Smoke

[billy the kid]

The smoke can be useful in that it weeds out the weak and sickly so only stronger individuals survive and the gene pool is improved.

i rode my mountain bike 10,000 klicks including nongkhai through to eastern, western, and northern lao and from boten into yunnan province all the way up to dali and further
and then back to thailand. and a visit to chaingmai .
i didn't stop long because of the haze.
i also smoke baccy and enjoy a puff
but walking in the soup one day
after a visit to the temple on the hill
my eyes stung,, the taste of pollution in my mouth
and up it came into a nice flowing river.

[ENT]

Around North Lao the smoke is pretty bad, maybe worse than CM and Phrao, which is bad too.

[DrAndy]

Hill tribes were in the hills long before the Thais arrived.

they were driven up into the hills by the Thais and have lived there with subsistence farming

why would they be in the hills if the fertile lands below were available?

who drove them up there if not the arrival of the Thais?

[Smug Farang Bore]

The smoke keeps us from getting skin cancer coz the ozone has all gone away from using spray cans to kill the mozzies which gives us malaria and dengue ....

So it's a good thing OK...

[ENT]

Hill tribes were in the hills long before the Thais arrived.

they were driven up into the hills by the Thais and have lived there with subsistence farming

why would they be in the hills if the fertile lands below were available?

who drove them up there if not the arrival of the Thais?

Hill tribes weren't driven up into the hills by the Thais. They migrated there long before Siamese(now called Thai) arrived from Yunnan to occupy lower altitudes.
Read my previous posts on that point in this thread again.

Hill tribes never lived in the lowlands, preferring higher altitudes, free from mosquitos
They normally live from 2-4,000 ft above sea level or higher.

The Thais drove the original aboriginal Thai population in the north of Thailand southward, to extinction.
They were part of the Miao Yao population of SE Asia, pre Khmer.

The people displaced by the Khmer were also Mia Yao, the largest aboriginal SE Asian group, some of whom still live in Taiwan
The name Tai is sharred by the Thai,(who are not Thai but Siamese) Taiwanese and Tai Tonga Maori, who are also Miao Yao

The Khmer, also originally from the north were hill tribes, too, occupying higher altitudes normally, stretching from Cambodia across Lao and N.Thailand all the way to Assam in India, integrating with the Mon, who are from the Tibeto- Burmese group of southward migrating people, about 2,000 ya.

The other group there before the Khmer were the Diang, the copper drum people.

So there you are, short explanation.

[ENT]

^^ CM has the highest level of ozone in Thailand, and mixed with smoke and under UV light forms carginogens which causes lung cancer.

[Looper]

The smoke can be useful in that it weeds out the weak and sickly so only stronger individuals survive and the gene pool is improved.

i rode my mountain bike 10,000 klicks including nongkhai through to eastern, western, and northern lao and from boten into yunnan province all the way up to dali and further
and then back to thailand.

Sounds like a good effort mate. Was this a long distance tour carrying tent and stuff? How did you find it as cycle touring country?

I did Canada to Mexico but it was probably pretty civilised compared to your territory with National and State Park campsites and western supermarkets every 60 Km down the coast.

[DrAndy]

Hill tribes never lived in the lowlands, preferring higher altitudes, free from mosquitos

wrong

nobody wants to live in the hills when there are fertile plains below

and the mozzies do very well up there, so that is a useless reason

[Smug Farang Bore]

^^ CM has the highest level of ozone in Thailand, and mixed with smoke and under UV light forms carginogens which causes lung cancer.

I'm talking aboot Bangkok...

[ENT]

Hill tribes never lived in the lowlands, preferring higher altitudes, free from mosquitos

wrong

nobody wants to live in the hills when there are fertile plains below

and the mozzies do very well up there, so that is a useless reason

You display a remarkable lack of intelligence and even common knowledge.

It's amazing that you publicly air your stupidity so consistently.
You really do know nothing beyond trying to revamp old concrete shells.

[ENT]

^^ CM has the highest level of ozone in Thailand, and mixed with smoke and under UV light forms carginogens which causes lung cancer.

I'm talking aboot Bangkok...

The only difference is that Bangkok has higher diesel exhaust levels and chemical pollutants and a lower ozone level.

[serene1]

Stoke On Trent would have given Chiang Mai a run for its money a few decades ago!

[billy the kid]

Sounds like a good effort mate. Was this a long distance tour carrying tent and stuff? How did you find it as cycle touring country?

no i never carried a tent. slept out in lao mostly especially the eastern side.
carried about 15 or 18 kilos, not including beer lao.
also the eastern side had a lot of tracks and no tarmac where an inch of dirt had to be ridden through. always tried to stay on the bike but there was one time near the beginning where i got off the bike and my head hung beneith my legs.
after that i found the strength.
yunnan was up-hill mostly to about 3,500 metres, maybe more in some places
and the down-hills would go on for 2 hrs.
and they were fast.
always stayed on the bike even tho walking could have been faster at times.
yea, a backpack strapped onto the back. no fancy peddle straps etc. panniers.
it was probably the best cycling ride i ever did
and to come back in one piece was amazing
especially after vietnam.
strewth.

[DrAndy]

Hill tribes never lived in the lowlands, preferring higher altitudes, free from mosquitos

wrong

nobody wants to live in the hills when there are fertile plains below

and the mozzies do very well up there, so that is a useless reason

You display a remarkable lack of intelligence and even common knowledge.

It's amazing that you publicly air your stupidity so consistently.
You really do know nothing beyond trying to revamp old concrete shells.

you just repeat the worn-out old nonsense that has been proven wrong many times

when that is pointed out, you just insult the messenger rather than admitting you were wrong

tell me about the mozzie free hills!

tell me about the totally empty fertile plains and the fools that prefer not to live there!

[DrAndy]

You really do know nothing beyond trying to revamp old concrete shells.

oh dear, the insult beyond insults

and beyond ignorant too

[ENT]

Great stuff Anal, your usual garbage.

[Looper]

This thread is supposed to be about long distance cycling - can some kindly mod please MKP this shit fight?



Back on topic

there was one time near the beginning where i got off the bike and my head hung beneith my legs. after that i found the strength.

I had the same experience about a week into the trip. Doing about 60 miles a day with the bike weighing 105 pounds fully loaded. I kind of hit a wall and thought 'I can't do this and will have to turn back' but then your metabolism seems to change up a gear and suddenly it is not so hard.

[ENT]

It's supposed to be about the air pollution in Chiangmai, actually.

[billy the kid]

yes 50 miles sometimes a bit less
up at dawn and ride all day with the odd break
and then look for a place to crash before darkness came.

'I can't do this and will have to turn back'

. ah the memory.

[billy the kid]

yes ok pollution in CM.

[ENT]

It's been raining here over the last day or so and the air is a lot cleaner, blue skies even for the first time in weeks!
Songkhran, so traditionally the end of the smokey sesaon, the rain'll start bucketing down soon.

[ENT]

It's the start of the mozzie season, too, so watch out for dengue!

[DrAndy]

especially in the hills where there are no mozzies

[DrAndy]

This thread is supposed to be about long distance cycling - can some kindly mod please MKP this shit fight?

title Smoke

MKP this cycling garbage please

[ENT]

especially in the hills where there are no mozzies

Mozzies have been migrating to higher elevations and latitudes as global warming increases.
As a general rule, they don't survive at much higher than 4,500 ft.
Clearing land by burning off forest margines increases their breeding grounds as they have greater access to warm pools of water.
In high mountain areas where water is usually found in quick flowing streams, mosquitoes are fewer in number, which is why hill tribes prefer to live there practicing swidden agriculture and burning enough land for use, usually on a rotational basis, hence a lot of the smoke pollution in north Thailand does come from Burma and Northen Lao.
Traditionally hilltribes migrated from one district to the next until enforced border controls put a stop to them in the last 50 years or so.
The result has been that many tribes folk have settled in lower areas and burn the same ground annually, so more smoke in N.Thailand.