Pai!

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So, extremely glad we skipped the trek, Marieke and I went in search of something else to do. There were not enough people signed up to do another trek, so we decided to get on a minibus and go to Pai. We had both heard good things about Pai, and we were curious to see what the little hippie town was like. We also wanted to go see Tham Lod cave, which is famous for the concurrent entrance of thousands of birds and exit of hundreds of bats each night. Our plan was to rent scooters in Pai and continue on to Tham Lod.

Once we reached Pai, around 1 PM or so, we realized this was not a realistic goal. Because of the King's birthday and a public holiday on Monday, Pai was jampacked with Thai tourists who had the same ideas we did. There was not a single rental scooter to be had, and we were lucky (so we hear) to even find a bed that night. It ended up being in a bungalow right next to the river, which was a truly beautiful location. We reserved our bikes to pick up early the next morning, and spent the rest of the night wandering around and speaking with the locals at a jazz bar named BeBop.

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