Asia-Europe 2012

There are so many faces of Bangkok. For us, the first one we saw, it was the busy, crowded, crazy one. I was literally going insane because of the traffic. It took us up to one week to get along with it and understand how it works.

But the transit infrastructure is unbelievable. Maybe Los Angeles has the widest freeways. Maybe Berlin has the most efficient rail system. And maybe Amsterdam has the best canal system in the world. But none of them combines them together like Bangkok does it.

First picture: mototaxi; second and third: auto rickshaw (note clutch is left peddal and gear shifter is in between the driver’s legs). Third and fourth: the canals.

Note in the sixth picture how people are lined up for boarding. There are marks on the ground showing directions, so that people disembarking won’t bump into people waiting to get in.

[Subway pictures yet to come]

First picture: the King of Thailand does not wear shorts, so tourists are not allowed to wear them either while visiting the Royal Palace. Rent for a few hours a pair of funny colored trousers for 1.70USD. Also available: long skirt for women.

Second picture: Laura wearing a borrowed (but mandatory) Islamic veil during a visit at the Embassy of Iran in Bangkok.

Third picture: at the tailor, ordering my first ever suit. Now I can apply for a job at the bank!

En route back to Bangkok we stopped for one day in Ayutthaya, the former capital of the empire with the same name, another predecessor of modern day Thailand.

There are at least 15 historic sites in the old city (a UNESCO World Heritage site) area but we had energy to see no more than 3 of them. Too warm these days in Thailand…

It finally happened. One morning I find the rear tire flat due to a nail puncture. Not a problem, I used my portable air compressor to fill the tire just enough to make it to the tire shop. Although I had all the needed tools with me, I really hate the job of depressing the tire from the wheel.

At the end, they filled the tire with air and I decided to use my own gauge to check pressure. Was showing 0. Check again, still 0. Was it broken? No, those guys pumped some 10 bar (instead of normal 2.5), so the gauge needle was actually going beyond the range and back to 0!

From Chiang Mai we took route 108 westbound and then 105 southbound. No police on the street but many military checkpoints (first picture) due to being so close to the border (in the third picture we are in Thailand but the mountains in the background are in Myanmar)

The road was a dream came true. Some 250km of perfect asphalt winding through the mountains, many bridges and amazing forests. It was simply better than in the video games. It is amazing how much excitement a 50HP engine can deliver if you won’t let it drop bellow 5000RPM 🙂

Special thanks to Brad Florescu for pointing us out this route.