I hate traveling. I do because I’m usually the type who likes to know exactly what my schedule is. Granted there are factors such as weather, traffic and the occasional diarrhea which is beyond human control, there is this thing about going somewhere where if I’m not the person controlling the vehicle, it would be as discomforting as going somewhere posh and forgetting to wear underwear.
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Having to wake up at 2.45am, preparing to catch a flight just makes it worse; add forgetting your wallet to that underwear. Still, the flight was uneventful and AirAsia even rewarded us by landing in Chiang Mai Airport 10 minutes ahead of schedule. I even got to enjoy a “complete” nasi lemak meal on board (Chef Wan, eat your heart out).
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Upon arrival, we’re ushered to the immigration counters where the officers, like anyone working at the immigration counters anywhere in the world looked like they haven’t had sex for decades and begrudgingly stamped your passport with an expression not so different from how my boss would stare at me if I disturbed him with something trivial. Passing the counters, the baggage carousel is next and unlike other airports I’ve been to, there’s a counter that hands out free SIM cards for travellers. Pretty convenient as the SIM cards were just laid out for anyone to take – so convenient that I wonder how does the government here track any criminal who uses the line for illicit use. We have free SIM cards at LCCT International arrivals too but they’re all kept in glass shelves and each traveller who wants one needs to fill up a form first.
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At any rate, the best way to mitigate this insecurity of mine when traveling is to put a steering wheel in my hands, of course. Which is what we did when we arrive at the airport. Somehow, what was supposed to be the new Toyota Vios became a Honda Jazz and considering we had considerable luggage for 15 family members coming here to attend a family member’s wedding, there was initial doubt as to whether the boot space of 3 Jazz could accommodate all our gear.
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Vehicle indemnity forms I’ve signed a plenty …. but this is the first time I don’t exactly know what I’m putting my signature on
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It surprisingly did and before long, we were off to an adventure I will never forget.
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The most immediate thing you would notice when driving on Thai roads is that Toyota reigns supreme here. Anywhere and everywhere, you’d find Hilux, Fortuners and of course, the ubiquitous 13-seater Commuter. With an estimated population of 68 million, transportation is a big thing here and last year, the total industry volume of vehicles sold is 2.45 million; Imagine that we’re selling just a quarter of that number. If you think Malaysia is so great as a hub, well think again. Thailand’s domestic market alone is enough so sustain its operation whereas we would need to rely on exports if we are to see greater FDI in the automotive sector.
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There aren’t many lorries around here …. who needs them when payloads like this can be loaded onto pick-ups. Those are garlic by the way ….
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The advantage Malaysia has over Thailand is that we have greater political stability and so far, no crippling floods in Malaysia that could disrupt production and exports. Furthermore, as Malaysians are more well-versed in English compared to Thais, training, development and establishing a central distribution hub in (South East) Asia is a lot easier compared to Indonesia and Thailand. In other words, if the government is committed, we could very well attract the main parts suppliers traditionally operating in Thailand (who suffered greatly during the major floods in Bangkok area) to set up a plant in Malaysia as well as developing domestic spare parts Bumiputra and non-Bumis, training skilled and semi-skilled workers and provide a more conducive business environment for automakers to operate from. For this to happen, the AP system, which rewards a select few and discourages a more comprehensive manufacturing and marketing channel has to go. That, I believe would be the measure of serious they are in making a change here.
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One of the biggest setback we have is the relatively poor fuel quality compared to Thailand. We’re still on Euro 2 but Thailand has long adapted Euro 4 which allows more advance engines to be made and imported. Our fuels are at least 4 times cheaper though based on current exchange rate of almost 10:1. What I had not realised prior to this trip is that there’s no RON97 here; Only RON91 and RON95 is sold here. Wait, we have RON97 and it’s still cheaper than their RON91? How come?
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RON vs Euro 2/3/4/etc
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The most obvious reason is the fact that Thailand imports fuel whereas we produce them. But if we take a hypothetical situation where both countries produce oil, would the price still be the same? Not quite. RON refers to Research Octane Number which is the fuel’s knocking resistance (premature ignition of air+fuel before spark arrives. Could be caused by an overheated engine, carbon build-up, faulty spark plug and a myriad of other ignition related reasons). The higher the number, the better the fuel at not burning too soon. Euro grade (like Grade 2M in Malaysia vs Thailand’s Grade 4) relates to emission where the higher the number, the lower the emission and is often regarded as how clean the fuel is. If your car has an appetite for high Octane fuel rating (like minimum RON98 in the old Swift Sports, pop in a few Octane booster additives to our fuel tank and it’ll work. Even if you have a full fledge drug lab in your house, you can’t really do much improving the fuel burn emission level so yeah, that kinda suck. Those using turbocharged engines would have less depollution issues if we had Euro 4.
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Red Bull? Who needs them when one can have this! Instant diabetes in a can.
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Anyways, back to the trip. There aren’t many tall buildings in Chiang Mai. The most notable feature about the city is it has a central ‘square’ road which outlines what at first appears to be a river but is actually a moat of the old city. The closest feeling I have driving around here is like a more congested Ipoh, Perak. Understandably, there are no MyVis (not even Daihatsu) but surprisingly, the most popular B segment hatchbacks seem to be the Suzuki Swift this far north of Thailand. Even the Jazz takes the backseat here but that’s mainly because the Thais have a choice of choosing it or the hybrid-fuel-consumption-but-not-a-hybrid 1.2litre Brio eco-car.
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The other compact car that seems to be very popular here is the Mazda 2. And motorcycle users exercise their right to use their roads far more than us back home. Instead of inching as close as possible to side lines of the street, Chiang Mai 2-wheelers occupy about a quarter of the left lane, making regular 4-wheel drivers crossing the middle line of the street if they want to overtake. And not single horn was heard in the entire journey of mine heading even further north.
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You know you’re either far from civilisation or away from Malaysia when ‘cow’ signs are replaced with these elephants
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Our destination is Chai Prakan, approximately 120km north of Chiang Mai. The road condition is good and in certain sectors, the tarmac is being widened from 2 lanes on each side to three. The further we went, the narrower the road with quite a few scenic views including a meandering road following the course of a river which has an elephant sanctuary halfway through. Even though the total distance is less than traveling from KL to Bidor, Perak, there are no highways and with some parts of the road being slowed by lumbering lorries pulling twice its weight, it still took us 2 and a half hours to arrive at our destination.
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Regardless of its length, I am struck by how well maintained the roads are. Heck, in Malaysia even roads with toll booths aren’t as well maintained.
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For the journey to Prakarn, the Jazz proved to be more than adequate a car to drive in these road conditions. The steering isn’t as pin sharp as a Focus but there is enough road feel to have a little fun going a little faster around the bends …. a particularly gruelling situation when you have elderlies in the car acting as human speed limit sensors that triggers at the slightest provocation. You think Takumi in Initial D had it tough driving around delivering tofu with a cup a water in the car; at least the cup don’t complain and verbally distract you every kilometer along the way. Nevertheless, steering feedback in the Jazz is well paired to a set of suspension that keeps body roll well in check yet never harsh to jostle one’s bones. Hatchbacks are always known to have better road manners compared to their sedan counterparts and this is well demonstrated in the course of this journey.
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As entertaining as the landscape can be, it can get onerous at times and it won’t be long before the elderlies find something to pick on in a “small car”. Yet, after surviving 50km in it, there is little to fault. Sure, it’s much smaller than the SUV they have back home but toning down your expectations to that of a compact hatch, the interior is surprisingly roomy, adding more brownie points from the earlier ones bestowed upon seeing the boot capacity in action. There isn’t anything extraordinarily fancy about the in-cabin features… the steering wheel lacks audio controls, we had no audio CDs but the good thing was the USB port works perfectly with the iPhone. Sad that my favorite club house music is not very much appreciated by the elders. Prior to them switching the radio off, I did get the impression that audio playback is punchy and clear enough for standard speakers. It isn’t as good as some of the “branded” audio systems found in Korean or continental equivalents but you won’t complain too much in the Jazz.
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Ferrying elderlies is one thing; having kids sitting at the back constantly asking “Are we there yet?” can be torturous. Which is why it is to the driver’s best interest to have the kids as comfortable as possible so as to induce sleep on to them as quickly as possible. One of the best things I love about the Jazz is it’s rear seat’s ability to recline a couple of degrees backwards which does wonders to rear passenger’s backs in long journeys. Take note not to overload the boot too much as this may interfere with the recline.
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The sleepy town of Chai Prakan of the District Chai Prakan is part of the province of Chiang Mai. Primary industry: agriculture. It resembles any small town in Malaysia that consists of a main road and shops set up on both sides and the most happening, most brightly lit place in the entire town happens to be two 7-Eleven shops on each side of the street. Although Thai is the main language used here, Mandarin seems to be the default secondary language. In fact, many people residing this close to the Myanmar-Laos border trace their roots to migrants from China – some as early as 20-30 years ago and one of such family is the one whose said family member is marrying.
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Truly, there’s only one place to stay and that’s the Saimoonbury Resort which is as good as what most people say in the TripAdvisor review (found HERE). By the time we arrived, it was late afternoon and the resort was pretty empty so we had our pick of which rooms we want. We took this one:-
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Oh look what we found here …
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I forgot to mention one thing; the temperature. During daytime, it can be as warm as any day in, say Bukit Tinggi, Pahang when there are no clouds in the blue skies. At night, it plummets to Ice Age and by morning, your breath will be frosting in the air. The kind of temperature that makes you wonder if your car will start in the morning, which fortunately for us, the Jazz came to life without any issue. Day 2 saw us waking up early in the morning to prepare for the journey up the mountains to the bride’s home. Last I checked, it’s only about 20km away so it can’t be that long …..
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… indeed it wasn’t … but it took us more than 40 minutes to traverse that distance. From the main road, we headed towards the mountains and passed by smaller villages that looks like they’re taken from China.
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Chinese lanterns, Chinese calligraphy new year greetings, walls until the edge of the road. If not for Thai words seen here and there, this could pass off as any village in Yunnan.
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Then the road, if it can be called as such was no longer as smooth as what we had and instead of tarmac, it appears to be made of harsh cement concrete. The only other vehicles plying these roads are motorcycles and 4x4s. Seeing a Jazz here is probably very amusing for the locals here and the Jazz is truly way out of its element here.
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The 1.5litre i-VTEC had to be spanked considerably hard right up to above 4,000rpm where maximum torque of 145Nm is achieved before any semblance of forward movement can be felt. Not much use of the 120PS in these broken roads.
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Not that you would want to go fast in these roads anyway. One wrong move and there’s no dividers to slow you down as you plunge a couple of hundred feet off the face of the mountain.
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You know you’re near a border when checkpoints are manned by the army instead of police
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And finally we’re here …. wherever here is. The village consists of about 90 over households, all scattered around the ridge of the mountain area here. As you can see, driving a Jazz here makes you stand out as much as Lamborghini back home.
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We Asians have a saying; no matter if you’re Malay, Indian or Chinese, when you throw a wedding feast, the whole kampung shows up. This is the first time I literally experienced that. Adding to that is when the chinese saying of “whole village waiting for you to start eating rice” – the moment we arrived, the people started serving food. Kinda feel a little bad that so many had to wait for us.
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Apparently, Angry Bird is a big hit even deep in the wilderness …. they probably play with real slingshots anyway.
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6 dishes and surprisingly for village standards, the pork knuckles is really good. Does not taste raw and tender to chew. Just a little on the oily side but well tasting enough that it was the first dish to be empty.
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Most of the pioneers here are farmers so vegetables form a staple diet
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This looks like a chicken … but dare not taste it. Behind this dish is a steamed tilapia.
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To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to see any seafood since we are quite far from the sea. Serving crabsticks is probably as exotic as sharks fin here?
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I may love cars but drinking from a mineral water bottle that looks like a battery water bottle takes some getting used to.
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Ahhhh, always a welcome sight to see an old friend
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It took more than 2 hours before all the eating and ceremony is done and it was the roads again; this time heading deeper north to an agricultural centre. With a cool stable temperature all year round, it was possible to grow all sorts of flora here
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Yep, a sea of thriving lavenders.
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The roads leading to the Angkhang Royal Agricultural Station are better paved and this allows access of various vehicles. We just happen to take a short-cut which explains the bad roads we had to use.
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The journey back was rather uneventful except the discovery of the Jazz here using RON91 petrol. We all here say that RON97 gives the best power and mileage but after driving around with 2 tanks of this and running up and down hilly roads, I conclude that RON count is really over-rated here. Give us Euro 4, please!
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We decided to return to Chiang Mai city two days before departing and spent one and a half days roaming the cities. Some of the more interesting encounters the city had to offer:
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Durian in a cup, the perfect dessert for the busy professional on the go
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Crispy and crunchy, Mr Pringles got nothing compared to these natural wonders
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Oh look, a Proton! And it’s for sale!
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No trip to Thailand is complete without elephants. I wanted to test the theory of elephants being afraid of mice but left my toy rat at home. Darn.
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Of course, Thailand is also famous for snakes but we opted to have a picnic at a nearby waterfall instead.
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If you’re in Chiang Mai, be sure to check out the 3D Art Museum. You’d think that it’ll be boring looking at arts but trust me, you’ll spend hours snipping away pictures there.
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I was rather sad that we were leaving 5 days after touching down here. During my stay here, I noticed majority of Thais prefer fuel efficient B segments, be it a hatch or a sedan. C segments are pretty rare although those few moments when I did catch a glimpse of the new Nissan Sylphy, it looked beautiful. There are a few Ford Focuses around and naturally, the Altis is king here followed by the Civic but Bs are everywhere.
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And the Toyota Fortuners here all run on 3.0litre VNT diesel engines. So much we’re missing out here. Thailand will be introducing automotive policies in 2016 that emphasises more on fuel efficiency and carbon emission. Naturally, a number of continental auto makers look forward to that year as many of their models are already Euro 5 and 6 compliant and would be able to offer them at a much more competitive price. As of a few days ago, those continental models are still pretty scarce. I saw one BMW 7 series, a couple of Mercs, some Ford Focus and two Peugeot 405s. This will probably change quite a bit come 2 years time. When that happens, I wouldn’t mind coming back here and probably drive to the border …. now, what would be a nice car to rent then …..
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