You may not have know but we’ve been on two different trips these past weeks.  Stanna in India, Bhutan and Nepal while I’ve been hanging in Trang.  And as usual we’re totally occupied right up to the last minutes.  It’s especially hard here in Trang as the exit isn’t ever easy.  Stanna’s last nights on her tour have been filled with dinner’s, demonstrations and even costume photos.

I’d planned some big rides, but recuperation from my handlebar malfunction allowed me to take on several other things on that long list you plan to get done while you’re away. I’m getting further and further from nerdland which each passing software and app update and in an effort to struggle back to the pack, I’ve had on my list to learn app coding.  I’m here to tell you it’s no joy and not easy until you see that simple tutorial project come up on the simulator screen.  Then it’s okay let’s learn some more, and it’s what I’ve heard kids do when they are learning to get to the next level in a computer game.  You’ve got to hit a wall, get destroyed or annihilated, proverbially

“tilt” the game (or in my case get error messages) and start over, many times from scratch.  Don’t get excited and send in any app ideas I’m only 30% thru a 420 video tutorial and my level of understanding is mostly focusing on learning the vocabulary.  Not to mention trying to overcome an aging dyslexic disfunction, which in coding makes it tantamount to impossible.

You’ll have to trust the photoshopped image on the left, because Stanna actually did feed and ride a real live elephant, but unfortunately she now has the fingerprint of the photographer directly over the models head.  We’re hoping someone in her group got an untainted version of the pachyderm’s placidity as well as her reticence.  She used that quote from my dad, I mentioned earlier;  “I now ridden an elephant twice!”

Back on the Trang front, I finally got back on the bike for real and have been doing the 5 am morning rides with the Fahsang guys.  I was worried I’d lost my training level, but I think they must have taken the same 4 weeks off I did, because they still want me in front pulling them up the hills.  They are, however, very courteous and encouraging, shouting, “Pai Tom, Pai” directly behind me. Getting back in shape has allowed the ice cream fetish to resume and SunSern and I celebrated after lunch with an entire container the first day back on the bike.

Meanwhile, Stanna’s been taking in culture and exotic lands rather than the local gluttony going on in southern Thailand.  I’ve managed to view quite a number of her photos thru the iOS Photo Stream capability and between the iMessages and the photos enjoyed much of her trip so far.  Broadband is available in all but one of her hotels albeit some fairly slow and generator dependent.

And I’ve been sitting around shooting the shit with the riders at their day jobs.  Just like with Durango cyclists, where I hardly recognize anyone once they’ve removed their helmet, I’m amazed when we go around to see what each does for a living.  Real fun to go inside their shops, workshops, and businesses to see what’s on the other side of the counter.  It’s comes in handy when I had my wreck tattered jersey repaired, needed a scooter tire repaired, or even getting the defective Trek Stem repaired.  They all love “taking care” of the Fahrang.  Just yesterday I watched the entire process of making sweet treats at a small wholesale bakery.  Unbelievably simple process and quick assembly from raw materials to sealed package, probably took 30 minutes for a complete batch start to bagged and labelled in 10-packs.  They’d like me to import the sweet treats to the states, but I’m not sure they’d pass the FDA tests for salt ingredients.  They were so tasty I had to push the scrap bowl away after only 5 or 7 pieces.

You’d probably rather see more Nepal photos and so would I.  We’ll try and get a Trekking blog out as soon as we meet back up.  Hopefully this one will hold you at bay until then.  The Durango Ladies Hiking contingent dressed up to the “nines”.  (Can you say that for women?)  Soon we’ll be in Durango.