Riding around Chiang Rai and Doi Tung

We did our first multi-day trip last week. We joined up with a riding group in Chiang Rai, a small city about 3 hours north of here, for a 250 km loop through the fine countryside discovering yet another fantastic motorcycling road in the process. The 109 runs east-west between Fang and Mae Suai and is a biker's wet dream with abundant curves, smooth pavement, and superb views of the hills and farms below you when you dare to hazard a glance away from the road in front of you.  The only disadvantage to group rides is that we didn't want to stop to take pictures because we were traveling in a peloton of other motos and didn't want to hold up the whole group.  The unofficial leaders of the monthly rides are Marty and Woraphat Bullard of Chiang Rai Saddlebags. Their shop is a friendly gathering spot for like-minded folks, expats and Thais alike and offers reasonably priced motorcycle accessories and clothing in Chiang Rai town. (N19.90202 E99.81217)

Seeing as Chiang Rai is near another favorite destination, we stayed in town for a few extra days in order to return to the gardens at Doi Tung. We rode there on the next day with some new expat friends we met on the group ride, Bruce and Kathleen, from Boston.  We did stop to take photos on this ride. The rainy season has presented two unanticipated but welcome side-effects: cool temperatures and gorgeous clouds. I've posted other pictures of the gardens at Doi Tung and views from Route 1149, the road that hugs the hilly border between Myanmar and Thailand, but the fleecy clouds suspended over the rich green fields of Myanmar on this perfect day demanded a reprise. (See this earlier post  from 2010 for more.)

Views west toward Myanmar from Route 1149 (above and below)

Just before leaving the U.S. I read about and quickly purchased a polarizing filter for my Sony RX100 camera. One of the drawbacks of point & shoot cameras is that they have no way to add filters to the front of the lens. Unlike full size dSLRs, there are no screw threads in the lens mount. The Mag Filter comes with an adhesive ring that attaches to the front of the Sony's lens housing. This ring in turn holds the filter magnetically.  It's pretty cool, goes on and off the camera easily, and as you can see it does a wonderful job with clouds and skies. (Amazon: Mag Filter)

Nut and I at Doi Tung (N20.28714 E99.80961)

Nut has been wanting to see the famous Wat Rong Khun (วัดร่องขุ่น) aka the White Temple near Chiang Rai so on the way back we stopped in for a quick visit. It's a contemporary design by Thai artist Chalermchai Kositpipat built in 1997. Everything about this site is ornate, even the restrooms.

Wat Rong Khun - the White Temple

Public restrooms at Wat Rong Khun

Another place we both wanted to visit was the Boon Rawd Farm on Route 1211 just south of the city. Well, actually not the farm so much as its associated restaurant, Bhu Bhirom (N19.86236 E99.72982).  We chanced upon the farm on our trip to Chiang Rai last March.

The food was excellent although by the time we had tallied all and sundry, we had run the bill up to about $30 USD, a huge amount for a meal in Thailand. Of course, we had consumed three fancy drinks, a Crispy Tea Leaf Salad with Shrimp, their special Chicken Roasted with Garlic and, Nut's favorite farang food, a Grilled Pork Chop with all the trimmings. We also took home two bottles of their organic Mulberry Juice, a delicious blend of mulberry and lemon juices that for me was strongly reminiscent of a fine red wine.  We ordered too much food. We ended up taking almost the entire chicken home and eating it for supper. Is it any wonder Nut and I are together? Like most of my family, she always thinks ahead to the next meal even while eating the one in front of her. She fits right in.

Crispy Tea Leaf Salad at Bhu Bhirom

Garlic Chicken, Grilled Pork Chop at Bhu Bhirom

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Below are links to GPX files that detail our travels for those interested.

Chiang Rai Riders Group ride of September 10, 2013

Doi Tung Loop

Click on the file link and select Download from beneath the cleverly hidden "More" menu (those three blue dots), at the top right of the resulting page, browse to a folder or your desktop where you want to place the file and click on the Save button. You can open them with Google Earth or any other application that can display GPX files.

Route 3009 - a favorite ride

I first discovered this scenic byway when Nut and I traveled to the popular little hamlet of Pai a couple of years ago on the Phantom. My GPS was actually responsible for finding it because I asked it to take us to Pai by the "shortest route", rather then the usual setting of "fastest route". The quickest way to get there involves driving the traffic-choked Route 107 north to Route 1095, hanging a left and following that road to Pai for about three hours. Route 1095 is a pretty road in itself and is one I've occasionally mentioned before in this journal. Route 3009, the shortcut, traverses some very pretty farmland more or less diagonally between R 107 and R 1095. It shaves a couple of miles off the journey but is a slower ride and much more scenic than the faster route. Nut and I often drive out to a little coffee shop, Pankret Cafe, just for the fun of the ride.

Route 3009 (purple) shaves a few miles off the trip to Pai

The first few photos below have appeared in another post but I included them here because I like them so much. These scenes are from September of 2012. In order to see them best you should click on each to open in a new window. My newest camera, a Sony RX100 (which replaced my Canon G10), with its extra large sensor does an incredible job for such a small camera.

Rice field - Route 3009

Rice field - Route 3009

Rice field - Route 3009

Fast forward to August of this year and almost the first thing Nut and I did was hop on the bike and ride the 3009 for a visit to the Pankret Cafe.

It is still summer in Thailand yet the weather has been nicer than I expected. It is uncomfortably hot in the afternoons and it does rain almost every day, as you can tell from the dark clouds in the photos above, but when it does rain it cools things off nicely. Riding a motorcycle on cloudy days like these is a joy.

We had our coffee and took the obligatory photos of the beautiful orchids at the Pankret Cafe. I recently watched a Youtube video about fine photography and in it the hosts advised aspiring photographers never to include flower pictures in their portfolios because they're just too common a subject, and ahem, because all flowers are beautiful already. Even though orchids can be found literally everywhere in Thailand and despite the aforementioned sage advice to the contrary, I couldn't resist these beauties.

Oh, the new motorcycle arrived a few days ago too. It's a fantastic machine! It fits me much, much better then the CBR and it has power to spare. We've done a few rides already, the Samoeng Loop, another favorite, and a couple of mapping runs in the country north of here. I'll have more to say about the CB500X in future posts.

Danny, Ning (our landlord), me and Nut

From Alaska to Chiang Mai

Dateline: Chiang Mai

I'm back in Thailand with my dear friend Nut, quite a bit earlier than usual, and it's good to be back despite the heat. I was sitting here yesterday afternoon surfing the Internet and feeling glad to be indoors where the temperature was a comfortable 85 degrees while streetside it was pushing 100. My comfort was enhanced by a floor fan blowing directly on me, and being practically naked besides. We hardly ever use the aircon but our big fan runs all afternoon. Evenings and mornings are quite nice though and the rain, which at this time of year is an almost daily event, drops the outdoor temperature 15-20 degrees. Getting caught in a hard rain on a 40 degree day in Homer, especially on a motorbike, would be a life threatening experience while over here at 85 degrees, not so much. I must admit I love that rain.

My time in Homer was short this go-round but the summer was a record breaker in many respects, especially the weather. Warm sunny day followed warm sunny day in almost unprecedented succession. Nearby Anchorage set new records for high temperature posting several highs near 90 degrees and broke the record for most days with temperatures of 70 degrees or higher in the month of June. July continued that trend.

My first day back - Anchorage, May 18 - snow with wind and rain

May 20 - Kirk's yard is still brown

I arrived in Alaska on May 18th, obviously a trifle too early. My old buddy Kirk was in Kansas helping his parents remodel their home so he was away for six weeks during which I stayed in his beautiful little hideaway. As you can see, summer started slow. I was cold most of the time and spent a lot of time huddled in front of the oil heater trying to get warm. Things changed quickly though and by Memorial Day weekend we were basking in almost tropical, for Alaska, temperatures. The beautiful weather continued for the entire time I was there.

The path to Kirk's home 10 days later

July 21 - Kirk's yard in full summer dress

I drove around Homer and outskirts putting the finishing touches on my additions to the Open Street Map of the area and visited some places I'd known about forever but had never seen before. Beautiful Eagle Lake sits just a few yards north of Basargin Road but is hidden from view by trees and scrub. It's a true gem.

Eagle Lake (N59.82704 W151.13339)

A view north to Bear Cove across a placid Kachemak Bay

I haven't been in Bear Cove for many years but it looked so inviting it convinced me to try and make it back for another visit some time. This was one of only a few cloudy days we experienced all summer.

I also stayed a week or so at another friend's home while he was away building a new get-away cabin at Little Jakolof Bay. Dave lives in a 30 foot diameter yurt that has a fine view of Kachemak Bay and the Chugach Mountains beyond.

View from Dave's yurt

I was treated so very warmly by my many friends that it made me realize all over again that I still have roots in Homer and that I'll be returning for summers until, well, just until....

My last day was extra special. I had lunch with Janelle, a favorite tennis partner who bested me many times on the courts and whom I hadn't seen for years. It was wonderful to get to see her and catch each other up on our adventures since she moved away from Homer. Afterward I played a farewell tennis match with Homer buddies Mary Ann and Chuck.

The day ended with a gala going away party staged by my partners at Alaska Boats & Permits. The food was perfect as was the weather. And as always, I came away feeling both humbled and lucky to have been somehow blessed with such a fine collection of close friends and colleagues.

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After a too short visit with my son Tuli and grandson Harper in Eugene I arrived in Chiang Mai on August 4th. As soon as I got back I cashed in the stash of American money I had brought along and put a down payment on a new motorcycle, a 2013 Honda CB 500X. I know I've written with fondness about the bike I have now, my CBR 250, and it is indeed a fine bike for Thailand but riding two-up on the hills, with all our gear, is a bit of a struggle that demands running the smallish 250 cc engine at 7-8,000 RPM much of the time. Plus, riding in the semi-sporty posture this bike imposes tires my wrists when driving in the city with the constant shifting and braking required. With these factors in mind I decided it was time to move up to a more comfortable, more powerful bike with higher low-end torque and a wider power band.

Honda CB 500X

This model was introduced in early 2013 and is powered by a parallel-twin 500 cc (actually 470 cc) engine that is closely related to the single-cylinder 250 on my bike. It only comes in matte black and, to my mind at least, an unattractive white-red color combo. I chose black. The X model, there are also R and F models, is the so called cross-touring style and allows for a more upright seating position. That should take the pressure off my wrists. The bike is bigger overall than my CBR at 430 lb vs 360 lb with a seat height of 32 in vs 30.5 in. The one-piece seat is more generous than that of the sportier "R" series bikes too and that should suit Nut better. I'll do a road report after I get the bike and tell you more about it then.

It's inevitable that I compare life in Chiang Mai with life in Homer. Before retirement I had often wondered just how I was going to handle my passion for tennis, a summer sport, and my love for my adopted home in Alaska. I seem to have found a way to accommodate both of these needs by living in Thailand part-time. Unlike our neighbor and good friend Danny, who left the U.S. last year after retirement and has never looked back, I am always torn when I transition from one home to another. I reckon that's just my nature. I've never been good at making decisions.

The gardens at San Kampaeng Hot Springs
(N18.81570 E99.22811)

Danny and Nut on the road to San Kampaeng

Nut and me at our apartment on Siriton Road, Chiang Mai

Now that I'm back and have some new stuff to talk about, I'll probably be writing a bit more often. I'm back to full health after my aortic valve replacement operation in April. I'm feeling fit as a fiddle and have a lot of my old energy back. In hindsight, the operation was much easier than I had thought going in to it. I was playing tennis exactly one month after having my heart stopped and the faulty valve replaced. Ah, the wonders of modern medicine! Nevertheless, I'm glad it's over.

Open Heart Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic

This a post about heart surgery. I wrote much of it when I was staying with my sister Sandy at her place in Olcott on Lake Ontario. Here's a view toward Toronto at sunset a few days ago. For those of you who prefer pictures over words, I'll include this photo and then get on with the wordy part of the post.

Lake Ontario Sunset

At this point, three weeks post-op, I'm happy to say that I'm back to blogging and back on track for continued good health thanks to aortic valve replacement surgery I recently underwent at the Cleveland Clinic. I can't say enough about the fantastic treatment I received from every single person in that organization, from greeters and housekeepers through nurses and physicians. I was so impressed with the employees' level of dedication and competence that I want to sing their praises to anybody who will listen. If you're not familiar with the circumstances that took me to the Clinic for heart surgery, you can read this blog post from last summer.

The Cleveland Clinic Guesthouse where we stayed

Sandy and I drove from Buffalo to Cleveland on Sunday the 21st of April for my aortic valve replacement (AVR) surgery scheduled for the 23rd. We stayed at the Cleveland Clinic Guesthouse which was reasonably priced and had a great restaurant downstairs, the Chicago Deli. The entire day of the 22nd was set aside for getting a chest x-ray, an EKG, echocardiogram, lung volume measurement, and blood tests. It culminated in a visit with Dr. Douglas Johnston, the surgeon who had picked up my case. I don't know how these cases are dealt out to the docs at the CC; all I know is that after I sent my records to the Clinic last summer a note came back by email telling me Dr. Johnston had offered to perform a minimally invasive AVR operation.

I quickly Googled both the technique and the doc's name. "Minimally invasive" sounded good because for it the breastbone is cut only about 4 inches to gain access to the aortic valve, which sits on top of the heart. The more common technique, the gold standard in open heart surgery, cuts through the entire breastbone from top to bottom. The rib cage is then hauled apart with clamps to allow unfettered access to the entire heart muscle. This is the sort of operation necessary for CABG (bypass) surgery or to operate on any of the other heart valves. As for Dr. Johnston -- his credentials were impressive and I learned he does over 100 AVRs every year. Most people who have OHS want to meet their surgeon and get to know him before trusting him with their lives. Considering I was to come to Cleveland more or less directly from Thailand, that wasn't possible in my case. I had to assume that he would turn out to be someone I could relate to.

Dr. Douglas Johnston

At the very end of the long day Monday I finally met Dr. Johnston. He was a friendly, soft spoken man, with the sort of haircut we would have called "collegiate" in the old days, and delicate looking hands, surgeon's hands I hoped. We had a chat and briefly discussed my options regarding whether to have surgery or not. Although we both knew the decision had already been made, this conversation was required along with my signed acknowledgment of the risks and details of the surgery ahead. I signed on the line and we continued our talk.

One measure of valvular stenosis, which is the stiffening of the valve that was affecting me, is obtained from echocardiogram tests.  It is called the mean pressure gradient and is expressed in mm of mercury (mm/Hg), a number directly proportional to the amount of energy it takes to push blood through the valve. Lower numbers are good, higher numbers bad. Coupled with the valve area, which is usually reduced because stenotic valves do not fully open, a qualitative measure of the severity of the stenosis can be derived. Normal gradients are in the range of 3-5 mm/Hg and normal aortic valve are roughly 3 sq. cm. in area. Mild stenosis is anything not exceeding 25 mm/Hg. Severe stenosis involves a mean gradient greater than 40 mm/Hg and a valve area of 1 sq. cm. or less. These last numbers characterize my valve situation when I entered the Clinic. My aortic valve was only opening 1 sq. cm., about 1/3 as much as it should, and my mean pressure gradient was just over 50 mm/Hg. This makes it very hard for the heart to deliver adequate oxygen to the rest of the body. The valve that controls the flow of freshly oxygenated blood is too constricted to be able to do its job properly.

In discussing my options Johnston told me that statistically people having my numbers eventually reach a point where mild physical exertion causes lightheadedness or even fainting and at that point I would have only a 50% chance of surviving another 3 years. I wasn't quite there yet but had already noted a reduction in endurance when playing tennis and riding my bike. Several friends upon hearing about my diagnosis last summer pooh-poohed the idea of heart surgery. They're just trying to drum up business, they claimed. In my mind, I never doubted I needed the surgery.

Next we discussed the type of valve I'd receive. Dr. Johnston recommended a newer model from St Jude Medical, the Trifecta valve, a combination porcine and bovine tissue valve that he's used extensively for the past year or so. The Trifecta  exhibited a high degree of reliability over a simulated 15 year test period (600 million cycles), has a high throughput rate and, because it's made from natural tissues, requires no blood thinners. I knew I would get some sort of tissue valve and I had no reason to prefer one over another so that's the one I ended up with.

Later that evening my daughter Carin arrived. She had driven up from North Carolina to be there during my surgery.  I was ready for the next day now that I had my support staff in place.

The big day started out in the nursing pre-op center on the first floor of the main cardiac center at the clinic. The aide who prepped me was very nice and after she learned I had come from Alaska via Thailand for my surgery, she started bringing her girlfriends in to visit the exotic guy in 2A. Who doesn't enjoy a little taste of celebrity whether deserved or not? I had some good fun talking with them about my travels and my life in Thailand. But reality soon intruded on our little gab fest.

It was a surreal journey to the operating room. I said goodbye to my daughter and sister and was wheeled away through stainless steel corridors and a stainless steel elevator to the operating room, a brightly lit and chilly room full of people and equipment. There I lay supine on my little gurney, the person for whom this technology and effort was being marshaled and the focus of all the energy in that room. It was a weird feeling. My mind was racing through various scenarios and outcomes until someone placed an oxygen mask over my mouth and asked me to take some deep breaths.

I woke up 5 hours later in the ICU. A nurse whose name tag read Cheryl said hello and asked how I felt. I signaled okay with a thumbs-up and then slipped back into semi-consciousness. Something was stuck in my throat and it felt awful. Try as I might I simply could not swallow. And I was stuck like a pin cushion with IVs, electrical leads, a drain tube in my chest and a catheter in my you-know-what. I couldn't swallow and I couldn't move. It was the most uncomfortable moment of the whole deal -- I felt so constrained and claustrophobic I wanted to scream. The feeling passed but it was never far away until those tubes came out. After a while my sister and daughter were allowed to come in to see me and soon after that the breathing tube was removed. If I never have to use one of those things again it will be just fine, thank you.

Later I scanned the surgeon’s report where I read that after I was fully anesthetized  “the upper sternum was opened and the thymus divided; the pericardium was opened and the heart and great vessels exposed …” And, “the aorta was cross-clamped and the heart arrested with a single dose of cold blood Del Nido cardioplegia antegrade. After adequate diastolic arrest the aorta was opened and a heavily calcified bicuspid valve excised … after debriding the annulus, a 27 mm Trifecta sizer was a snug fit. The valve seated well. The aortotomy was closed.”

Phew! A lot of big words having big implications. That was my heart being "arrested", my aorta he's talking about and my valve that was being "excised". I'm very glad to say I made it through all that.

After an overnight stay in the ICU I was wheeled upstairs to a very modern private room where I spent the next few days getting my strength back. My diet of drugs was extensive and included aspirin (blood thinner), acetaminophen (pain), colace (stool softener), Pacerone (heart rhythm regulator), Lasix (diuretic), heparin (blood thinner), lidocaine (pain), Lopressor (beta blocker), Protonix (proton pump inhibitor to prevent acid reflux), potassium chloride, tramodol (pain), and last but not least, a patient controlled device to administer Fentanyl to control pain and help me sleep. Fentanyl is about 100x more potent than morphine according to Wikipedia and I used 36 cc of it while I was there. Pretty good stuff!

A room at the Cleveland Clinic

Spotless corridor at Cleveland Clinic

I knew the mini-sternotomy would be less severe than the standard op, as I've said, but it was apparently a whole lot less severe judging by the folks I saw on my floor who had got the full treatment. They were walking gingerly as though their incisions still hurt quite a bit. In my case, the pain was never serious and after a couple of days the Fentanyl pump was removed along with the catheter and I was encouraged to get up and walk about. I took some of the tramodol a couple of times the third day post-op and then quit the pain meds entirely. My chest was tender but not enough to keep me awake. I slept a ton while in the hospital.

I had one minor complication that I've been told is quite common. Atrial fibrillation is an irregular heartbeat that can cause serious problems if left untreated. Fortunately, mine was corrected in a few hours though the use of the drugs Lopressor and Pacerone which help regulate and control heart arrhythmia and fibrillation. Of the drugs I was getting just after surgery, those are the only ones I'm still taking.

I'm in Eugene now and will be back in Alaska next week. I can't play tennis for a few more weeks to allow my chest to heal fully but the doctor told me to feel free to do any sort of exercise I want as soon as I was up to it, aerobic, whatever. He said, "Once we re-start a heart it either works or it doesn't. There's no in between."

Amen.

Cleveland Clinic Rooftop Patient Lounge

The Cleveland Clinic opened its doors on Feb. 28, 1921. It was a new kind of medical center for the times: a not-for-profit group practice, dedicated to patient care enhanced by research and education.

Cleveland Clinic pioneered the world's first cine-coronary angiography, first published coronary artery bypass (CABG) surgery (1967), and the first successful larynx transplant and first near-total face transplant took place there. In addition to many other achievements  the first minimally invasive AVR, the kind I got, was performed there. In other words, the Clinic pioneered the very surgical technique I had the other day.

The main campus of the Cleveland Clinic consists of 41 buildings situated on a campus of more than 140 acres in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. It was ranked as the fourth best hospital in America for complex and demanding situations according to recent U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Hospitals report and has been ranked number one for cardiac care for 16 years in a row.  This is the primary reason I chose Cleveland Clinic for my surgery. The Clinic is the largest private employer in northeast Ohio, and the third largest in the state of Ohio, with over 36,000 employees all over the United States and revenues exceeding $4.4 billion annually. It has over 1200 beds and admits about 50,000 patients every year, patients from all 50 states and all around the world.

It is an awesome hospital. Of course, I'm biased.

My room is in there somewhere

Note (August 2013): The full cost of my surgery and 6-day hospital stay was a mind boggling $220,000! I count myself fortunate to have Medicare, which paid 80% of that, and supplemental insurance from the State of Alaska that I received when I worked for the City of Homer back in the 90s, which paid the rest.

Last scribblings from Thailand

We did a big tour, my last motorcycle trip of the season, last week. We had intended to drive over to one of my favorite areas, Lake Phayao, stay a night or two, and return. But the weather was so fine and the scenery so beautiful we decided instead to go on up to Chiang Rai. Plus, I wanted to map as much new territory as I could. We have a new friend, Daniel, a recently minted expat from Maine who has taken up residence in Chiang Mai. We met last year through our mutual friend Albert and corresponded over the intervening months about living in Thailand. Danny has made a firm commitment to living here already. Like many expats, he can afford to retire and live better here than he can in the U.S. on his retirement income. Anyway, he was able to get an apartment in our little residence and since then we've become very compatible neighbors. He recently bought a 150cc Honda PCX and readily accepted an invite to go on tour with us.

On the way to Phayao - Tantong Waterfall on Route 120
(N19.06982667, E99.72897833)

After a wonderful cruise we reached Phayao, checked in to a nice hotel and took a quick ride around the lake as sunset was coming on. It's always a lovely ride and this one was no exception. We spotted an old Thai who was harvesting seaweed. We had a chat with him via Nut, our interpreter, and learned that he owns a fish farm and uses the seaweed to feed his fish, which are almost ready for market.

Fisherman - Lake Phayao

Seaweed harvester - Lake Phayao

Sunset at fish farm

The historic Kwan Phayao Stupa House in Phayao is being refurbished

Next morning at Nut's urging we visited a temple in Phayao city, Wat Sri Khom Kham (N19.17672000, E99.88981167), that turned out to be very special. I've driven by this one many times but always on the way to somewhere else. Thailand must have 10,000 wats scattered throughout the country and after a while one just stops noticing them. (Correction: Actually, there are more than 40,000 wats in Thailand. See this Wikipdia article.)

Reclining Buddha

Enclosed in a walled garden near the temple itself is a collection of statues unlike any I had ever seen before. Nut told us these were meant to remind people that if you do bad things in this life, you will suffer bad things in your next life. Whatever, much of the statuary was fantastical, grotesque.

 

Tormented souls

We found a new to us cafe near our hotel where they make a delicious latte and decorated it in exquisite style. Aptly named The Coffee, it's located on the corner of Chaykwan and Thakwan Roads.

Latte from "The Coffee"

 We made an excursion to a couple of parks north of Phayao that afternoon before heading to Chiang Rai. Mae Puem N.P. and its nearly empty reservoir are shown below.

The Mae Puem Reservoir at low ebb - in need of a refill from the April rains

We took the long way to Chiang Rai going northeast to the Phu Sang Waterfall almost at the Loatian border before turning west. This waterfall, a popular tourist spot for Thais, runs hot at about 35 deg C (95 degrees F) which is why I wanted to see it. It was beautiful but crowded so we ate a quick lunch across the road and took off.

Phu Sang Waterfall (N19.66353 E100.37622)

We spent two nights in Chiang Rai. The intervening day was taken up with a trip to the Golden Triangle. Nut and I had been there earlier this season but Danny hadn't, so off we went. This is the point, actually in the middle of the Mekong River, where Myanmar (Burma), Thailand and Laos meet, which is famous because it was a major drug trafficking center years ago (for all I know it still is).

Chang (aka: Dave) and Chang at the Golden Triangle
(N20.35320 E100.08259)

We drove back to Chiang Mai the next day. The heat in the afternoons is getting intense as summer closes in. Riding in full motorcycling regalia in that heat gets uncomfortable so we doused our clothing with water several times on the way home. The "coolth" lasts about 20-30 minutes and for that time driving at 50 mph is quite refreshing. One of our favorite stopping places along Route 118 overlooks a small river. Danny and I waded in and flopped in the cool water.

Getting cool on the way to Chiang Mai
(N18.96639 E99.24110)

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Even though mapping bores most of my friends to tears, it is still the thing that gets me out of the house and keeps my mind from straying too much to the heart surgery. And I'll continue with it until I leave Thailand. We've had a run of beautiful weather for the past few weeks — cool and often cloudy and not at all typical for this time of year — positively fantastic motorcycling. Tomorrow morning I'll stick the GPS in its mount, make sure my camera battery is fully charged, and off I'll go, exploring, and mapping. The rural countryside surrounding Chiang Mai is truly lovely. Again and again I'm reminded of rides in the country around Buffalo we used to do when I was a teenager. Being a city boy, I always loved being out in farm country with the smell of new cut alfalfa coming in the open windows of my dad's old '55 Ford Victoria. Oddly enough, these trips remind me of those days.

I've written two posts about mapping and they have widely different numbers of page views (hits). Blogger, a Google product that I am using for this blog, makes it easy to track various statistics. My last post, on Feb 12th, about a Mapping Run to Lamphun, has only been viewed about 50 times. The first one, Mapmaking 101, which talks about the Homer area among other things, has had 320 hits to date (posted Dec 12).

I've almost finished my Homer area mapping projects. The two main focal points were downtown and the end of East End Road although I hit almost every road in the Homer-Diamond Ridge area. Using the Bing imagery I've got pretty much everything straightened around and with the help of Tiger data and my memory, most of the roads named. You can see an overview using the two links below. You may zoom in and out using your mouse wheel or by using the "+" or "-" on the dashboard at the right.

Homer downtown

East End Road terminus

To continue in that vein for a moment: some of my other scribblings have been fairly widely read. It's gratifying to know that people are reading what I write. The posts about Africa top the popularity chart with, at this point, about 3600 hits each for the Zambezi rafting and the Ngorongoro Serengeti screeds.

Ranking below those, one about Phnom Penh and carrying pictures of some beautiful bar girls has had almost 2000 hits (Feb 2010), while one I did in October of 2010 after returning to Thailand and Nut has surprisingly garnered 1000 hits.  And this one, about my visit to Bilbao in 2009, has had 1200 hits. I cannot for the life of me understand that one.

Other popular posts include: one about Vespas, with 950 hits, Dirtfish Rally School, with about 830, and two about the CBR250 , Maiden Voyage and Riding the Honda CBR250, each have about 850 hits.

One drawback to having a blog that is more widely read is the spam it attracts. I had to start moderating comments because I'm getting 3 or 4 every day that are designed to get my readers to visit commercial sites. So if you want to leave a comment you'll have to wait for me to approve it before you see it on the screen.

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It's getting close to the time when I'll be leaving Thailand for the summer. This year is different though because of what awaits me back in the states. I'm scheduled for aortic valve replacement (AVR) surgery on April 23rd and it's finally getting to me. Everything is in place, the paperwork transmitted to the Cleveland Clinic, and I have a very experienced surgeon who has offered  "minimally invasive AVR" instead of the standard operation that involves splitting the chest completely. He does about 120 of these operations a year so I reckon I will be in good hands during the ordeal. Still, it's daunting to say the least, especially for one who has never seen the inside of an O.R. except on TV.

Friends are telling me to look on the bright side, to think ahead to the time when I'll have improved endurance, to be thankful that my condition can be solved by modern medical science. I have done that for the most part. Wasn't it just the other day that I was writing about how good my life felt, how happy and content I was? Things are looking decidedly bleaker now that the operation is only a few weeks off. I'm surely gonna miss my easy life over here.