guard talking into a walkie talkie.
I went down and apologized, and in the end, everyone except the victim had a good laugh about it (she was still in shock at having her scooter stolen). I felt bad for making her feel bad, but also because the first time I stole a bike, [A.] it was only 100cc, [B.] it required no skill because of the worn lock, and [C.] it provided zero exhilaration because IT WAS A TOTAL ACCIDENT.