Sitting in the taxi as we weave in and out of traffic. Against all odds, we arrive at the station with a whole three minutes to spare - Never early; I am Alex. I am a lagger. We hop on our night train from Bangkok to ChangMai. We meet two friendly old ladies, and after about two hours of speaking broken Thai to their Broken English, we go to bed in our train beds. Watching the moon lit jungle landscape as it passes by. 7 am we arrive in ChangMai.
I ask the hostel how much it is to rent scooters for the day. She replys 200bot. Quick calculation... Thats about 5 bucks a day! I agree. I hop on my aqua blue hog. Pink and yellow decals tell the locals Im not here to play. The basket on the front tells everyone else Im deadly. I put on my navy blue helmut, and buckle the chin strap. I rev it once. vrmm! I rev it twice. VRMM! A lady from across the street looks at me, gulps, and a shiver runs down her spine. I wink, spit and take off like a hells angle fresh off the pipe - the road is my woman.
I make for the mountain. After a while of wrong turns and dead ends, I find a road that looks like it leads to the Temple on the top. I climb the winding mountain jungle road with the summer wind in my hair and I start laughing to myself for no reason. Pure Fun. I saw about four mountain temples, 5 waterfalls, a beautiful park where local thais relax by a creek, and one of the most spectacular sunsets Ive ever seen. I extended the scooter rental two more days. Im as free as a bird on my hog, and the road is woman.
I ask the hostel how much it is to rent scooters for the day. She replys 200bot. Quick calculation... Thats about 5 bucks a day! I agree. I hop on my aqua blue hog. Pink and yellow decals tell the locals Im not here to play. The basket on the front tells everyone else Im deadly. I put on my navy blue helmut, and buckle the chin strap. I rev it once. vrmm! I rev it twice. VRMM! A lady from across the street looks at me, gulps, and a shiver runs down her spine. I wink, spit and take off like a hells angle fresh off the pipe - the road is my woman.
I take off down the ally way and stop at the entrance to the first main road. hold my breath, and enter into the madness. People on scooters and TukTuks are everywhere zooming around me. I weave in and out of the chaos, avoiding cars with only inches. If I dont die in the first hour, I tell myself, Ill be fine.
I make for the mountain. After a while of wrong turns and dead ends, I find a road that looks like it leads to the Temple on the top. I climb the winding mountain jungle road with the summer wind in my hair and I start laughing to myself for no reason. Pure Fun. I saw about four mountain temples, 5 waterfalls, a beautiful park where local thais relax by a creek, and one of the most spectacular sunsets Ive ever seen. I extended the scooter rental two more days. Im as free as a bird on my hog, and the road is woman.
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Tomorow, were going to try to make a day long scooter trip into rural thailand, and find a mountain town called Pai. We've been told the road is steep and trecherous.... Wish me luck.
1 comment:
I can totally see you on that scooter, I mean "hog". I laughed out loud.
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