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This morning I waved goodbye to Andrew who was travelling back to Australia and I was heading off to Pai by bus. The bus journey from Chiang Mai is three hours with a total of 762 bends to navigate, I had been told that it was to be a stomach churning three hours. I was collected from the hostel by jeep along with a guy from Germany. Our bags were thrown on the roof of the jeep (not strapped on) and we jumped in the back and off we went. All on board gave a sigh of relief when we stopped at Chiang Mai Train Station to transfer to a air conditioned minibus. It's extremely hot today, melting hot!! Although I still lack any sight of a sun tan (no surprise there).
As we got in the minibus the stomach churning journey became a reality when everyone was handed sick bags (just in case). The journey itself wasn't to bad the views were stunning as we travelled through authentic Thai villages not destroyed by the tourist trade, people working in the rice fields, the mountains and jungle in view. The turns, well I didn't count them but it was a constant road of hair pin bends and when you are being driven by a driver who doesn't care which side of the road he's driving on, overtakes lorries on clear blind bends and seems to think he's a formula 1 driver you can see why sick bags are a complimentary gift. The bus ticket cost me 180 baht (about £3.25) so for the price you can't really complain as long as you survive it!!
I arrived in Pai and was dropped off in the walking street which technically is the only street in Pai. It is a tiny town and when I initially stepped off the bus I did feel out of my comfort zone, all week I have been in huge, busy cities and had met people I had spent long periods of time with and now I was on my own standing in a street not knowing where I was or where I was going. Eventually I found the hostel (Common Grounds) and was shown to my room, I'm in a four man dorm and sharing with three other girls all who are different nationalities. The hostel is very basic but we have an ensuite bathroom (there is going to be a fight for the bathroom in the morning). I spent the afternoon chilling in the communal area which is really comfy and chilled out.
Some people staying at this hostel have been here for months on end, they arrived with a three day booking and haven't left yet (hopefully the same won't happen for me, then again I wouldn't complain). The hostel has a focus on being home from home. They do things together as a group, so tonight we has music night where people were able to perform. Then everyone headed to a bar and it ended up being a great night. I've already met a really nice woman called Cynthia from Switzerland, we went out for dinner tonight together and had street food.
Pai itself is beautiful, very rural and surrounded in paddy fields and the mountains are a short distance away. Tomorrow I plan to relax for the day and get to the public outdoor pool the Pai has and then hire a moped on Monday to get out to the waterfalls and temples.
- comments
Cags Ah blogs are back on track, good reading once again Honey, it all sounds fab. Hope your leg is OK, take care on the moped tomorrow. Ly. xxx