January, 13,1989
Chiangmai, Thailand

Dear Mom,

You must be on your trip now. Maybe you're in New York? If so, it must be cold!

I'm good at writing letters, but terrible at mailing them! Actually I ran out of envelopes and keep forgetting to buy them.

I hit 1,000 kilometers on my motorcycle! I rode to these amazing caves called Chiang Dao, and hired a private guide to guide with a lantern to help explore these darks caverns. It was fun, but somewhat difficult because I had to pass through narrow passageways by crawling on my hands and knees.

Afterwards I tried to reach a hilltribe village on my motorcycle, but the bike stalled on the steep trail and tumbled over. I wasn't able to start the bike again, and had to coast in neutral all the way down. I then cleaned the spark-plug, but had to return to Chiangmai because it was getting late in the day.=

I also went on a two day motorcycle trip north to a Chinese village on the Thai Burmese border called Mae Salong, which was fun and exciting. Most of the road was paved, except the last fifty kilometers, which was completely dirt. It was hard riding and I crossed a few rivers and conquered some steep hills, but we passed through stunning mountains, rivers, rice fields, and small villages. I stopped to visit two hilltribe village - Akha and Lisu - and continued through steep twisting mountains, and rushing rivers. I fell of the bike a few times, but wasn't injured, and finally reached Mae Salong around sunset.

Mae Salong was a lovely little Chinese KMT village with cheery blossoms in bloom, chinese architecture, men on horseback, and colorful hilltribe people. The next day we took a different route back home, cutting across the Golden Triangle before heading back down to Chiangmai.

Write!

Lots of love,

David