Seeing as we hired the bikes for 3 days, we thought we better make use of them and go on a few road trips.

First stop was breakfast (we could do this whole blog as a food blog instead!). Nice little cafe called the Hideout cafe that did great bagels and sandwiches.

As a good tester, there was the Royal Park around 35 minute drive (scoot?) away which looked like it would be a nice green area to chill out in. Also just up the mountain from here was Wat Phra That Doi Kham, one of the most important temples in Chiang Mai; home to a 17m tall Buddha. 

So we headed off down the super highway (far more impressive name than it actually was). Once you're out on the road, it didn't actually seem too crazy. Simple rules: the biggest vehicle has right of way (makes sense). That's it. Everything else seems to be just advisory. But so long as you keep your eyes peeled and wits about you, it was actually quite a pleasant drive.

When we arrived at the Royal Park, we parked up all well and good. Well almost, somebody didn't know how to open the storage on their bike, so had to ask a very helpful security guard for help. We won't name names. We went over to pay to get into the park and another issue, again someone (totally irrelevant who it was) forgot to take out more money, so we couldn't afford it get in. So that same un-nameable person had to drive to the nearest ATM, which was in the Chiang Mai Zoo.

Once this was all dealt with, into the park we went. It is essentially a large park with buildings or areas for different exhibits, it was quite interesting to see, or would've been if quite a few hadn't been closed for repair (low season baby). It also had something taken away from it with the sheer number of Chinese tourists, who are just the loudest people on Earth. Nice to know English tourists are now no longer the worst kind (#englandforthewin)

^^Spot Buddha on the horizon line?

^^Zoomed in... where we would end up later on

After exploring for a while in the heat, we decided to leave and try and find our way up to the Wat. Our first thought was walking, but when we saw it was going to be nearly an hour uphill, we thought maybe make use of newly acquired wheel transportation. After following the road round, we were given a chance to learn another skill, how to off-road on the bikes. That was fun. Following the dirt track, with various pools, pot holes and precarious slopes later, after a left turn it turns out the main road to the Wat is lovely and paved, we just made a slight wrong turn earlier on. 

After finally getting up to the Wat, it was a fairly impressive view over Chiang Mai and the Buddha was very impressive itself.

After a drive back through a not so bad rush hour, we decided to call it a day, get some Pad Thai and relax.