Pai-adise
Trip Start
Aug 07, 2008
1
34
79
Trip End
Ongoing
Pai,
Thailand
Saturday, October 18, 2008
let me introduce you to Pai. it's a small hippy town located about 100 miles northwest of Chiang Mai... and the road to and from Pai is NO JOKE... you guys know that curvy road in San Fran, right? well think about that road, but through mountains for about 90 miles!!! it was pretty tough... and the way back from Pai, this dude sitting behind us threw up all over himself... and for those of you who get car sick, the smell of vomit doesn't help... i think it took everything eunice had not to follow up in regurgitation. hippy town would be the best description of this place. it's located in the mountains and it is only about four blocks in either direction from the center of town. there are loads of Bob Marley decored cafes and rasta colored bars. backpackers come here for two things, to relax and "do nothing" and to party. we opted for the first. but before we get into the "do nothing part" let me explain to you the extend to how much of a party scene Pai can get. first off, there are bars on top of bars here. secondly, they don't get busy till about 1am and don't close up until about 6 in the morning! insane.... on top of that, you end up with a stack of fliers throughout the day a there are locals passing out papers on what is going on that night. and finally, they sell these things called "buckets". bascially, they are buckets with a bottle of rum or whiskey skimmed on top with some chaser like lemonade or coke... crazy, i know...
anyways, back to the "do nothing" part. let me explain. the term "do nothing" to backpackers doesn't necessarily mean sitting in the room aimlessly (although at times it can). what "do nothing" often means is to just sit back with less activities than usual while enjoying the surroundings... (so a place like Bangkok would not suffice for someone to "do nothing"). here's what eunice and i did. first day, we enjoyed the night market picking at food stand after food stand... some decently good eats... then we just sat in front of a market and talked over a few drinks. second day, we rented a motorbike and cruised all throughout the areas outside of Pai... GORGEOUS! if you're ever in northern thailand, it would definitely be worth it to do a motorbike around Pai... we saw a waterfall, drove through some small villages, saw Pai's version of the "grand canyon" (notice how i used small cap letters?) and just drove throughout the day. the nicest thing beside the drive itself was a wonderful cafe on an edge overlooking the valley. the place is called Coffee in Love (why are asian cafes and eateries so cheesy with their names?) anyways, it was absolutely wonderful having a cup of tea and a slice of chocolate cake while enjoying the view... everything was perfect apart from the trio of older men from Israel with their personal young thai women. they were getting kinda frisky the whole time accomplishing the task of grossing out everyone in the cafe. anyways, it was much nicer after they sped away on their motorbikes, each with a thai girl straddling them. oh, and i forgot to mention that eunice tried driving the motorbike... i saw my life flash before my eyes at first as she almost drove it into a ditch.. but she got the hang of it, even with me sitting behind her... we'll try again in another country maybe that isn't so hilly and windy...
so that is pretty much Pai in a nutshell... they've got white water rafting, kayaking, trekking and elephant camps, but we figured it was time to chill... we even splurged on a room the second night.. it had a pool, a common areas to relax, free internet... and although expensive at a whopping $13/night, we figured we would deal with it later....
