Please dont' let us die, get stranded or lost on the motorbike.
motorbike adventure to mountian of Doi Suthep. windy, curvy roads. Mountain temple is the ultimate goal. they drive on the wrong side of the road. we are behind a tour bus the entire way. but we survive. we make it. 350 stairs to the top. Look, see the monks. the views would be beautiful minus the smog. temple is beautiful. well worth the trip. but isn't everything in thailand? bells, bells and more bells. I am officially obsessed with taking pictures of bells.
we are back at the bottom. the markets are good wish we could buy more. And again, the food it's every where. tons and tons of fruit. fruit we have never ever seen before. those strawberries with sugar look delicious. wait that's not sugar, it's spicy thai salt, interesting. we buy more fruit, this time neon green. do you know what this is? no, no idea. but it's delicious. and the people watching is superb. not many westerners.
time to go. rut-ro we are out of petro... throw her in nuetral and coast down the mountain. it's beautiful. we are like little kids, look no hands, well not Matt, but me. we find a gas stations, petro is $2. for real $2 to fillup.
Off to Lamphun. Lamphun is not much of a town but just the motorbike ride through the country is worth it. we see local thais. we are in areas with zero tourists. look rubber trees, like Hawaii. and the monks, they are everwhere, going to school, collecting alms. the culture, i have no words. we stumble across a small restuarant. they apparently don't get many tourists because they can't stop giggling at us and staring at us. foreign, white people equals crazy excitement. that in itself makes the trip. When are we ever the miniority? and lunch 2 bowls of noodles + 2 bottles of H20..... 65 baht.... holy crap that is $1.75.. what?!? we are definitely a spectacle.
really? the super highway? you want to take the superhighway back? and man is it super. we drive 100 kmph on the shoulder back to Chiang Mai. on a motorbike. that's a holy shit kind of crazy. oh our butts and our legs. we are sore. time to give up the motorbike. we are tired. and Matt do you hear that? it's the pool calling our names again. we grab a tuk-tuk. all we want is the hotel. wait, this doesn't look right we are on the wrong side of town and the wrong hotel. tuk-tuk driver won't bring us to the right hotel. he leaves. what is with the tuk-tuk drivers? next up a songeaw. wait this can't be happening again. we are going the wrong direction. they giggle at us, but eventually find their way. and ahhh the pool. finally. with added entertainment... the japanese workout team.
we should have known after the tuk-tuk/songaew expierence to stay in. it was the first signal that it was not going to be our night. we leave for an art market in hopes of finding good art.... no market, no art, nothing. we leave for the night market in hopes of gourging ourselves on street food... no food vendors, what? every other time food is everywhere. we leave for night bazaar in hopes of finding good crafts, nothing. stumble across an old man and hooker, wierd. alright we give up. we leave for the city and the east gate, but nothing, not even a good photo op. Hello Chiang beer. time to call it a night.
