Pai,
Thailand
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Pai is a windy 4 hour bus ride away from Chiang Mai. At one point our bus stopped going into gear and we had to pull over and flip up the middle of the bus for the ticket collector to tink around in the engine. Aparently ticket collectors are mechanics too!Pai is known for it's hippie-ish atmosphere and the availability of drugs like weed and opium. The ride out is pretty and butt numbing. The town in small, but surrounded by gorgeous scenery. We found a nice bungalow in a small place, but there's really basic bungalows you can rent down by the river too. The bridge across the river is woven bamboo, but it works. In contrast to the 'no prostitute' signs in Bangkok there's 'no drugs' signs all over town here. We saw the most gorgeous clouds ever in Pai - like something from a sci-fi comic book. Our first night there the town was empty and we couldn't work out where everyone had gone so we sat down in a street bar and I drank $1 white russions. On the way home that night we saw a tree with bats hanging from it. We threw rocks and sticks to get their attention, but Dave went one better by swinging a trash can around like a diskis. Mid swing the handle broke and Dave went flying,which got the attention of the trash can owner who came out yelling as we ran off. The next day we realised the 'bats' were actually jack fruit. After wondering what to do next we decided it best to rent some motorbikes and tour the town. The drive was gorgeous. We went to a canyon, a hot spring, elephant camps, a temple on a mountain where we heard a monk rocking out behind closed doors to his stereo. The drive took us through villages, farms, rice paddies and we nearly ran over many chickens (they're dumb bro'). We drove out to a popular waterfall and local ladies would run out from their village and try to sell us the ganja. We heard that you can get all sorts of drugs from them and sometimes they call the police so you get caught. They get a huge reward and you get a huge fine. Their are plenty of people who don't get caught too. That night we rode around till we found a bar on the outskirts of town that was packed with farang and had some live music. We met many people and drank lots of beer and then headed up to the prettiest bar yet. Up a hill and on a pond. The bar was lit up by lots of little lights and had funky music playing that was over-powered by the deafening sound of frogs and crickets. The atmosphere was great and we were the only ones there. On the way home Dave skidded off his bike doing motorcross type jumps, but was fine. The next day he left, sadly for us, for now Ben and I just have each other to talk to...
Before we left, Ben and I tried some wasp larvae that looked like it had been steamed or boiled. Not as gross as I would have thought.
Anyway Pai is the type of place people get stuck in, but I could only get stuck if I was an artist or smoking lots of weed.
