Bikes, mopeds, scooters, and motorcycles

So, I had a modified Honda Chaly last time I lived in Thailand, I sold it the last time I was there. Now, while I am sad I no longer have her, I am already planning on what to get next.

Some pictures of the Chaly:

More to come!

Back from the dead and a return trip

So, I kinda let this go last summer as I fought over finicky internet due to me bouncing around a lot. I ended up deciding on moving back and teaching Thailand again. I will be posting more often.
Right now I am trying to sell most of my things, should be fun!

No internet!!! :(

Hey all, I am up in Chiang Mai and my new place doesn't have internet at the moment. So I am sitting in an internet cafe listening to Ladyboys give each other English tips as they scam money out of guys all over the internet. Funny as hell, like 12 MSN/skype windows open at the same time. Regular girls do this all the time too. Never believe an online relationship with an SE Asian girl and NEVER EVER send money...
Now, I picked up two more shirts while I was here.

 

Baboons airbrushing each other's butts red and yes, that is Mao dressed like a child while riding an AT-AT and leading it with the communist doctrine like a carrot on a stick....

I am also adjusting to the heat here, check out this nice heat rash!

It was much nastier in person, and on both calves... Sweat jeans rubbing against my calves = me not happy. it's 99% clear now though.

I have one teaser pic of some mountain shots on the way up. This is via iPod in Choburi on a bus. I have a lot from my train ride, but they're from one small area on the trip due to it being a night train.

Trying to read as many updates as possible! And I will continue to post as much as I can.

On the road

Going up to Chiang Mai by Train today, leaving in an hour to go to Bangkok which will take 2hrs and then the night train wont leave until 6pm and then I will arrive 9am. So I won't be able to read any of your awesome updates for awhile, but I will be back!

Our island adventure

So on Wednesday I went back to Koh Larn, a small island about 30mins off of Pattaya city

I went with two of my Thai friends, the one being the guy friend who has let me crash at his place for the past two weeks and the other a female friend I had not seen in almost 3 years. Her mother, grandmother, and American husband came along too.

Here are some shots from the island, I got these after taking a scooter up some insanely steep roads.

I nabbed a bunch of shots that I want to stitch together, but this laptop is not powerful enough to even run pain.net, so I will be doing that when I return home.

At night we had a barbecue and we picked up some pork and chicken. The other American and i were the only two to eat the pork and chicken and woke up the next morning with fevers and messed up stomachs... I slept for 18hrs yesterday and am still a bit under the weather. this is the meal that did it:

We suspect the Thai's poisoned us Farang :3

Today, just some randomness

My one Thai friend who married an American and moved to Minnesota came to visit 2 days ago and we have all been hanging out. Her husband also speaks Thai and the two of us have been having a hell of a time mindfucking the locals in this resort area cause they rarely hear Farang speak Thai.

Other than that, THE RAPTURE!!!!! didn't happen it seems, but I did see this gem:

Looks like some one was even spending money over here talking about the rapture... Less than 1% of the 65+million people here are Christian....

I also took some photos from the deck of the one mall here in Pattaya, here they are unedited in 16:9 ratio... they are probably going to be a PITA to upload on this crappy internet.

Lastly, Fear the Eon made a post about crappy google maps and it reminded me about the Arby's google maps places in my University's ecological study area. *Doh* I can't find it now to link it :( I will look later.

OK well I am off to a smaller island today and won't have my laptop. Maybe I'll make a post from my iPod if I can find wifi.

Cars!

And not the movie.

OK, so a little background about cars in Thailand. There are 3 categories: pick ups, expensive, and taxed to all hell. Here is a bit of the layout:

"Cars sold in Thailand have long been taxed on the basis of engine size and horsepower, with passenger cars taxed from 30% for cars with engines under 2,000cc and less than 220 hp to 50% for cars with engines over 3,000cc and over 220 hp. Pickup trucks are taxed significantly less, starting at 3%, under policies aimed at supporting development of the light pickup market."

But in reality it's crazier than that. This is for cars made in the country or countries they have deals with and even then it's only certain models. A new BMW 3 series might run you $70,000. Like that new Mustang 5.0? Only $140,000! On a smaller scale a Honda fit might run you 3-5K more than the US, while a Mini and a Nissan cube are 3x more expensive. It makes no damn sense, but hey, whatever... Also don't ever try to import your car or motorcycle here, they will tax it based on what they deem it's value is and then try to make sure you mess up the process so they can steal it from you and sell it at a private (corrupt) government auction. Knew a guy on an Expat forum who lost his Supra this way...

 Soooo, when you see a nice car here, and there are quite a few (LOTS of corruption here, the people who are rich are insanely rich and often are high powered enough to have the taxes waived) you tend to take notice.

SO here are some pics, I left them the original size.

 So here we have a scoobi, not really digging the shopping cart wing though, but the two 240's sitting behind it are nice.

Next we have what seems to be a normal BMW with a bit of a rake, only to find it's FMIC. Most likely it has had a SR20DET swap from a Nissan or a 1jzgte swap from a Toyota, unless the owner has the $ for a 2jz

 What's that hiding under the plastic? A nice Audi R8 you say? Probably $200k!

If I were to live here again I would try to build a 1980's BMW e30 with a Toyota 1UZ-FE, surprisingly this V8 has slipped through all the taxation problems but are in low demand due to the high gas consumption. Gas here is about $4/gallon, but you have to remember that most people only make $300-600USD/month

I'll keep posting more. I was at a wedding all day yesterday so I had no time. I ended up meeting the couple last week through a mutual friend and went with them when the wedding pictures were taken. Over a couple of beers that night I got invited and was the only Farang (white person) at the wedding haha, had a blast. I didn't bother taking pictures since I had like 3-4 friends with nice DSLR's and my little cannon just didn't cut it.