Chiang Mai continued: the feeling of freedom is enhanced by the feeling of lawlessness.

Carrying on from where I left off yesterday, had a couple of drinks at the Brasserie with Kat and then went for a walk around the nearby night market. I only made one purchase whilst walking around but boy what a purchase. Check this beauty out:

Note the red aeroplane on the second had and well known Geo+star branding. And all for just 200 baht so you can imagine I'm pretty chuffed. Plus it's "water resistant" to an unknown depth which suggests to me little more than it's not manufactured out of tissue paper...

Spent the rest of the evening just wondering about the night market, had a nice strawberry shake made with fresh strawberries and generally had a good time so I arranged to meet Kat again at some point before she left Thailand. Headed back to the hostel quite late and very slightly inebriated so I was soon fast asleep.

Which was probably a good thing because it turns out I was going to need my wits about me in the morning. I got up early and found a place to hire a motorbike. Originally I was intending just to get an 80cc moped, the most common bike on the roads in Thailand it seems, but I happened to stumble upon Tony's Big Bikes. (Although apparently fractionally more expensive than one or two other places the service was absolutely brilliant and they were completely trust worthy - something many Thailand guidebooks warn about. I happily recommend them if you ever end up in Chiang Mai and want to hire a bike.) I was offered a choice between an 80cc moped, 200cc Honda Phantom and some other 400cc bike which I quickly dismissed due to both price and my inexperience of riding a motorbike. After about 3 seconds of umming and aahing I figured the Phantom was the only real choice and in retrospect I definitely made the right decision. Here's a pic.

Pretty cool huh? Hiring the motorbike was the best thing I did for three reasons. Firstly at 500 baht a day it worked out cheaper than paying for rickshaws, tuk tuks and taxis about the place. Secondly it gave me the freedom to go where and when I wanted and thirdly it was a hell of a lot of fun. I probably spent about 4 or 5 hours just cruising around the city, looking at the sights and enjoying the ride.

By the last day I was ready to ride something a little more powerful but it was a really easy bike to ride once I'd got the hang of it. Which wasn't straight away. Oh no, despite practicing at home to try and avoid any potential embarrassment I managed to stall it four times just trying to get it off the forecourt for a test run. I was beginning to worry that they wouldn't let me take it since I didn't have a license or any way of (dis)proving my (in)competence so I just gave it some welly and off I went. It wasn't long before I was riding like a pro though. Or more accurately riding like a local (better skip this bit Mum), undertaking cops, speeding, riding along the pavement when the road was blocked with traffic, running red lights and riding without a helmet amongst other things. Highly irresponsible I know but all adding to the fun factor. The feeling of freedom is enhanced by the feeling of lawlessness.

I needed my wits about me to manage in the traffic of Thailand's second largest city as a novice motorbike rider but I think I did pretty well. I only got beeped at by a fellow road user once and that was within the first hour of riding and I'm still alive and intact. Got my first emergency stop practice on the second day after overtaking a pickup too close to the petrol station. Entered the station forecourt at about 50km/h and screeched to a halt right up to the pump. In my defense Thailand's roads are notorious for their lawlessness and it's kind of infectious. In fact it seems almost necessary to drive as maniacally as everyone else in order to survive.

To begin with though I took it steady, wore the helmet and cruised around for an hour to get the hang of it before I went off exploring. I quickly discovered that since everybody tailgates you, and you can't be sure of what the driver behind is up to (or is even sober,) that the best thing to do is always travel at least as fast as everyone else. A few times I was very nearly knocked off by people driving behind or just changing lanes without looking first. So I also quickly realised the true value of the horn.

The first place I went was up the nearest mountain, Doi Suthep. Here're the pictures again.

They're the same ones I linked to yesterday in case you've already seen them. Riding up the mountain, along its twisty roads in the sunshine was an absolutely brilliant experience. (In fact I tried to recreate it early in the morning on my last day but at that time in the day after I'd climbed about 3000ft it started to get chilly in just shorts and a t-shirt so I went back down.) It needn't have been a brilliant experience however because it would probably have been worth jogging up the mountain for the sights and the experience of Wat Doi Suthep. The photos explain most of the story best but I'll add one or two things. Firstly was the view from the temple out across Chiang Mai. It was midmorning by the time I got there and it was already starting to get a bit hazy but it was still fantastic looking down across the city. That was the first time I realised how big Chiang Mai actually is because I'd only spent time in the Old City at the very centre but there were sprawling suburbs and industrial areas many times the size of the area I'd seen. Another amazing experience was of a more spiritual nature (although I'm not about to become religious, the near-death experiences on the roads were more likely to do that and failed.) In one of the temples at Wat Doi Suthep I was blessed by a Buddhist monk and given a wish bracelet.

As you can see it's just a plain bit of string but the monk had an air of spiritualism about him which was quite powerful considering a) my general scepticism of religions and b) the massive crouds of tourists just outside. Anyhoo, I felt very relaxed and at peace after the experience which was really nice as I walked around the rest of the complex. The blessing consisted of chanting whilst splashing some water over me and some Thai people with a bundle of bamboo sticks.

I also saw a couple of monks dressed entirely in white and apparently Wat Doi Suthep is the only monastery in Thailand where they do so. I'm not entirely sure I was supposed to go there, but since there were no signs or barriers I had a wonder around the monk's living area too, just along the paths between the buildings. Apart from monks I was the only other person there, so although of the usual poor quality and perhaps not obviously so, one or two of the photos are actually quite unusual I reckon.

My second day in Chiang Mai was also my busiest for having my photo taken with random Thai women. There were four just in Wat Doi Suthep. Mostly between the ages of 40 and 60 unfortunately, although not exclusively. I got pictures myself of a couple of them which are included in the link above. The woman in the yellow shirt in front of the massive bell was number four. It started with another woman pointing at my camera and then the bell. At first I thought she worked there because a lot of workers wear yellow, which is the King's colour I think, and I presumed she was offering to take my picture for me, something which has happened to me already at another wat. But it turns out she wanted to have her picture taken with me so I duly obliged whilst a bloke who I presumed was her husband took a few shots of us together. Then she thanked me and I was about to walk off when another woman came up from the same group, same deal. And then another, and then the one in the photo. Why they couldn't all have stood there together, rather than one at a time is beyond me.

Anyhoo, back to Doi Suthep. After I'd finished in the temple, it's museum, and pointing Percy at the porcelain in the monk's toilet (could resist although I'm not sure why retrospectively) I got a bite to eat, jumped back on the bike and headed 3km further up the mountain to Bhubing Palace, the royal family's official residence in the north of Thailand. The photos are included in the above slide show. When I got there I found out the palace was closed for another hour (it closes during an extended lunch break) so I went to explore and found a walk through the jungle along one of the many footpaths there. Whilst I was walking I met another woman who wanted her photo taken. Her husband spoke quite good English so we had quite a nice chat and he took a few pictures of me on my own which was nice. I did ask if I could have a picture of him or the two of them together but he declined. A shame really because he was such a nice bloke. I spent about half an hour chatting to him, with him interpreting for his wife and when I left them he insisted on giving me some oranges. It was one of those anti-haggling against someone's excessive generosity moments; he started at five oranges and I managed to haggle him down to three. I bumped into them again as I was walking around the palace rose garden. The only farang there which was bizzare considering the beauty of the gardens and it's close proximity to the temple. The smell was amazing throughout the whole gardens, just thick with the scent of thousands of flowers. It reminded me of the flower market in Bangkok. I think I forgot to write about that and again the photos are on Kriangsak's camera. It was on the last night in Bangkok before I left for Chiang Mai, a whole city street with all its side streets stuffed full of flower stalls. Flowers in bunches, arrangements, garlands and all sorts. Temporarily the nicest smelling street in Bangkok.

After the palace I started the ride back down the mountain towards Chiang Mai. Stopped at Doi Suthep National Park and paid the ridiculous sum of 400 baht to enter. I realised as I was handing the money over just how expensive it was (locally speaking of course, it's still just under six quid) especially considering I was only planning on visiting one of the waterfalls. Photos in the same link. I stopped for about half an hour, ate two oranges and then hit the road again. I'd realised that I needed to get back to town quite early because I needed to change a couple more traveler's cheques and to do that I'd need to drop off the bike temporarily in order to retrieve my passport. Managed to get that sorted in time so I headed back to the hostel to pay for a day's trek the next day.

Righto, going into town imminently to buy some sunglasses finally so I'll finish this later or tomorrow.