Pai in the sky
The rain was coming down pretty hard when we finnaly convinced the Israeli to come to Bebop. He had some considerable hair, along with a beard that rivaled Osama’s. There were four of us, the Israeli, an American woman, the Thai resturant owner, and myself. The Israeli had a motorbike, but that would have left two of us to walk. The Thai resturant owner came out with some spare jackets and handed me the motorbike keys. She said just to return the bike in the morning…
With the American girl sitting behind me, I followed the taillight of the Israeli through the downpour. In retrospect, it probably wasn’t an ideal situation to try driving on the left side of the road, but traffic was light and we made it to the club without incident.
I just spent a few days in Pai, a small town in the mountains just north of Chaing Mai. Backpackers and a large contingent of resident expats has made Pai into the town everyone is talking about. The countryside is gorgeous, offering many opportunities for activities such as trekking and whitewater rafting.
Club Bebop seems really out of place in a town like Pai. Upon walking into the joint, I was treated to some excellent live music. The Thai cover band was playing everything from the Rolling Stones to the White Stripes. Some of the best music that i’ve ever heard.
When Bebop closed down at around 1 am the parking lot turned into a mix between a Sturgis motorcycle ralley and Woodstock ’94. The rain had turned the parking lot into a mud pit. Drunks were hopping on their rides and tearing off into the night, spewing mud in all directions. The next destination was the Bamboo bar, an all night joint where the beer flows as long as the patrons are not too loud. As I was enjoying some late night minced chicken and basil over rice, a loud frenchmen was insisting on giving people hand massages. He would periodically stand up and start singing “oh show me, ze way, to ze next, viskey bar…”
The night ended late, at which point I headed to my bungalow next to the river. At 6 am, I was woken up by someone who worked at the gueshouse telling me that I needed to leave, because the river was rising and the whole place would soon be flooded. I went back to the bungalow in the afternoon and the entire place was flooded out. Crazy.
My next few days were all very similar: I would wake up whenever, hop on my hog, and then drive out into the countryside. I visited a nice waterfall, where you could actually slide down the rocks and into a pool. In the evenings it was live music at Bebop with the afterparty at the Bamboo bar.
Overall, I highly reccomend a visit to Pai if you are in the area. It doesn’t sound like much, but it is a great place to veg out for a while. This afternoon I am taking a bus up to the border town of Chang Kong. Tomorrow I’m heading into Laos. I’ve heard great things from travellers and am excited to see what life is like there.
I’ve got some great pictures from Pai, and i’ll add them to this entry as soon as I can locate an internet cafe with some dank computers.
Neil
Tags: Thailand
Neil