Road Warrior
Nan.
That's where I am now.
I've just had some marvelous mystery soup, spring rolls, and Leo beer (Chang has lost its charm for me) at a sidewalk table downtown watching the sun go down and the night market set up.
Thai people are all deaf. Or else they've grown up in the noisiest country in the world and don't notice the constant din. It's part of the charm, this overloading of the senses.
I've been riding. I completed the Mai
Hong Son loop, went back to Chiang Mai for two nights, and am now part way
through what's known as the Golden Triangle loop. Riding here is absolutely
wonderful. The best bits are, of course, off the beaten track. Whenever I get
off the fat orange roads and onto the skinny purple roads (on the map) my
delight jumps a notch. Today I took what the book describes as the best bike
loop in Thailand, and I must say, it was pretty damn good. Basically it's a
big loop out of Nan that goes up and over 6500 foot Doi Pukha and back through
the rural hills. The climb up was great. The road sort of follows a sharp
ridge up. You twist and turn through switchbacks on one side for a bit,
looking over a huge gorgeous valley off to one side and then the road would
flip to the other side of the ridge where you look over another equally
gorgeous huge valley. Near the top the road surrenders to the crest of the
ridge
and you have both great valleys flanking below you on each side. It's
ok. But the best part was taking a wrong turn on the route back and ending up
way in the outback, with rolling farm land and forests and hardly another soul
about. For a couple of kilometres along the way each side of the road was
flanked with giant pampas grass fronds that bent from either side toward the
middle of the road, like loyal subjects bowing to the king, like odd creatures
from a cheap horror flick reaching to grab and devour. What was left was a
narrow path down the middle, with very good pavement underneath. And through
all this up and down and round and about the roads swoop and swerve with
multiple linked
'S'-curves
,
big sweepers, sharp 90 degree direction changes, and very little traffic.
The best days have been the side-trips into the hills. Off the Mae Hong Son loop I headed up to the appropriately named La Up and, later, Mae Aw.
La Up
is a small community far back in the hills situated along the edge of a high sharp ridge
from which you can see for miles in every direction. The
one street
of the town is bordered on each
side with closely spaced houses on stilts and each house has a view to die
for. The spaces beneath the houses, and the roadway itself, are occupied
primarily by pigs, piglets, dogs, roosters and kids. My walk through the town
was a classic with swarms of laughing, jabbering kids running around, ahead and
behind me. Some grubby (young
boys
)
and some crisply clean (
schoolgirls
).
They don't get a lot of white guys up there.
Mae Aw was wonderful. It's a lovely community of families and descendants of Chinese refugees from the Communist regime, nestled high in the mountains snug up against the Burmese border. The families there fled when Chairman Mao got control of things. Of course we all know how the Chinese regime deals with opposition and the necessity to head for the hills when things go against you. These folks landed on their feet. I arrived in late afternoon just as a bunch of the village women were setting up in the town square to prepare the big meal for the evening. What an incredibly relaxed, joyful, and warm bunch they were, full of the most relaxed motion, warmest smiles and eye contact, and kind words and greetings for everyone coming by. I had a great late lunch of Chinese noodles and tea at a little wood bench and table off to the side and smiled at the show. And kids! There's a billion of of them. Nearly every woman has a tiny one strapped on her back and there's swarms of kids of every age floating about, all receiving copious amounts of attention from all the grownups. Clearly baby making is a major pastime in Mae Aw. Perhaps this accounts partially for the palpable absence of stress I witnessed there.
Now that I've spent a week and 2,050 baht getting a Vietnam visa, I've decided not to use it. I'm going back to Ao Nang to ride out the rest of my time here lounging on the beaches, drinking at the sidewalk bars and doing a little more diving. I want to be too hot again, too brown, too relaxed. Here up north it actually gets cold sometimes. I'm currently wearing a sweater fer chrissakes - that's just not right. I'm longing for that tropical heat again. And I'm starting to grow weary of moving from town to town, finding a place to sleep, to eat, and moving on again. That's how Vietnam would go and I've done enough of that for now. I just want to go hang out and be a lazy hedonist. Is that so wrong? It's uncertain at the moment whether I'll finish this Golden Triangle loop or bale down south right away. Yesterday was down due to heavy rain all day and today was overcast and cool all day. If tomorrow dawns clear and blue I'll carry on towards the north. If it's overcast I'll head back to Chiang Mai, turn the bike in, ditch the warm clothes I bought, figure out the quickest visa renewal strategy and head for the heat. I've already signed up for another 3 day dive cruise in mid-January. This complete freedom is a wonderful thing.
I hope you all had a fine Christmas and have a wonderful and safe New Year. Oh yeah - and in 4 1/2 hours I turn 49! Holy cow batman! Nearly 50. That's so abstract. Shouldn't I be paying out my mortgage and joining the Shriners or something rather than bouncing around Asia homeless and aimless?
Nah.
See ya...
...B