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So after taking the advice of every traveller we speak to we came up here to a place called Pai, its a small town around 4 hours north west of Chiang Mai. The bus ride up here was amazing, its actually not as far away from Chiang Mai as it sounds but it's because of the terrain and the landscape it takes the time it does, its a constant maze of spiraling roads continuously going up and down the mountains for mile upon mile, infact when you get here you can actually buy 'Chiang Mai to Pai 762 bends' t-shirts! After arriving we found ourselves a bambu hut right on the Pai river which cost us 200bhat a night, a really nice place ran by one of the craziest Thai people we have ever met called Ray, upon checking in he insisted we had a huge shot of Thai whiskey with him which after 30 seconds made me feel drunk (i have no idea what what was in it)! We then found wifi and emailed our friends from Chiang Mai Chris and Rob to let them know where we were staying as they were coming up the next day to join us in Pai. There isnt a great deal to actually do in Pai but its one of those places that is so relaxed and cool that you plan to come for a day or so and end up staying a week! After another lay in (11am) we rose the next morning and took a stroll to a place called Fluid which is a 25m swimming pool, with a gym and bar/resturant, it was so nice to spend a day round a pool and cool off from the scorching sun, thats the thing here, its still as hot as everywhere else in the day but during the night the temp goes down to as low as 10-15 degrees so you actually need a sheet on at night! So after relaxing for most of the day i took the oportunity to use the gym which was really nice as for the last 6 weeks ive been having to make do with push ups and sit ups and lifting our 20kg backpacks, its just not the same though.
One of the main reasons people come is to get a motorbike and explore the surrounding areas as there is amazing driving,waterfalls,natural hot springs and elephant camps so thats exactly what we did, we grabbed ourselves another moped and headed out into the mountains, it was really good, i love speeding round through the little tiny mountain villages with the Thai children playing and waving at you franticly as you pass, and then you come across a waterfall to cool off or a canyon to climb to...it really is a nice place and you can see why its so popular. So after visiting a few waterfalls, a canyon and a old ww2 bridge we headed back to get some street food. Pai at night comes alive, the main square of roads around Pai are lined with small market stalls and street food vendors which do amazing food so cheap which is all i eat, but poor old Finchy has had a virus since our trek in Chaing Mai so cant enjoy the food right now, infact you wont believe this but she's barely eating at all!! I know what your thinking but its true!! HaHa The next morning we rode to the natural hot springs which were so hot its not even funny, you cant even put your hand in for more than a second with out getting burnt, the temperature of the lower springs is 80 degrees plus! The ones higher up are cooler and you can bath in, but we decided to ride on and explore some more. Whilst driving aroung we came across a elephant in the shade on the side of the road next to a small homestay, we pulled over and the lady owner came out an said we could spend sometime with her and feed her for free, so we did just that! We probably spent the best part of an hour just talking to the owner about her 'pet' and feeding/playing with her elephant. She was probably the most spoilt elephant we will ever meet, the owner brought her (as do many) for elephant rides etc but she has became so fond of her she only works her for 4 hours a day, the rest of the time she just feeds her, bathes her and fusses her you can just tell she was such a happy Nelly!
So 3 days in and our friends Chris and Rob arrive, they rented bikes in Chiang Mai and rode up which i would of liked to do but from here were heading to the Loas boarder, they said it was amazing! They came up with a Ozzy girl they met and stayed in the same bambu huts as us, then the same day they arrived we discovered that three other girls that we all shared a dorm with in Chiang Mai was also staying in the same huts so we were now a 8 strong group which was good as we sat out at night altogether and got drunk, one of the Canadian girls plays the guitar and is an amazing singer so we'd stay up for hours listening to her nd getting drunk on local rum! Good times! For the next two days we hung out as a group waking up at lunch relaxing by the river taking advantage of the free BBQ's on offer at night and drinking cheap liquor. We had originally planned to leave yesterday and head to Chiang Kong(the boarder crossing town to Laos), bus as the Chris and Rob were planning on doing the same thing the following day, we decided to wait for them and continue our Trek to Laos as a foursome...so thats what we did, we caught th bus back to where they had to drop their bikes off and continued our journey north...( oh and by this time Laura's virus had passed and is back to eating like a horse)! haha x
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