5/17
Scooters in Chiang Mai
Since
arriving in Chiang Mai, I’ve always wanted to try driving a scooter around.
Everyone here (and by “here” I mean all of Asia) drives motorbikes around.
They’re very mobile in traffic, and super-cheap to rent. It’s actually cheaper
to rent a motorbike for a day than to take public transportation in some cases
– motorbikes will only cost around 250 baht/day including insurance (250 baht =
roughly $8). The problem, however, is that I’ve never driven a scooter and
popular opinion online states that Thailand is not the place to begin. Thailand
happens to have a disproportionate amount of traffic fatalities, and a good
chunk of them involve motorbikes. Nevertheless, Devon and Jordan were game for
renting scooters for a day despite our inexperience, so Kai at the hotel front
desk had three motorbikes delivered to the hotel.
We
inspected the bikes and took pictures for future proof that we didn’t scratch
them (being optimistic), and then did a little test-drive down the alley. The
rental guy was satisfied with my ability to slowly drive in a straight line, so
he released the bikes to us and we were on our own. We wanted to drive up Doi
Suthep (the large mountain west of the city) and see the big temple again
(Jordan hadn’t seen it). The trick was getting out of the city safely, which
meant avoiding the main moat road that circles the city. We weaved around
through the alleys but finally hit a bigger road that we could no longer avoid.
Devon’s face indicated that she was petrified, and I probably had a similar
look. We had to make a right-hand turn, which in Thailand means going across
traffic. I went first, and turning scooters is surprisingly hard, so I
basically just shot straight across the road and parked at the curb on the
other side, and then had to merge into traffic. It wasn’t pretty. Devon and
Jordan shot across too and met up with me, and we were once again on our way,
feeling a little more comfortable after getting into the flow of traffic.
On
the way to my apartment to pick some things up, I lost Devon and Jordan.
Apparently Devon’s helmet flew off her head and they had to stop and retrieve
it. I had made a right-hand turn and then stopped and waited for them, but they
didn’t see me as they drove by, so I had to get back onto the road and it was a
low-speed chase to catch them. I finally caught them, we turned around, and
finally got back on track. The driving from then on got easier, as we got more
confident on the scooters.
Driving
up Doi Suthep was a lot of fun, with lots of curves, not a lot of traffic, and
lots of great views. We spent some time at the temple, saw the dog with
drawn-on eyebrows again, and then decided to drive farther up to Bhuping Palace
– the winter palace for the king and queen. There was a strict dress code,
however, and we didn’t feel like renting clothes, etc. so we headed back down
the mountain. When we got back to the town, we headed north to the reservoir,
which is where the Thais go during their time off. All around the lake are
little stilted bamboo huts, where you can hang out all day and relax and, if
you want to, eat fried crickets. We drove back into town under threatening
skies, narrowly avoided running out of gas, and returned the bikes just in time
before the shop closed.
We
enjoyed a quick meal and then Devon had to head to the airport. Jordan and
Ariel and I went to watch some more takraw and chatted with Lucky again.
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