Today Just Rocked, Plain and Simple

I would like it to be noted for the record that Sarah and I had originally planned to be in Chiang Mai for three, four days tops. We have now been here six and are pretty sure we've just been lovingly coerced (we weren't a very hard sell, truth be told) to spend two more here. Meeting this ridiculously fun group of people up here has changed our plans, but we don't actually mind a bit. I really think it's pretty rare to meet such a group of people that so immediately just 'gel' and who can laugh so hysterically together after knowing each other such a relatively short time. So we've decided to take full advantage of having such cool people to hang out with and to use this time to 'rest' a bit as the rest of our trip is going to involve lots of changes, activity and lots of moving from place to place. Up to this point, we've been doing a LOT of 'doing' and 'seeing', so now we're just enjoying 'being'. And, as a bonus, we're having a great time in the process.

Speaking of which, since we had so much fun doing it last time with just Sarah, Dani and I, today we all rented motorbikes and spent the day roaming the areas surrounding Chiang Mai as a group. Between the six of us, we had five bikes. Think Hell's Angels but much, much funnier. Trying to keep all five bikes together in Chiang Mai traffic was interesting at times but I have to say that we kind of rocked at it.

Our one and only 'official' destination was a lake that Duncan had heard about. The perimeter of it was surrounded by thatched-roof, open-air huts with bamboo floors. So, so cool. And there was drink/food service by a sweet little Thai lady to boot. Frankly, we almost didn't get too much farther on our bikes as once we got to the lake and saw the surroundings, it was supremely tempting to just spend the day lounging around there. There was food, there was drink, there was sunbathing and there was hilarity. In thatched roof huts on a lake. In Thailand. Really, what else does a person need? But we pressed on...

... to nowhere in particular. We went back up into the mountains, we ate yummy Thai food for lunch, we visited a temple, Charlotte and Kiwi bought inexplicably weird hats, we drove and drove and drove only to end up at a dead end. It was awesome. And there was only one traffic ticket issued among the group of us throughout the day, so not too bad.

When we were trying to get back to the hostel at night, we took a wrong turn (or, eh hem, several) and inadvertantly ended up at the night market instead (some people will never live down the faulty navigating) so, hey, why not do some shopping and eat some de-lish street food while there, right?

.

Oddly enough, the night ended with a late night trip to a pizzeria as a) someone mentioned pizza the other night and there has been a building craving for it ever since and b) we had the bikes and they were paid for so it seemed just plain wrong to NOT use them for all their worth. We're kind of ashamed to admit we ate pizza while in Thailand but, oh, it was so good....