Lampang to Chiang Rai, Chiang Rai to Mae Sai

The all too gracious owner of our hostel in Lampang also was the host of a motorcycle club (there were about 6 Harleys parked around his house), and he very generously allowed me to keep the keychain attached to our room key after I expressed interest.

After setting out, we pulled a quick u-turn a few blocks away from the hostel after passing a small roadside restaurant with the ubiquitous plastic chairs and the ever-inviting steaming cauldron that couldn't look more perfect in the morning sunlight. We've learned not to be too fazed by eating in places with a complete language barrier and even lack of obviously discernible ingredients - the worst we've eaten at this point has at least been decent food. This breakfast turned out to be one of our greatest mystery-dining experience thus far. Pork ball noodle soup. Delicate broth, mildly seasoned, tender balls of pork over thin rice noodles, topped with ground peanuts and chopped cilantro and scallions, served along with a bowl of add-as-you-wish bean sprouts and sliced cabbage. I couldn't imagine a better way to warm our bellies on a cool morning ahead of a long ride.

The new bike makes me wonder how we survived 1100+ kilometers of northern and central Vietnam on the worn out seat of that little 20 year old 160cc Honda. Not that this bike is much bigger, but the extra 40cc and  cozy cruiser style seat allows me to forgive the cheesy easy-rider styling. 60km/h felt like twice that on the old bike in Vietnam, and between the traffic and the cushion-less worn out seat foam on that little bike, without frequent breaks, I wasn't sure whether my nerves or my rear end would give out first. After several hundred kilometers on this shiny blue La-Z-Boy of a bike, I'm a leather vest and mom tattoo short of upgrading to a big Harley cruiser when I get home (just kidding mom - on all accounts). We made quick work of the ride up to the lakeside town of Phayao, with a pretty astonishing drive up and down what I can only describe as the perfect mountain riding road. 

Brief wander through some roadside markets - any region where piles of shallots and garlic are this prominently featured in markets has GOT to have good food

Ingenious chestnut roasting method - we saw something similar in Vietnam at some point, with sand in place of these small rocks

Our first of Thailand's many, many waterfalls.

I really need to stop with the goofy faces

Rewarding view from the top

With dinosaurs?

It's at least fun to pretend we're on a fast bike

Phayao's lakeside view - a good place for a lunch stop

After making easy work of the trip to Phayao, we decided that we wanted to devote a bit more time to the far northern regions, and since it was a straight shot up a major highway to get to Chiang Rai, we decided a lunch stop in Phayao would suffice and we continued on our way. Having such a beautiful sunny afternoon didn't hurt one bit. Chiang Rai promised a nice atmosphere and decent food and ended up delivering just fine on both accounts. It ended up taking us a bit longer sifting through hotels to find something to our liking, but we finally settled in, a bit weary and a bit more hungry around 6pm to a clean, reasonably appointed (comfortable bed, hot shower - that's about all we're looking for these days) hotel, the name of which I have now forgotten. After an amusingly difficult back and forth with the old woman who owned the hotel, while she was zealously wielding one of those plastic bug zapping rackets above the head of the poor scruffy, overweight dog who was just trying to sleep, we got directions to a local restaurant I had looked up earlier. Our repeated frustrations in even pronouncing the phonetic transliterations of Thai words seems to provide endless amusing scenarios. It turned out the restauarnt, Phu Lao, would be only the second fully enclosed restaurant we had dined in during our trip so far. It was full of dining families, family photos on the walls, an endless array of smiling servers, all of whom seemed delighted to have foreigners wandering into their charming restaurant. We ordered a deliciously rich braised pork curry (loaded with chunks of garlic and fall-apart tender chunks of fatty pork), and red curry with smoked duck. Definitely a treat.

The central clock tower - quite a charming city at night

The next morning we packed the bike, saddled up, and started the slow process of hunting down a Khao Soi place I had also written down. After a few botched attempts at pronouncing the name, we finally got directions. Another roadside restaurant, more plastic chairs, the ubiquitous condiment containers - always promising. As usual, within moments of serving, we were presented with the appropriate Khao Soi condiments: chopped shallots, lime wedges, pickled cabbage. The following bowls were beautiful, everything looked perfectly crafted. The broth ended up being a bit less robust than the near perfection we had in Chiang Mai, but with a little extra chili and a good dose of fish sauce, we had a darn near perfect breakfast.

The ride today was another easy shot up the major highway to Mae Sai, Thailand's northernmost town and a gateway to Myanmar. The whole town seemed to be an open air market, full of locals, Burmese, Chinese, all selling clothes, food, gems, jewelry, and so on. We settled in to a cute little hotel, largely drawn by its apparent mascot, "Bibo"

Bibo--Why are so many of Thailand's dogs so fat?

A nice afternoon and evening of wandering the markets, some dumplings, some noodles with chicken and a rich but delicate cornstarch-thickened broth, stir fried pork with rice noodle, and a banana and egg filled, condensed milk drizzled roti for dessert. Another lovely day. Tomorrow we head into the mountains!