Chiang Mai, A self-guided motorcycle tour

We have a fair breakfast next door followed up with a good cup of coffee down the street. I wish myself a happy birthday.

Having learned our lesson with Tokyo, if you only have a few days and want to see much, then use a tour to maximize your time. We stop in at the nearest travel agency which is of course in our Hotel Lobby. We look at the pictures and read the descriptions and finally narrow it down to the one that requires the least trekking through the untamed jungles. In one day we will visit a butterfly farm, elephant camp, mountain villages, ride a water buffalo pulled cart (circa sometime before Christ) ride the river on a bamboo raft and hike up to a waterfall, all transportation and lunch included for the grand price of $35. Okay, all very touristy, but on this trip to Chiang Mai, we are tourists!

We have managed to drag the morning out and head across the street to rent a motorcycle for the day. Can you believe it is only $6 USD for 24 hours. I wonder if insurance is included. We get a quick review, Victor takes off around the block and I get on. I think I might have been on a motorcycle once before and Victor used to have one, but doesn't say if he ever drove it. We circle a few blocks of the old city and venture out to the BUSY street. We are not immediately hit by any vehicles and this builds our confidence and we cross over to the other BUSIER street. We only have to go a block to get to the gas station, but also have to cross the four lanes of traffic. For some unfathomable reason, I am perfectly calm. I later learn that Victor was not.

From our earlier walk and map review, I have the vaguest idea where we are and where we are going and direct Victor on when to turn where to get over to the river so we can head south along the scenic shore. However, sometimes I give a turn direction just to save our lives from some threat ahead and eventually found myself confused as to which direction we were actually heading. Feigning confidence because I know I need it and assume Victor does too, I continue giving my best guess on directions and only have to occasionally remind him that he is on the wrong side of the street. (Like England, they drive on the opposite side from what we are used to.)

I am pleased with myself at finding the river and we cross over and head south. Victor seems to think he is on a bicycle and clings to the narrow edge of the gutter. Yes, where all the manholes and bumps are. I try to encourage him to take the lane. It is actually worse to be on the side and have the traffic passing us than to just take the lane and go with the flow. My bottom is bruising.

Those who drive this way every day have a certain expectation as to what the other drivers will do, which is generally to speed up and not grant right of way. They know that and sneak into the lanes until they just go. Victor is ceding right of way and driving both cautiously and politely and the other drivers don't respond as he expects... which is for them to go. They don't go because they don't anticipate his slowing down. In retrospect this is very funny, but did feel dangerous while we were on the street.

We hardly see much of the river and seem to quickly lose it. Eventually we are going past rice fields. This is very pleasant as there is no traffic at all. We talk about stopping for a beverage as motorcycling is very parching. I tell him that he can stop whenever he wants and that I am ready. We go on and on and on. I remind him that we were thinking of stopping and he soon stops at a gas station. This is a very American response, all of our gas stations have a little convenience store. Here, this isn't so. They have a refrigerator though and we take a cola and water. Now, being out of town we are not in Englishville and when I ask the price the gentleman holds up 6 fingers and then 10 fingers. I interpret this to mean 60 Baht, about $1.75. Very unreasonable. But I pull out my three 20 Baht bills and hand them to him. He takes one and brings me back four. I guess he meant 6 for the water and 10 for the cola, 16 Baht, about 45 cents total and very reasonable.

Getting off the bike is awful, because we have to get back on and our bottoms feel quite broken! We head out again and about a quarter mile down the road see a sign in English for Coffee Garden. We stop to either get a cup of coffee or see a coffee plantation. We aren't sure which we are going to, but it turns out we have a wonderful cup of coffee and are back in Englishville. The owner sits with us and our maps and shows us where we are. We are not in a bad spot, actually almost in the direction I had thought, only about 10 miles further than anticipated.

We lounge a bit and then head off again. The town we are in is called Baan Tawai and is a huge export center with oodles of neat looking furniture, pottery, carved animals and any number of unique items ready to ship. There are no restaurants that we can see and it is very lunch time.

We hit the diagonal road that will take us back past the Airport and right into the old town. Traffic is picking up, but by now we are old pros at this and just sail right in....and spend a difficult hour driving around old town looking for our hotel. We can't find the little alley entrance and are quickly so twisted about that we no longer know which side of town we are on, though we are clearly on the same streets several times. We almost stop to ask directions.

Since we have contracted the scooter for 24 hours, we don't really want to give it up yet. So we park and head to lunch followed by a great birthday massage. Returning to the scooter we decide to head up the mountain a bit out of town and see if we can't find some of the waterfalls. When we get to the BUSY street, it is rush hour and ugly. Victor takes us home again. I think this is a Grand Idea as my backside is complaining loudly with every little bump. I think we did something like 50 miles. We return the bike.

We decide to take a little walk and repeat our steps of yesterday when we were looking for a money exchange. We also want to find our alley way entrances from the main streets so we can confidently find our way home again, though we may never need this knowledge again.

We walk up to the Queen Vic, which is far further than we remember. We have a beer and check our email as they have a computer for guests such as we do at the Hotel Charlotte. While Victor is signing on to the computer, my eyes wander over to the newspaper counter where the owner has a brochure display and I couldn't believe what I was seeing...A Hotel Charlotte brochure. I am amazed and pleased and fire up the camera. I have Victor take my picture here with the brochure and quickly add quite a few more! I always travel with a handful in my bag, you never know where you will find your next guest!

We decide to eat at Tamarind and sit almost in the swimming pool. They have live music and a wonderful romantic setting. Once they lit the citronella candles and gave us an organic mosquito spray it was perfect. I ordered a duck curry with lychee which was one of the best meals I've had so far.

We walked back to the hotel and did not miss the entrance to our alley way. We finish our evening with another stop at the Karaoke place, which is very pleasant and we enjoy additional a beer and verbal camaraderie with Colin who has been here for9 months. He has picked up a great deal of Thai customs and shares some great stories and observations with us. We are fairly well hooked on Chiang Mai!

What a grand birthday!