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Chiang Rai, Thailand – My first experience with a motorbike was in Mae Hong Son less than a year ago.  It ended rather quickly with me teetering and twisting down the hill pulling all the wrong bars and simultaneously nearly crashing it into a car and driving into the lake while the bike shop girl ran down the hill after me as fast as she could.

After recovering from that humiliation, I’ve gotten much better at the whole turning and accelerating thing and when I got into Chiang Rai the first thing I did was rent a bike. It’s really the best way to see the countryside.  You set your own schedule, stop when you like and get an unobstructed view of the landscape.  Around Chiang Rai, I went around to the local sites, passing rice paddies and elephant camps, and weaving around mountain roads past tractors and cows with ropes trailing behind them.

Although the journey was half the pleasure, I was quite taken with the 70-meter Khun Korn waterfall, reached by a slippery ascent and descent (in flip flops) to the cooling pool, where the rush and crash of falling water created a windy blast and cool spray.  A contrast to this natural wonder was the surreal Wat Rong Khun or the White Temple, the bizarre creation of Thai artist Chalermchai Kositphipat that looks like the embodiment of Buddhism on acid.  Brilliantly white with intricate detailing, guarded by otherworldly figures and fronted by two pools of pleading hands, it is one of the most fantastical temples I’ve seen in Thailand.

There were an abundant number of stands selling mushrooms along the way and if I had a kitchen there that’s what I would have bought, but instead I settled for some freshly fried root vegetables (sweet potato and taro), popped in a plastic bag and hung on my handlebar, a terrible temptation even for a now more stable driver.

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