Oh, I’m sure I’ve been well given-up-on in the blogosphere, but perhaps I can win a few back by actually adding some photos… Click on the slideshow below to get to bigger images or click here…

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All apologies for the delays, but coming back to Vancouver, getting settled into a new place, getting used to being in one place, remember what this whole work thing is about and other nonsense has kept me a bit distracted. I’ve finally gotten to the fun stuff of looking back through these pictures and getting to post a few of them. I’ll probably have 2 or 3 more posts of pictures – I’m dividing them up as my trip was divided up.

This first set is from my entry back into Thailand (from Malaysia, where I was detoured on my way back to SE Asia from India), my whirlwind train trip up from the kinda scuzzy border town (where a haircut and pimp-interludes were both good solid entertainment) to Bangkok and then onto Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand where I spent a few days wandering around. I had picked up a nasty cold in India so some of this part of the trip was me trying to get over that and getting ready to take off on the bike.The first leg of my bike trip started from Chiang Mai and took me Northeast to Chiang Rai and then onto the Lao border at the Mekong River.

I rode around 300-350 km over 2 1/2 days on this trip, from Chiang Mai north into the mountains, through some more agricultural valleys and then over some more mountains on the way to the Mekong. This area of the country is reasonably flat though and it was a pretty nice introduction to traveling by bike in Thailand. Friendly people (lots of smiling and pantomiming on my part…), nice roads, beautiful scenery and good food. A pretty great place to travel by bike. Finding a place to stay wasn’t always as easy as I’d hoped (see the No-tell Motel picture…) but it was a great start to the trip.

Soon I’ll get some pics up from wild and beautiful Laos.