A piece of Pai

  Pai, Thailand
Sunday, November 16, 2008

The festival of Loy Krathong and the coinciding of the King's sisters cremation gave me a full week off work, i spent a few days of the festival chilling out in Chiang Mai, then traveled up to Pai (pronounced 'bye') which is a town three hours drive north of Chiang Mai.  It is a town which attracts a lot of tourists, but as it is just the beginning of the high season (due to the drop in temperatures) it wasn't overly busy.
The first night i stayed in a bamboo hut

bamboo hut

- looks lovely, is actually horribly cold at night, i swear i had icicles on my nose during the night!  The staff were very friendly though and took me along to the final celebrations of Loy Krathong being held that night.  there was plenty of entertainment including local bands, traditional dancing and Thai boxing.  Another part of the entertainment that night was the 20 minute power-cut in the middle of it all! everyone just stayed where they were waiting for all the lights and music to come back on (you can never rely on Thai electricity supply!!) it was a very cold night and all the Thai's were wrapped up in scarves and hats, i began to wish i had some too...
I moved after one night in 'Indiana cottages' to 'Breeze of Pai' guest house

breeze of Pai guesthouse

for the next two nights, the room was comfy, clean, warm, and much better value for money!
In the morning i rented a motorbike

mean green machine

and drove up to one of the waterfalls out of Pai

waterfall

I got snap happy with my camera as it is so beautiful around Pai and i think it took me twice as long to get places because i was stopping to take so many photos!

scenery 1

scenery 5

Apart from riding a motorbike, another first for me was riding an Elephant! I was really quite nervous of the elephant at first but after feeding it a few bananas she seemed friendly enough.

elephant and me

i had to climb up her back by standing on her knee and grabbing an ear - not an easy thing, and the photos taken of my (eventually successful) attempt are not graceful in the slightest!

hurrah!

I rode on the elephant for an hour, up into the mountains, there were some beautiful views, it was so strange to be sitting on the back of this huge creature, plodding up the mountain with the handler shouting commands now and again.  At first it was very pleasant, but towards half an hour it was uncomfortable and when we got back to the camp i could hardly stand! Once in a life time for me i think!