PicsFromTrips

A few days roaming around the Golden Triangle area of northern Thailand We set out from the Galare Guesthouse leaving most of our belongings behind - packing everything we needed for a few days in just a couple of small backpacks which we stashed inside the bikes compartments (got to love scooters for that) as well as a little pack strapped to the seat. We drove North on a larger road out of Chiang Mai to the town of Tha Ton, near the Burmese border. Along the way we stopped in at an Elephant camp (set up for tourists to see and ride elephants - actually quite depressing) and a cave system, where we were guided by a local who excitedly pointed out all that could be seen in the rock formations "baby elephant, baby elephant." We stayed at a nice place in ThaTon, right along the river, but it was quite empty - for dinner we were only the second ot third table eating (and the others didn't look to be staying at the hotel). In the morning we head out for an awesome day of adventure, starting with a drive around Tha Ton and the surrounding hills. Next we checked out the smaller roads heading East out of Tha Ton all around the countryside, through small hill tribe villages and farming communities. Along the way Meghan had a bit of a spill (luckily not too bad, just a run-in with the side of the road) after which we treated ourselves to some ice cream in Mae Chan. From Mae Chan we traveled South to Chiang Rai, our next stop. We spent the evening in Chiang Rai where we visited the night markets and had an OK dinner at a random restaurant. Our next day was another drive through the countryside, eventually stopping at Phayao. Phayao was an interesting town with a lot of Thai tourists (not many non-Thais) in town for some kind of school festival, where school children were putting on performances on a big stage - there were probably 10,000 people attending watching the performances (many in the audiences were families, with the children in some of the performances). We slept in an incredibly cheap place - $5 for the night - which was pretty rough, but clean, so no real complaints - I just wouldn't want to stay there for too many days! On our last day we drove down to Chiang Mai where we returned the motorbikes and returned to the Galare Guesthouse.