Chiang Mai, Thailand -- early evening

I'm sitting now at the top of the mountain ridge just west of the city of Chiang Mai. Doi Suthep is the holiest shrine of Buddhism in the north of Thailand. A steady, cool wind is blowing, making the windchimes chime, and rustling the leaves on the trees. The vista from here reminds me a bit of Braulio Carrillo National Park in Costa Rica, although perhaps not so tropical since we are in the north of Thailand. There is music playing from a nearby tourist shop: mostly the sound of lutes.

Paul and I rode motor scooters to arrive here at the top of the mountain, very much a la Motorcycle Diaries. At one point, while rounding a very tight curve, and uncautiously looking back over the ridge, I lost control of the bike and ran into the curb, which was thankfully there. I slightly bruised my left inner calf muscle; the bruise is not bad at all since I'm wearing cargo pants, but my muscle feels a bit tight or sore right now, nothing too serious though.

Also, since I'm talking about the motor scooter, I have to say that I'm having issues with the lane patterns here; more specifically cars drive on the left-hand side of the road. Not long after we drove out of the center of Chiang Mai, we stopped at a major intersection; when the light turned green, everyone made a hard left right there, but I went wide, aiming for the right-hand side of the road, right towards oncoming traffic that was fortunately stopped at a red light. To salvage a very bad decision, I drove the motor scooter up onto the sidewalk right next to the stopped traffic, then I slowly drove ahead along the sidewalk until I was able to cross to the opposite lanes, where I met up with Paul, who was pulled over on a median. I laughed my ass off. But I'm hoping not to make that mistake again.

Alright, time to drive back down the mountain into town. Final thought: from up here, Chiang Mai looks much bigger than it feels when you're walking around inside of it.