Moped Diaries

The traffic laws around here are pretty simple: If you see a stop light you stop, other wise it's go-go-go and try not to hit anybody.

Knowing this didn't make renting a moped any easier. In fact I didn't sleep a wink as I kept reminding myself the whole night, "Drive on the left...drive on the left!" In Thailand everything you know about driving is flipped and I was constantly challenged to drive against instinct. I fumbled a little as the sole driver of this thing, and with Jessie the Navigatrix on the back we got around quite well. Pai is the perfect little town to try this in, because the surrounding countryside was relatively traffic-free and stopping frequently was a must.

First and foremost, I realized how much of the area we really weren't seeing. The rolling countryside seemed to roll away into misty blue mountains as far as the eye could see. Very ghostlike in a lot of ways. The small villages where the roads narrow and are frequented by children, chickens and underfed dogs were often not as far away as the map indicated. The people there too seemed genuinely curious as not too many foreigners ever venture outside of Pai.

It was just what we needed to break away from all the pre-packaged "tourist adventures". We got to move at our own pace and hang out in out of the way open-aire restaurants overlooking the serene valleys.

The scary part however came when the bridge was out.

We had wanted to get to the elephant camps so I could paint me some elephants. The bridge to the backroad to the camps was being worked on and the secondary bridge collapsed under the weight of a cement truck which was about to capsize. That meant we had to hit the dusty highway and go the longer route. Route 1095 is gravel, dust and cement shared with every other vehicle...and did I mention how steep the hills were? Breaking was scary, steering was scary...the whole thing had me on pins and needles. Luckily we chose to ride out to Pai Canyon early to avoid heavy traffic. Stupid me forgot to where a bandana to keep from breathing the red dust.

After that leg of the journey it was rather easy, and we were back on the backroads through the elephant camps.

Jess seemed to enjoy it as much as I did, and even though we were racing the clock to return the thing, I think it would have been fun to keep it another day.

=s=