Two Beers and a Pretzel

Yesterday I started a tour of the countryside on a dual-sport (on road / off road) motorbike.  It was really just a glorified moped, but it did have off road tires and a beefy suspension.  My guide, Ped, took me on the busy streets of Chiang Mai where I became one of the thousands of mopeds weaving thru traffic.  Then we went about 40 kilometers on paved roads, and another 60 on dirt tracks.

The dirt quickly became very slippery mud with a brief monsoon.  I laid the bike over a few times when the wheels got caught in a rut going the opposite direction of my momentum.  A few cuts and scrapes, and I’m no worse for the wear.  The only scary one was a rut that sent me down a very steep 10 meter mud slide.  I jumped off before the bike rolled over me.  The mirrors came off the bike, but I was fine.

I did regain my composure enough to cross a tree over a river…

Then we made it to a village near the border with Myanmar/Burma (or whatever they want to call it now).  This wasn’t the long neck women, but tht’s OK with me, because they kinda freak me out anyway.

We stayed with Suchat, his wife Kaecher, their daughters Fai (14), Pachi (8), and Tidee (2).  Ped and Kaecher cooked dinner while I took a nap and the girls played with Ped’s camera.

Here’s Pachi, Tidee, Kaecher, Suchat, Ped, and me.  Fai was the photographer.

An interesting thing about Fai…  she’s 14, recently divorced, and has a new 31 year old boyfriend (her parents are 32).

Regardless of things hill tribe people do differently, they were a very welcoming and exceedingly happy family.  And the food was something else… Sweet and sour chicken, some kind of chicken curry (red, but not red curry or panang), a variety of cantaloupe, fresh banana (they live on a banana farm), small steamed crabs that Pachi caught that afternoon in the creek, hand thrashed rice, spicy mushrooms and bamboo.  Wow, it was good!!  We ate together sitting on the floor of the 1 year old addition to their bamboo hut.

The next day (this morning) we left early, but not before I bought some handmade souvenirs from Kaecher and Pachi.  Asking why, I showed them pictures of my twin nieces. Which led to the bunny becoming friends with Pachi…

Then off to the countryside again…

Where I rode an Elephant thru the jungle…

And then went mud-water rafting on a pile of sticks…  (ok, a real bamboo raft)

After getting back into town, I booked an early flight back to Bangkok tomorrow so I can go to the massive weekend market, then get my visa for India on Monday before heading to the islands in the south for a week…