ATVA - TIJC - DTGSADM

Warning: when we do so much during the day, it gets dark at 6 and I cannot understand anything on TV, and I have a lack of energy to do anything else while Chelsea sleeps, I write long, annoying blogs.


New photo's uploaded on facebook here!


TIJC

    Thailand International Jazz Conference : totally awesome.  It was outdoors in the auditorium on Mahidol University Campus, tons of people were there, and Danilo Perez and his band were blowin some minds!  I think it worked out to be $15.00 per ticket, which got you into all of the shows for the day.  I think that I have paid at least $50.00 USD to see Danilo Perez in Seattle before, so I was really excited!

Also, hip pop/fusion band ETC was great.  Smooth jazz, Thai love songs, shredding dual keyboard lines, and nice rock star fro's!  Check em out!


 I went with SomSak #1 and SomSak #2, both part of our Thai family.  Somsak #1 is my manager out here, he was self appointed.  Honestly, it is a little odd.  During set breaks and in between songs he would parade me around the festival and introduce me to people that he did not even know.  Make me say, "Sawadee Krap" "Sabai dee mai?" and "Khap Kun Krap" then stand awkwardly while he talked about how I am a great jazz pianist.  These people included the president of the college, the president of the music department, the booking agent, the founder of TIJC, three or four musicians that were playing that night, and several random women.  He really gets results though!  And man, if I would have known that there was a solo competition I could have entered and won 30,000 baht!  And man, I would have won!  Although the final evening acts were great, the majority of the musicians could not compete with the heavy cats in the USA.



ATVA
    Me and Chelsea tried something new today.  We went to a shop of a friend of our friend Bly.  We rented All Terrain Vehicles, or ATV's and went on our All Terrain Vehicle Adventure for the entire afternoon today. We had a total blast, it was something we have not ever done back home, and for the whole afternoon private trip with two personal guides it ran us about $150.00 US.  So we putted around Chiang Mai at first, then took off into the foothills for some gnarley 4x4 action.  At first we were having some trouble with our ATV's but eventually the guys busted em open, went to work on em, and had em up and running again fifteen minutes later.
    We rode around the mountains surrounding Chiang Mai for the whole afternoon.  Our guide James (his Thai name was too hard to remember) took us to a gigantic cave deep in the jungle, to the top of several large  mountains (although still smaller than even Mt. Si) to several temples, up and down the steepest hills you would ever want to drive anything up or down, and along country roads at blistering speeds.  Anyways after about three hours of riding, we were getting the hang of it.  We new how to go down really steep hills, and avoid things that would really jar your body.  A big part of driving an ATV is not only being able to find a route up or down the mountain, but trying to find a somewhat smooth path so that you do not jack yourself up too bad.  We were jacked up, but less jacking was happening after three hours than in the first hour.  Hah, make sense?  Anyways, you might know where this story is going if I have ever told you my first snowboarding experience story.

Jumps.

So me and Chels are both feeling really BA (bad ass) and one of our professional guides who makes a living racing ATV's took us to an old rice field.  The field was all dried out, but the terraces made for great jumps.  So we whip our ATV's around and watch as our guide takes off at top speed and hits the first terrace wall and goes shooting up to the next terrace, approximately a meter above the first one.  POC (piece of cake).
I revved the engine up a little, and shot off on the same path.  Hit the jump, got some air, landed successfully on top.  Chelsea came zipping along and could hang as well!  This just pumped me up a little more!  "Wow, I just did a jump on an ATV and it was POC, I am such a BA!" We blitzed off in the dust of the second story of the rice terrace's, and watched as our guide hit the second jump.

The second jump was by far much bigger and steeper, but it was the same premise.  In my head I justified it as "Well, the machine is doing all the work, its not like this is a PHYSICAL sport or anything".  Whatever.  I shot at the wall at breakneck speed.

When you approach a tall, steep jump on an ATV, it looks a lot like you are driving very fast directly into a wall.  It feels like it also.  Once the front tires hit the slope, in like a quarter of a second the ATV with a 250cc engine ceases to go straight, and basically is driving directly up in the air.  I was kind of expecting this, but not at the intensity that it happened.  I held on for the life of me and flew up the jump.  The immediate change in the direction I was traveling threw me off a little.  At one moment, gravity was pulling me down through my body vertically, the next moment I was being sucked down horizontally.  This pulled my body back away from the ATV, but I held on for dear life.  I held on so good, that it gunned the throttle and I got some serious air.  It felt like I was twenty feet up in the air, but it was more like three.  I was leaning back so far on the ATV I was almost vertical.  I could feel the beast wanting to flip back on me, and at this moment I knew I was not gonna conquer terrace two like I conquered terrace one.  I gave in, and pushed the ATV away from me as hard as I could.  It went shooting off into the dirt.  I fell down on my back, lucky to not get hurt at all.  It felt like I jumped up in the air, and landed on my butt on the ground.  Then Chelsea came roaring up behind me, saw me as she was about to get over the top of the jump, and in order to not crush me she slammed on the breaks, then rolled down the jump/wall backwards.  Eventually because of the grade of the slope, the ATV started to roll over backwards on her.  She hit the ground, and as soon as she did our guide James caught/shoved the ATV to the side so that it would not crush her.

Wow, that was a really close call for both of us.  It was amazing that neither of us got hurt.  After the shock wore off, we could have a good laugh about it.  The guides felt really terrible that we did not spend more time on the small jumps to learn to keep all of our weight forward.  After that epic fail, I had to hit the small jump a couple more times (it was really easy) to make myself feel better.  That level 2 jump will have to wait for another day.




DTGSADM
Down-to-get-suits-and-dresses-made.

Went to the tailor, placed our order.  Two suits coming right up, and a dress for Chelsea.  Chelsea admitted she was picky to me about cloths today when she couldn't find a good silk pattern for her second dress.  Win!

Anyways, here is a totally sweet video we made earlier in the trip that I forgot to upload!  Ch-ch-ch-check it out!