Vacation footage 2017 (Thailand)

[dash riposki]

Most people go on vacation to get away from the problems of 'work', somehow, I've got it screwed up.
I end up in a country where the driving is totally insane.\
To top it off, the airlines LOST my checked bags, totally EFFING up my trip, and delaying me for a day in a city I have no reason to stay in beyond checking out a rental car and getting the F out of there, but 'somebody' helped themselves to one mobius, and a zip lock bag of used memory cards, as well as a few new 64gb cards, as well as my card reader.
Hey, dummy, did you miss the NEW dash cams in OEM boxes in the same bag, heading toward friends?


Anyway, the thefts really screwed me up, and I'm struggling to save files I want to.

Here's a few 'gems' with more on the way.

This is a mountain road in Nan Province, and the pickup and occcupant are parked in rock slide area, and the signs say 'Don't stop here, danger, rock slides', so it must be a good place for a selfie?

 

[DT MI]

...
To top it off, the airlines LOST my checked bags, totally EFFING up my trip, and delaying me for a day in a city I have no reason to stay in beyond checking out a rental car and getting the F out of there, but 'somebody' helped themselves to one mobius, and a zip lock bag of used memory cards, as well as a few new 64gb cards, as well as my card reader....

Man, that really SUX. Hope the rest of your trip goes better.

 

[dash riposki]

8% downgrade, twisty mountain road. For some reason, I didn't feel safe staying in the vicinity of this truck.

 

[Mozzie]

Dangerous stuff in Thailand. Overloaded trucks, cars overtaking on blind corners and bikers riding with more than 2 people and not wearing helmets. No wonder they have one of the worst road fatality rates.

 

[dash riposki]

And traffic sucks

 

[dash riposki]

Here's one from last night in Loei. The pickup uses the motorcycle lane to run the redlight.

 

[dash riposki]

And this is what you need to expect on dark roads at night.

No, that is not my voice in the beginning of the video, and she has no idea what she was saying or if it was a surprised exclamation of some sort.

 

[dash riposki]

An overloaded sugar cane truck on HWY 210 in Nong Bua Lamphu province. I think there are two sugar processing plants on this road, maybe 20-30 km apart. During harvesting season you can't avoid these trucks, who go as slow as 15 mph. This guy was loaded pretty tall, and can't find the video where he barely cleared the 'Welcome to NBL Province' sign/banner over the road a few minutes earlier.
Of course, you always have a bus passing. The buses are dangerous here, the 'minivans' more so. (Intercity high speed passenger vans that are roughly the size of 'full' sized US vans)

 

[Harsh]

Enjoy your trip and the madness!

 

[kamkar]

And keep your windows up or say goodbye to that NAV unit soon, snatch and grab full metal jacket style

 

[dash riposki]

It's an old, $100 item I didn't use much in the US, and is almost worthless in Thailand with the aftermarket map database.
I usually take it off of the windshield when we're away from the car.
I liked the rental car, a Toyota Innova Crista, but the angled windshield and horrific a-pillar set up is a problem for various reasons. You have the 'glare' problem, and the 'a' and 'b' pillar setup up is a bit wierd, but leaves a little porthole that would be a good place for side cams on both sides.

The car ran good, and had plenty of headroom but not enough legroom for giants. I had to lean the drivers seat back to drive the damn thing...which probably created the 'a-b' pillar problem. (Seemed to block a dangerously wide swath of my vision to each side)


The other annoying thing was the overly complex audio system, which somebody had set the tonal range to 100% distortion, and was virtually unusable for a few days until I could figure out how to change the language from thai to english, and access the menu.
(No manual in car)

 

[dash riposki]

This was lurking at the back door the other night. I had just walked through there in bare feet a few times.
My thai friend said something like 'that not scorpion. We eat scorpion. I not eat like that before.'
(So must not be a scorpion if hasn't appeared on the menu...)





(Not deadly, but painful)

 

[dash riposki]

One thing I noticed, or my thai friend pointed out, is at least on the back roads, some thai truck drivers will signal you it's ok to pass. (No oncoming traffic)
Most large trucks in thailand seemed to be underpowered and/or overloaded, so some of the speeds you see them doing on any upgrade can approach single digits.

 

[dash riposki]

Wat Tham Erawan village in Nong Bua Lamphu, during morning hours.

The 'beep' is the seat belt buzzer.

 

[thancam]

This was lurking at the back door the other night. I had just walked through there in bare feet a few times.
My thai friend said something like 'that not scorpion. We eat scorpion. I not eat like that before.'
(So must not be a scorpion if hasn't appeared on the menu...)


View attachment 29179


(Not deadly, but painful)

It must be a scorpion or i doubt they feed you something else. Maybe a ****roaches or a crickets ? )

 

[dash riposki]

If I don't recognize it, I don't eat it. Sometimes when I recognize it, I don't eat it, but the dogs will.




That said, most food here I like, but I avoid some things.

I had some spicy rice noodle soup with veggies, tofu and pork (I think!) this morning. I don't do 'tofu', the meat was not something that looked familiar, the soup tasted good, and the dogs were happy to have the tofu and other meatlike substance when I was done.

 

[dash riposki]

When I am here I come through this area usually every day. Smallish village, busy convenience store/gas station on the right I am going to turn into.
It doesn't matter how fast/slow I am going, somebody always passes me in the median.

 

[dash riposki]

Since we have some construction materials being stored on the porch, I threw an old mobius 'A' up in the front window in case something grew 'legs'.

Here are the 'forest' monks collecting food on our back street. (the local resident monks only hit the main street)

 

[dash riposki]

Now two 'roadblocks', the first a 'temple dog', who may be deaf, blind, or something. (Other than so ugly he is kind of cute)
I couldn't get near him when feeding scraps to the other dogs, and it appeared to be normal, but 'shy'.
When I was driving out it seems he couldn't tell where the car was.

Then one of the many police checkpoints you come across in thailand, most un-manned. They can be Police, Army, border police, probably dog catchers, also.

 

[dash riposki]