The REAL mountains of Thailand

We've relocated up a series of narrow, twisty, steep roads and into a valley near the Burma border in a little quiet town called Pai.

This town is awesome and has totally made the trip for us. Chaing Mai is cool and all but its still a city, complete with city noise and polution.

Pai is only about 3000 people and surrounded by jungle covered mountains. The town has a kind of Thai hippie element with lots of bars and live music. We're staying outside the town in this cool little resort with our own little thatched hut with a deck on top that we can sit and watch the sunset descend on the valley. Freak'n great.

We rented a little motorbike to get around and have been riding all over the countryside with it, riding up the mountains to get better veiws, going to the hot springs, waterfalls, and got an elephant ride (bit overrated).

Spending Christmas in a mountain paradise with short sleeves while listening to a Thai band cover REM ain't bad . Hope everyone else out there is having a Merry Christmas!

Jamie and Lee

The mountains of Thailand

We've made our way up to 700 year old city of Chaing Mai in the mountains of Thailand were the beer is cheap, the silk is cheaper, and the motels are $20/night (and that's a nice one!). We're staying at a guest house Bo recommended and we walked around the city yesterday to check out all the temples and then ended up at the weekly chaotic but amazing street market. Half the entertainment is watching the people and the other half was the shopping.

Today Jamie and I went mountain biking! We took a tour group that runs moutnain bike rides off the highest mountain in Thailand. Jamie, being a little more sane, opted for the leisurely ride down the mountian on gradual decending dirt roads and single track.

I opted for the less sane route. 3500 ft down some of the steepest, most erroded and washed out trail I've ever seen on a downhill bike. I've never been on a real downhill bike before and besides being heavily, they are really stable at speed and corner better than I thought. However, the trail was so rutted, loose and steep that you couldn't really get in a groove and spent a lot of the time staying on the brakes. The smell of burt calipers lingered at each break and the guide's rear rotor ended up blue by the end of it. It was crazy, took a lot less leg muscles and a lot more upper body muscle than I realized. I've down some downhill courses before on my cross country bike and I've seen some steep, rocky stuff but nothing like this for that long. It took about 2 hours to get down. Oh, and yes, me, the guide (owner of the outfit) and the other guy ate it several times.

Alright, we're off to nurse our sore muscles with some Thai beer (not great but at 75 cents a pint, just right).

Lee

Sawasdee - Greetings from Thailand

After arriving in Thailand a week ago, we haven't done much more than sleep. We flew into Bangkok, stayed a night with Lee's cousin, Bo, and flew down to Phunket - the beach. We've been spending our days lounging by the pool under umbrellas, letting our bodies heal as Bo would say. We did venture off the "compound" a few times; once to sleep under umbrellas at a different beach, on a sunset bike ride around the village near our hotel, Lee rode up an 18% grade PAVED road one morning, and today...today we took a tour in sea kayaks through some caves in Phang Nga Bay. That involved sailing by "James Bond Island" were they filmed "The man with the golden gun"

Tomorrow we're off to the mountains and Chang Mai.

Wedding Pictures

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www.sarahkrugerphotography.com and go to Client Preview, use the pincode 8940 to see ALL the pictures!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mr. and Mrs. Childers

We got married. It was a whirl-wind event but certainly the best party I have ever attended! We will post pictures soon.

The year winds down

Today our lives changed, Luckie's owner drove by us on a walk this morning. So she went home to her family; including her daughter. They were happy.

We are sad but now Lee can bang on bicycle's in the house again. Lee also went back to school today. The summer has flown by....Jamie's time spent mostly at work and over planning our wedding....Lee's time spent collecting data and riding bicycles.

Jamie also became famous! She was quoted in OUTSIDE Magazine by a Great Divide Rider we meet last summer that published his journal.

In two months we get married. Till then Lee's head will be buried in books and Jamie's hands will be tied to her work computer.

Our adventures these days are drab.

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'...through time

An update is long over due...since the last post we have become STRONGLY attached to "Lucky" the dog. Lee installed HER a doggie door to the back yard so she can come and go as she pleases.

Lee finished his first year of course work toward his PHD!!! It has been a long stressful year and surprisingly, since classes ended he hasn't stoped writing papers...lol. I have little room to talk between work and my involvement at The World Peace Cafe and dharma Center there's rarely time to pull the weeds in our yard. Our neighbor (in the purple house) paid his lawn guy to moe our yard last week. The next day a guy that "hangs around" the neighborhood commented to me, "you finally cut your grass." WHAT?!? Home ownership.

Dispite all the rushing around, we have made time for riding. Lee WAY more than me, but at the beginning of May I did my first mountain bike race and didn't finish last (but that's b/c I was on a co-ed team and my mate pulled us through)! It was a 12 hour race that Lee also did on a two person team...and WON!

Jamie
Lee
Kierran (my team mate. A roadie in his first EVER race.)

Have fun! We are :)
Jamie

It's also VERY important to note...that Lee became an uncle. Meet Georgia and her ma'ma Lauren.

Tornado blew us a new pet

Hey all,

Just wanted to let everyone know that we ended up alright in the aftermath of the tornado. I was at Georgia Tech about to ride home but Jamie convinced me to wait and she would come pick me up. Instead of leaving she went outside and there was a stray dog that looked hungry. Jamie went inside to get it some food and the dog rushed in and took up camp in the kitchen. Kinda like it knew there was going to be a storm and really didn't want to be outside. In fact, the dog eventually went and jumped in the bath tub. Smart dog, so we became it's foster parents. The dog was pretty nappy at first and so Jamie took it to get a bath but came back with the whole dog shaved. We had to get it a sweater because it was always shivering. The dog is very well behaved and house broken. Below are pictures of when we found it and after she got a hair cut. We named the dog Lucky. That's all for now hope everyone is well.





Lee

Oh, I eventually did ride home after the tornado. It was really surreal, air was calm and overwise beautiful night except for the sirens, emergency crews and mayhem going on downtown. Downtown is really trashed, the TV reports are pretty accurate.

Snow in the ATL

A bit late, but we got snow TWICE in January this year in the ATL.

The beginning of the end...

Backyards are fun to have. Especially when you like to mountain bike and realize there is just enough room to build some obstacles. So in an effort to gain better balance and develop better technical riding I started by laying down a long 4 X 4 and trying to ride and balance on it. Then I decided that wasn't enough and built the bike seesaw pictured below.



The seesaw is only 8 inches wide and the hinges are a bit sketchy. It took several attempts before I gained the courage to commit and man! Its a lot of fun! You definitely don't want to come off the side while you are momentarily balanced up there waiting for the see saw to tip.

This is only the beginning. I've ordered a trials bike and have more obstacles planned for the backyard.

No worries though... The marta bus to grady hospital goes right by my front door.