Pai, Thailand

Friday to Tuesday, 17 - 21 November 2006

We take a minibus to Pai, which is about a 4 hour drive to the west of Chiang Mai. The journey runs into an early hitch courtesy of some "gappers" (English youngsters on a "gap year" between secondary school and university). Ben, who sounds as if he has been teleported straight from Henley Regatta, utters a loud "oh, blahst, I've forgotten my pahssport and plane tickets!". There follows an hour of doing laps in Chiang Mai's suburbs until the passport is finally brought to the bus by motorbike. The pain did not end there. Wanting to put some space between us and the gappers, we sit near the front of the bus. Unfortunately a bolshie Israeli girl in the row behind uses us to relay all sorts of queries and demands to the driver ("can you ask him to roll up his window?", "can you ask him to roll down the window?", "can you ask him to slow down?", "can you ask him how far away Pai is?" and that old chestnut, "are we there yet?"). At least the scenery was good!

In search of some peace and quiet, we get a bamboo hut at the Pai River Lodge. The hut is pretty basic but it has a hammock and a great view of the river and there doesn't seem to be too many mosquitos about. This may be thanks to the dozen gekkos and one big lizard with whom we share the hut.

Pai has a deserved reputation for being a laid-back place and you can spot plenty of foreigners who came here years ago, have been captivated by the place and avoided barbers ever since. Outside a supermarket early one morning, we pass a Messianic-looking character playing "Pop goes the Weasle" on a wooden flute. He is not busking - he seems to have decided that this would be a good place to play. Apart from this there is a bit of a live music scene in the town and we some professionals at the Bee Bop Bar. A Thai quartet play the blues complete with authentic raspy vocals.

On one of the days we decide to rent out mopeds to tour the area. Neither of us have ridden motorbikes before so we try to get the most straightforward automatic mopeds possible. The instruction given is pretty scant (they point at parts of the moped and say: "this start", "this accelerate" and "this brake"). We take it fairly slowly at the start and all seems to be going well. The map we are given suggests a route and we head for the first stop on it, described as an "ancient village". Except for one beady-eyed old lady who tries to stare us out of it, there is nothing ancient about the place and the welcoming committee of a pack of rabid dogs does not add to our love of the place. Dara tries to execute a tricky manoeuvre, a 180 degree turn. No Evil Knievel, he's a bit panicked by the crazed dogs and high revs and accelerates when he means to brake. The bike shoots off 30 yards in the wrong direction and, only for it sliding on its side at the last minute, would have landed in a ravine (at least that's what Dara is calling it) below the road. He picks up a few scrapes and a bruised ego but is otherwise okay. After Leahanne does a good job of elastoplasting the scrapes, we get back on the road and spend an enjoyable day taking in the countryside.

For more photos of Pai click here.