Life in Pai

Two weeks into our trip and we’re in a completely different place. The urban roosters have been replaced by crickets and frogs here in Pai, a small village about 4 hours north of Chiang Mai. We traveled by train 18 hours, 4 longer than scheduled, to get from Bangkok, and spent four days wandering the walled old city of Chiang Mai before taking a van further up the mountains. If there’s anywhere to slow down and get off the grid, it’s here. Our grass-roofed, bamboo-walled bungalow sits below the mountains overlooking rice fields.  Getting here requires walking down a muddy rutted out drive way but it’s actually not bad since we plan on ditching these shoes when we leave here anyway.  At this point, we have no choice in the matter. 

If you think everything is bigger in Texas, you’re wrong because the mosquitos here are the size of humming birds.  Not really, but almost.  They are huge, and not deterred by Ashley’s natural insect repellant.  We need DEET…like 80% if that’s even available but we all know that’s not going to happen.  I think Ashley would rather risk getting Dengue fever than grow a 3^rd arm and on that point, I have to agree.  So no DEET. 

We decided to rent a scooter to get around the area since Pai is really just a small village and most of the cool stuff to do is in the 5-10 km distance from town.  As we all know, if it were up to Ashley we would have walked the 20+ km per day, but lucky for me she agreed to the scooter.   Yes that’s right, a scooter, but here everyone rides them and don’t worry, I opted for the one with the big 125cc motor and negotiated what I thought was a very fair price. We managed to see and do a lot more in the 5 days here than if we were hoofing it all over.  Considering the scooter is only $3 per day to rent and about the same to fill up it was really a no brainer.   I also agreed to pose on the scooter so don’t judge.  At least I’m not sitting shirtless on top of a jeep, that would be totally unacceptable <-– that one’s for you Mike.  Let’s hope that photo stays lost. 

Anyway, check out the recent photos from the area and stay tuned for the next update from Chiang Mai!  - Zak