Pai

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Trip Start Oct 27, 2007 Previous
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  Pai, Thailand
Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Having hired a car for a long weekend away from Chiang Mai, we woke up on Friday, with a trepidation... we had to drive the car out of the city. Sounds easy enough, you still drive on the left in Thailand, so there's no surprises there, generally the motorbikes and pedestrians give way to cars, so that's all good. However, in Chiang Mai you have the moat ring road to contend with. A fast moving liquid of cars, pick-ups, tuk-tuks, and more mopeds than you can beep your horn at. To add to the confusion, there's no real 'driving straight out' of the inner moat. You have to jump on the inner side going anti-clockwise, and then barge over the three lanes to u-turn to the outer road (running clockwise around the wall) and then cross three more lanes to get in to position to get the hell off the road as soon as is humanly possible.

Our first run in with this manic ring of fire was the day before when we hired a couple of bikes to see a bit more of the city, including the University grounds to the west of the city. Inside the moat, small - and more importantly - quiet, street criss cross the main roads, which are easily navigable by bike. However, trying to cross the moat road on a bike is pretty much like trying to pick up water with a sieve... It just isn't going to happen without a lot of effort, perseverance, and swearing. It took us 20 minutes to find a crossing that people were willing to stop at before we could walk the bikes back across. Thankfully, it's a bit easier in a car, if you have some patience, and don't mind seeing a bit more of the moat road than you'd originally banked on.

We hadn't really planned where we were going to go with the freedom of the car, so we headed to the first point of interest on the map we'd bought, the Mae Sa Valley. A National Park with numerous waterfalls and well kept gardens. Numerous waterfalls indeed. The Mae Sa waterfall complex is recommended, however, it's 10 waterfalls could be pessimistically counted at around 5... I'm sure it's very beautiful straight after the rainy season, but at the moment, it's more like a big river on a hill that takes about 20 minutes to walk up, and waterfall number 5 looks decidedly like waterfall number 4 from a different angle - a little further up the path. A much more leisurely walk and impressive waterfall can be found at Mok Fa, about 20k north of Mae Sa falls. A five minute walk through picturesque jungle leads to a 150m tall waterfall straight out of a fairy tale. There was also a group of Thai's messing around under it, which I'm sure was invigorating, and to be honest looked pretty painful. Passing on the power shower, we headed back along the path and followed the signs for the 'Bat Cave', not wanting to miss out on a chance to play with the Batmobile, and the famous utility belt. Unfortunately, it wasn't 'that' Bat Cave, but it was quite a creepy little cave you could crouch in to, and an added bonus for the Mok Fa falls.

Deciding that there's only so many waterfalls that you can see in a day (maybe even a lifetime...) we passed on any more local sights and decided to head to Pai, a small city north west of Chiang Mai. As it was only just gone 3, the 98km didn't seem to much of an issue, although we had heard reports of the bus journey over there being particularly bad. On reflection, the bus journey must be a nightmare, it is THE most windy road I have ever driven. There is not one stretch of straight road for those 98km... The swaying of the car back and forth was making both of us nauscious, until 2 hours later, we came out the other side, a bit dizzy and ready to flop in a hammock with a chilled Singha and a banana and chocolate roti.

Oh, how far from the truth... After picking a couple of places from 'the book' we set off in the car in search of somewhere to stay. Winding down narrow streets filled with pedestrians, straining for a sign that looked familiar. Having no luck in the town itself (slowly realising that 'room for rent' and 'vacancy' both mean 'full') we headed to the places just out of town, only to find they were all full as well. When you do lose track of what day it is, it's probably best to do so in the middle of the week, and not arrive at a really busy town at 5pm on a Friday night without realising it...

We eventually did find a place 'Darling View Point', on the hill overlooking the town, about a 5 minute drive out of town. The bargining for the room was decidedly cloak and dagger, having to tip-toe around and not mention how much we were paying to other lodgers, which was apparently because they were paying more, not that we were getting ripped off... even when we agreed on 600B a night and got 300B back from 1000B, there was no way around getting that 100B back. In normal circumstances we would have been able to shrug it off, but this rickety bamboo bungalow didn't look like it was going to last the night. I nearly went through the floor when I walked in with my backpack on. As we found out it wasn't just the floor that was paper thin. The walls were no match for the noise that was going on outside, the group of cockerels that managed to carry on all through the night causing dreams of chicken hot pot. Combine that with the builders in the hut next to us from about 7:30am, the pack of dogs, the drains and the cows, and we were about ready to get the hell out of dodge, groggy and grumpy, and in desperate need of some unbroken sleep.

We eventually found an exorbitantly priced room in the middle of town, but after deciding that sleeping in the car probably wasn't an option and staying at the previous place would have caused a midnight farmyard massacre, we gave in and dropped our bags off before having a little wander around town. Pai is a very picturesque place situated on a river, surrounded by mountains. With a vibe something between Chiang Mai and Lonely Beach, it has some great bars, live music, and some great places to eat, although it can be hard to get over the pungent smell of cat piss on some of the streets. The night market (whch we had driven through the night before) has plenty of the regular souvenirs and some great street food, and a traditional dance show.

As we'd already decided, we booked ourselves on an elephant trek the next day with Twins Elephant Camp by accident as it's opposite Thom's Elephant Camp and the rider had a Thom's Camp t-shirt on. We were still torn between whether we were doing the right thing - keeping the elephants active after their work in the logging industry ended, and thus maintaining their welfare - or whether it was just a cruel  sport, breaking intelligent animals to be used for our enjoyment. Although we already had these plans, we still managed to say hello to a couple more buckets in a great little bar on the market strip, just to give the early morning alarm call for the elephant trek a bit more gravity.

After turning up half an hour late, which in Thai-time is just a little bit early, we nursed our hangovers ready for the trek. A few minutes later, an elephant carrying two Thai tourists lumbered over the horizon, and we realised that being on top of an elephant for the next two hours was a pretty daunting prospect, and falling off even more so. After mounting from a platform, we set off down the road bareback, seemingly moving in slow motion. And from then on, I think both Shelley and myself had the most uncomfortable experience of our lives, in more ways than one. Riding an elephant bareback is pretty similar to doing the splits, and for those not so limber like myself, the aching starts pretty much straight away. However, whatever pain in your legs disappears as soon as you see the guides persuasion technique. It involved him shouting and stabbing the elephant in the head with a curved spike, which drew blood on a number of occasions. Now, I'm sure that in comparison, it's akin to a pin prick in your finger, but it's not something that confirms in your mind that the elephants are well treated, or that they derive any enjoyment from the whole charade. After the guide took a break to take some photos of us on the elephant, he also made time to prepare and snort some kind of power that looked a little like pollen. Leaving us on the elephant and walking along side, we headed for the river, the guide walking along beside us in a daze, laughing and shouting at the elephant. As we headed towards a sharp hill downwards, we did all we could to hold on tight, in an attempt not to fall into the jungle or under the huge feet of the elephant. Halfway down the hill, my right leg set fire with cramp, and relaxing slightly I lost my balance and started to slide off to the right, pulling on the reins I righted myself. Straight away the cramp came back, and I managed to tilt to the left, nearly taking Shelley with me. Deciding that grinning and bearing the cramp was better than killing us both by falling off, I gripped on and held until we reached the flat. As we got to the river, we were both looking forward to getting off the elephant, and hopefully wash the elephant in the river to say thanks for the ride. However, the river part consisted of the guide signaling the elephant to throw us off just as we had clambered back up on to her neck. Combine that with the hangover, and it was about as enjoyable as having your head shoved down the toilet. Having finally made it back to the camp, soaked and ready to leave, we got changed and decided that we're going to donate the same amount to an elephant sanctuary. I'm sure there are great places to do elephant treks, but our experience was pretty awful, and would have been even without a guide with an opium habit.

We decided that the loop passed Mae Hong Son and down the Burmese border back to Chiang Mai would have meant spending at least 14 hours in the car, we headed back through the scenic Chiang Dao, Phrao and ended up back in Chiang Mai a day earlier than expected, ready to pass out in a room with cable.

Our last day with the car was spent on the strip between Ban Tawai and Hang Dong. Ban Tawai just south of Chiang Mai is a tourist village, with more shops than you can shake a stick at, selling everything Thai, and that does mean pretty much EVERYTHING you could possibly think of. A great trip to finish off the last few bits of Christmas shopping, and a more pleasurable experience than running around Oxford Street on Christmas Eve.

Now we are biding our time in Chiang Mai, trying to sort out our travel through to Laos tomorrow after we've picked up our Indian Visas, make sure we've sorted everything out for the next few days of our trip. Our last night in Chiang Mai seems to have come round pretty quick, but I have a feeling that we'll probably be back here one day, a few years on to see if the place has changed much from the city we love today.

Hope all is well back home, what are the odds on a white Christmas? Think they're going to be pretty slim over here, although the nights are starting to get colder, and can expect single figures in Laos overnight.

Take care, lots of love
Peeps and Shells
xxx

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