Here’s another beautiful elephant moment in Thailand: the elephant is blind:

And they also make music, as you’ll learn from National Geographic.

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And here’s a reminder about riding scooters in Thailand:

Riding a motorcycle or scooter in Thailand comes with unique responsibilities and dangers. Scooters are wonderful in traffic but they have 4 drawbacks:

• You’re vulnerable to any mistakes in road design and construction.
• No matter what or who you hit, you lose.
• They’re a bitch in the rain.
• Range.

1. Road design, construction and maintenance create hazards.

• Lethal obstacles are often built into Thai roads. My favorite? Where freeways cross an overpass, they build raised footpaths out into the motorcycle lane – withno warning. These deathtraps freaked me out until I learned to anticipate them.
• Though roads are well maintained, safety is casual. A Thai friend was killed riding her motorcycle home in the rain when she hit an unmarked pothole on a main street.
• I slid off because someone  spilled cooking oil around a curve.

So understand the physical situation and be far more vigilant than at home.

2. No matter what or whom you hit, you lose.

You already know that you’re much more vulnerable on two wheels than on four. But driving anything in Thailand carries an additional responsibility: you pay all costs for an accident. Because you’re a farang you are rich and the rule here is that the party with more money pays the costs. (If you have first-class insurance, even your insurance company will agree to pay, despite your innocence) If you are clearly not at fault and there’s been no injury, either leave the scene asap or offer the other driver a 1,000 Baht note ($33), apologize, and drive off.

When an old Thai on a motorcycle drove along the curb past stopped traffic, straight through a stop light, he hit me hard. Bystanders wanted to call the cops so I would be forced to pay for the accident. To his credit, the gentleman waved them off, but commonly, people you collide with will refuse responsibility. Thais’ main goal is to prove that they were not responsible for the accident (or anything, it seems sometimes). 1,000 baht is usually sufficient to prove that they’re correct.

3. Bikes and scooters are a bitch in the rain.

Thailand’s rainy season makes motorcycling a watersport. You’ll need a poncho, which can be had for as little as $2 in many shops, that has high visibility and you’ll need plenty of tread on your tires. And, of course, you’ll need to drive very cautiously. It’s a white-knuckle experience that’s best avoided. I simply follow elderly Thai drivers. They’ve been doing it all their lives.

4. Mileage Vs. Range

Exhilarated by the fact that your scooter gets 98 miles to the gallon, you set off for a pretty village 40 miles away. After a beautiful day in the mountains you head home and, along the way, discover that you’re running low on fuel. Of course, gas stations have disappeared and there’s no sign of another one. How could this be happening when the scooter gets such great mileage? Simple: its tank holds as little as 1 gallon of gasoline. So…top up your tank whenever it drops below half. A backup plan: most country stores sell gasoline. Yep, in beer bottles, for a couple of bucks. Just ask for N̂ảmạnbensin pord while pointing plaintively to your gas tank and you’ll soon be back in the saddle.

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When clients ask about apartments in Chiang Mai I recommend visiting Hillside 3 as a reference. It’s affordable and in a handy location.

Once you’ve done that, here are some helpful apartment renting sites:

• Chiang Mai Open Realty
• Perfect Homes
• Buy Rent Chiang Mai
• Realtor Chiang Mai
• Parker’s
• Chiang Mai Properties

Keith Allen found an apartment he likes and here’s what he has to say about it:

“Godfree, I wanted to write you about my new apartment. I imagine you have people asking you about possible living quarters. I want to suggest they look at and seriously  consider Ping View Apts.  www.pingview.com    I have a 900 sq ft apartment with dual views. I have an unbelievable 4th floor view, through the huge smoked glass windows, of Doi Suthep (I’ll attach some pictures also). Through the front panel of windows I have a view of the flood control lock on the Ping River. At night the lights are absolutely beautiful as they reflect off of the shimmering water. I am also only about 10 minutes away from Old Town and even closer to the Hang dong Big C if I take the first inner ring Hwy. – the exit being about a mile away. Being about 1 mile from the inner ring Hwy puts me in striking distance of almost anywhere in Chiang Mai in very short order.  As they say; Location, location, location. Read more…

More than location are the amenities here at Ping View. Daniel and his wife live on site so everything is constantly maintained. There is a swimming pool and a small exercise room.  Daniel has designed this to be retirement friendly if you so desire. The door fob opener I received has my  floor pre-programmed in it for the elevator service. I just pop in the elevator and put the fob against the receiver and I’m whisked to my floor. I have twice a week maid service and free internet included. I thought by looking at the building that I would never be able to afford an apt here. It is about the same cost as a lower cost house in Old Town.

The reason I wanted to let you know about this place is not because I’ll receive some money or rent for promoting Ping View. I just think a job well done deserves to be praised and promoted.

– Keith

PS:  You can also say that I spend less than 15,000 Bt a month. My apartment is also in the middle range of square footage. I know there is an apartment that is on the same floor as mine and about 1500 less. I also know on the sixth floor there some apartments are much larger. I can’t say enough good things about the owner and his wife. there was a knock on my door about 930 this morning. There stood the owner and his daughter with a couple of hot scones for me. I’m sitting here at my desk looking down at the lock on the Ping River and then turn my head 45° to the left and I have a beautiful view of Doi Suthep. I’m also about equal distance between the clouds and the Earth which makes for a spectacular view of storm clouds.  All this, and the other amenities I noted, for less than $500 a month.

Here’s a typical Hillside 3 apartment:

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