As those of you who followed this blog years ago in Ecuador know, we met Pete in Ecuador in 2015. An amazing thing about “travel buddies,” is that you don’t need to see them all of the time in order to retain a travel friendship. So it is with Pete.
In the intervening years, our lives have changed. Pete moved to Thailand and married Lek, a wonderful Thai woman. We reached out to Pete months ago, and he warmly invited us to visit him in Chang Rai. We happily accepted, thinking we’d stay with them a few nights, then find independent lodging. This was not to happen. We not only stayed with them the whole time, we travelled extensively throughout Northern Thailand on our Magical Mystery Tour.
Pete became our “Thai Pilot,” navigating our way through the Thai experience in their new Wuling Binguo EV. Lek became our Thai “Spirit Guide,” navigating our way through Thai food and culture.
It was a absolute pleasure to wake up in the morning, shower, and head out to the veranda for coffee and light breakfast.
The house was built on stilts over a pond. There is an island, with a bridge connecting to the veranda. There are two bedrooms with en suite baths, and a half bath. There is a small “reverence” room to honor the spirits who lived in this spot prior to the house. The house is in a development with a maze of roads surrounded by rice paddies.
We did have some visitors – a pair of peacocks and a monkey.
Motorbikes
Pete had promised to give us a crash course in riding motorcycles. He took me out, Lek took Ellen.
Results were less than mixed. Ellen was too short for Lek’s bike, and it was probably a bit over powered. I had some success on Lek’s bike. Pete led me on some cool rides. I did fall on one of the turns, and was extremely lucky to have only a minor scrape and bruising on my shin. Could of been much worse.
We decided to take the car to Pai. Highly recommend the lodging and cuisine here! A bonus was meeting several times with friends Ross and Pranee, also an x-pat and Thai wife. Very fun chatty people who were very welcoming to these English only speakers.
Really enjoyed learning the back story of Pete and Lek and seeing pictures of their home