Where have you been?

At a party I had this past weekend I was unlucky enough to meet the epitome of why everyone hates Americans. His name is Chris and he is in the Air Force. Intelligence according to what he said but I'll get to that. He came to the party at the invitation of my girlfriend's cousin. She was slightly interested in him so why not invite him and get to know him a bit better.

Once he arrived he began to tell my girlfriend how beautiful she was and how he has girlfriends all over the place. I managed to avoid him for quite some time (I knew what he was going to be like after my girlfriend came up to me pissed off). He must have been able to sense my disgust because once he did manage to corner me he was very hostile. He made the typical "You enjoy the freedom I provide" statements and then went on to explain how intelligent he was. He is, he claims, in Intelligence and currently working on his masters. When it was clear my lack of awe irritated him, I went on to explain that I had a PhD in chemistry and worked at the University of Cambridge. Not only was he unimpressed but he actually expressed doubt at my claims and went on to summarize my story in the following manner:

"So you are lying about working for the University and you are lying about having a PhD in chemistry. Does it make you feel good to tell such outrageous lies?"

I told him I could care less what he believed and walked away. Later, after the cousin was passed out upstairs, my girlfriend told me it was time for him to go so I passed along the message. He was (yet again) offended that someone he provided freedom for would dare kick him out and went on another tirade. I was eventually able to get him to the door when he made the proclamation that I had better not say anything behind his back because he was "going to kill me". Once again I told him I was unimpressed and that all he would get from me was apathy and that if he would "just leave that everything would be great". After a few more "going to kill you"s he finally left.

You have got to love it: when we send troops to fight in foreign countries they kill people. When we send troops to friendly countries they threaten to kill people. I guess I have had my allotment of "Shock and Awe"!

Go America!

I have finally sold my Triumph and was able to get what I wanted out of it. Perhaps I could have got more as the first guy who came out to look at it bought it. It was a super bike and I enjoyed touring England, Wales, and Scotland on it and I would reccomend a Triumph to whoever is looking. Personally I would like a Speed Triple at some point...

Unfortunately the bike has not been too luck for the guy that bought it. As he rode off from my house it started to rain quite heavily. The rain lasted about 45 minutes, the duration of his ride home. Then, the following moringing, as he was sitting at an intersection on his way into town, a car hit him and knocked him off the bike. He is okay but the bike took damage. I have ask that he send photos but I am not sure how happy he is about the entire thing so I might not get one. Bummer.

Humm, don't know much about this. Some sort of Buddist site near the lake. We stopped and the Thai girls we were with did a little prayer. It was very beautiful though, the statue, and was clearly important to them.

Here is a view of the jungle around Chaing Mai. We stopped a lake directly behind the camera for lunch one day. I can't remember what the area was called but if I think about it I will ask Ryan and post it later...

Here is a view of one of the many shopping districts in Bangkok. Also in view are two of the most common forms of transportation in the city: the moped and tuk-tuk. Tuk-tuks are pretty much three wheeled taxis while mopeds are mopeds. If you are up for a bit of excitment get a moped taxi from one end of the city to the other. Lane splitting ("making progress" in the UK) at it finest! And yes, they have 7-11 in Thailand too!

I only have another week and a half of work and then I head off to Thailand for vacation. In preparation I though I might post a few shots from my last trip. This is Bangkok who's real name is actually (ready?):

Krung Thep Maha Nakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udom Ratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanu Kamprasit

which means:

The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukam

So, much like my home town of Los Angeles, it is the City of Angles. Naturally this info was taken from Wikipedia! This photos shows the great contrasts found all throughout Thailand. Here we see huge sky scrappers next to run-down vendor shacks next to a burnt out building. From rich to poor to abandoned. It is a very interesting place.

This is the old castle of Sherborne. It's ruins are quite impressive. The new castle is basically an estate house and so not that interesting to me. The second image is the view of Sherborne town from the castle. Nice little place.

Here is the map I would keep at my desk and stare at while planning trips. The red lines indicate where I have been. The map itself is to scale but the roads are my best guess at the routes taken. I have a road atlas that I used with all the routes highlighted but this was a smaller, all of the UK on one page, version.

I was able to visit both Lands End and John O'Groats and have been all through East Anglia. I unfortunately missed northern Wales, the Lake District, Hadrian's wall, Dover, and loads of north west Scotland. Today my bike has 11250 miles bringing my summer total to 7350 miles! Not bad for just over three months of riding...