I'm sitting in an empty internet cafe flooded by flourescent light. The two young people working here are talking quite loudly while Thai heavy metal plays in the background. Outside it's warm and dark. Magi and Aaron are at a restaurant finishing up their red curry and pad thai dishes (complete with big, moist chunks of TVP if you fellow veggies can believe it!).... they're watching a movie there so I decided to leave them and come here. Those two are definite film-junkies!
We're in Pai (pronounced "pie"). It's a small village waaay up north and less than an hour's drive from the Myanmar border. Inhabitants up here are relatively few and far between so we feel, for the first time really, that we are in some sort of untouched land. Of course, travellers found this place a long time ago and the names of the restaurants show that the locals have caught on to making things cute to lure the bellies of hungry and thirsty farang (foreigners). Places to eat and drink are called such things as The Hiccup Bar and Krazy Kitchen. However, we did a little exploring outside of town today and saw some of the most lush and vibrantly green vistas; complete with palm trees, rolling hills, expansive rice fields, and rainbows. Really.
Our day started like any other, we slept in until the neighbourhood dogs started to get rowdy and woke us up. We showered and then walked around town to find a place that would suit our palate and our budgets. By this time it was nearly 1 pm so we decided to accomplish something and rent bicycles. For about a dollar, we have bikes for 25 hours and we were even given a map of special places to visit.
The trip we went on was a little over 20 kms. The first leg of our journey took us by an elephant "camp". We didn't go in but they were by the road in plain view so we stopped to admire the baby elephant (who was recently born in Myanmar) and see the life of the older ones. It's pretty tragic to see these animals tied by one foot with a 3 or 4 foot chain to a tree... all for the foreigners to come in and get an hour-long joy ride. I know these animals as being wise, intelligent creatures with a strong capacity for memory and it's terrible that they are taken from their land, their families, and imprisoned in that way. It's a shame that the hilltribe people are driven to do this to the animals of their country because they need money, and it's a shame that foreigners don't see past the hour they spend on an elephant's back. Similarly, we saw a man in Bangkok who was walking around a very urban, crowded market with a baby elephant. The idea is that you buy food from him and then feed it to his elephant. It's another tourist gig that foreigners get excited about and it keeps these guys in the business of stealing newborn elephants from their mothers and aunts and domesticating them. Argh!
Where was I?
It's hard to get my mind off of those elephants.
So we passed the camps along the road and after about 8 km we reached our first destination.... hot springs! At first we were kind of wondering what the draw for hot springs could possibly be in Thailand. I mean, sure, in Iceland and Canada hot springs provide relief from the terribly frosty temperatures you experience almost without a break. But Thailand is roasting and dry or roasting and wet all year round! We just had to see for ourselves and eventually discovered that bathing in a hot spring actually works to cool you down. We walked along the path to large, bubbling sulphur-smelling pools of blue-green water. Immediately we knew we were not going to be spending any amount of time bathing in them since even a slight touch with the fingers excited pain receptors! Eventually we worked our way downstream and found a few shallower spots where we could sit and enjoy the cooler-but-still-hot water. We lingered in the hot streams for about an hour while a cool drizzle fell on us and mosquitoes feasted heartily on Magi's blood. When it was time to go, we could hardly tear Aaron away and he kept finding new and nicer spots to soak in. But it was time to get back on the bikes and by that time, our bums were already sore!
After 2 kms of a pure uphill nightmare (but the scenery was gorgeous!) , we arrived at our second stop - Pai Canyon. What a view! It was as if we had temporarily left Thailand and stepped into the lushest landscape in South America. Immediately upon arrival, Aaron went exploring (Magi and I were still walking up the hill to get to the canyon). By the time we reached the top, he was barely in sight! He had walked a very narrow footpath with a steep slope on each side to reach the edge of the canyon. Magi felt brave and followed in his footsteps until she reached a very narrow part of the path and panicked in a moment of a real fear of heights (and she's not afraid of heights at all), she turned back and together we found a wider path to walk along the other crest of the canyon.
The last 10 km leg of our trip back to town was tough and it's a good thing we had our newly appointed personal trainer Aaron with us to give us some incentive to keep cycling. He didn't even break a sweat or breathe rapidly once (it was pretty sickening)- meanwhile Magi and I were walking up almost every hill that we came upon... they were really steep hills! The landscape we saw on this part of the journey was breathtaking (yeah, that's why we were out of breath!). The bubbly blue-grey, black, and white clouds hung over and around the bright green hills while blue patches of sky and sun rays peaked out from behind them... a thick rainbow formed above the vast fields that were dotted with villager's homes. It was straight out of a vivid, tropical dream.
We are staying in a small, wooden bungalow on the shore of a roaring river. It's our first time on our trip that we're sleeping under mosquito nets and I have to say, I enjoy it very much. There's a definite freedom you feel when you have an absolute mosquito-free space to linger in.
I haven't even begun to discuss our time in Chiang Mai. It was a much-too-short two days but we wanted to have extra time in Pai and we must be back in Bangkok by Tuesday morning to deal with passport and plane ticket issues. It's a shame we are rushing through Northern Thailand this time around but when we come back to this country we'll definitely spend more time up here. It's really a different world up here... one that has the lucky combination of friendly people, incredible landscape, and one of the best cuisines in the world (complete with delicious local coffee!).
Just for the record, Magi hears this alot : "You look like Thai people". We are beginning to wonder if there is a place in Asia we will visit where she won't be mistaken for a local! She even brazenly attempted to use her limited knowledge of Thai to begin bargaining with a man at a market in Chiang Mai. Prior to our trip to the market, we learned how to say two phrases (in addition to what we already know- hello and thank you).. and those two phrases were "How much?" and "Too much!". Thinking she would get a better price without the obvious farangs around (me and Aaron), we left her to bargain on her own. She made it as far as the first phrase but when the guy answered her in Thai and she didn't understand him her cover was blown! I guess we weren't thinking too far ahead when we learned only those two phrases and no numbers...
That's all for today. I still have a whole headfull of things to write... but I shall disgress. I hope you're all having a beautiful autumn. It's my very favourite season and I feel a little envious about all of you in North America who are enjoying it now. I think my body must be wondering how long this summer is going to last! I don't think I've ever been subject to these temperatures for this length of time.
tothesea,
k&m