Scooter up the Mountain

We all slowly filtered down to the restaurant next to the hotel. We headed out from there to the next street over where most of the rental shops were. After getting the scooters we set out for an easy ride through the city with Jeremy leading and the rest of us following. Nick had not been on a motor bike before and he took a couple turns to get used to it. We also all had to get used to driving on the left. At the temple we relaxed and decided that we were all comfortable enough to continue to the mountain. We took the easiest route out of the city and made it to the mountain base with no incidents. We kept going with me in the lead until Nick decided to rush ahead. Jeremy who was keeping the rear got confused where nick wasn’t in the line and went to the front to ask about it. While he was passing us in the right lane a truck coming down the mountain crossed over into his lane and clipped Jeremy’s handle bars. He was able to keep control but it gave us the notion that lanes are relative in Thailand. We met up with Nick at the first set of waterfalls. They were nice but it was obvious that it had a good bit of toilet water in it. We then went all the way up the mountain to the palace area for lunch.
The palace was under construction so we could only see the grounds. There were tons of flowers everywhere. It was rather nice but there was a surprising lack of views from the mountain top.
We then started down the mountain and stopped at the temple. All of us took the naga stairs up and down and it wasn’t nearly as much as I thought it would be. We saw some monks on our way up and they were all just chilling on the stairs using their smart phones. Jeremy has the theory that second sons of wealthy families may be sent to be monks to figure things out for themselves like the monks of the middle ages in Europe. These monks aren’t monks for life so it isn’t as big a deal to be sent off for a period of months to years. The temple had a big shiny gold spire that can be seen from anywhere in Chiang mai. It also has the best view of Chiang mai that you can get anywhere.
Continuing down the mountain we stopped by a set of waterfalls that were pretty. We then kept going all the way back to the rental shop and dropped off the bikes. We were just in time to run over and hop on the bus to the cooking class. I had a great time on the scooters and would get one if it made sense.