motorcycle (...err scooter) diaries: part 2

Day 3
I left the cool air of Mae Salong behind early on day three to make my way towards the town of Fang and Doi Ang Khan. There's nothing particularly interesting about Fang, but Doi Ang Khan is a peak with an agricultural center, which offers the local communities demonstrations on how to farm things other than opium. Opium really isn't produced in Thailand any more, but 20 years ago, this was at the forefront of the battle against the drug.

The road up to Doi Ang Khan was somewhat of an adventure. First I tried going up some small backroads - only to find that they'd been blocked off by the army because of its proximity to Burma. So after accidentally running into a military base I back tracked 20 miles to the main road and went up to the top the standard way. On the way back to the main road, I had a run-in with a snake. Now normally I wouldn't really flinch at the sight of a small snake, but this thing was roughly 12 feet long, basically the width of the road. I didnt have time to stop so I simply rolled right over it and kept going. Definitely gave me a good scare though.

Doi Ang Khan was pretty nice, though since it is the winter, there wasn't much in the way of fruits and veggies, mostly just flowers (hence the pictures below). The way back down wasn't so adventurous, and I spent a quiet night in Fang walking the weekly night market.

Day 4
I decided to head back to Chiang Rai today in order to leave me some time to get a few things done. So I picked out a few points of interest on the way home, not really knowing how nice any of them would be. First up was a waterfall. Turns out this "waterfall" was more like a little stream. I guess it's the dry season - oh well. Next up was Chiang Rai Winery. A little better than the waterfall but not much. There's weren't any vineyards to be seen as this "winery" only produces fruit wines. DOH! I had a small taste of their mangosteen wine and some herbal wine, neither of which I would recommend to anyone. Yuck. I didn't feel bad not buying anything since they didn't even want to give me a tour of their facilities.

Third on the list was a random bakery that was listed in my map. First success of the day. I don't normally care for sweet things much, but I could get used to eating mango pie. Delicious. Final stop on the way back was Wat Rong Khun, a modern temple that's certainly unique in Thailand. It was built in 1997 and unlike all the other temples, it's entirely white and has very non-tradition imagery like the sculpture of reaching arms when you enter the temple.

So... that's it. 4 days, 1 snake, 1 military base, about 300 miles, and a whole lot of interesting things along the way. Next up: Taipei for a long weekend!