Wheels!

Simple things like buying food or getting to work become a challenge when you are living in a place where you have limited ability to communicate or transport yourself from one place to another.  We are working to increase our Thai vocabulary, but language acquisition will only be so great in the span of 10 weeks. So since we can't effectively communicate, we decided to work on mobility!  Chiang Mai is big enough that walking everywhere is not possible, and we aren't here long enough to really make having a car and learning to drive safely a worthwhile solution. That leaves three more options- motorbike, bicycle, or public transport. A motorbike would be fun, but we were strongly discouraged on this option due to safety concerns with not knowing the area, and the fact that traffic rules are more guidelines to be followed, and motorbikes kind of do their own thing. Public transport plays a key role in our transportation, but that deserves its own post. In the end, we have opted for bicycles to be a mode of transport and exercise.  Mike went to the bike shop, and purchased two brand new bikes, more than we have ever done fore ourselves in Fairbanks. :) 

Mike's is a mountain bike, and mine is mountainesque, plus a basket on front for hauling things. I also have a space on mine to add a seat in case anyone would like to come over here and ride double with me.  So far I have been biking to women's houses to do nursing home visits. It's not quite Call The Midwife, but maybe at least on the spectrum of excitement....

Our first real biking adventure was late last week. We set off on a ride to the Chiang Mai Night Safari and Royal Gardens. But as we kept following the road, it became more of an alley, then a dirt track, and finally a small path. Not to be daunted by the road less traveled and a little elevation, we carried on. We figured we were now behind the night safari based on the large fence to our left, and kept looking for a glimpse of a tiger or elephant, but all we saw were deer.  Now we were really back in the hills, only seeing the occasional hut, pond, and lots of bamboo. What started out as fun became hot, but at that point it seemed like maybe it would be shorter to keep going forward instead of turning back.  We wound higher and higher, until we were actually overlooking some sort of temple.  Higher still we came upon some white huts that looked potentially religious and then some sort of watchtower. A woman sort of emerged from the woods and we tried to figure out if we were allowed to climb. Not getting a clear signal of no, we headed up for a quick look around, and then decided to get out of the area before we were potentially kicked out of the area. 

Descending the hill, we came to an open gate and paved road. We debated if it was okay to enter the gate, and finally decided it was a good idea. We made it about two yards through the gate before we noticed the guard who made it clear that it was not a good idea to bike through, and we quickly did an about face and continued down our dirt track. Thankfully we were gifted with pavement just around the corner and successfully made it all around the park! On the way back, we happened by the Chiang Mai Apiary. They raise bees somewhat differently here, but we don't know the details, as it was all in Thai. The man there didn't really speak English, but we showed him a few pictures of our bees on my phone and purchased some honey. All in all, it was a successful bike ride, and hopefully the first of many adventures!