Pai: Land of the Hippy Living

We arrived in Pai in the early evening with no plans of where to go, where to stay, what to eat, and what to do. Luckily, neither did anyone else in Pai. After finding a bungalow equipped with two fans, a hello kitty comforter, a mattress that felt more like the original beds out of the Jailhouse in Christchurch, and cockroaches, we set out to explore the town. We immediately grew sad that we only allotted two days in this town because it was yet again a special place with lots of natural beauty, great restaurants and bars, and an atmosphere that could relax anyone. We found our new favorite restaurant of the trip “The Witching Well”, where we had an organic tofu dinner and soaked in the vibe. Pai embodies the phrase “your body is a temple”, because you are hard pressed to find anything that is not organic, vegetarian, or made of wheat grass. We explored the walking street (market) until late then headed back to our chantey for the night. After waking up in horror that we had lost our limbs because we were sleeping on bricks and nails, we both couldn’t stop laughing about how god awful not only was the mattress, but the fact that the fans produced snow and our room had went from sauna to igloo in a matter or hours. Once each of us got the feeling back in our arms and legs, we managed to fall back into a fragmented sleep until morning.

The next morning Carley went to try another yoga instructor, while Birmy set out to find a non tofu or organic breakfast. Carley ended up in the attic of an ex-hindu princess from Africa who called herself Mama Mam. After three hours of “meditation” and hatha yoga the class was over and she was ready to jet set out of there. Unfortunately, it was ritualistic to have an after class recession of rice cakes and watermelon. Once she had learned that she was in a class full of people who voluntarily fasted for 7 days she decided it was really time to go. We reconvened in our chantey and then headed to the river to enjoy the sun and some down time. The day was spent doing what all the locals do….nothing. We read, and then met some interesting travelers over a nice street meal…it was really weird, we tried pad thai again (it was only the 8th meal in a row of pad thai). After walking through the market, shops, and stopping in various bars, we settled down at one playing live music for the night. Half of the next day was spent doing the exact same thing, and it was awesome. Pai is a place for reflection- and that was what we needed. It was nice to be able to reflect on how awesome the last three weeks have been- and to begin planning what was in store for our final three weeks.

We left that afternoon on a mini bus back to Chaing Mai, only to catch a 11 hour “VIP” bus to Bangkok. We left at 2:30, got to Bangkok by 5:30 am, and made it to Phuket via Bangkok Airways by 9:30 am! It’s been fairly evident that the best way of backpacking, is utilizing the dirt cheap night buses, we lost no time, but did sacrifice some sleep. Even though you may feel lost because of the language barrier, the travel agencies in this country are incredible and as long as you have your ticket, they take great pride it getting you to your destination safely. What better time to enter one of SE Asia’s craziest cities, than at 5:30 am. In avoiding blindly walking around the streets of Bangkok at the hour, with all of 47 bags, loose sneakers, and head pillows, half asleep from the bus, we hoped right into a taxi to head to the airport. Bangkok’s airport was amazing, immaculate, English speaking, and with a complimentary food lounge calling our name. After stocking up on free food since it was 2 pm the day before since we had eaten, we boarded the flight and made it to Phuket!

Again without any reservation, we decided to pretend to have a confirmation at a nice hotel in town, since at this point it had been 4 days since we had showered or slept for more than 2 hours consecutively. The showering is true- due to the fact that when you pay 2 dollars a night for a chantey or a guest house, you get a hose, and some complimentary bugs. So, in our defense, not even showering would have made us feel clean. We got to the hotel, and it must have been our offensive appearance, because we had to wait an hour in the lobby before the agreed to confirm our reservation and grant us our complimentary drink. Thank god it was a mocktail, or we would have passed out quickly. We went up to our rooms like homeless people, and resumed a normal life until the sunset.