Tuesday is a transit day to Chiang Rai. I catch the 3 hour bus ride and get to my hotel. A new friend, Shalee, comes to visit and he takes me to buy a few supplies and we just hang out until he has to go to work. At 6pm I start walking into town. It is a 2 kilometer walk and I manage to not get lost from this hotel which is down a number of small streets. As I finish dinner Tree calls so I meet him and he eats his dinner as I just enjoy the conversation. And later we head back to the hotel.
When I wake up on Thursday I feel a slight irriation near the back of my throat - probably due to the riding the motorbike in the dirty air for so long (even though I had a mask on). I take some Airborne and then have breakfast. Tree goes off to a marketplace to buy gifts for friends and I just relax a bit. Mr Karl arrives a bit after noon so we go to have lunch. And then drop Tree off at the hotel so that he can get back to the airport. Mr Karl and I go rent motorbikes and go to a shopping mall for some supplies and we meet up with Shalee. After relaxing a bit the three of us go out to dinner. And then the fun begins.
Friday starts late but Karl and I walk into town to extend the motorbike rentals, find an ATM, and rent bicycles. There is a big tour of Myanmar going on this coming weekend, so most bicycle shops are closed for the weekend and do not have rentals. We finally find a place with old, borken down city bikes for rent: Single gear freewheel bicycles with an upright riding position and a basket on the front. We're desperate, so we grab these bicycles and start north. After getting side-tracked and passing it, we get to the Black House north of Chiang Rai, Thailand. We wander around the Black House and surrounding buildings and then ride home. Shalee comes over to my new hotel room (because the hotel owner asked me nicely to move to anothe room) and Karl and I go with his friend to dinner.
On Sunday the four of us (Karl, Shalee, Nan and I) take the motorbikes for a ride to a hot springs. The ride itself is fun and beautiful as we are along a lake and mountains and green fields and twisting and turning. The hot springs provides a relaxing period of time to de-stress and get rid of toxins. Later the four of us have dinner and call it an early evening.