The 1000 Day Holiday

day 1.. Picked up my Honda Baja 250cc dirt bike in Vientiane. .. and its now really really dirty..

Once everything was sorted did a bum numbing 350km to Thakek. A nice sealed road all the way. So a good time to get acquainted with my new friend.

All pictures of the Southern Loop 

day 2.. The start of the Laos Southern Loop. Thakek to Nakai (90km). I made it 160km by taking lots of tracks off the main road and seeing what I could find. The road was pretty good. The area is full of limestone cliffs making so a very beautiful ride. There was insane number of large trucks due to the dam construction making it dusty and interesting when they overtake each other blinded by the dust!

day 3.. a great day winding through some dense virgin forest. The road was fun w lots of big 20 tonne trucks to dodge on the blind corners. The advantages of the dirt bike becoming more obvious as potholed sections can be straight lined at speed! The road into Ban Kong Lor was crazy as it had rained just a little making the newly formed clay surface really slimy. The 5 river crossings being quite interesting as well Learning how to get a dirt bike stuck in mud.. 180kms today…

Day 4..spent 2 nites at ban kong lor.. Kong Lor Cave is 7km long and has a river flowing thru the mountain. A very spacey trip by boat thru the cave and out the other side..

Day 5.. came out from ban kong lor.. dropped my bike in a deep section of the first river crossing.. wouldnt run at more than an idle for about an hour ( i figure the air filter needed to dry).. but it came right..

Then learning how to get a bike unstuck from mud while some bemused locals look on and dont help (on the detour to a footbridge) I think they wanted to see me ford the river, but it had risen considerably (to approx ~1m depth) from the rain overnight. No more major mishaps after that. The electronic display on the bike is still dead.. but hoping that should work once its dried out .. FINGERS CROSSED! Sleeping in Pakxan/Paksan ~120kms today

This is my southern loop complete.. Tomorrow I head north on a 250km dirt road with 5 rivers that “might” be fordable. The target: Phonsavan.

Australia has issued its first ever travel warning for NZ saying that there is a risk of earthquakes..

I guess theyre just covering their asses just in case an aussie gets hurt in an earthquake while in NZ and sues them for not holding their hand 24X7.  sheesh..

While traveling you meet an insane number of people. Some just in passing, others become good friends.

I can usually recognize those I have met previously, but linking them to where/when is sometimes a much greater challenge.

A few weeks ago, I walked into a bar in Pai (Northern Thailand),  around ~2am…  I looked at this guy who was there and knew I had met him before. We chatted and he was saying the same thing..

It took us just a couple of minutes, but we got it down to Jeffreys bay in South Africa in November last year!  Not bad..

Its not surprising that locals look at us like we’re a bit crazy.. In africa they call it “Killing Ants”

My top purchase this month is a fantastic travel style hula hoop.

7 segments slot together to make a multicolored  hula hoop!

My skills with the Hula have been on the serious decline since my youth But with this new travel fitness tool its time to watch out.

Pics still to come of it in action..

It’s true: AIDS is nature’s awful retribution for our tolerance of immoderate and socially irresponsible sexual behavior. The epidemic is the price of our permissive attitudes toward monogamy, chastity, and other forms of extreme sexual conservatism.

You’ve read elsewhere about the sin of promiscuity. Let me tell you about the sin of self-restraint.

Consider Martin, a charming and generally prudent young man with a limited sexual history, who has been gently flirting with his coworker Joan. As last week’s office party approached, both Joan and Martin silently and separately entertained the prospect that they just might be going home together. Unfortunately, Fate, through its agents at the Centers for Disease Control, intervened. The morning of the party, Martin happened to notice one of those CDC-sponsored subway ads touting the virtues of abstinence. Chastened, he decided to stay home. In Martin’s absence, Joan hooked up with the equally charming but considerably less prudent Maxwell – and Joan got AIDS.

When the cautious Martin withdraws from the mating game, he makes it easier for the reckless Maxwell to prey on the hapless Joan. If those subway ads are more effective against Martin than against Maxwell, they are a threat to Joan’s safety. This is especially so when they displace Calvin Klein ads, which might have put Martin in a more socially beneficent mood.

If the Martins of the world would loosen up a little, we could slow the spread of AIDS. Of course, we wouldn’t want to push this too far: if Martin loosens up too much, he becomes as dangerous as Maxwell. But when sexual conservatives increase their activity by moderate amounts, they do the rest of us a lot of good. Harvard professor Michael Kremer estimates that the spread of AIDS in England could plausibly be retarded if everyone with fewer than about 2.25 partners per year were to take additional partners more frequently. That would apply to three-fourths of all British heterosexuals between the ages of 18 and 45.

A cautious guy like Martin does the world a favor every time he hits the bars. In fact, he does the world two favors. First he improves the odds for everyone who’s out there seeking a safe match. The second favor is more macabre, but probably also more significant: If Martin picks up a new partner tonight, he just might pick up an infection as well. That’s great. Because then Martin goes home, wastes away in solitude, and eventually dies – taking the virus with him.

If someone has to get infected tonight, I want it to be Martin rather than Promiscuous Pete, who would probably infect another twenty people before finally dying.

I’m always glad to see guys like Martin in the bars. When he takes home an uninfected partner, he diverts that partner from a potentially more dangerous liaison. When he takes home an infected partner, he diverts that partner from giving the virus to someone who might spread it far and wide. Either way, I sure hope he gets lucky tonight.

Sadly, none of this makes for a good pickup line. You’re unlikely to get very far with an approach like “You should sleep with me so you can get infected, die, and take the virus with you.” That would be like saying “You should sell your leaf blower so your neighbors’ lawns stay cleaner” or “You should stay seated at the ballpark so everyone else can see.” The whole point is that what’s good for the group can be bad for the individual, and that’s why we get bad outcomes.

If multiple partnerships save lives, then monogamy can be deadly. Imagine a country where almost all women are monogamous, while all men demand two female partners per year. Under those circumstances, a few prostitutes end up servicing all the men. Before long, the prostitutes are infected; they pass the disease on to the men; the men bring it home to their monogamous wives. But if each of those monogamous wives were willing to take on one extramarital partner, the market for prostitution would die out, and the virus, unable to spread fast enough to maintain itself, might well die out along with it.

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Asia is the only place in the world where its super cheap to hire a motorbike and enjoy the freedom, exhilaration and the feel of wind blowing through my hair (SIC). $2.20 per day gets you on a scooter, out and about exploring the countryside.

Now about the way they drive in Asia. I actually prefer it to the western style.Lets compare them:

Western Driving

• Drive to the left of the line
• Don’t let anyone get in front of you – e.g a merging car
• Speed up on the straight sections where people might overtake you
• If another driver is in the wrong, don’t adjust your driving. Scare them or give them the finger. e.g pulling out in front of you.
• Get angry if motorcyclists split lanes to get to the front at stop lights

Asian Driving

• Generally drive to the left, but the whole road is there to be used.
• Motorbikes turn corners early, running up the inside of the corner
• Toot your horn/flash headlights on tight corners to alert others you’re coming
• Toot your horn if you need more space or to alert cyclists/pedestrians to move off the road
• Lanes are a guide only. Splitting lanes, smaller vehicles weaving through traffic is efficient
• Do whatever you want to do. Expect everyone else to do the same. nothing is a surprise, just adjust and carry on.
• Use indicators to show the edge of your vehicle to an oncoming vehicle in tight spots

The only downside is that they never check what traffic is approaching before joining from a side road. This screams of natural selection. Other than that it works pretty well.

Its a great feeling when you arrive in a new town, and instantly like the vibe. In this case  Pai, Northern Thailand.

Then all that remains is to find the perfect hostel/Guest house/ Hotel.

You would think this would be easy and happen a lot. Its a simple formula, yet it seems in 500+ days theres but a few hostels/guesthouses that really do rate as a 10 out of 10.

• A decent common area, cushions, hammocks  etc
• Friendly staff
• Clean rooms
• Bonus points are great food or a view.

clean rooms are easy enough to find. Nice people running the place is a 50/50 hit and miss. The thing that is usually missing is the lounge/relax/hang out space.

not having one is like living in a house that has no lounge. you dont hang out in your room.. thats just where you sleep.

So I’m glad in this town I did find such a place to stay.

Perfection!

 

516 Days down, 484 to go…
01/06/07 Yangon
02/06/07 Yangon – Overnight bus to Bagan
03/06/07 Bagan
04/06/07 Bagan
05/06/07 Bagan
06/06/07Bus to Kalaw
07/06/07 Kalaw – Hiking
08/06/07 Kalaw – Hiking
09/06/07 Inle Lake – Bike ride to the Thermal Pools
10/06/07 Boat Tour of the lake
11/06/07 Overnight bus to Mandalay
12/06/07 Puppet Show
13/06/07 Flood!
14/06/07 Moustache Brothers
15/06/07 To Yangon
16/06/07 Yangon
17/06/07 Yangon – Platinum Club
18/06/07 Shwedagon Paya
19/06/07 Fly Yangon – Bangkok
20/06/07
21/06/07
22/06/07 Train to Chaing Mai
23/06/07 Chaing Mai
24/06/07 Chaing Mai
25/06/07 Chaing Mai
26/06/07 Pai
27/06/07 Pai
28/06/07 Pai
29/06/07 Pai
30/06/07 Pai