Pai (Northern Thailand)

Lazy Hippy Pai ahhhh what a relief it was to arrive at this mountainous little town and realise i had arrived in a place that is refreshingly devoid of tuk tuk's, overbearing noise, choking pollution & those scary lady boys. We initially planned on spending 5 days here depending on how it went, the fact that we spent 4 weeks is a good indication of the place. There are mopeds for hire at 100 bhat a day, i highly recommend this as it allows you the freedom of the mountains, we hired them for 2 weeks and could not resist riding into the mountains everyday and even took a 3 day tour to Mae Hong Son near the boder to Myanmar, you are treated to some spectacular scenery not many people actually get to see when they come to Thailand.

Pai is so good for getting away from it all, the northern thai countryside is gorgeously serene, devoid of mass tourism hence any scams and when you are up in the mountains you feel like you are on top of the world, the views stretch for 100's of miles and becuase Pai is already situated high up, the clouds all seem to hang low, at one point we were riding at the top of a mountain road straight through a cloud!!

But if you cant be arsed riding for 100's km then Pai is a great place to just 'chill' on your hammock and appreciate the surrounding misty mountains and animal sounds. Good cafes too serving thai and western meals for next to nothing. Averge meal costs around 100 bhat ($sod all). Pai was also good for getting up close to monkeys and elephants in the wild. The monkeys we saw were erm pretty weird, they all sported large erect penis's that equated to about 1/4 of their body length!! maybe it was the sight of me? i dont know but i've never seen these types of monkeys on BBC1 and although i am a nature lover i am not that kind of nature lover!! you can find that kind of nature lover in Wales & NewZealand.

Well this is my last week travelling after being on the road for 2 years and 4 months i now have to make my way to Singapore to catch a flight back to the Uk :o(

To be totally honest though i a not too sad. I have missed my family and i am looking forward to getting into a country that does'nt stimulate round the clock excessive bouts of sweating and eating some food where i can be safe in the knowledge i wont be saddled to a squat toilet for hours excreting every ounce of liquid in my body!!. Namely Tuna on Ko-San Road Bangkok avoid avoid avoid

The good thing about travelling is that as well as opening yuor eyes to new and interesting ways of life it also makes you appreciate your home country and the world as a whole. I'm not going to carry on being a whinging pomme. I feel lucky that i live in England there are far worse places to live.

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