Thailand second time, 8-17 May

Chiang Mai

We left the border town by the Mekong early and set of to Chiang Mai. It was 300 km drive but we wanted to try to talk to some cargo companies that day because it was 

Friday. When we got there we went straight to the airport were Thai cargo is. They told us it was a public holyday today and on Monday so they could not help us until then. Great, its always public holiday in Thailand when we are there. We called all the cargo companies and on of 

them said he could help us but he would not be able to meet us until Sunday. He was Mr. Boonsak. We found a nice guest house with a swimming pool, as we decided we really need that since we were back in hot hot Thailand. Went out to try to find place were we could get new tires, chains and sprockets for Mongolia. We did not have luck that day but we found later MX shop and they ordered tires for us from Bangkok. They could not get sprockets but could get them maid easily. We didn’t want to do that so we are just going to see how long the original set will last. 

Next day we just did some shopping, I got new sandals and wallet. On Sunday we Boonsak came to our guest house. He was going to give us prices to Seoul in S-Korea and Ulan Bator in Mongolia. He measured the bikes and was going to call us back tomorrow. 

On Monday Boonsak gave us prices and we decided to ship them straight to Mongolia. It was quite more expensive than to Seoul but if we got there we need to take ferry to Vladivostok in Russia as well as we would most likely need to transfer the bikes in Korea by land and I have read just that costs 700 USD. We drove the bikes to his warehouse and he gave us scooter to have that we took back. 

On Tuesday we went back to his warehouse to take the bikes apart so the shipping would be cheaper. We took the front tire, front fender, handle bars as well as the rear fender off the bikes. Boonsak drove me as well to pick up the new tires. We changed the front tires but we will probably ride on the old back tire as far as we can. The new tires are quite knobby so not going to be nice on tarmac. 

On Wednesday his workforce created the bikes. They packed them into wooden creates made on the spot with just hand tools. We went to check out there work just before lunch and were not totally happy as they were too big. When sending freight by air the price is calculated for volume and weight and the higher price is used. When packing bikes it should “easily” be packed so it is charged by weight. After insisting to make creates 20 cm narrower, our bikes will be now charged by weight not volume. So there is no point to make them smaller than that. 

Went to a blues bar that night and listened to good live performance of some Thai bands.  Me with the guitar player, called Slash. Realy cool guy that with a awesome hair ;-)

Next two days we were just hanging in Chiang Mai waiting for our Passports to come back from Bangkok. Boonsak had to send them to Bangkok to custom clear the bikes and it took few days. Also we have been going to the ATM every day in the last couple of days to collect money for the transportation. 

On Saturday Boonsak called us in the morning to tell us the Passports had arrived. So we booked train to Bangkok leaving that night and flight to Shanghai from there. Boonsak drove us to the bank to get the rest of the money. We were having problems as we the cards have limited amount to take out each day. After a struggle it got sorted and we could finish the payment. In the afternoon he took us to the train station and we had dinner with him there. He bought beer and water for us to have on the train. This was night train we took left at 17:00 and arrived in Bangkok 08:00 the next morning. There were reasonably nice beds in the train that were turned into seats at the start and the end of the journey.  

On Sunday we arrived in Bangkok at eight in the morning and went too a very large mall. The mall had 500 stores and 90 restaurants on 7 floors. We printed out documents for the Russian visa as well as some other things. Went to a movie and walked a lot around this mall. Decided there was no point leaving it as the temperature outside was too high and so nice in the mall. Then we went to the airport early to wait more. When the Chinese Airline finally decided to open the check in and we went there they had problems because when we checked into China at the Laos border, they marked on the visa with pen and the airport staff they believed we had already used our visa. So they had to get confirmation from Chinese immigration and we had to wait for over and hour for them to get that. But we got that and were all fine. Next stop Shanghai-China.