A Year Off by Alexandra Brown

Author:Alexandra Brown [Brown, Alexandra and Brown, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
Published: 2018-12-07T16:00:00+00:00

Driving the Loop

Chiang Mai, Thailand

DAVID

18.7061° N, 98.9817° E

It was almost seven in the morning, and Alexandra was sleeping peacefully next to me. The sun was creating sharp, bright lines across the room as it angled through the old wooden shutters. The air was warm and smelled like dry wood, tuk-tuk exhaust, and fresh cut fruits. Our little corner was beginning to bustle, and the energy felt kinetic. Chiang Mai was waking up. I heard Tony chatting downstairs as he took orders and Mae rattling pans as she prepared breakfast. I didn’t want to wake Alexandra, but given that she sleeps like a retired spy, I knew my efforts at not waking her were likely to be futile. Trying my best to be silent, I slowly walked across the room and opened the rickety old door leading to a narrow balcony.

“Where are you going?” Alexandra sprang forward before her eyes were even all the way open.

“Just to the balcony,” I replied as I looked back to see her relaxing her muscles and getting comfy again.

“We have a big day today. Are you excited?” she asked, to which I replied, “I really am.”

After some time watching the traffic pass and attempting to follow the tangle of wiring linking the buildings around me, I wandered downstairs. We had been staying in this old traditional Thai building for about a week, but it already felt like home. Tony greeted me, giving me a look that explained what he was about to say, and I replied before he found his words. “Yeah . . . granola would be awesome, thank you.” I sat down and waved to Mae, who was cooking just a few feet from my seat. Several minutes later, Alexandra joined me and noted how unusual it was to have me downstairs first. I felt an unfamiliar mix of excitement and peace and wanted to tell her about it, but saying that would have made this simple feeling contradictory and complex. Instead, I simply said, “I cannot wait to get on the bike.”

Tony’s Big Bikes had been recommended by a good friend in San Francisco, as was the Mae Hong Son route we were about to embark on. From what I had learned, it was an endlessly windy and picturesque route through some of the most beautiful country in northern Thailand. I had been missing motorcycle riding immensely.

After breakfast we strolled down the street to Mountain Coffee, the beloved coffee stand we had found on our second morning here. “What would you like today? Two cappuccinos?” asked our thoroughly eccentric and loveably rude coffee roaster and barista. He was giving me a cockeyed mischievous look, which immediately made me smile. I replied with an enthusiastic, “Yes, please!” to which he exclaimed, “Oh, good, I love taking your money!”

His family grew the beans in the mountains about an hour’s drive north, and he roasted them here in the city using wood fire and a self-modified cement mixer. Beneath his multipatterned garb and Technicolor hat was a brilliant and curious man.

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