Villa De Pai

... br>Note to fellow travelers:
If in northern Thailand, do not miss Pai. The small village is unlike Bangkok or Chiang Mai. A serene town with 2 main roads and a few sois. Because of the newly introduced 29 minute flight from Chiang Mai to Pai, the area is heavily under construction, expecting to become the next boutique town in SE Asia.
If traveling during the rainy season, as I am, be prepared for heavy monsoon-like storms that last 30-60 minutes each ...

... good time. All along the way the bus driver picked up anyone along the road who needed a ride. To start the trip I had a bench (2 seats) to myself and barely fit. Well about an hour into the trip the bus picked up some people and one was a monk. Sure enough, he sat right next to me. To be polite I took off my headphones because he was looking at me like he wanted to have a chat. We introduced ourselves ...

... for an exploratory run up the road which took me a bit more out into the countryside past some paddy feilds and all sorts of other stuff which was really authentic looking, as well as past some very bemused locals who kept reminding me that scooters are very cheap to rent...! Post run, we all decided to treat ourselves to some pampering massages and body scrubs which left us relaxed, clean, and in Bernie's case, trying to reattatch her shoulder ...

... next 2 days we spent trekking in the surrounding hills. It was not a brutal as the last one, no mountains involved, but still pretty hilly and scorchingly hot and humid, so still pretty tough. WE went out with guide Mr Pat and a young posh English kid Jamie, about to start a history degree at Cambridge, and a 23yr old girl called Anna from Nova Scotia who has fit in an incredible amount of stuff it seems into her life. She is clearly from a well to do family but despite this ...

... that morning but couldn’t find a language course online. Out came my trusty laptop and after considerable effort we found the name of just one place in Pai offering language courses. Baan Phasa had an address we didn’t recognize, but that was not surprising considering that after a week here we don’t know the name of one single road around here between us – 'Na’s Rd.’, ‘7-Eleven ...

... way back...made the
hairs on the back of my neck stand up and aided in getting me back to
the outside world in double quick time!
After lunch we ventured into
our third cave of the day...fossil cave...pretty plain cave, quite
long, but generally quite large, many bats though and it smelt a bit
funny cause of all the poo and a general lack of fresh air . The
fossils at the end of it were very disappointing. I dont know what ...

... time, I saw another bus with a Pai sign in the window, and this actually looked pretty nice. Very modern, clean and looked to be pleasantly air-conditioned. After a while of enviously eyeing this vehicle, I decided just to ask the ticket counter guy what the deal was. With very little inquiry or complaint, he crumpled up my ticket and wrote me a new one for the very mod AC bus! Same price, and leaving at the same time, so I'm not quite sure how it all works ...

After the debauchery of Chiang Mai it was time to move on, destination Pai. Over the next few days it seemed that half of Julie's guesthouse followed. Pai was a perfect place to relax, it’s a small town surrounded by mountains and the surrounding area was dotted with waterfalls and hot springs. I remember spending many an afternoon at one waterfall which had a natural waterslide next o it complete with a good 10ft drop into ...