Pai

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I forgot to mention Pai. I read so much about it that it would have been the missing link to this trip. Pai is in a beautiful valley ...surrounded by majestic mountains. Pine trees actually grow there...the air is cool in the mountains..not the valley. It was another windy bus trip...thank God our drivers have all been good. Have heard of stories from other travellers who have thought themselves on a trip to hell. So Pai...sleepy little village where all the hippies go to smoke dope. Many farang have moved there because it's such a laid back little place. So of course we have to find a place to sleep that night...ask a couple of locals and they stare at us and say NO. OK..that didn't help. Finally found a wacked out farang who looked like he had been doing drugs for a long time...he recommends a guesthouse...we go...cheap cheap. Becca must have a nap...i think naps are a waste of time...so i go exploring. Not much to see here...that means no shopping...just a little veg. market. I go back to the guesthouse..lie down and decide that i must leave this smelly little room or i will be eaten by either bedbugs of spiders or maybe both. So I chant my mantra to Becca...must move, must move...and off we go to look for another place to stay. I paid the lady the 6$ it would have cost us..afterall Becca did mess the bed up and have a shower..it was the right thing to do! Just across the alley we see anothe guesthouse that actually looks quite nice. We ring the doorbell and wait and wait. Finally a man comes out wrapped in a towel...he goes back in anc comes out after a few min. He was super grouchy and grunted when we asked if he had any rooms. Becca and I looked at each other and burst out laughing...i asked him if we disturbed his sleep. No he says...right. So he takes us to a room...wow...how nice. We take it....he got less grumpy after we laughed at him...go figure. Everyone in the sleepy little town seemed to really dislike tourist. Oh well...So we had a nice supper then back to the room to shower...again. You shower lots in Thailand cause it's very very hot. We had real all about the famous Be-Bop bar so decided to try and find it. There are only 2 streets in Pai so we picked one and headed out. Well...we saw lots of dogs that's for sure. They seemed to know that i was petrified of them and i had visions of dying in Pai after savagedly being attacked by wild dogs. This one little dog ran after us yapping..then he'd stop and look over his shoulder...run and bark somemore. I finally figured out that he was sticking to us cause there was a pack of 5 dogs who seemed to want to pick a fight with him...either that or he was guarding us from the pack that maybe wanted to pick a fight with us. Whatever...he followed us all the way INTO the bar. The barman...Ken..cute Thai guy...asked if it was our dog. ...at that point we wanted to adopt him (the dog not Ken). Anyway...dog got kicked out of the bar. So i finally decided that this was the night i'd let my guard down and have myself a few drinks.. So a few gin and tonic and Pai seemed like an ok place to hang out. It was very quiet for the first couple of hours..Becca and i did a 2 step...the locals loved it. Then the place got packed.Bars in Thailand have to close down at midnight...so when it shut down everyone heads over to the Bamboo bar. I walked there with an english fellow while becca left with some Israelies. English fellow left right away (a relief..that guy had serious issues) and i found Becca and her new friends. A couple of young Thai guys sat in my seat...isreali guys found that offensive that they would sit in an older womans chair....i pictured a fight starting and assured them that it was not a problem. Finally i thought i knew how to get rid of them and sat on the one scrawny little guys lap...but to my shock...he didn't budge. so i made him move and told him we could share the seat. Finally we left....oh..i forgot to mention that another dog followed us to the Bamboo Bar...and he came and lay at my fee. What is it with me and dogs anyway. I had visions of being followed all the way home by stray dogs...but no...it was quite peaceful. So the next day we decided to eat and leave Pai far behind.

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