City by Scooter (Thailand 5)

Without a specific activity planned for today, H and I decided to rent a scooter. After witnessing the chaos of the streets of Bangkok, we decided to hold off on renting a scooter there, but after the past day or two in Chiang Mai, we felt pretty comfortable with the idea.

Good thing we decided to do this -- today was easily one of my most favorite days of the trip so far! Because H rides a motorcycle back home, he was quick to pick up on how to ride it and because I've ridden as a passager a lot over the last 5 years, I had no qualms about hopping onto the back of the scooter. We zipped around the Old City for a while before deciding to venture out a little further. It was such an fun and carefree experience - no agendas or final destinations planned. It felt nice truly just wandering around the city, nothing to care or worry about.

Scooter time!

Pit stop for some khao soy in the outskirts of town

We ended up visiting another (and our last!) temple today. We arrived basically by accident but I'm glad that we did. The Wat Doi Suthep is one of Chiang Mai's most famous temples. The temple sits on a mountain that overlooks the city. The weather today was mild, but no rain clouds so we were able to take in the view from the mountain top.

Chillen! (About to accidentally discover temple)

Yes, he made me climb up all those stairs...

This is how I felt about it.

But it was worth it for the view!

Beautiful temple grounds

At night, we decided to head out west to the area near Chiang Mai University. Near the school, there were lots of trendy restaurants, dessert shops and... of course, bars. The bars in this part of town had interesting names like "Give Friends 100%" and, our favorite, "Blar Blar Bar". The crowd was young, but the atmosphere was fun. A nice way to end a wonderful day.

Till next time,
xoxo