Southeast Asia

Having now been in Pai over a week its time to move on. We spent the morning sorting out what the plan was and then went to get ourselves packed up. Paid for the accommodation for the past 8 nights which cost and entire 600B ($20). Dee, Brendan and I were booked on a minivan to Chiang Mai for 3:00pm. I quickly ran out at about 2:30 to do another book swap while the others ran off t the Internet. Swapped my book for Dan Browns “Digital Fortress” and then went and waited for the others at the bus stop. By 3:00 the bus was ready to go, yet Brendan and Dee were nowhere to be found. After miming to the driver that 2 people were missing I ran off to find them, we were all packed in and ready to go at 3:10.

After to bus ordeal to Pai I decided that for 150B more than the bus an aircon minivan with copious amounts of legroom was justifiable. The only downsides to the ride were an obnoxious American girl who talked about Cambodia and the Khmer Rogue as though it was a scam in order for the country to beg tourists for money and an incredibly annoying Canadian girl who talked about anything, everything and more without stopping for a breath. Thankfully Dee chatted to her and I could put my earphones in. We arrived in Chiang Mai in less than 4 hours and decided to stay at the Chiang Mai inn guesthouse where Dee had stayed previously. The walk there took 10 mins and saved 30B on a tuk tuk. A triple room for the night was only 200B, just over $2 each and we had our own bathroom.

Decided to check out the famous Chiang Mai night bazaar so that I could buy a hoodie since the weather this far north is quite cold and not likely to warm up at all as we head northeast towards Laos. Ended up a hoodie and much more. I bought some paintings and also some souvenir chopsticks, ill have to send it all home tomorrow. We stopped for Indian for dinner but I didn’t eat much. I haven’t felt particularly good all day, I’m waiting for the diarrhea to set in. Caught a tuk tuk back at about 10:00 and back in the room I promptly fell asleep.

Well, im now 21. i’ll be honest, it doesnt feel any different to being 20, but now i am legally considered an adult anywhere in the world. Look out world….

Was woken at 5:00am this morning to the neighbours phone playing the sugarplum fairy dance at an ear piercing tone and continued to do so at 15-minute intervals for the next hour and a half until Dee chucked a deodorant at the wall and woke them up. Went back to sleep for a few hours. Brendan came by about 9:30 after his blood test at the hospital and told us he had Dengue Fever, which is a mosquito transmitted disease with no vaccine and no treatment aside from painkillers which are taken for the next week or so until the pain subsides.

Mum rang to wish me Happy Birthday [Yay, 21] and Merry Christmas and I talked to dad, Kris and the entire family for quite a while. Afterwards Dee Brendan and I walked down the bakery for breakfast / early lunch, Dee paid because it was my birthday which was very sweet of her and she even bought a box of camembert because I’d been saying how much I miss cheese here. It was a great breakfast and we sat and talked and I read my book while the others made their Christmas phone calls home.

When I went back to the room Dee surprised me with a birthday present of shampoo and conditioner, a new journal and lollipop. It was really cute of her because there isn’t exactly a lot of stuff you can buy for someone who’s backpacking, and they were all bits and pieces I needed. I read my book for a couple of hours while Dee went and used the computers, she is seriously addicted to the internet and msn messenger, I have no idea what she’s going to do in Laos when we might have trouble finding an internet café.

At 3:00 we headed off to the Blue Lagoon hotel for our Christmas dinner. The hotel is owned by a Scottish guy who for the past 2 years has cooked a traditional Christmas dinner for all the homeless backpackers in Pai. The cost was 450B, which is incredibly expensive for one meal but not outrageous for a Christmas dinner. There was 2 turkeys, ham, stuffing, an assortment of veggies and gravy. It was delicious, I cant believe how much I ate. We met two crazy Irish guys, Owen and Harry, and while we were talking an old guy came around and filled all our glasses with rice wine and told us to drink up. The entire table collectively took great sips and then almost immediately wanted to spit it out again, it was about 100 times worse than the cheapest vodka you’ve ever tasted. It was so potent, and yet the old guy drank it back like it was water. There was live music all night and Karaoke too which was fun, although I didn’t sing.

We played cards and pool before eating Christmas pudding for dessert, which tasted just like at home. The others weren’t feeling well so we went home about 10. I’ll admit I was slightly disappointed, I would have like to go out on my 21st, but both Dee and Brendan are still not well and I had a great day anyway. I can make up for it later.

Today was Christmas Eve and although it’s not a particularly celebrated holiday in Thailand all the backpackers and Farang locals in Pai create a half decent Christmas atmosphere. Dee spent the entire morning on the Internet and I spend the time walking around ton and doing a bit of shopping. I bought a beautiful skirt because it was only 150B and I wanted somethi8ng nice to wear tomorrow. I swapped my book in the used bookstore for a small fee, traded in “Harvest” for “The Firm”. I also picked up a couple of Christmas cards for Dee and Brendan.

This evening, the 3 of us headed don to the back of town where there is a little street with a lot of restaurants and shops. They were having a mini block party and everything in the street was open. Dinner was at a nice outdoor Thai restaurant and we went across the road to the witching well coffee shop for chocolate cake for dessert, it was the best thing I’ve eaten in Thailand. The entire street was festive and the atmosphere was fabulous.

There were fairy lights everywhere, along with red and green silk lanterns that had been hung above the street. All the shops were burning candles. Occasionally groups of people would come by singing Christmas carols to raise money for the local hospital.

Whilst sitting at dinner the resident homeless guy walked by with his pants down and it all hanging out for the world to see and an assortment of trash in his arms. No one even bothered to do anything or say anything, it was apparently not at all an unusual sight, he’s well known in the town. It was honestly about the funniest thing I’ve seen in Pai.

We had actually bought tickets previously in the week to Gail’s Christmas party for tonight but it was quite a ay out of town and we were all tired so we decided against going and went back to bed instead. Brendan is still really sick and has an appointment at the hospital tomorrow for a blood test. As we walked home, the town was letting off fireworks.

[PS. I apologise for the boringness off the past few days, not much has been happening. I promise it will improve.]

Slept in this morning and woke up when Brendan came knocking on the door. We all went out for breakfast to a great coffee shop named the witching well which is owned and run by an American guy and has amazing coffee and cakes.

Dee and I told Brendan about the cinema and since we had nothing better to do and none of us had the energy to go and hike to the waterfall we decided to spend the afternoon watching movies, the weather was pretty crappy anyway, it had been threatening to rain all day. The cinemas were supposed to open at 1:00, but of course, this being Thailand and all, they didn’t. We sat outside on the veranda and played cards and talked. At 3:00 we went and got lunch and upon returning at 4:00 they were finally open.

The manager recommended we watch ‘Pay it Foward’ which turned out to be a great movie, if slightly depressing at the end. I cried during the ending and Dee found that hilarious. For dinner we bought some ‘roti’ pancakes from a street vendor. He was great to watch making the pancakes; he had it down to a fine art. I seem to be eating so much food in Pai, its ridiculous.

Went to bed quite early because the others were exhausted. I finished my book today so ill take it back and swap it tomorrow.

Dee was a bit better today, we went and met the English girls for breakfast and said goodbye. They’re off to Aus once their done with Asia so I’ll catch up with them in Syd, they’re gorgeous girls.

Now that Dees feeling better Brendan is sick, not with the same thing though, he says every muscle in his body is killing him and even his clothes hurt against his skin. He also has a fever. He went back to bed for the day. Today was a pretty boring day, I had a lot of laundry to do so I dropped it off to be washed and was told I could pick it up at 8 o’clock tonight. The weather at the moment is extremely overcast and the temperature is about mid or low 20’s and is falling well below that at night.

Dee and I took a walk around town and had a look at some other guesthouses and flirted with the idea of switching to a nicer place but the fact that we’re only paying 75B each a night makes the current shithole extremely attractive. We also applied for our Laos visas, mine cost 1500B and will take 3 days while they send my passport to the embassy. I can collect my passport on Christmas eve. Since Dee didn’t have a lot of energy today we went back to the room and read for a few hours.

Instead of going out drinking we grabbed dinner and went and watch a movie, ‘monster in law’ at a different (much nicer) private cinema.

When we woke up this morning Dee was sick and had to head back to bed after breakfast. I spent a few hours walking around ton window shopping and looking at postcards etc. I bought a new book, “Harvest” from a very cool used bookstore and spend most of the afternoon drinking coconut shakes and reading. There are some really cute clothes in this town and I wanted to buy something, but what I really need is arm clothing for Vietnam because dad keeps emailing me telling me how the high was only 10* for the day, so the last thing I need are more pretty singlet tops.

Antony and Zoe took off today. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t get to say goodbye, I’m going to miss them, they were a lot of fun. They sent me a message explaining that someone down south had been in touch and let them know that the weather there, whilst still shitty, was expected to improve. I think they were really running out of things to do in Pai.

I went back this afternoon to check on Dee who has been vomiting on an hourly basis for the entire day, its really becoming her party trick, she cant even keep down water. I’d say its probably something she’s caught from the stray dogs. She adopted one of them and named it ‘Tonto’ and buys him food and feeds him from her hand. It no wonder she’s sick. Although she’s in denial and maintains its from the elephants.

Dee didn’t come out for dinner, she wasn’t up to it, so I went out with the 3 brits, Brendan and the NY guys. We had a great dinner at Pai corner again, their curries are amazing. Afterwards we went out drinking at Ting Tongs. It was actually a really good night, the first 2 rounds of drinks were Singapore Slings and the third was a round of Blue Mountain cocktails. Ting Tongs is a really cute outdoor bar and the guys who own it are a lot of fun, they’re extremely extroverted and get incredibly excited whenever you order more drinks. The NY boys picked up the bill, which was nice, but not completely unexpected ;-).

Didn’t wake up until 9:30 this morning and by the time Dee and I got ready and went out for breakfast it was time to meet with the British girls for the elephant trek we had booked a few days earlier. The designated meeting time was 12:30, when the girls still hadn’t shown up at 1:00 we went and knocked on their door only to find them asleep, very much hung-over from last nights escapades. They rearranged to do the trek the tomorrow so it was just Dee and I and 2 guys from NY, James and Pete who claimed to be 26 but then again I’m 16………

At the elephant camp we spent a bit of time getting ready to know the elephants and feeding them bamboo. Our elephant was named Ot and she was 27 years old, we asked for her specifically because Zoe and Antony had her a couple of days earlier and she apparently loves the water. Climbing onto the elephants was scary, they pick up their leg which you stand on and then pull yourself up by their ears, I was so worried about hurting her. First we took a 1 hour ride through the jungle which was heaps of fun because we were riding the elephants bareback and would slide forward and back as the elephant went up and down the hills. At one point Dee dropped her jumper and Ot picked it up for her and gave it back, it was so cute.

Leaving the jungle we went down to the river which was really beautiful and where the fun really began. The guide would ask you if you wanted and shower and then Ot would drop to the side and throw you into the water. There were numerous variations on the method of throwing which included her dunking her head or lying down on her side but always ended up with Dee and I in the water in hysterics. It was really quite gross because you could see the occasional elephant dung floating past in the water but it was such good fun. The guide would say something to Ot and she would spray us with water from her trunk. This continued for at least half an hour with us being thrown off in every which way and climbing back up her trunk to get on. She would lift you up with her trunk over her head and then you scrambled onto her back. I have no idea how, but our guide managed to stay completely dry even when Ot was almost entirely submerged at some points whilst playing around in the water. Afterwards we rode the elephants back to the farm, the guide was suppose to be on our elephant, but Ot refused to come close enough to the rivers edge to let him on and flicked river mud at him instead.

[i will be adding more photos of us playing with the elephants in the river once i have uploaded them]

Back at the guesthouse we immediately took showers because the smell of elephant was overpowering and it was rancid. Went out for Indian for dinner which was ok, but not great. I’m going to stick to the Thai food here because you just cant beat it. After dinner we went down to the bakery and grabbed coffee and cake with the 3 British girls and chatted for a couple of hours. The girls have decided that they’re not going to hang around Pai for xmas, instead they’re going to head down to Koh Chang in the south despite of the crappy weather. Which means that tomorrow night will be their last night.

Dee and I went out with Brendan, Zoe, Antony, James and Pete for a bit but we drank very little. We started at Ting Tongs which is a really great shack/outdoor bar and then we moved on to Bebops for the live music.

After Bebops the NY boys decided that we had to see their 3000B (Aus$100) a night hotel room. It was nice, had cable TV etc and was a whole lot cleaner than where Dee and I are staying but then again 3000B for me equates to 2 weeks accommodation so to me its not worth the money, but it was nice to hang out there. James, Pete and Brendan got stoned; it was an ok night but for Dee and I watching other people do drugs is not particularly thrilling. We didn’t hang around long and left and went to bed at about 2:30am.

Waking up in Pai is like waking up on a farm, the rooster are crowing, birds are singing and the chickens are making a racket. Thrown in a few dogs barking and the resident cat meowing at the door and you have some idea what I’m waking up to.

Dee and I decided that since we had the bikes for the day we may as well get some use from them, they weren’t due back until 5:00pm. Looking at the tourist map we decided to go and visit the caves that our guesthouse owner told us were an hour away. The ride was extremely difficult, the roads were steep up and down hills, exceptionally winding and there was a lot of loose surface. There was also a huge amount of road works going on most of the way and so we were constantly being pushed onto the wrong side of the road. The only blessing was that there was very little traffic. The entire ride was about 55 km sand we stopped about half way there at the viewpoint over the valley for hill tribe coffee and to take some pictures. There were also a lot of stalls selling hand woven bags and scarves and a group of women playing what looked like jacks with a bunch of small stones.

The ride ended up taking us over 2 hours because we took it slowly and enjoyed the ride. The final section which was off the main road was almost like a winding path through a forest and there was no other traffic at all. The road went through a small village where the kids all came out and yelled hello and held out their hands to get high-fives as we rode past.

At the caves you pay 100B to hire a lantern and a guide and 300B to hire a bamboo raft that you take down the river through the caves. We also bought a few bags of ‘foodfish’ [fish food] from the local women selling it for 10B a bag. The raft was great fun and there were so many fish it was unbelievable. We would go on the raft for a bit and then pull in and our guide would take us up into the cave and show us all the special formation. It reminded me very much of Jenolen caves except that these caves were much more open and without all the lights. There were also no little walkways through the cave and so with the exception of a few stairs every now and again it really was just like exploring a cave. We could also hear all the bats squealing on the ceilings.

The final cave is known as coffin cave since it was once used as a burial chamber. The locals had originally discovered dead bodies in wooden coffins in the cave. There was also a 2 or 3 thousand year old painting on one of the walls of the cave. The whole place was amazing.

We opted to walk the 1.5km’s through the forest back to the bikes rather than go back on the raft. The forest was gorgeous and so dense, it was a really nice walk. Back at the bikes we were just about to leave when a woman came running up to us yelling ‘hey you’ and pointing to Dee’s bike. Closer inspection revealed a flat tyre. We knew that there was a town about 15 mins away so Dee rode on the back of my bike into town to find a mechanic. It took quite a lot of charades to communicate the problem to the mechanic and then even longer to get across the point that there was nothing wrong with the bike we had brought with us the problem was with another bike that was 15 mins down the road. He eventually understood, although I’m sure he thought we were quite mad, and he and Dee went off to fix it while I hung around the town. My biggest concern was that the sun was setting and we were going to have to ride back in the dark, it was also getting very cold and I only had a polo top on so I went and bought a jacket from the only shop in town that sold clothes. It was a huge fake Adidas black zip up jacket which cost 380B but was worth every cent because it was warm and windproof, not exactly a sexy look though.

We left to ride back at 6:00 while there was still a bit of light and once it got dark we took it very slowly. There was almost no traffic though, we only saw a couple of other bikes the whole way. The ride home only took 1 hour and 15 mins which was surprising because we thought we had taken a lot longer. We went straight back to the bike rental place and explained the problem and he didn’t charge us for the extra 2 hours.

Met Brendan for dinner and 7:30 rather than the 7:00 we planned and had a great chat about the day since he had also been to the caves. Sharon, Sheena, Lauren, Zoe and Antony were all going out drinking but Dee and I were wiped out so we came home and went to bed. I have decided to stay in Pai for x-mas, I love it here, its like a resort and it is really beginning to feel like a holiday.

Despite not getting to bed until 5 i woke up at 8:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep. Met 3 British girls, Sharon, Sheena and Lauren, who are friends of Dee’s for breakfast. I was so hung-over and felt really etch all morning. Felt better after breakfast.

We decided to rent motorbikes for the day, a brave move considering none of us have ever ridden before, so at 11:00 we went looking for a motorbike rental shop. I felt particularly sorry for the shop owner when all 5 of us walked in and said “we’d like to rent bikes please, something easy because none of us have ridden before”. Dee, Sheena and I were given manual 125cc bikes and Sharon and Lauren got automatic scooters. The cost was 100B for 24 hours and 40B for insurance on the bike. I think the guy in the shop may have been really worried about us so he had 2 of his staff take us out to the airport to teach us to ride. We basically got a free 2 hour lesson on how to use the bikes. Once we were all riding ok we took the bikes out to some of the back streets and drove around town in a little line at about 15km an hour, the locals thought we were hysterical. We took our time so that everyone could build up their confidence before joining the traffic on the roads.

Once everyone was feeling good about the bikes and how to handle them we decided to head to the hot springs for the afternoon. The hot springs are about 8km out of town. About half way there we stopped to wait for Sharon to catch up, but as we stopped Lauren dropped her bike on her leg and burnt herself badly on the exhaust pipe. In all the commotion we barely notice Sharon had done the same thing. It was pure luck that two other friends of ours, Zoe and Antony drove past at the same time and knew exactly what to do because Zoe had done the same thing only 2 months earlier. They rode back to grab their burn cream and dressings while we waited and Lauren and Sharon rested. I think they were in a bit of shock. After the girls burns had been treated we decided to continue to the hot springs rather than waste a day.

The scenery in Pai is amazing and particularly at the hot springs the vegetation was so dense. The spring at the top was boiling water and at the bottom you could buy eggs and boil them in the spring. As you walk further down the river the water is not so hot and we went into one of the pools, it was still pretty hot and it took some getting used to, but it was gorgeous. The sulfur smell was not so pleasant. Saw some woman washing a baby in the stream much further down where the water was only warm.

On the ride back to town Dee and I took off and picked up some speed, we reached 80km per hour which was a lot of fun. All 7 of us (Dee, Zoe, Antony, Sharon, Sheena, Lauren and I) went out for dinner; we had a really great night and great food at a gorgeous Thai restaurant where we all sat on cushions on the floor. We paid for Zoe and Antony’s dinner to thank them for being so great to the girls today. We all decided after dinner that we weren’t up for drinking so instead we had coffee at a cute little café/bar and rented a movie at this cool place where they have private TV rooms and you rent the DVD you want to watch. The rooms were very cool, it was just like a lounge room with a big comfy couch, its amazing what you appreciate when you go without it for a while, we watched ‘Meet the Fockers’ and it turned out to be a great night.