Days 28-32: Chiang Mai

Feb 26 - Mar 1

I decided it was time to leave Luang Prabang, so I went to the Laos Airways building just outside town, bought a flight to Chiang Mai, and was on my way that afternoon. It's nice how you can do that kind of spur-of-the-moment travel here. There are travel agencies, both third party and for the travel companies themselves. There seems to be a standard price plus small arrangement fee which does not fluctuate depending on day of the week or how far in advance you purchase. So you can be quite spontaneous in your travel.

I had been told that Thailand has a great tourist infrastructure, and when I arrived in Chiang Mai I began to understand what this means. Prices are displayed, so you don't have to haggle and you don't feel like you're getting ripped off. A thirty day visa is free for many nationalities (including U.S.), and there is no need to apply in advance. It is legal for foreigners to drive motorbikes and cars, unlike some neighboring countries. More often restaurants will have English menus, staff that speak passable English, and food more appealing to a western palette. Things are almost as cheap as Laos and Vietnam, and the food is delicious. Here's a meal of sticky rice, Thai iced tea, and vegetable curry, and another of vegetable fried rice:


I had a quiet few days in Chiang Mai, slowly exploring the city filled with Buddhist temples and with a square old city surrounded by walls and a moat. I spent a lot of time relaxing at my comfortable guesthouse with friendly staff that spoke some English, and took many of my meals at the guesthouse restaurant. Many guesthouses have attached restaurants and will arrange outings for you, both of which strongly supplement their income. My guesthouse happened to have an excellent and friendly cook, so I enjoyed some Thai meals like cashew chicken and some American ones like french toast.


My first morning in Chiang Mai, I had breakfast at a nearby cafe. It was a nice husband-wife operation, and they made their own jam. The only other patrons were a 60-year-old white man and a 17-year-old, beautiful Thai girl eating together. Prostitution is legal in Thailand, and there was plenty of it going on in Chiang Mai. I bet it makes up a good part of the tourist industry income. I had seen this kind of open prostitution before in Amsterdam, but it's even worse when you have comparatively rich men making use of comparatively poor women / girls, and already a sense of servitude permeates the tourism industry.

I'm finding that, even though these cities have somewhat repulsively tourist-oriented areas, they have plenty of their own identity elsewhere. Even in tiny Luang Prabang, you could walk a little ways and find Lao people doing their own thing.

I had started to feel an urge for some adventure, so I began to research renting a motorbike for a multi-day trip from Chiang Mai on my own. I had read that the mountains of northwest Thailand were great for motorbiking and the roads well-paved and fairly safe. I found a few good maps of the area, one that had guesthouses and sites marked on it.

So on my fourth day in Chiang Mai, I rented a 125CC Honda Dream (four speeds and manual transmission, but no clutch) for 200 bat ($7) per day, which included comprehensive insurance. I chose the bike because it was very similar to Laura's that I had ridden in Hanoi, but with slightly more power to help with getting up the mountains I'd be riding in. I took it on a test ride to the nearby Phayap University, where I would play another game of pickup ultimate, like I did in Hanoi, the next day. Near the fields, there was a cluster of stores and restaurants catering to the University where I got a delicious strawberry shake at a comfy coffee shop and read my book for a while.


On my last day in Chiang Mai, I did a longer practice motorbike trip to the mountain temple Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, about 45 minutes ride from my guesthouse and with lots of twists and turns. There was a long stairwell up to the temple (or a funicular tram if you preferred), which was beautiful and full of tourists, both Thai and foreign.


The ultimate was good fun and great exercise, and surprisingly similar to Hanoi though with fewer locals and no smog. I had another yummy dinner, this time of Panang curry, at a cooking school and restaurant around the corner from my guesthouse.


Another morning, I followed a Lonely Planet walking tour of wats (and the wat dogs) in the old, moated city. I had delicious lunch of pad thai and pineapple shake, and after my meal had a conversation in English with my waitress and her mother who ran the place together. I was reminded that an interesting thing to do would be to get to know a waiter or waitress, and then ask to hang out with them and their friends after work, as a way to see a slice of the local culture. The cook at my guesthouse made such an offer to me after I had stayed there for a few nights, though I didn't take him up on it because I had to pack for an early departure the next day for my motorbike adventure.

Days 33-39: Motorbike trip into the mountains of NW Thailand

Mar 2-8

I set off into the mountains of northwest Thailand with a rough plan to do the Mae Hong Son loop, fabled to be full of incredible scenery and indigenous hill tribe villages. Though there were tons of switchbacks and very steep sections, the roads were in super condition and the traffic was light and considerate. I wasn't sure what I was going to find, but I was looking for an adventure.

(One of the first things I did was buy a more substantial helmet with a visor.)

The first leg of this journey is to Pai, and I enjoyed a beautiful sunset at a roadside "coffee house". This was my first example of a location catering to the higher-end tourists, which Pai is seeing more of these days. I heard that the tourists are not only foreign but increasingly rich Thai people.


Pai itself was a nice but somewhat strange town. Even though it's quite remote, there has been a substantial population of hippy expats living there for decades. Today, it is heavily trafficked by young backpackers. The experience was well summarized as I ate pad thai from a corner restaurant overlooking a 3-piece rock band on the street corner composed of Thai people who were playing 1960s-era covers including a few Eric Clapton ones (from his drug years), tons of tourists wandering around or sitting on the ground watching, and occasionally a crunchy white man or woman would step in and play the bass or sing for a song.


This was not what I came searching for on my motorbike adventure. After one night in Pai, I got a super traditional Thai massage, which included a lot of being stretched in various ways, and then I was back on the road. I wasn't sure where I would end up, but I had a good map with lots of guest houses marked on it. After a few hours of challenging but fun driving through mountainous switchbacks, I followed my nose to the Lisu Guest House on the edge of a hill tribe village off the main road. Within a few minutes of being there, I knew I had found what I was looking for.


The Lisu Guest House is so called because it is on the edge of a Lisu village and run by a Lisu woman and her German husband. Ami and Rudi were welcoming, and even spoke decent English, Rudi more so than Ami. The Lisu people are one of about five indigenous hill tribe ethnic groups that can be found in northwest Thailand. Each group has its own customs, religion, language, and distinctive (and often colorful) clothing. Here are the different groups, and a few photos of Ami in Lisu clothing (which she only wore one of the days I was there).


Not only were Ami and Rudi friendly and inclusive, I enjoyed the company of Michael, a 50-year-old guy from New Jersey who was selling the bookstore he started in Pai and was still trying to find his way, and Linda, a retired German woman.

I stayed in a bamboo bungalow, which was small but clean and very comfortable. It included an excellent mosquito net which kept my bed bug-free. I had a beautiful view from my door, and it only cost 80 bat (less than $3) per night! Ami and Rudi traded off cooking meals for their guests whenever they wanted them, and they had two locals who helped with cleaning and chores. There were two beautiful dogs, Mimi the kitten, and two monkeys that Rudi had been given by local children and which he had raised. There was a shared bath house for the bungalows which included a simple shower and my first squat toilet where you flush by pouring water after you go, and you put your used toilet paper in the trash can. It worked fine.


Every evening there was "Lisu dinner" at the guest house, a mixture of Thai foods eaten family-style around a single table. Rudy grew mulberries and made mulberry jam that went on bread or his thin German pancakes, and mulberry liquor which I had many evenings.

Before bed my first evening, I went to use the bathroom and was met by Mimi, mewing quite loudly. She was proudly displaying the rather large mouse she had caught, and then proceeded to eat him, bones and all, leaving only a bloody stain on the concrete floor.


Another day, early in the morning, the male monkey started screaming, there was a rustle of dog scramble, and it slowly became apparent that a dog from the neighboring Lisu village had snuck onto the property to eat some chickens. This turned out to be a bad move for the dog, as the two strong Lisu Guest House dogs cornered him, biting his neck and legs, and would have killed and eaten him had Rudi not shooed them away. He explained that if a dog ever tries to eat a chicken, the villagers will immediately kill him. But Rudi did not want to kill someone else's dog, so he led him into the village and tried unsuccessfully to find the owner.


My first morning, Ami drove Linda, Michael, and me in her pickup truck to town where the Tuesday market was going on. I enjoyed riding in the open-air back of the truck, taking in the scenery and not having to worry about driving. People from all the hill tribe villages, as well as from nearby Burma, come to the weekly market to buy and sell. Linda brought me to the place she always goes for breakfast (Linda is a regular visitor to the guest house, as well as Michael).


Later that day, I rode my motorbike farther along the main road towards Mae Hong Son, encountering more switchbacks and stunning mountain scenery. Cruising up a hill, I came across my first cyclist, slowly climbing, and loaded with panniers. I couldn't believe that someone would attempt to ride a loaded bicycle through these impossibly steep hills. I slowed to his pace and we talked for a while until we reached the top of the hill, and then he blazed down the other side. I later caught up with him and joined him for a meal. His name was Henrique Reñe from Barcelona, and ate ferociously as only a touring cyclist could.


In the evening, on recommendation from people at my guest house, I rode my motorbike and then hiked to Thom Lod, a cave with a river running through it. At sunset, thousands of bats fly out and hundreds of thousands of birds fly in, like a time share condo. The next day, I went on a strenuous hike with people from my guest house; much of it was bushwhacking through a bamboo forest. A few people had an idea of where we were going, but we never made our way to the destination, which was to be a large well-like cavern. But we did succeed in having a delicious lunch on the forest floor.


Another evening, Ami and others from my guest house brought me to a nearby Lahu village to witness (and take part in) their new year celebrations, which included sitting around in a bamboo house eating and drinking, and the traditional Lahu new year dance which is a slow procession of two concentric circles, women on the inside and men on the outside, holding hands and doing a sequence of sedate steps to a simple, repetitive melody played by one person processing around in the middle. Being a single young man, I drew the attention of the Lahu girls who brought me into the circle to dance with them. I was able to pick up most of the dance steps, which I think they appreciated.


On my last day at the Lisu Guest House, I went on a hike to the Mae U Mong waterfall. The first step was to ride my motorbike along some bumpy dirt roads to the Mae U Mong village, a village of the Karen people (known for wearing many rings around their necks to make their necks look longer). Ami had written me a note in Thai, explaining that I wanted to go on a hike to the waterfall. It took me a few tries to find someone who could read, but I eventually was paired with an experienced guide. His four dogs walked with us the entire way, flanking us in front and behind and periodically running off to explore some interesting movement or scent. At the waterfall, my guide used the trunk of a bamboo tree to make tubes for boiling water, and then we enjoyed noodles and sticky rice wrapped in a banana leaf.


My last day was a long one, leaving the Lisu Guest House at 7:30am for the long ride back to Chiang Mai -- I had a 4:15pm flight to catch. When returning my motorbike, I was able to get a discount for giving them the helmet I had bought.