We rented motorcyles.

Aw yeah. Well, mopeds. Green ones, specifically. But they were quite large and difficult to handle when not moving, as Anna found out the hard way this afternoon. Thankfully in her nasty tumble she lost little more than her dignity.
2 brothers that we met at our hostel, Eric and Ryan, had recommended to us to rent mopeds and cruise up Doi Suthep, the mountain overlooking Chiang Mai. The mountain has a famous wat (temple), Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, that one can take songthaews up to. But why take sketchy converted pickup trucks (which we have done at length) and have your life endangered by a driver you don't know when you can do it yourself? My thoughts exactly.

My day started at 720. I got up, went to the bathroom, ate some toast, went to the bathroom*, and returned to our room as the girls got up around 8. We walked over to the market where we bought our food for our cooking class yesterday (I'll catch up soon, I promise) and grabbed breakfast and headed over to Mr Beers**, our rental location. 600 Baht, 3 signatures, and Anna's passport later, we had 3 mopeds at our disposal (and car insurance w/ a 2000 Baht deducible!).
*Yes, twice. I'm having some mild GI problems that manifest every morning, but aside from Sam getting eaten alive (expected) and some feet problem, we have had no medical issues. Street food gets 2 thumbs up.
**No, I have no explanation.

Driving scooters in Thailand is about as dangerous and super fun as you would expect. Given the general lack of traffic cops in Thailand, they are a preferred method of transport in the cities. They swarm, dart in and out of traffic, are themselves traffic, and generally get around very efficiently. It is not uncommon to see people carrying their groceries, dogs, small children, or entire 4 person families on 1 moped.
In the cities, it is like go-cart racing. I actually had to repress my go-cart reflexes, because presumably spinning out in a scooter is different than in a go-cart w/ a roll-bar. At one of the red lights in the old city on the way back, as all the bikes weaved their way to the front, engines humming in anticipation of the light change, I turned to Anna and Sam and said, "I feel like I need some red shells" to clear out the traffic. Traffic lanes are seen as a recommendations by everyone, including the cars. Turning is also optional in turn-only lanes, which I must admit seemed to work quite well. I must also note that the Thai drive in the left lane, British style, but I thought we didn't have any problem with that transition. Thankfully, the car generally drive far more defensively than the scooters, and no one ever seems to have road rage or try to shoulder people out of the way.
It is, however, much more difficult to navigate, mostly because we are not able to stop and check our map and compass (yes, I brought a compass, thank you very much) every intersection, like we do on foot. Anna in particular was quite stressed, but Sam and I think that perhaps she should have driven more aggressively.

Mountain top driving was a beautiful experience. Cruising up and down switchbacks, leaning with the turns, is exhilarating, and Sam especially enjoyed herself. And by enjoy, I mean at times I could hear Sam cackling to the wind.

***
So what did we actually do? After an awkward exchange with our renter as I struggled to start by bike [Thai: You drive scooter before?, AJ: Uh, not really AJ guns the engine and quickly drives away], we cruised out of the city and headed straight up the mountain to Wat Doi Suthep (see http://wikitravel.org/en/Chiang_Mai#Wat_Phrathat_Doi_Suthep). We wandered about the Wat* and had some nice views of the city and valley below, and had lunch in one of the restaurants outside. We killed some time shopping, and I discovered that actually not wanted to buy something is an incredibly good bargaining technique; I purchased a shoddy metal elephant because I was so impressed with my ability to negotiate it down from the 850 listed price to 150B ($5). I'm still looking for some awesome elephant trousers, but I think I'll do most of my clothes and trinket** shopping in Cambodia.
*I'd tell you about the Wat, but who am I kidding - they all look the same. We also have no idea what any of the stuff means (partially true), or why there are so many freakin' Buddha statues (very true). All I've learned from the many signs we have read is that Thai script is very pretty. In a later post, I'll have to tell you about our conversations w/ monks on earlier days, and our practice mediation session last night, but nothing exciting to report from Wat Suthep, aside from a particularly shinny gold Chedi.
**Almost everything has "made in Thailand" stamped to the bottom of it, which in most countries would be a major turn-off, but I suppose goes with the territory here.

After the Wat, we decided to push further up the mountain to some Hmong villages. After the Royal Palace (Phra Tamnak Phu Phing, which had awkward opening hours; we hit it up on the way down), the road transitions to a one lane, paved, and the vegetation. As the responsible 22 year old of the group, I took pictures while driving, so you can check those out when we get back. The village was neat, and shanty-town-ish, aside from the solar panels every hut had (and a wind turbine for the school). The school was nice, and was swarming with adorable children. We didn't buy anything in their coffee or drink stalls, which I felt kinda bad about, but the town was pretty sleepy and no one seemed to mind us being there. On the way back from the village, Dan Kun Chang Kian, it rained, which made for some nervous driving, but cruising through the jungle in the rain was another one of those "wow, I"m really here" type moments.

On the way back we visited the winter palace for the royal family. As non-Thais, we had to pay 50B each, and I had to whip back out my smart pants. It was very pleasant to walk through, and at times the vegetation was so thick around the nicely laid paths that is seemed like I was ambling through Jurassic Park.

The last place on the mountain we stopped at was Nam Tok Wang Bua Bahn, a big fancy name for a nice waterfall. Unless you require your waterfalls to actually fall, in which case it was a very steep, short, and picturesque rapid.

***
Currently, Anna and Sam are researching hostels for Ko Samui, where we head on Sunday. While showing up utterly unprepared, like we did here, worked out well before, we are going to try to avoid it in the future. Then, we will head out to find some bars w/ live music. Wish us luck, as we've failed the last 2 nights (though we did find a sweet carnival).