March 27th

I ate breakfast on the train (not recommended) and we arrived in Chiang Mai about an hour and a half late. Which the Thai lady sitting next to us said was the rule, rather than the exception. A hotel was offering free rides into town provided we looked at their rooms. It was a nice hotel, with modern rooms and a pool, but I really hadn’t decided where I wanted to stay yet. So I left, and found an internet café for a few minutes. After that, I walked over to a motorcycle/car rental shop, and ended up renting a motorcycle. They didn’t ask for my driver’s license, even though I’d gone to the trouble of getting an international license (for cars only). I was a bit nervous, because I really don’t have much experience on motorcycles or scooters, but figured I’m probably not the least capable or coordinated person out there. And it turned out that the motorcycle had an automatic clutch, which made things pretty simple. I filled up the tank, bought a map, and headed for the hills.

In town, there was still quite a bit of traffic on the roads, and a bunch of one way streets, so it took me a bit to find my way out. But things were fairly well signed, and I managed to get on the right road. The road going up was quite steep and windy, but I wasn’t really going very fast, so it wasn’t a problem.

Part way up the mountain, I passed a sign for Nam Tok Monthathon waterfalls, so I turned in. I paid the foreigner admission fee, and rode down the couple of kilometres to the parking lot. It was really not busy – a group under the picnic shelter, a group of young Thai people, and a couple of foreigners. I took a few shots of the first waterfall, and then hiked up past a few others, of varying sizes. When I found one that was a decent size, and past most of the people, I jumped in and had a shower. I had passed a few people, so I kept my clothes on (they really needed washing anyway). Plus Thailand is quite conservative about nudity. The kids I’d seen swimming earlier had all had shorts and t-shirts on – nothing too revealing. The waterfall shower felt really good, as even up north the weather was really hot and humid.

I made my way back down to the bike, and rode back to the main road and on up towards the temple at the top. I followed a sign for free parking, and ended up in a collection of restaurants and little shops. I was hungry, so I sat down and had the green papaya salad, which was VERY spicy, and some pad thai to try and cool off. With a couple bottles of 7-UP, the whole meal came to about 100 Baht.

I headed on up the road to try and get to the park headquarters where I wanted to reserve a bungalow, or rent a tent or something. But when I got there, a bunch of soldiers waved me off. I went a little further up the road, past a fork where the right branch was closed, to the Queen’s Botanical Gardens, but that seemed like the end of the road. Though in hindsight, there may have been a little road that went on that I missed.

Headed back down and checked out the temple, having paid the foreigner entry free (apparently it’s free for Thai people). Took a few pictures before the camera battery died, and then headed back into Chiang Mai.

I wandered around until I found a decent looking guesthouse (http://www.nockyhouse.com/), in a reasonably convenient location. I went in to talk to the girl, and a small room with its own shower and toilet was only 200 Baht per night, so I took it for 3 nights. No A/C, but it did have a fan which kept things cool, and a mosquito net and a gecko for the bugs. I wandered up to the 7-11 to get some soap, and passed a coffee shop on the way there. I used the internet at the guesthouse, and then went back to the coffee shop, as they’d had some really good looking desserts. They had a nice raised mezzanine with a view of the canal through a profusion of orchids, and the strawberry smoothie went down really well with the amazing cherry cheesecake. I went back to the guesthouse, and just relaxed, and flipped through the Lonely Planet to decide what else to do. I went to sleep around 11 with the intent of waking up around 6 to head out on the bike.

As always, there are a lot more photos on flickr.