Pai Bye Southeast Asia...
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Pai,
Thailand
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Here in this little town sitting right beside a little river,surrounded by beautiful forrest-covered mountains, is a little community of people who are stuck. They come only meaning to stay for a couple of days or a week and find themselves in the same hammock two months later. A sleepiness born from total and utter relaxation makes even getting up to order another fruit shake an ordeal. This is a place where no one asks you what you have done that day. They ask how you are, how you're feeling in the world, because whether you're here to smoke weed all day or to do some serious detoxing, everyone has that vibe. Everyone considers themselves people of the world, people who absorb things, people who are on some sort of personal quest. And so, in this world of floor pillows and beauty, surrounded by people with similar souls, it's easy to just...stay.
For me, Pai was exactly what I needed. I was fresh from the craziness of Bangkok and the frustrations of getting my Russian visa taken care of, my body still pretty worn out from the travels of the last three months. Here I was able to free myself from worry and the strain of figuring out what to do next. In the mornings I did two hours of yoga with "Mama", a crazy but fun Thai woman who fed us fruit afterwards and told us stories of her youth. For lunch I would fill myself up with rice, tofu, and veggies from the vegan restaurant down the street. Sometimes I would go back for more yoga, but sometimes I would just take a nap or read. As the days passed, both my body and my spirit became rejuvinated. I felt healthier with my vegetarian diet, my daily yoga classes, and the days of idleness. My last days, I pampered my body with a full massage and sauna treatment, then pampered my tastebuds at BB's Wok and Roll cooking class. As the time for departure approaches, I feel the urge to just stay as so many others before me have. I feel the tug of a promised life of leisure and health in a place where inner beauty is just as important as outer beauty. And who knows, if I didn't have a plane to catch to China in a couple of days, I might have become one of the stuck. But then again, even "pairadise" could get boring if wandering's in one's blood...
