Poor Transportation Choice?

Happy Monday!

It is mid afternoon in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Motorcycle Rental

My theory of going back to the motorcycle rental place Monday morning after the weekend proved to be fruitful.  They had lots of motorcycles including three 150cc’s.  By the time we left there was only one left because another guy rented one right after we did.

Blaise is a motorcycle guy from way back.  He rode one as a teenager and until he had his first child (at age 23). Blaise is also a safety kind of guy so I felt comfortable with the motorcycle rental choice. 

We wanted to rent a motorcycle here because we thought it would be a fun, easy way to get around that wouldn’t cost as much as using Grab all the time or renting a car.  They don’t have the comprehensive public transportation here that Bangkok has.

We arrived at Mango Scooter rental about 9:20. They opened at 9 AM.  We selected our motorcycle and two helmets, then we were on our way.

We are toddling along in lots of traffic on our way to gas (the gas light was on when we drove off), getting a feel for the bike and enjoying the wind in our helmets.  They have lots of motorcycles here so when you are stopped at a light, there are tons of them with and around you.  We had been driving for less than 10 minutes (maybe 5 minutes) and we had been waiting at a light for at least a couple of minutes (it was a looooong light) when it all happened.

We are in the far right lane to turn right - remember they drive on the left side of the road here so this is like a left turn back home - when we hear a crunch off to our left. Then, in the lane next to us, two motorcycles go sliding by us on the ground and on their sides and into the intersection (barely into the intersection).  Another guy on a motorcycle with 3 tanks of some sort of fuel attached to each side, slid by us on the left, grazing Blaise’s left leg (no injury) but stopping upright directly in front of us.  Stopping just behind the two guys on the motorcycles that crashed into the intersection was a black Volvo.

The Volvo, for reasons unknown, hit (from behind) one or both of the motorcycles that ended up crashed in the intersection.  I never did see one of the riders get up but the other one was clearly injured where his leg was under the bike as it slid across the pavement.  Both walked away but the one was hobbling fairly badly.  He was a young kid, probably in his 20s.

The Volvo driver was an elderly man.  I will not call him a gentleman, because he was not.  He got out of his car, stood next to the car for a few seconds before he went to the front of his car to check for damage.  Then he got on his phone but we never saw him check on the guys on the motorcycles that he hit.  His lack of concern for anything other than his car was appalling!  And frankly, he didn’t seem that concerned about his car.

Best we can speculate is Volvo guy’s foot slipped off the brake and onto the gas?  Or he wasn’t paying attention well enough and thought the light turned green?

Not even 10 minutes riding that motorcycle!  Ten minutes!

This shook us both.  There but by the grace of God! And we aren’t young tots.  Something like that would have been way worse for us than someone in their 20s.

After the accident, we got the gas in our motorcycle and on the way back, the Volvo was gone but they were still wrapping up the cleanup from the accident.

We went home and parked the motorcycle and walked to breakfast.

We are 3 hours from the accident that happened right next to us and we are still debating if we want to keep the motorcycle, return it, or even ride it at all, other than to return it.  We don’t know what we are going to do.  We have debated keeping it and just staying on side-roads and off major thoroughfairs.  I doubt since we signed a contract, they would consider giving us our money back for the remaining days so we may just eat the cost.  We decided to mull over our options for a day or two after the scariness wears off a bit so we are processing with less emotion.  Will we feel the same in the morning?  I don’t know.

We have also wondered if that was God warning us “Hey, don’t ride this motorcycle; it’s not safe.”

We can be as safe as we possibly can be, but we could have never prevented that Volvo from hitting us had we been the ones in front of it.

Right now, I’m blaming Dana who texted me last week “What could go wrong with renting a motorcycle in Thailand?”

You have an experienced motorcycle rider and one who has maybe been on one 3 times for short distances who are both questioning this choice of transportation.

Blaise at our stop for gas after the accident.  Might be the last picture of either of us on or near that motorcycle.

AirBnB Update

Our host felt badly about our not having water for a couple of days (about 12 hours one day and about 5 hours the other) so he offered us a refund so we could find another place to stay.  A pretty stand-up offer but we declined.  What a pain to have to find a new place, then pack up and move.

Other than the couple days without water, it’s been a nice stay.  We love the location and the condo is perfectly fine.

And we are both sleeping fairly well here.  That may be because what stress at this point in our lives do we have?

Rooftop Bar

Last night we spent some time at a rooftop bar about a 10 minute walk from our condo.  It was a lovely bar with a swimming pool and a big elephant sculpture on the 8th floor of a hotel .  I had what is my new favorite drink, passion fruit amaretto sour.  OMG, it was delicious!  We had a beautiful 360 view of the city lights with a crescent moon and a brief unexpected fireworks display.  

The beautiful elephant sculpture at the rooftop bar.  You can see his reflection in the pool at the bottom.  The line bisecting the elephant is the light running across the top of the Plexiglas separating her from the pool.

Guy in the Park

Yesterday morning, we went to the park that is about a 20 minute walk from our condo.  While sitting there, an older man (older than Blaise or me - appeared to be in his 70s) sat near us and struck up a conversation.  Turns out he was a Canadian who lived for a while in Oregon.  He came here from Turkey, where he had lived for 5 years but got kicked out because some employee of his screwed up some immigration/customs paperwork.  Now he is going back to Canada in a couple of months in hopes of later starting a business in Wyoming. 

We chatted with him for probably an hour and a half but never got his name.  Best of luck Canadian Guy In The Park!

Condensed Milk

I just have to mention this in case I some day forget:  The Thai people love condensed milk.  We in the US call it sweetened condensed milk, but they just call it condensed milk.  They put it in lots of beverages, drizzle it on things like toast (which is delicious by the way), and they make a slew of sweet treats with it.  I approve of their use of condensed milk in sweet treats, but not as much in drinks.

What Year Is It?

Did you know it is not 2025 in Thailand?  It is 2568.  Thailand uses the Buddhist Era Calendar to determine their year, rather than the Gregorian Calendar.  The starting point for the Buddhist calendar is the death of Gautama Buddha, which is believed to have happened in 544 BC based on our Gregorian calendar.

While Thai New Year’s Day (Songkran) is celebrated on April 13th, the calendar year actually moves forward on January 1st.

I had no idea, until we visited Thailand, that other countries might have a different year than we do. Did you?

This Week

This week, we are going to do a guided tour to Chiang Rai to see three temples, a hot spring, and a village where it is customary for women to put rings around their necks to stretch them.  It is an 11 hour tour so we will be gone all day.  Not sure what day we are going to do that but hope to get that scheduled for this week.

Now I am off to wash our sheets so we can have a nice, clean, fresh-smelling bed to hop into tonight.  See, even when you travel, you still have to do chores.