Hitting the Road

On the train to Bangkok, Paul taught me how to play backgammon and we slept fitfully on the squeaky, metallic rattle chambers they call "bunks." We met a pair of old men who are bicycling across the country, a very fit Thai version of Cheech and Chong. A six hour layover in Bangkok reminds me why I don't like cities, especially a sweaty metropolis that combines the heat of Houston with the sprawl of LA. Good ice cream, though.

Our final leg of the train ride screeched into the Chiang Mai station many hours later, where the spectacle of six men lowering our oversized metal steed onto the platform provided an encouraging display of human strength and coordination. Again, it was an impressive but useless struggle that could have been avoided with the addition of a simple ramp that really could have been fashioned from anything. But I digress...

A short stint in Chiang Mai included a frolic on the local rock wall, delicious Indian food, and cheaply rented bicycle rides powered by Thailand's finest brew (endearingly named "Chang," which means elephant. The image conjured by this marketing is not so far off from the flavor it offers).

While constructing our own language to describe the quality of "hairpin" posed by oncoming curves, our faithful yellowbike transported us from the traffic of Chiang Mai to the beautiful highlands and national park where you find the tallest peak in Thailand--Doi Intanon. We lit incense at the Buddha statues and payed homage by placing coins on elephant statues. I'm pretty sure that makes us bona fide Buddhists.

Cruising around the national park led us to stumble upon some pretty breathtaking waterfalls. Another job well done, Mother Nature. Also, hiking in the gorgeous countryside and humid jungles led me to realize that the spider living in my bathroom is, in fact, not the biggest arachnid that the country has to offer. 

After drinking our weight in espressos and buying a few months worth of reading at the best used bookstores in Chiang Mai, we began riding northward towards the land of the caves, where the adventure really begins. Stay tuned....