Pai

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We've spent the last few days in Pai (pronounced "pie). It's a paradise in the north-west corner of Thailand next to the border with Burma and Laos. The surroundings are incredibly lush: green hills and a river that runs through the town. The village is quite small, population 3000. Most of them are Chan refugees from China and Burma. The weather is perfect, and the scenery is incredibly sublime. We met a few people who were once just tourists but decided to stay permiated after falling in love with Pai.

We rented a motorbike one day and set out in search of the many caves that are outside the town. We stopped at a grouping of caves about 40km north of town. It was interesting... One cannot tour the caves on their own; you must hire a guide with a lantern and raft to take you through the caves. We decided not to do this and instead just looked in the caves from the outside. We came across one that permeated the most foul smell. Hundreds of birds flew overhead while several birds lay on the ground flapping to their death. A couple of stray dogs that followed us along the path helped by putting the dying birds out of their misery. We have no idea what was killing the birds, but we got out of there quickly.

On our walk back we came across a sign stating "beware." "Beware of what?" we thought. While we stood there humored by the sign, a angry dog came running towards us. Luckily we were able to get away just fine, but not without a large branch in hand just in case.

The following day turned into our most favorite day thus far on the trip. We rode an elephant! Most people organize a tour in town, but we chose to take the motor bike out to an independent elephant camp. A guide took the two of us out for a ride. It was incredible. We were the only ones; it was nice not to see other tourists around us. It felt like we were doing something entirely unique. We didn't have a wooden seat, but just a blanket over the elephant's back. Towards the end of the ride, the guide let me sit up front on the elephant's neck. The best part, however, was going into the river. We took turns attempting to stand on the elephant while he enjoyed throwing us off into the water. I don't think I have ever had so much fun.

We left Thailand today and are now in Laos. To leave Thailand from this border, you must take a long boat over the Mekong river. It's just a short ride, but we got to experience it three times. We accidentally left Thailand without an exit stamp, so Laos sent us back across the river, and we ended up paying three times the amount needed to get into Laos (we had to pay for the boat ride each time). At the time we were quite annoyed, but we now see the humor in it.

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Photos

Brad on Elephant
Right before he got thrown off.

Jessica on Elephant
That's our guide in the background, by the way.

Cool Door in Forest
This was around the caves. No idea what it leads to (it was locked) but it looked cool.

Beware
NOW we can see that the sign used to include "of dog"