Vacation Part 3: Pai

I wish I could say better things about Pai.  I did really want to like it--the scenery there was beautiful.  The town is really nestled in the mountains.  It is pretty funny, whenever anyone mentions Pai it usually involves discussing the twisty roads involved in getting there.

Basically Pai turned out to be a tourist mecca, just not in the way you might think.  It was ground zero for every backpacker and dirty hippy within a few hundred miles, if not all of southeast Asia.  The town itself just had a vibe to it that I didn't like--everywhere I looked was another white girl with dreads or a dude looking to find some weed.  Not really my scene.  I just really didn't feel any of the Thai culture there.  In fact, the guidebooks even recommend against eating the Thai food in town.  There are so many foreign restaurants that it is actually better to eat foreign food--the Thai food is mediocre at best.  So that sort of puts my entire experience into one moment.

That being said, I did have some good meals.  While I am still loving all the Thai food and certainly not tired of it, I did have a very good thin crust Margherita pizza one night.  The next night I had an excellent bacon cheeseburger.  So two Western meals that I would never be able to get around here.  I also got addicted to mango smoothies there--Nan really isn't as in to the smoothie craze as the rest of Thailand seems to be.  The mango ones are my favorite: deliciously sweet and smooth without adding too much sugar.

I also really liked where I was staying.  Pai is in the mountains on a plateau, with a river on three sides.  As I mentioned, a lovely setting, just a bit less lovely ambiance when it comes to the people who frequent the town.

There are numerous small, low budget guesthouses across the river, but most places are in the main town.  My place was only about 50 meters from the riverbanks, so it was nice to stroll down there.  Lovely, but dangerous during rainy season.  It was here in Pai that my brother got in trouble a few years back.  He was staying by the river during rainy season, and apparently there was so much rain that the Thai national guard had to be called in.  He was woken up in the middle of the night due to flooding, and they pulled him and his motorbike out of the area using ropes.  Needless to say, a bit scary.  So he packed up and went on to Mae Hong Son (basically did the same loop as I did in reverse).  Lucky for me, instead of a monsoon I only experienced a constant drizzle.  Much more manageable!

My hotel was quite cute.  Baan Pai Village (translation: House Pai Village) is actually a collection of bamboo huts, built in traditional northern style.  There are some very rustic huts, but I opted for the "deluxe" hut with A/C.  In the end this was unnecessary, since Pai is considerably cooler than Nan, but live and learn.  It was very pleasant and relaxing to have a small place like this to relax.

The huts

Inside the hut...hoping the mosquito net was decorative

Close to the main entrance

The restaurant area

Now we get to the weird part of the trip.  So on my first morning in town I decided to sit down and have a real breakfast--eggs and a delicious mango smoothie.  While I am enjoying my food, I see a girl walking down the street who looks quite familiar to me.  It is odd, but I brush it off and continue eating.  She then walks by again, and I can't shake the feeling that I have met her before or seen here somewhere.  Lucky for my insatiable curiosity, she actually takes a seat at the same restaurant.  After no more than a minute, I can't fight the urge any longer and turn to her, blurting out "you look really familiar to me."  And behold!  She says the same thing back!  After a few ambiguous 'where are you from' type questions to try to ascertain how we might know each other, I finally just say my name.

"Wait.  Allison Dubner.  Like Allison Dubner, Madeline Dubner's sister, like went-to-Paideia-in-Atlanta-Allison Dubner?"
"Uhh...yeah?"
"I'm Julia Jannsen!"
"...Holy shit.  Small world!"

So it turns out this girl who I swore I knew was actually one of my sister's best friends from high school.  And for those of you who know about me, this is not a big high school--graduating class is only 90 people.  I will say I really did not expect to see a fellow Paideian in Thailand!

Julia was in Pai as part of her travels in Thailand and around SE Asia.  In a funny twist, I explained to her that I ended up here after leaving medical school, and she is set to begin med school in August.  So this trip is the last hurrah before all of that.  We talked for a while and had dinner later.  It was pretty crazy to catch up--definitely unexpected, but nice too.  It really is a small world.

Painfully backlit

I didn't do a ton in Pai.  My big adventure was renting a motorbike.  Unlike Mae Hong Son, they offer automatic bikes in Pai.  I definitely still want to learn to ride manual, but right now riding at all is enough of a challenge.  My goal was to ride out to see a few of the neighboring villages and a waterfall.  There were supposed to be some hilltribe villages near town, but when I went looking I'm afraid I didn't see them.  Or I probably did find them, but not even know what I was seeing.

Scenery along the drive--just pretty fields and mountains

My first major stop was Santichon Village, another Yunnanese Village that appeared after the rise of communism in China.  Like the village near Mae Hong Son, this also had excellent food and teas shops.  And I couldn't resist buying more tea.  They also have a bizarre semi-complete Chinese theme park there.  Like a carousel and Ferris wheel.  Not really sure about that.  It was odd, but nice.

Main gates into town

Very cheerful theme park :P

So strange...

There was also supposedly a nice viewpoint at the top of the hill, but as I took my bike up the hill I realized I was woefully unprepared to be riding a motorbike up such a steep incline.  I thought it might stall out with the high grade, and I didn't really know what I would do then.  So I managed to pull off to the side.  Then I had to figure out how the hell to get down the hill.  Remember, this is only the second time for me to ride a moped, and my first time without any helpful advice.  I started getting anxious, and some teenagers came and asked if I needed help.  But my pride got the better of me, and I said no.  So I stood, looked around at the view, and tried to stay calm.  At which point I watched an old mad rolling down the hill on his bike with it turned off, just using the breaks to control his descent.  So I decided to try this method.

I feel silly now, but it was steeper than it looks

So I made it down in one piece, with more than a few chuckles from the locals.  After sampling my tea, I continued on my trip to Mor Paeng Waterfall.  This involved going over some REALLY rough road.  There were entire sections that were washed out, and the last area was up a hill with gravel all over.  Good times.  But I made it in one piece (this is foreshadowing things to come I'm afraid).

The waterfall isn't too big yet because of how early we are in rainy season, but I still really enjoyed it.  It is popular particularly because it has a series of 2 pools.  The top one is deeper, and the connection between the two forms a natural waterslide.  Foreigners and Thais alike take part in this natural attraction, but sometimes accidents happen--a few years ago a tourist hit his head on the rocks while sliding.  Because of the remote location, it took a long time for an ambulance to arrive (>1 hour if I recall), and by that time the guy was beyond helping.  However, there were two guys having tons of fun sliding while I was there.  I just scrambled up the rocks so I could enjoy the view.

Waterfall/waterslide

After a bit of a rest, I set back down the hill, which is where things got interesting.  The first incident occurred on the downhill section not far from the waterfall.  The road was wet and gravelly, and a Thai guy comes screaming around the corner travelling solidly on my side of the road.  He continues on my side and only moves at the last second.  Now, I understand that Thais have been riding bikes forever, so these sorts of maneuvers are not a big deal for them.  But I thought we were going to crash, so I swerved to avoid the guy and ended up sprawled face-first on the road.  Luckily I was wearing capris and my windreaker again to protect from damage, but the fall definitely hurt.  My hands got torn to shreds from this fall.  Also, I couldn't get my bike to start again--the engine would just sputter whenever I turned it on.  So a couple women from one of the hilltribe villages who had seen the incident came and helped me on my way.  Hold brakes, try to start while giving it some gas.  Presto!  Bike runs again.  Although I wasn't really injured much, I was a bit shaken up by this incident, especially since the guy just kept going and didn't even stop to see if I was ok.  I was very grateful for the help from those ladies--super sweet.

Anyway, I continued cautiously down the hill.  I was nervous, but trying to relax so that my nerves wouldn't cause any new problems.  Well, that didn't save me when I got to the washed out area of the road.  Leading up to it the pavement is riddled with potholes: difficult to avoid, but doable.  But in this section you literally have to go over some giant potholes.  Going up the hill this was ok since I had the power of the bike to help me.  But since I was shaken up from my last crash, I was going down the hill very slowly.  Which meant basically braking the whole way.  Which totally didn't work when going through this section.  If I had been going through with a bit more speed I would have been ok, but I was going so slowly that the tire hit the potholes and turned, leaving me under the bike.  Yay, more bruises and cuts.  And this time the horn honked loudly when I fell, announcing to everyone around "stupid tourist who can't ride a bike coming through."  Oh well, I picked myself back up and rode back to town.  I returned the bike (yay for $5 insurance policies) and got some supplies from the pharmacy to clean myself up.  Despite the rough return trip, the motorbike adventure was still definitely worth doing.  It just seems that I am a bit slow when it comes to learning the tricks of riding a motorbike.

All that aside, I just spent the rest of my vacation relaxing.  I went to a nice bookstore in town and picked a couple books at random.  Turns out they are great, so that was a lucky find.  So I spent the remainder of my time in Pai licking my wounds and enjoying a new book.

On Friday I had to head back to Chiang Mai so that I could catch the Saturday bus to Nan.  Let me just say, the Pai-Chiang Mai bus is the one that people really complain about.  It spans extremely mountainous terrain, and the drivers take it at incredible speeds.  I am very glad that I took Dramamine before the trip, or else I would have been in trouble.  The road itself is a bit dangerous too--we saw a  song taew or some van that had flipped itself after taking a turn too quickly.

We did make it in one piece, and I returned to my go-to hotel in Chiang Mai (Dozy House).  After saying hi and chatting with Jina for a bit, I decided to make my last night in a big town worth it: I would go see a movie.  So, with Jina's help, I found the times for World War Z at the nearest theater.  Unfortunately, when I arrived I was informed that the theater no longer showed movies in English.  Uggh.  So much for that.  But I refused to give up--I had my heart set on seeing the movie!  So I took a cab out to the theater near the airport.  Totally worth it!  Strangely enough, this was the second time in my life I had been to a movie with assigned seats.  But I got a good seat and settled in for an enjoyable time.  It was a pleasant way to conclude my vacation.

And that was about it.  The next morning I got up, grabbed food, and went to the bus station to head back to Nan.  Our bus ended up taking about 1.5 hours longer than expected--not really sure how that happened.  But it was ok in the end.  I made it back and collapsed into bed, tired from my week away.

What an adventure!  I hope I have the chance to do more things like this as the weeks go by.  And now it is time for sleep.  Bye!