Pai Sabai

Well I finally made it to Pai and what is there not to love about that place? No wonder people talk about it all the time. After living in quiet, provincial Lampang, Pai is such a shock to the system. It took us 4 hours from Chiang Mai to drive up the curviest mountain roads I've ever seen and in the middle of nowhere there is this explosion of music,art and colorful people from around the world. It's a pretty small town but it was definitely overrun with tourists as it's high season.

Hilary and I spent the weekend with our friends David and Jeab who are really silly and interesting folks. We rented bicycles and rode out to our guesthouse. We went back into town for some yummy Italian food and walked around the night market. We watched a guy simultaneously play steel drums, digderidoo and gongs and then sat and people-watched at a shisha bar. We were all so tired from the bus ride that we ended up hanging at the Sun Huts the rest of the night. David and I sat out on the hammocks and chatted while we drank Beer Laos (which I've never seen in Thailand). Hilary ended up going out with some friends and she witnessed a scary gang-fight of sorts. Pai really is like the old west of Thailand.

Sunday we were planning to rent motorbikes but the town was so crowded that all of them had already been rented out. We were determined to check out this waterfall and so we decided to cycle to it because we were told it was only 5 K from town. Well, it turned out to be much, MUCH further than we expected and we spent the better part of 3 hours biking up a mountain. We were all huffing and puffing in the mid-day sun so we decided to stop at the Lisu hill tribe restaurant. I really want to post a picture of the Lisu outfits because I was enthralled by them. They look like medieval dresses or magician robes made out of pieces of velvet and sparkly materials. I've never seen anything like it but the dresses cost 900 baht so I wasn't buying. The restaurant had a great view of the mountains...we were parallel with most of them! and the spicy Lisu food was amazing.

We finally made it to the waterfall and I went right for the water. It was freezing cold mountain water but I didn't care after what we'd been through to get there. This waterfall had some "sliders" which are like natural waterslides made by the rocks covered with lichen. You just literally let the water push you down into the pool. It was superfun. The bike ride back to town took about 15 minutes since it was downhill all the way and we just coasted. We had to take a nap after that ordeal but then we met up with a friend for dinner. We decided to go on a dinner tour of sorts because everyone wanted different things.

After dinner, we met up with the people in the Tonic Rays (the Chiang Mai band) and chilled at the Taku Art Bar which was full of amazing installations. This Austrailian woman with a phenomenal voice got up and sang and played acousticc. She was joined by a crazy, classically-trained violinist. You would never guess that they hadn't played together before. Everyone in the bar was spellbound and hushed and we just sat there for 2 hours listening. Afterwards, we went to see the Tonic Rays play a set at Be Bop, the local jazz and rock club. You definitely meet some interesting characters in Pai. The energy is very high and there's so much to do that it felt like a whirlwind.

By the time we got up on Monday, we had to get ready to leave. We returned our bikes and caught a mini-bus which was much faster and more comfortable than the regular bus. As we careened around the mountains, I nodded off thinking that it's so good to know a place like Pai exists and that I can go there anytime I want.