Carefully making my way over canyon spines, climbing up the rock faces of waterfalls, and learning to ride motorbikes… The kinds of things you don’t tell your parents until later.

After four days in Bangkok, I was ready to leave the city and see the country. Don’t get me wrong, Bangkok was a fun city with it’s bustling street markets, rooftop restaurants, and wats (temples) on every corner. With simple, accessible public transport, I had no problems traveling solo throughout the city. I grew confident in my last couple days and stayed out past dark, feeling completely safe as I made my way back to my  hostel by metro. There was still plenty of the city I could explore, but I would be back in a few weeks. It was time for a change of scenery.

I hopped a train to the airport just outside the city where I met my travel buddy, Bastian. We had met backpacking the Annapurna Circuit together in Nepal and were ready to take on Northern Thailand and Laos. However, this was a different style of travel. Rather than putting in dozens kilometers on foot over a backpacking trail, we would be putting in hundreds of kilometers via plane, bus, and boat getting to various cities on a popular backpacker route (known as the Banana Pancake Route). We would spend just a few days in each city, sampling the culture, food, and scenery before moving on to the next. We would head North, planning as we went, getting advice from other travelers along the way. A new style of travel for me, one that promises spontaneity and adventure!

On New Year’s Eve we flew up to Chiang Mai, just in time for the floating lantern celebration. Hundreds of paper lanterns were launched into the sky throughout the evening, with a huge flood of lanterns released at midnight. Some floated dreamily into the night, others quite literally crashed and burned. A bit of a fire hazard? Probably. A unique way to bring in 2020? Absolutely!

Our next couple days were spent exploring the mountains surrounding the city. There are several ranges in Northern Thailand, but in general they are collectively referred to as the Thai Highlands. They are relatively low elevation, with the tallest, Doi Inthanon, only rising 2,565 m (8,415 ft) above sea level. The Thai Highlands are actually considered the foothills to the Himalayas, growing higher in Burma before stretching into India and eventually reaching Nepal. Someday I’ll follow them back to Nepal. Maybe in a couple years. But it’s impossible to plan that far in advance. You can try, but life is unpredictable and takes you to some unexpected places. Like Thailand and Laos!

Chiang Mai, to my surprise, was a big city. The fourth biggest city in Thailand with over 174,000 residents and LOADS of tourists. So we continued North in search of something less busy and came across the town of Pai. This was one of the few cities that we had planned to visit on the trip. Other travelers we met in Nepal had raved about the beauty and solitude of this little backpacker village. It was off the main route North, but we were assured it was well worth the detour. And it was.

We arrived to Pai in the afternoon after a 3 hour drive through winding mountain roads. We dropped our packs at our hostel and walked into town. Exploring the actual village of Pai doesn’t take long; it has just one main walking road and a few side streets lined with shops and restaurants. Nothing too impressive. Until the sun set.

Starting around 7:00pm the main road was closed off to vehicles and street food stands began to pop up. There was typical Thai food I’d encountered in Bangkok & Chiang Mai: pad thai prepared in a large wok, fried roti with banana, fresh fruit smoothies, and all sorts of barbecued fish & meats. But there was also foods from all over the world: Indian curries wrapped in naan bread, Mediterranean hummus & falafel in pita, huge slices of avocado on French baguettes, and a wide assortment of teas served in tall bamboo shoots (a personal favorite). We spent hours wandering through the streets of the night market, sampling all sorts of foods and observing all sorts of people (Pai attracts some colorful characters). This would become a nightly routine during our three days in Pai.

For our first full day in Pai we had one goal: learn to ride motorbike. I hadn’t intended to rent a motorbike during my travels. I didn’t know how to drive motorbike, and I didn’t have a motorbike license, let alone an international driver’s license. Oh yeah, and motorbikes are dangerous. Especially having to drive them on the left side of the road. Traveling by motorbike seemed out of the question.

However, the more travelers I talked to, the more told me that it was an essential experience to ride a motorbike when traveling Southeast Asia. It’s cheap (usually $6 for 24 hours) and allows you to see more of the country. They told me it didn’t matter that I had never operated a motor bike. Many of them had learned to drive in Asia themselves and told me as long as I wore a helmet & was a smart driver, I would be fine. As far as the license goes, most people don’t have licenses. If you get pulled over, you pay the 400 bhat fee (about $15 USD) and continue on your way. If you get pulled over again, just pull out your ticket to prove you paid the fee already. Easy.

Yet, I wasn’t fully convinced until I met another female solo traveler who had learned how to ride motorbike in Pai last month. She told me it was the perfect place to learn; a small town with wide paved roads and little traffic. She gave me the name of a rental shop where the owner will give you a lesson before cutting you loose on the roads.

So that settled it. I was going to learn to ride motor bike. I would tell my parents later.

The motorbike rental shop, Vespai, was located on a quiet side street lined with a few hotels. When we arrived at 11:00am there were six people waiting for lessons and motorbikes. We were going to wait awhile, but when traveling in Asia, you learn to be patient. While watching the new riders troddle down the street, we struck up a conversation with a young gal named Emily from Australia who was vacationing in Thailand with her family. They had rejected her idea to go to Pai, so she decided to venture North solo while they stayed in Chiang Mai. I liked her already.

After an hour, it was just the three of us standing at the shop, and fortunately, three motorbikes left. By this time, I had watched quite a few lessons and was feeling good about getting on the bike. I knew how to work the ignition, brakes, turn signals, accelerator, and perform an emergency start. What else was there to know? After reacquainting me with the parts of the bike, I finally got on. We spent about 30 minutes learning to accelerate “slowly, slowly”, brake “slowly, slowly”, and turn the bike around “slowly, slowly”. Finally I was allowed to take the bike for a spin around the block. Amazingly, I made it all the way around. Going “slowly, slowly”, of course.

Soon Emily joined me in my circuits around the block, and eventually Bastian for just a couple laps (our instructor said he didn’t need as much practice because he was German and a man, so he catches quickly. Ugh.). The three of us pulled back up to the front of the shop for some final words of advice from our motorbike sensei: “Do not get overconfident. That is when accidents happen. Good luck.” And with that, we were cut loose to explore the streets of Pai and beyond.

The three of us headed out on the main road, adrenaline pumping, riding toward some of the popular attractions just outside town: Pai Land Split, Pam Bok Waterfall, bamboo bridge, and Pai Canyon. We stopped along the way for lunch and found a beautiful vista overlooking the highlands. I could see roads weaving through the valley and felt a wave of excitement knowing that I was free to explore those roads with my motorbike. Ultimate freedom.

We turned off the main road and bumped along a smaller road leading towards the Land Split, waterfall, and bamboo bridge. We stopped along the way at a little pond with a few swings along the shore before finishing the short ride to the Land Split. This turned out to be a small canyon-like feature that was caused by several small earthquakes that had occurred over the past 12 years. We walked through the split, wondering out loud when the land would split again. Being located along the same fault line as the Himalayas, it’s only a matter of time.

We had intended to ride on to the waterfall and bamboo bridge, but the sun was sinking low in the sky and we wanted to catch sunset at Pai Canyon. We took the little road back to the main paved road where we rode another 5 km to the canyon. We parked our bikes among dozens of others and made the short walk up to the canyon. I had seen pictures of the canyon, but was amazed by its size. The spine of the canyon divided and snaked it’s way back as far as I could see. Although there were dozens of other tourists at the canyon, we were all so spread out along the trail that it didn’t feel crowded. We walked back along the spine until we found the perfect sunset spot. As the sun sank behind the hills, I soaked in the colors of this foreign landscape. What a life.

The next day we met up with Emily again to explore the places we didn’t have time to see the day before. We had the bikes until 2:30pm, so we got an early start to fit in Pam Bok Waterfall and the bamboo bridge. We turned down the same road we’d been on to the Land Split the day before. We didn’t know a thing about the waterfall or the bamboo bridge, but we’d quickly realized that when traveling by motorbike it was less about the destination and more about the ride. And the ride was gorgeous. It was mid-morning and the sun was giving a gentle warmth rather than the afternoon tropical heat. We passed houses on stilts and fields where buffalo grazed.

After about 30 minutes we reached the bamboo bridge and paid the small entrance fee. Similar to Pai Canyon, we had no idea what to expect. Similar to Pai Canyon, it was much longer than we realized. We walked along the creaky bridge through the rice fields, dry this time of year, and past farmers working the land. We eventually reached the end of the bridge where we found a wat (temple) in the forest. Classic Thailand.

By the time we got off the bamboo bridge and returned to our motorbikes, it was beginning to get hot. We stopped for mango smoothies before continuing on to the waterfall. We parked our bikes in a gravel parking lot and climbed a short series of steps to the base of the falls. Here we found a dozen others perched on rocks, enjoying the falls and eating picnic lunches.

Only a few people were swimming, most finding the water too cold. I dipped in a toe and found it the perfect swimming temperature, no colder than the lakes of the Midwest that I grew up swimming in. I stripped down to a sports bra & underwear and jumped in! I swam beneath the falls then perched on a rock to the side of the falls. After watching a few guys climb the rocks and jump into the base of the falls, I gave it a try myself. The climb to the top of the rocks was a bit sharp & slippery, so once was enough.

We dried off and mounted our motorbikes one last time to ride back into town. We arrived back at Vespai motorbike rental shop at 2:30pm exactly. We had officially made it 24 hours with a motorbike with no license, no experience, and thankfully, no incidents. Emily returned her bike, while Bastian & I kept our motorbikes for one more day to explore the Big White Buddha (Chedi Phra That Mae Yen) and do the first section of the hike to Mae Yen Waterfall (which we did barefoot).

Our time in Pai was over too quickly, as people warned us it would be. Although the scenery in Pai was amazing, what I liked most about the little backpacker haven was that it so perfectly represented why I love to travel. We met a perfect strangers who become an excellent travel partner, even if just for a day. We took risks hopping on a motorbike, but maintained our wits and saved our heads. We explored, we learned, and we moved on to the next place and the next adventure yet to unfold.

P.S. I’m not planning to ride anymore motorbikes in Southeast Asia. You can breathe a sigh of relief Mom & Dad 😉