Pai

Monday 19th

Well I shot myself in the foot quite nicely today. I sent my buddha's home okay, but had to walk to the otherside of Chiang Mai to do it, and stopped off in a net cafe on the way back to find out how to get to the bus station to go to Pai independently. I buckled again though, seeing the 160B minibus to Pai advertised at my GH.. I'd heard these were actually a bit of a white knuckle ride and worse than the public bus, but trying to flag down the right songthaew with my bag and get to the bus 30 mins before departure to get a good seat sounded much more likely to go wrong in the effort to save not much money. So I milled around until 12 and went back to book it at my GH. Full. Guess this is the kind of challenge I've heard makes travelling that much more interesting.

Amazing! After grabbing lunch I took 4 paces out of the restaurant ready for the march onto the main road when a songthaew beeps and pulls up in front of me. I wasn't even ripped off, and getting on the bus I felt pretty happy with myself. I'd got there 40 minutes early and so got an early bus ticket (seats are allocated) - no doubt a better one. Wrong. Climbing on the bus at departure time, I found I had one of the two seats with something like a wheel arch where the foot space should be. On a window seat. Funny how travelling can be so easy and yet so hard. Again, I thought my luck had changed when we pulled out with a half full bus, but after a few stops it soon filled up and I settled in for my 6 hour bus ride wedged against the window with my knees around my face and other Yoga style position. Beautiful scenery though.

I noticed one guy travelling on his own and off the bus in Pai I made smalltalk - Sean from Galway. We chatted a bit as we walked around aimlessly with no map, but finding one of the guesthouses whose name I'd scribbled down from travelfish before I'd left, we split the cost of a shared room. Have you been bartering for rooms? He asks me, errrm, no. That's not the way you do it I thought to myself, rooms are rooms! after getting the price - 200B, Sean asks.. Can we get a discount? after speaking some Thai to his wife they both laugh - oh dear how awkward I thought. "Okay for you special price, 150B" comes the reply. Huh? Nice!

After dumping our stuff we went out to explore the town. Pai is seriously relaxed. It's small, and the few narrow and unmarked paved roads have no curb or pavement, which makes them all - even the main ones with the bus station and stuff - feel like friendly pedestrianised side roads - quiet, but bustling with food stalls, open sided restaurants, market stalls and shops, and enough people to make the whole place feel friendly without being crowded.
That evening we both signed up for a two-day trek with Backtrax, with an over-night stay at village of the Lahu hill-tribe, before heading out to get some food. Some passers-by strongly recommended Na's Kitchen, so we abliged, and it was really decent. Lush curries and noodles all round. I think I came here every night I was in Pai, as did pretty much everyone in else in town. After dinner we just wondered around the main streets to see where they went, and chilled out with a couple of drinks in the places still serving.