tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14163875746705561172024-03-19T05:37:52.284-07:00Benny the NomadIn your head and in your pantsBenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-81301673473459091372011-01-01T16:32:00.001-08:002011-01-01T16:32:28.414-08:00Home AgainWe've been home again for 10 days. I've already talked to most of the people who follow this blog, but I hate leaving this thing without a conclusion.Erin and I spent our last few days in Chiang Mai Christmas shopping and tying up loose ends. On our last day, we cleaned our bikes and packed them back into their boxes, and then we went out to say goodbye to the few people we met.We had a final Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-83762123815654448962010-12-18T04:54:00.000-08:002010-12-18T05:18:59.197-08:00The Last Tour Part 2: the end of the tourYesterday, Erin and I rode 190 kilometres.Note that I didn't say we rode our bikes 190 km; we only did about 130 km on the bikes. We did the other 60 or so in the back of a truck. It can actually be quite convenient to ride a bike in a country that uses trucks for public transportation.We left Chaing Rai shortly after sunrise with the vague idea that we might just try to ride the whole 190 km Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-22820548423616624902010-12-15T20:56:00.000-08:002010-12-19T02:23:09.884-08:00Speaking Thai at a UrinalWe were in a Thai tourist bar overlooking the Mekong river two nights ago, listening to a Thai band play western and Thai cover songs and watching Thai tourists from the south getting drunk as though it was a team sport, when suddenly I had to pee. I didn't exactly find this condition alarming -- it's a normal reaction of my bladder to either beer or cover bands, I can't quite figure out which --Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-5973720374725114402010-12-11T06:19:00.001-08:002010-12-11T06:38:10.246-08:00The Last Tour10 days from now Erin and I will be on a plane home. Erin is certainly not ready to come home. I have mixed feelings. I'm sure my feelings will swiftly become unmixed when I get off the plane in Vancouver and find that the atmosphere has been replaced by a steadily descending stream of icy cold water.But that's 10 days from now; we still have enough time to go for one last tour.Where to this timeBenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-80975004294808650082010-12-09T23:10:00.000-08:002010-12-09T23:47:52.034-08:00Banging round BangkokIt's always fun to return somewhere I've been many times in many different states of mind over the course of several years. Bangkok looks different every time, partly because it has changed and partly because my eyes have changed.As always, I've been haunting the area of town around Khao San road, while trying to avoid actually setting foot on Khao San Road. I'm fond of this part of the city, notBenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-63181630364749831922010-12-07T18:08:00.000-08:002010-12-07T20:33:39.399-08:00CambodiaFifty cent draft beer.Seriously -- a decent-sized glass of mediocre (but not terrible) draft beer for US$0.50. So what do you expect us to do with our evenings?Actually, we've been having a reasonably productive time. We were able to take three days to tour Angkor Wat, Erin's been interviewing people and researching crap for her story, and I've been muddling along in my work life in my own Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-71059063153703588232010-12-02T06:31:00.000-08:002010-12-02T06:50:47.952-08:00The Big Tour Part 3: Last day and the sad trip homeNot discovering the secret to Suvarnabhumi Airport $9 for an hour of internet! $6 for simple meal of Thai food? $3.50 for a coffee? Who do these Bangkok airport guys think they are? What, they think they have a monopoly? Hell, I have a 6-hour layover; I’ll just take the 50-cent airport train into the city and I’ll show them. The train goes straight to the central shopping district… not much is Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-7108183128009546862010-12-01T05:24:00.001-08:002010-12-01T06:48:08.407-08:00The Big Tour Part 2: the tour, days 1-3Alright, we're dashing off to Cambodia in about a dozen hours, and if I don't puke this story out now, I never will.Where was I? Right, 3 in the afternoon, cycling slowly. We wouldn't have bothered to leave town with so little daylight left, but we knew we'd be short days and we wanted to get about 50 km of flats out of the way, so that we didn't waste the cool part of the next morning crossing Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-22968798239241117992010-11-29T01:07:00.001-08:002010-12-02T06:51:49.853-08:00The Big Tour Part 1: pre-departureObviously, we've been back in Chiang Mai for several days. But why haven't I written about our exciting big tour? Well, we've been up to our nipples in indexing, which is also the reason why our big tour was only about half as long as I wanted it to be.What is this mysterious substance "indexing" you ask? Indexing is an activity, not a liquid, as I implied in that nipple-filled analogy in the Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-56363164684815202882010-11-20T21:49:00.000-08:002010-12-02T06:52:47.824-08:00Mae Kuang Dam LoopErin and I did a fun one-day ride yesterday:Mae Kuang LoopFind more Bike Rides in Chiang Mai, Thailand<!-- MMF PARTNER TOOL -->We left Chiang Mai following our little rural river road that lets us avoid the highway, and then went up into the hills, where we found a very attractive and reasonably-priced (free) waterfall:Then we proceeded to the lake, where we were going to get a boat to the other Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-5200313383138686382010-11-14T00:45:00.000-08:002010-12-02T06:53:32.220-08:00The Tallest Mountain in ThailandI'm warning you: I'm kind of pissed (in the British sense, not the American one).Our two-day tour got extended to a three day tour. We returned at about 1:30 this afternoon and went out for lunch and a beer. Erin went for a massage and I stayed and had a second beer. I intended to spend the whole afternoon there drinking beer and reading my book, but after two beers I had to leave. I was too Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-73119006626258988162010-11-11T15:06:00.000-08:002010-11-11T15:09:34.076-08:00And we're off!Late yesterday afternoon, Erin and I made a snap decision to take off on an overnight trip. We're going halfway up the side of Doi Inthanon, Thailand's tallest mountain, where we hope to find a homestay, and maybe a ride the rest of the way to the top of the peak.I'll post the story when we get back. The route we'll follow will look something like this:Chiang Mai to Doi InthanonFind more Bike Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-16164883564144355712010-11-10T16:23:00.001-08:002010-11-10T16:58:43.955-08:00Unhappy DayI'm unhappy today.It's only 7:30 AM. I guess things could turn around, but they're not going too well so far.First, I did some pooping last night, and some more pooping this morning. Erin and I went out and had our first supper of western food since arriving here. We've been eating nothing but Thai and a little Indian, even for breakfast, and we've been loving it. Last night, though, we heard Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-47728475660601006062010-11-09T00:23:00.001-08:002010-11-09T00:43:19.003-08:00Thai ChiWe've been watching a naked Thai person through a crack in a fence for several days now.It's not how it sounds.We often go to the soup lady for breakfast, because she makes the best rice soup in town and she only charges a dollar for it. She also makes noodle soup for a dollar, but we've been told that Thais don't eat noodles for breakfast, (that would be absurd) so we eat rice soup. Across the Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-63252487512940644712010-11-07T00:44:00.000-07:002010-11-07T01:38:18.081-07:00Sunday Snacking ClubOkay, second post of the day! If you haven't read it yet, start with the next post. It will disgust you.Done? Good. I promise, I won't say anything about dogs in this post. I got that out of my system.Today Erin and I went for a ride with the Chiang Mai Sunday Cycling Club. They've been going for group rides every Sunday for the last 14 years, and Erin and I thought we'd tag along to meet other Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-49766007397853389182010-11-06T23:37:00.000-07:002010-11-09T00:22:58.754-08:00Fear of Dogs: Chiang Mai to Chiang Dao, ReturnI was too lazy to post yesterday, and now I've got to write two posts in a row because there's so much to say! First things first: Erin and I did another overnight bike tour, this time to a town at the foot of a beautiful mountain north of here:View Chiang Mai to Chiang Dao in a larger mapI'm afraid of only three things. I covered fish and entropy a couple of weeks ago. Now it's time to talk Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-28271450860190862322010-11-04T03:56:00.000-07:002010-11-04T04:35:52.494-07:00Cock MysteryErin and I just realized why we can hear so many cocks crowing in the yard of the house two doors down from our guesthouse.You really don't need to keep a lot of roosters to keep a good backyard laying operation running. Vancouver, which recently legalized keeping hens in the city, has made it illegal to keep cocks. And with good cause. If one of my neighbours kept roosters in their back yard, Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-43526588076314868362010-10-31T01:00:00.000-07:002010-11-09T07:26:55.228-08:00Elevation ProfilesWe stayed out all last night drinking beer and playing pool with Kiwis, so our brains are much too stupid for work and our legs are much too weak for cycling. It's Sunday, so we can't go and see our teacher Sompop to learn Thai, and drinking more beer now would just lead to a repeat of this problem tomorrow, so there's nothing much to do.I've spent this sunny Sunday mapping and worrying. Erin andBenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-57007588251270982702010-10-29T21:21:00.000-07:002010-10-29T23:04:46.178-07:00Gear Crisis UpdateI think I've fixed our pump problem.I went down to the only road bike store in town and found a couple of el-cheapo emergency pumps. These pumps were Giyo brand, which I've never heard of, but I've certainly come across this exact pump before. Back home, MEC sells these things under the brand Filzer, and I can truly attest that they are pieces of garbage. Erin had one of these things and the veryBenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-44550799567381570102010-10-29T02:46:00.000-07:002010-11-09T00:19:31.579-08:00Chiang Mai to Samoeng to Chiang MaiView Chiang Mai to Samoeng in a larger mapErin and I just got back from our first tour. It was a little one-night practice tour. We learned some things.We learned that Thai engineers don't grade roads the way that Canadian ones do. These guys aren't afraid of 12% grades. Today we went up the most ridiculous bunch of switchbacks I've ever seen.I'm pretty organized about these rides we're doing. I Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-15032000609524224672010-10-26T22:40:00.000-07:002010-10-27T02:31:54.658-07:00The Livin' is EasyIf anyone from the Thai immigration authority asks, Erin and I are most certainly not working.But we've kind of been working. I don't think it's any kind of work that the Thai officials would be troubled with. It's not like our presence here is stealing jobs from hardworking Thais who would love to be editing our book for us. Believe me, if I thought I could hire a Thai guy to do this stuff for Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-90929094063136556842010-10-25T03:41:00.001-07:002010-10-25T04:09:47.500-07:00How You Move a Bike From Canada to ThailandSo how do you get a bike from Canada to Thailand?You might not be interested in the answer to this question, but I am proud of how I managed it, so I'm going to answer it anyway.The answer depends on the bike. If you don't care much for your bike, or you think you can repair or replace it cheaply, you deflate the tires and trust it to the airline and let them take care of it. That's what the Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-36072576844764821772010-10-23T15:37:00.001-07:002010-10-23T16:32:26.773-07:00Fish SpasA minor miracle occurred immediately after my last blog post. Erin came back to our room after her interview and suggested that we pretend to sleep. It worked. We slept for another four or five hours and it was after 9AM when we woke up! It was like we were normal people from this time zone. We'd finally left Kamchatka.Then a minor catastrophe occurred in our professional lives, which will Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-66117662350964887922010-10-22T13:50:00.000-07:002010-10-22T14:33:45.796-07:00PhotosMekong is a Thai whisky that isn't quite as good as Canadian Club, but is also not quite as good as V.O. or Royal Reserve or Black Velvet or... what do they have on the gun down at the Legion? Whatever it is, it's a little better than Mekong whisky.Erin and I were having a beer at a bar at the night market last night, fighting off our urge to go to bed immediately and speculating about what Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1416387574670556117.post-11497120917110391832010-10-21T14:48:00.000-07:002010-10-21T15:33:11.453-07:00First Ride!Got up at 4:00 in the morning again. I'm glad my body adjusted so accurately and regularly to an Asian time zone; I just wish it was this time zone and not the time zone of the Kamchatka peninsula. Seriously, I had to make an adjustment of 10 hours and I fell about 3 hours short.I went for my first ride yesterday. I went west out of Chiang Mai and up to Wat Prathat Doi Suthep, which is a temple Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11056790022779650841noreply@blogger.com0