Pia on Pai

... is now in our hands. Starting off slowly so she could get comfortable, we cruised through the two streets in Pai at 20 km an hour before getting out to the major road which leads to the countryside. Feeling the cool breeze as we rode out of town to Wat Phra Thart Mae Yen, climbing the 300 concrete and wooden steps we finally reached the gate to the temple. Next stop Tha Pai Hot Springs.....motoring along the small two lane country road past rice fields, banana ...

... br>
Tod ay, 10 hours on the bus from sukhotai to Pai, via Chiang Mai

Pai is a small town of 6000 inhabitant surrounded by rice fields and moutains

... that a friend who lived in Pai had recommended. It was beyond good. After that it was a trip to 7/11 for some whiskey and back to another friends bungalow for drinks. There was probably a group of 12 of us ranging from Germans, Dutch, French, and an Ethiopian. We all sat around just talking, taking pictures and having drinks. After that the whole crew headed out to the bars. Someone had the brilliant idea of bringing a ...

... you on that one) where they were having a Micheal Jackson tribute, cocktails sunk in and before you no it we were back at the bungalow ha.

Now being hungover and being in a mini van on the road from pai to chaing mai is not ontop of the list of things to do! i spent the whole time sitting with a plastic bag, trying very hard not to spew.

haha, i definately reccomend pai its an awesome wee town and really relaxed.

... It was pretty guff compared to the one in Cambodia, the cooking seemed a bit rushed, the recipe sheets were wrong and the food was so so. The woman later told Ang she suffered from stress and anger issues so she was going to live in a temple for seven days without food or talking, which explained a lot! Actually the second dish of the 2 was quite nice, a simple chicken and noodles dish with soy sauce which I should be able to recreate at home hopefully.
I had also ...

... dish which had me worrying about just how tough the next few days were going to be, if this was all the sustenance we were to be given. The villagers were Laha people, refugees from Tibet who now made the fertile hills of northern Thailand home. By law, they have no right to be there but luckily the Thai government allows them to remain there to farm in peace. The adults of the village were quiet, friendly souls where as the children seemed to appreciate our ...

... just thirsting for more. Can't wait to go again. We also stopped by some waterfalls that cascaded into the river, hot springs that boiled into the river, and went swimming. I also got to hang out with some Americans for the first time on my trip which was nice.

We waved Rachel off last night and, as had become the norm, went to Na's Kitchen for dinner. Na is from Chiang Mai and opened her kitchen restaurant 7 years ago. She has a great reputation for excellent Thai cooking at local prices, and the variety of Thai and Western customers are testament to her considerable skills – especially given the regular power cuts here.


Over dinner James and I discussed what we ...

... eyes firmly fixed on it as i backed away towards the entrance before
making a dart out of the gap and into daylight once again! The second
cave we trekked to was called waterfall cave. The enterance to this
cave was much larger with a stream running though the centre. We walked
a little way into the darkness but it wasnt long before we were on our
hands and knees or in some cases crawling army style through the
narrowest of gaps ...

So, much to my relief... I was successful getting out of Chiang Mai without getting totally soaked. As I had learned from the day before, the Sawngtheaws (red, covered-but-open-in-back, pick up trucks that are basically shared taxis) are prime targets for water dumping. When I had bought my ticket the day before, the guy had asked if I wanted to take the mini-bus or the mini-van, and said that sometmes the buses aren't air-conditioned. So that was all I needed to ...