Well we left Chiang Mai on Saturday afternoon and hopped onto the minibus to take us to Pai. It was only a three hour journey which was brilliant compared to the usual 10+ hour journeys we have been getting used too! However.... as usual for us things didn't run quite that smoothly! There is only one road?between Pai and Chiang Mai, but it runs directly through a few mountains. Which means that the road literally snakes its way round the mountain so there were absolutely no straight bits of road... just spirals, twists and turns. Needless to say our wonderful 3 hour journey was a juorney of nauseous, stomach churning agony.

Anyway we arrived in Pai and our first impression was that of a small, peaceful place comprising of just three roads! We found a nice hostel but very nearly did not accept the room there as the walls in our room had not been painted and were just grey cement! But it was very cheap and the lady who owned it was English so we unpacked our stuff and settled in. Unfortunately though, the bus journey appeared to have had a bad effect on Martha and Laura and they felt a wee bit ill. So a quick meal and then bed was needed in order for them to feel better!

We arose early the next day and had a search around. Even though Pai is a small place the main attractions were rather far away and most people got around on mopeds. However, we have had friends who have hired mopeds before and had accidents so we decided we would stick to walking. (Yes we know that doesn't sound like us!) We strolled around for a bit and the heat just got too overwhelming. We desperatley searched for somewhere that had aircon but to no avail! But then luckily we found out from the lady at our guesthouse that there was a swimming pool nearby, about a 20 minute walk. Our poor little legs were very tired from the 30 minutes walking we had done though so we seeked out some taxi drivers. We went on a hunt for a lovely airconned car but when we asked where we could find one, people looked at us like we were crazy loons! They pointed us in the directions of the 'taxi rank' which we discovered to be no ordinary taxi rank. The taxi drivers drove on mopeds! One passenger per ped! After much deliberation about whether we trusted these men who spoke no English, our need for cool water took over and we jumped on. Martha and Nyima appeared to have no problem with their drivers who took them straight to 'Fluid', the local pool in 2 minutes. However, poor old Laura got stuck with a driver who actually asked her for directions! They got to a crossroads and he gestered to Laura 'which way?' Unsurprisingly, Laura had no idea and just guessed. It turned out to be the wrong way. 10 minutes later they came across a group of girls to whom Laura did swimming actions. They pointed back the other way. 5 minutes later Martha and Nyima saw Laura go whizzing straight past the swimming pool. And 3 minutes after that they saw her coming back! After a total of 20 minutes Laura finally arrived at the swimming pool and the cheeky b***** still charged her for the journey! We paid the entrance fee and bounded in. As soon as the pool came into sight we threw our clothes to the floor and charged straight in! What a relief! We spent the afternoon frolicking amongst the splashing waters and eating the most divine potato wedges you could ever imagine!

After a relaxing day Martha and Laura felt much better and we all decided to head out and explore Pai by night. We had read about a place called Shisha Bar which was run by an English man and sounded rather fun. They played drinking games and had loads of deals if you bought certain drinks. And the icing on the cake... they offered different flavoured tobacco bongs! Fantastic! But before stumbling across that we discovered a delightful little van on the side of the road surrounded by a few plastic tables and chairs. It was a mini bar! And all cocktails were 75 baht which is about 1 pound 10p! So cheap! The candle holders were made from water bottles, which were slowly melting. We bought a drink and then headed to Shisha. It was only tiny but absolutely packed! And everyone was so friendly! It was really different to everywhere else we have been. People had told us that they often ended up staying in Pai for months at a time and we thought they were crazy, but after experiencing the laid back atmosphere and easy-going way of life, we realised why they do! Many people say that it is the only place in Thailand where Thai people and foreigners get on and mingle. Unfortunatley, Shisha closed at 12 but never fear, just up the road were 2 more bars called Monkey Magic and BeBop. We headed up there with our new found friends and met loads more people along the way! We made especially good friends with the owner of Monkey Magic who was just soooo cool! He is called Bot and he is a real life rastafarian! After Monkey Magic we moved on to Fu Bar which is where everyone goes to just chill out and relax after a night of fun! Food galore is served and it is delicious! Fu Bar usually shuts at 5am and everyone makes their way home after that to catch up on sleep! Pretty much every night turned out like this for us so we wont bore you with the details but we will tell you that we had huge amounts of fun!

The following day we asked the lady at our guesthouse what we could do. She explained to us that there was a waterfall about 8km away where most people go to spend a few hours. Sorry mums.... the only way to get there was by mopeds. Our legs gave in and decided they could take no more walking... especially not 8km of it! And mopeds were about 2 pounds per day to hire. And we were given helmets and drove really slowly! So nobody worry, we were perfectly safe! Well kind of. Martha had a bit of trouble turning corners and even once drove her moped into a small ditch. But never fear she got the hang of it eventually and suffered no major injuries! We drove for a while and finally got to the destination after getting lost about 6 times. We parked up and climbed a small hill to a small cavern of water. The sun was beating down and we were sweating like pigs so we jumped straight in! But after 5 minutes of sitting, we spotted a bridge above our heads that actually lead to the real waterfall! We climbed up and came across a delightful little waterfall where several people were splashing around. We got right in again and spent the afternoon jumping off rocks into the water and sitting beneath the waterfall. We headed back about 4 and went to the pool again to sample more of the potato wedges! We went out again that night and had another fabulous time, spreading our love in Pai. One of our new friends, Oak, is in a local band and he was playing a gig that night in BeBop so we went along to support him. 

The next day we heard about another waterfall so we decided to go and find that. On the way to it we stumbled across some sort of Thai street fair so we got a bit nosy and pulled over our bikes to have a look. The people were so friendly and noticed that we were curious so they invited us over to see what they were doing. There were about 10 young boys being dressed up to the nines, with head-dresses and make-up galore! And a band playing instruments on the back of a pick up truck. We took a few pictures before heading on to the waterfall but when we arrived we were a bit disappointed. It looked nice enough and the rocks around the waterfall had formed a sort of slide thing that you could slide down into the water. We stepped in but the water was really dirty and gross and when we lifted our legs out they were covered in disgusting, dirty mud stuff. So we stepped right back out and left! Back to the open and waiting arms of the delightful swimming pool! That night we headed out again and had another brilliant time of craziness!

The following day we had heard about a canyon that you can ride your mopeds up to visit but when we asked the lady at our guesthouse about it she said it was really far away and just a big hole in the ground. So we racked our brains and then decided to head back to the first waterfall and have another lazy day! The water was unbeliavably cold this time but we still had a cracking time leaping from the rocks and bounding around in the water! You can probably guess that we went out again that night! We had to as it was our penultimate night and we didn't want to waste it!

The following day we spent the entire day by the pool! Well not by the pool as it was far too hot for us but IN the pool! Literally for about 4 hours... prune fingers! We unwantingly returned our mopeds that evening and prepared ourselves for our final night :( Thankfully it was not a disappointment but it was very sad to say goodbye to our new found friends! Now it may seem that in this blog we didn't really do many activities of interest but we have all agreed that Pai is our favourite place so far! It was really nice to get to know the locals as well as make new travelling friends. And the atmosphere is so perfect for just chilling out and relaxing! We all had an absolutely fantastic time!

We arose in the morning very early as we were then heading up into Laos. This is a change of plan for us as we were not originally going to go there but we have heard lots of good things so we thought we might as well give it a try! We asked about ways to get there and after hearing that the only ways their are either by boat - which takes 2 days and 1 night, or by plane - which takes one hour (hmmmmmm...), we opted for the plane. We headed back to Chaing Mai along the bumpy and windy road and were dropped of at the airport. We managed to get some seats on the next plane to Luang Prabang in Laos so we will write from there! Ta-ra for now my dears! xxxxxxxxxxxx