Pai, Thailand

From link::eganstrip

Was feeling better a day after not feeling well after 4 days of the water festival celebrating the Thai New Year. Took too many buckets of dirty water to the face and mouth, likely source being the canal surrounding the old city section where much celebration was occurring. Here lots of filthy and contaminated water flows. The Thais had no problem jumping in it and swimming while also using it as a water source for filling up their buckets during the water celebration.

After a day of rest I took a minivan to the quieter, hippy town of Pai, about 2.5 hrs northwest through the mtns on slow winding roads. Lots of beautiful scenery on the ride which gave me my first glimpse of the rice fields of Thailand. I had heard lots of great things about the town and been planning on checking it and surrounding area out when I got to the Chiang Mai area. It is nestled in a valley with mountains and wilderness surrounding it on almost all sides. Not Colorado sized snowcap mtns but sizeable and majestic enough in themselves. Unfortunately I can't see a super clear view of much of the mtns as the weather is hot and hazy, obscuring some of the clarity. Also lots of landed being burned to clear space for growing crops, sending lots of smoke in the sky. There is a nice river flowing through town but not at its highest level since rainy season ended last fall and is coming up soon in several months. Also nearby are hot springs, some beautiful waterfalls and various caves. A bit too hot for the hot springs at the moment unfortunately as hot as it is.. The river and waterfalls would be awesome during and after the rainy monsoon season coming up soon. Lots of rafting and tubing opportunities available with local businesses. Tons of trekking and other opportunities to visit the hill tribes in the nearby area are also available.

As the weather is currently summertime and in the middle of the hot season, it is hot as hell and the prime tourism season has ended. Very quiet and lowkey here in Pai. Great chance to relax from the crowds and madness of the Thai New Year and the big crowds of the past few months. Kind of a Nederland, Colorado type feel to Pai as it is nestled in the mtns with a sizable hippy contigent. Also similar to Boulder with the amount of healing centers, meditation classes, and vegetarian restaurants around town. There is a big live music and jam session scene thriving in town. I found a cool little cafe serving fresh wheatgrass grown in the front of the store. Also a huge tea selection with all kinds of herbal and medicinal teas available. I got a large bag of very good Chinese herbal tea acclaimed for its healing and immune enhancing effects, exactly what I need at the moment. Can't remember the name of it as I had never heard of it before. Nice place to hang out and meet interesting people traveling from all over the world. Met a beautiful Japanese girl there traveling byself and passing through Pai for the day. I sat with her and another crazy Austrian guy telling wild stories of traveling on the trains and busses in India 10 yrs ago.

Prices are outrageously cheap at the moment as it is the low season and not as many people in town. My first few nights I had a cheap 100 baht a night - $3 - bungalow along side the river. Thank goodness the mattress had a mosquito net as there were huge gaps all throughout the dwelling allowing easy access for anything to come inside. Not worried about snakes entering as much as the nasty centipedes and spiders. I don't need them crawling into bed with me. After 2 nights in that space I upgraded for tonight. Now paying 200 baht for a place I believe would be over 1000 baht during the high season. Still doesn't have an air conditioner but as long as I have a fan i'm ok.

From link::eganstrip

Other links::More Wildlife Wanderings in Pai
Pai, Thailand02

Chang Mai- Pai (Thailand)

From link::kateharland.vox.com

So I left you last time- in Chang Mai, at a nice comfy hotel- along with both of our stomachs! We left 9amish and climbed into a small minibus with a rather loopy driver. Unfortunately, Jamie and loopy drivers do not mix at the best of times and after several hours of THE windiest roads I have seen in my life, he wasn't feeling very happy with himself!

However windy the roads were, the mountains made up for it...so so pretty. We stopped half way for a loo break and I ordered a banana shake which I later came to regret...read on and you'll find out why! I gave Jamie the sea sickness tablets we had for sailing in Barbados, suprisingly, he accepted them and felt much better afterwards...strange that!

We arrived in Pai with slight concern as to what we were actually going to do for a week...a village with 3,000 people only, a hippy heaven...we weren't sure what to expect. So as we piled out of the minibus, we sort of just stood, with our backpacks on, in the middle of the road, just gazing! There were literally dozens and dozens of cafes, restaurants, guesthouses, bars, mexican eat houses in all directions! Things were boding rather well!

We made our way in the 35 degree heat of the day to the nearest bar for a much needed coca cola, and tried ot figure out where to stay. Low budget, whatever we could get I guess. Jamie got chatting to a couple of Spanish hippies who directed us towards a bamboo bridge across the river where we would find a selection of cheap bungalows! Great!

So off we trotted- aggh, face to face with a rather rickety looking bridge...10 bamboo poles in a row again tethered together with little bamboo mats with holes in. Not being a huge fan of these types of bridges, can imagine things going terribly wrong, we slowly made our heavy way across to the other side and for 150 baht (2.60) we received the keys to a bamboo room on stilts with a matress on the floor, a mozzie net and fan, complete with hole in all four sides! Comfortable and would do happily for a night.

I slept like a log, as usual in these rather uncomfortable places, Jamie however was not so lucky and woke up several times with a dead shoulder and leg! Around 2am, leaving Jamie asleepish, I headed out to the shared toilets (they were lit with electricity). As my dad fondly remembers me as a child with my panties around my ankles screaming at the top of my voice with my feet in the air whilsta rather large spider raced at the toilet...he will sit and giggle at the idea of a tarantula doing a similar thing at me, now 19 years of age! IT WAS NOT AMUSING AT ALL! I have never removed my bottoms so fast! This massive spider just came out of nowhere, I literally jumped off the loo, stripped off, then jumped up and down trying to either kill it or scare it away. Then ran back to the hut in my knickers holding the trousers and crawled back into bed shaking next to Jamie! He just sat there and laughed at me- the bugger!

The following mornng, a very quick decision was made that a private bathroom was needed that was totally secure to the outside world. So we upgraded, and now we have a bamboo bungalow complete with tv and a real bed! SPider free...not so, after about 10 minutes of being there, I noticed a smallish one above Jamies head! I pointed out to him and he jumped out of his skin and joined me at the other side of the room. On a ratio of fear, he lost and had to grab a glass and paper to get rid of it outside! hahahaha!

After that, we hit our swimming pool! Yes, for 2 pounds each a night, we have our own swimming pool!! Ice cold, very refreshing! After a few hours at the pool, I began to feel funny...o oh, quick dash back to our bungalow and the beginning of a fun few days began. It turned out that- beingthe only thing that I had and Jamie did not, the banana shake the previous day had been made with local water- straight from the river...well we saw for oursleves and flushed it oursleves what the Thai people pump into their rivers! I do not need to expand on details, but 48 hours later and after buckets of magic pills, I was feeling much better! Jamie looked after me well and made up for leaving me in Chang mai...he is forgiven!

Donning the sunglasses as I had not been outdoors in a while this morning, we headed out for a breakfast of steak sandwich and french fries (or chips as I keep forgetting to call them now). After that, we decided we needed an adrenaline rush- so we hired a 125cc motorbike! Those who know me, and those who know Jamie will realise that neither of us have ever driven a bike before in our lives! Hahahahahaaa! It's perfectly legal out here to drive without a liscense- we have seen children younder than 10 doing it! We were given helmets though- among the few on the road who do wear them...most people are husband wife and 3 children on one bike and whoever sits on the back will get the one and only helmet they can afford to own.

So there we are, teaching ourselves how to drive a bike...Jamie is a natural the lucky thing, he took to it straight away and has decided he wants to get a liscense in the UK...shock horror! Me however, after revving the engine by accident whilst trying to turn it around, I only nearly hit several fences! Corners aren't so great either! I did better on the long run though, Jamie was on the back- I'm getting better at starting off as well, there's only a moderate chance that we'll miss the forward position and hit the ditch instead...maybe I will let Jamie drive tomorrow!

We spent a fantastic afternoon with the wind in my hair (Jamie's is much too short at the moment), and cruised around the country roads of Pai. It is beautiful, forests are similar to ours at home in the UK, only greener and hotter. Roads are full of potholes, and crazy people are always overtaking at horrendous speeds, but rather them than me! Here we actually get to see what they are talking about on the news all the time...the farmers here do not understand what damage they are doing, but they just set fire and to and burn vast parts of the forest down to clear space for agriculture...rice paddies. Fires have been burning on the surrounding hills since we arrived here, it's very sad to watch. We cruised past more elephant camps, actually met one on the road- the same as passing a horse, only 5 times the size and a rather bizarre sight! We stopped off in a roadside cafe for some drinks, it turned out the man lived there, he had a breeze block room which when he opened the door for our change, it contained only mats and blankets to sleep on- that's all he had. Poeple are very very poor over here, even more so than Mexico or Belize. They just spend their days swinging in hammocks waiting for white people like us to come and buy their goods so that they can eat that night...we can't buy everything and I always feel so bad refusing things.

Anyway, returning home, we did the usual, bought more water, climbed into our room, had a cold shower and sat under the fan watching tv cooling off...a lovely end to a lovely day out on the bike! Off for something hopefully edible to eat now. We leave for Chang Mai on 26th March ready to catch a boat into Laos that will take 2 days...from there...we have no idea what it will be like. I will probably update again in Chang Mai, if you do not hear from us for a couple of weeks, do not panick, we are way off the beaten track and the chances of there being normal things like tv, internet, phones...are slim!

Goodbye for now!

Kate and Jamie xxx

From link::kateharland.vox.com

Other links::More Wildlife Wanderings in Pai
Pai (but no pie in sight!)