Get to airport at 5:15, wait in line till about 6am just before check in closes.
Go through security, and they stop me and search my bags. I am carrying all my tools to keep weight out of my checked bag (allowance 15kg, my bag 15.4kg).
Once they are finished searching my bag, I rush to the gate... and it's completely empty. Check the time, it's 6:05, boarding doesn't start for another 5 minutes. Where is everyone?
10 minutes later a Thai women turn up, and informs me that it's not 6:15, it's 5:15. I had my watch set wrong! Missed out on another hours sleep, god damn it!
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Arrived in Chiang Mai, I decide to be el cheapo and skip on the taxi and get a bus instead, according to rough guide #10 goes where I want, comes by every 15 minutes and costs 10baht vs. 120 baht for a taxi. After waiting about 25 minutes with no sign of the bus, and telling many tuk tuk and taxi drivers I wasn't interested. A guy in a taxi/ute pulls up and tells me the buses 'may come, may not, never know' and he'll take me to where I want to go for 20baht, I hop in. He takes me straight to the hotel, and we talk about bikes, children dying on scooters because they don't wear helmets (Legal age to ride is 16 for boys, 18 for girls. But everyone rides no matter what age. 'Not my problem' is what police think, according to the taxi driver), and about the Thai Airforce where he said he used to serve.I give him 40baht for his troubles, a lot cheaper than a meter taxi.
After checking into 'Nice Apartments' (300baht for per night, 2nights. Aircon, priv bathroom). I head on a a unsuccessful walk around to find an elephant rehabilitation centre ticket office that I found on the net. I then decide to go check out Mr Mechanic to hire a scooter for the day (100 baht, $5 AUD), and ask them if I can see the XR250 later tonight.
I head off to a 'must see' temple with my newly attached GPS (Garmin GPS60Cx), the temple I ended up was nice, but nothing must see.
Later I found out I went to the wrong one, oh well.
Next I head to Kafe, the hang out of GT Rider and his friends. No one is there though, so I grab a quick lunch and put my new destination in the GPS, Wiang Kum Kam.
Wiang Kum Kam is the ruins of an ancient city, considered the prototype of Chiang Mai. It's basically the ruins of temples built between 1250 and 1750, most of them closer to 1750.
The majority are just the the floors, although there are some that have been rebuilt/repair closer to what they would have originally looked like.
After this I head back to Mr Mechanic and try out there XR250, followed by a KLX250 which is quite a lot newer and has 10,000k on it vs. 50,000 on the XR250. I settle on the KLX despite the extra 100baht per day ($5 AUD) and pay an extra 100 baht for insurance that covers damaged to my bike and other peoples vehicles. Total 800 baht per day for 10 days, 8000 baht ($400AUD).
After this I head to the night market, buy some light weight pants, go get some dinner, then head back to the hotel to do some planning and get some sleep for tomorrow.
GPS Map Click the circles to see images. Click the link to see all GPS details and photos:
Day 2 - Exploring Chiang Mai at EveryTrail
Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging
See all photos for today : http://picasaweb.google.com/envyme/Day2
