Smart or not, we braved the insanity of Chiang Mai’s streets and rented motor bikes. They were tiny 100cc Honda Dreams, 4 speed automatics. They were also the only thing we had to keep us alive as the insanity of Thai Driving unfolded around us.
After visiting Mr. Mechanic, renting the bikes and somehow navigating the streets to a near by Gas Station to fill up, we inched our bikes onto a main Chiang Mai road for our adventure. Talk about a lesson in the deep end. Luckily for us the bikes were simple to operate. Go, stop, four speeds on your left foot all of them automatic. Keeping clear of the hurdling hunks of metal around us took all of our attention.
The Gas is your Best Friend
Driving here is a mater of getting the hell out of the way of other people and them doing the same for you. Just as I felt I was doing well a bike passed me on my left, it was a little girl dressed in her school outfit. Emboldened by her competence I fell into a groove , managing to navigate my way out of the city and up the hillside to our destination , the local mega temple Doi Southep. It was a blast ripping up the road at about 60km/ hr (the fastest the little bike could go up hill) we had huge smiles on our faces and spent only an hour at the temple before we eagerly hoped on the bikes and headed for the cities outskirts.
Driving Straight
I find navigating this city nearly impossible. It lacks the two main basis points that I’ve used for orientation most of my life, the North Shore mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Given our useless directional ability we decided to find a straight road and ride, hoping to see some of the serene farmers fields that we saw on the way in from the railway station just days ago. After passing army barracks, temples and more and more shops we decided to turn around, night was about to set in and we had little idea of how far we still had to go.
Laying Down while Driving
Maybe I was feeling a little too confident in my amateur biking career or maybe its just my way of learning, it happened never the less, I bailed. I was trying to turn into the gas station, going 5 kms an hour, hit a patch of mud sending the bike and my self sliding across the pavement.
Sander lept to the rescue, filming this video of the aftermath.
