The Adventures of Julie: September 2011

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Rocks and Other Misadventures on the Road

It's really shitty to be brought back to earth and reminded of your mortality by a rock. One minute I was flying down the road at 45-50km an hour, my friend Emily on the back of the scooter, thinking I was invincible and could outrun the sudden rain storm, and the next I was flat on the pavement, hearing Emily yelling my name, afraid to move and find out how badly I was hurt. Fortunately my guardian angels were still at work (even if they missed that damn rock) and I escaped with some scratches on my right side, a scrapped knee, and a badly scrapped arm - that pussed up, shed dead skin, hurt like a bitch, bled out randomly, and looked gruesome, but actually was not that bad. Emily who was smarter then me and was wearing a sweatshirt instead of a tiny little sundress, only hurt her knee, and our scooter, which we affectionately named Chip, only lost a mirror. All things considered not too bad.

We had just started a three day scootering adventure taking in the Mae Hong Son Loop, famous for its 1,864 bends over about 500km from Chiang Mai to Pai. It is a windy, crazy, scenic road taking in some of the best scenery in Northern Thailand. We managed to arrive at our first stop, the town of Mae Hong Son, with no further incidents and spent a great night couchsurfing with Dev, a peace corp volunteer from Texas, who, I kid you not can bike as fast as I can scooter. It is pretty impressive to have your ass whipped by a guy on a bike. Next day was more driving through rain, corn fields, rice paddies, quaint villages, and waterfalls. Absolutely stunning. We stayed overnight in Mae Chaem and woke up early the next morning to enjoy some Pad Thai and coffee before continuing to Chiang Mai, stopping at Mae Pan, literally the most amazing and impressive waterfall I have ever seen (the picture does not do it justice, but gives you an idea) and a few other falls. We arrived safely in Chiang Mai with no more misadventures where we spent a few days before Emily flew out and I continued back on to Pai, finishing the loop.