Thailand Part 2

Part 2 of my Thai adventures:

The road to Pai has seven hundred and sixty two bends in it. And in the back of a minibus I felt every single one. I was a little queasy, though there were many people worse than me. I don't think there was a single person on the minibus that didn't feel sick and we were all relieved when we arrived in Pai - it only took three hours!

Pai is tiny. Very rural with only three main streets and it has a really laid back, 'hippie' atmosphere. We stayed at a place Tash's friend had recommended: Baan Pai Riverside. It was wonderful! To get to it we had to cross the the river on the rickitiest bamboo bridge ever. Did not feel safe but we made it and our reward was our own little hut on the river side. It was made out of bamboo on little stilts and though incredibly basic was wonderful. Feeling hungry we went to find food only to bump into Tash's enthusiastic mad/lovely friend Lucy, who took us to a cafe called 'The Good Life' which was full of wheatgrass! I had my first ever taste of kombucha (fermented tea - really nice) as well as tofu and rice. We met a Texan called Ray who wanted to show us around in his jeep but we were too tired for today. We spent that afternoon having a gentle walk around the town and then chilling out at our hut, and also at the lounge built over the river. We met Lucy that evening and fitted all of us onto her scooter so we could go to a restaurant called 'Charlie and Lek's' where I had some delicious fried rice. Thai food is really really good :D

I got up early the next morning to go on a two hour elephant trek. We fed the elephants bananas before getting aboard - via their trunk! I had no seat, just a blanket spread over their back. My elephant was called Ot and she was lovely, if a little uncomfortable and did like backing into trees. We had a trek around a 'mountain' - just a big hill really - before heading for the river. Ot seemed very keen to get in the water and even keener to get us in the water! Apart from the usual thing of spraying us with water we did 'elephant rodeo' where she basically just shook us off. The water was cold but at least the sun was out. It was so much fun but I was drenched!

I got back to Pai early that afternoon and met Tash and Texan Ray for lunch before we hopped in the back of Ray's rusty, 1960s Thai army jeep to go to a local waterfall. The top pool was packed with kids so we went to the quieter bottom one, where we met two Japanese guys with their Thai friend. The conversation was... interesting to say the least. They'd never seen a belly button piercing in real life (only 'online') and couldn't understand why we wanted a sun tan. They were really interested in our cultural differences so it was a funny talk. After the waterfall we drove through a local Tribal village before looking at the river and a temple. We ended up at the hot springs which, surprise surprise, were really hot! It was nice to relax in them, though we couldn't stay in the water too long. We had dinner at a place called 'Farmers Village' where we were served by another grumpy ladyboy(!) but the meal was worth it.

That evening after meeting a tattooist called Newton and a dog called Lola (long story - no tattoos involved!) we went to a bar which has little fire pits everywhere where you could just crash out on cushions around an open fire. It was really nice and they had fire-poi performers showing off their stuff.

I had to head back to Chiang Mai the next day to catch my overnight bus back to Bangkok so Tash and I had a lazy, food-filled morning before saying goodbye *sadness*. On the minibus back to Chiang Mai I met an aging hippie originally from California but who had lived in Thailand for the past fourteen years. It made for another interesting conversation. Once we arrived in Chiang Mai I went back to the Green Tulip House to wait for my bus. Stella was so happy to see me! She made me a banana pancake with a heart on it drawn in chocolate. So funny. I still had three slices left when the songtaew came to take me to the bus so they put them in a bag for me to take along. The overnight bus was dull and long, but livened up by the movie Avatar shown on the little tv and the fact that it felt we were traveling through some sort of war zone. There were so many police checkpoints along the route - because of all the planned political protests!

I arrived in Bangkok at 5am and walked to Khaosan Road. Nowhere was open except for a couple of clubs (complete with drunk all-nighters still playing pool). Finally found a little cafe to have some breakfast in before trying to get a room in the hotel I'd stayed at before. It was finally ready at 8am and I dumped my stuff and hurried out to book a bus to the airport for the next morning. Due to the time of my flight I had to get the 4am one. Gah! Ah well. That done, I went straight back to my hotel to sleep for quite a few hours, only getting up again in the afternoon. Did some last-minute shopping on Khaosan Road but it was so hot and sweaty I was only out a couple of hours before finding somewhere for dinner and then crawled back to bed.

Getting up the next morning wasn't too much of a challenge, but it was very odd walking down Khaosan Road at 3.30am with all my stuff while people were out partying and stumbling down the street. The bus office was closed so I sat outside and someone turned up to take me to the bus. There was an incredibly drunk Italian guy also getting on the bus. I was impressed he was still standing let alone had managed to get him and his stuff to the bus stop on time. We arrived at the airport at 4:30am and I found some breakfast after getting through all the security etc. The plane took off on time at 7am and I was off to Singapore...