We decided to rent one bike and ride together for the trip up North. Randall, Connor, Lampoon, Chase, Shereen, and Olf (a Dutch addition…Shereen met him on her bus ride to Chiang Mai from Bangkok) met us at our guesthouse. We got acclimated to the bike and took off out of the city.

We stopped to gas up and take pictures just outside of Chiang Mai, and then we were off. The ride out was great for the first 2 hours or so, and then we got caught in some chilly weather and a rain system. Since it has been hot with blue skies for what seemed like weeks, none of us were well prepared for the rain.

Randall mapped out the route and was our guide. Our plan was to drive up North, pass through Fang, stop in Tha Ton to see the "long necks" (a hill tribe of women from Myanmar who use coils around their necks to push their clavicles down, thus giving them long, slender necks), and then shoot up to Mae Sai to cross over into Myanmar for a few hours, get a passport stamp, and head back. The plan was to do a loop from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai then swoop around to Myanmar and Tha Ton, and then pop back down due south to Chiang Mai. Chase had to leave early the next day to get back in time for a flight to Laos, so we modified the trip to head straight to Tha Ton.

Long story short - during the rain, we lost Chase and Randall. They stopped for a bite and didn't see us ride past them, so we didn't see them again. The rest of us plowed as far north as Fang, and we decided to grab a room and a hot shower. We looked for the lost guys, but we never found them. Without cell phones or a contingency plan, we had to assume they stopped somewhere else. Remember that Randall was our guide, so with him gone, we needed to come up with a new plan.

Fang is a pretty small town around 10 miles south of Myanmar. It is basically a stopover for traders, and it is less popular than Tha Ton. Pretty quiet, Fang had only a handful of lodging/restaurant options. The rest of the night was quiet, although I did end up hanging out in Connor's room until the wee hours drinking Thai whiskey and chatting. Connor is from Northern Ireland and is a really interesting guy, so we had a good night hanging out while the ladies slept.

The next morning, Bev and I went to scout out a good breakfast option in Fang for our gang, and we found a great little Thai joint across the street from a euro-style coffee shop. We figured everyone would be happy with these two options. We all went to the Thai restuarant first, and Bev and I had thai breakfast (Bev had a mild soup dish with chicken and I had a yellow curry rice with chicken that melted off the bone), and then we satisfied our craving for coffee by going to the coffee shop. And that, my friends, is a culinary tour of Fang.

After breakfast, we decided to stop off at the hot springs pretty close to Fang. The park was nice, but upon further inspection, it was set up Disney style, such that a system of pipes, gauges, and faux rocks channeled the hot sulfuric water into small ponds and geysers. We played with some local kids, watched the geysers, rode around the park, and then Connor and Lampoon had a soak in the mineral baths/sauna before we all took off for home.

We basically motored home the whole way, stopping only for gas when necessary (and stopping for when the pink panther decided to stall due to the engine overheating). We actually did swap out Bev onto Shereen's bike periodically to give the pink panther a rest.

We made it back to Chiang Mai around dark, and while Connor was getting his room squared away, guess who shows up? Randall! We found out he and Chase motored on to Tha Ton, hoping we would end up there. They left in the morning before we even finished breakfast in Fang. We all went out that night for a beer and some food back at Connor's favorite place, the Chiang Mai Saloon.

Tomorrow is another day!