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Published: November 18th 2006
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A 2-minute water crossing from Huay Xai took us into Chaing Khong. We had missed the mini bus to Chaing Mai by 5 minutes and so had a nice, relaxing 8 hours to kill, which we spent eating, drinking, internetting and calling loved ones. Our mini bus to Chiang Mai only had 2 other people on it; the exact polar opposite to any other journey taken so far. We arrived in Chiang Mai at 11pm and just managed to stay awake long enough to find a guesthouse.
The next day was suppose to be spent exploring the city. The first stop was a shopping centre which, legend had it, housed a Boots! After Natalie had stocked up on nearly the entire range, G found West Ham Vs Blackburn on TV and asked if Nat fancied sharing a 6 Litre tower of beer (see pic). Upon its arrival, Nat said she was going to post some letters and see some shops. An hour and a half of lunch time drinking later, Nat wondered why G had a permanent smile. We went to get some lunch and G asked for a small beer .... which was delivered in a jug. After some
late afternoon walking, checking emails and a couple more beers, G went for a nap. As he didn't wake up until 9am the next day this left Nat the chance to explore the city on her own where she found a lovely riverside bar, visited the night markets, went for dinner and then got followed ........ fortunately only by a dog which befriended her for an hour, 'Littlest Hobo' style.
The next day we had a 7 hour Thai cooking course which included a tour of the local markets and nearly culminated in G losing his new beard (see pic). The course was superb and we learnt to cook Pad Thai, Green Chicken Curry, Spring Rolls (see pic), Chicken in Cashew Nuts, Prawn in Coconut Soup, Sticky Rice with Mango and finally Banana and Coconut Cream (Warning; coming to a dinner party near you soon). We made full dishes of each and had to eat each dish! We were rolled out of the cooking school by the crazy teacher Noke and delivered still barely able to move, back to our hotel.
On the cooking course we met a nice lad from Newcastle (UK) called Barry and that night
we went out on the lash with him and his friend Ross which ended up in a local night club, after a chilled rooftop bar, a few games of pool and a few buckets of Samsoung Whisky.
In the morning, all the hang overs we had avoided by drinking Beer Lao had hit us. We were later told that this is because Samsoung Whisky contains amphetamine! We were treated to a winding, bumpy 3 hour bus ride through the mountains up to Pai. Despite the paranoia it was worth the journey!
Pai is a sleepy little hippy commune set up in the mountains and in the dictionary under 'laid back' it says "Laid Back - (Lay-D B-ack); adj: see Pai". We were very happy to discover that Sam, Cody, Max, Max and Patrick, from the Gibbon Experience were all there. We spent 4 days in Pai relaxing, drinking with the guys, riding elephants (see pics) and listening to live acoustic music in bars.
One day we hired a moped to get us to Mae Hong Son, a village 108km from Pai. We new the trip was through the mountains and we were concerned that the bike did
not look up to it. We expressed our fears to the hire shop who assured us it would make it. After 35km's we had to turn back; towards the top of the mountain we had to push the bike up the road much to the amusement of some of the locals. 5km's after the turning around we got a puncture and so spent the next 1 1/2 hours limping back into town. We swapped bikes and decided to see some of the sights closer to home including a red canyon (see pic) and an interesting if small waterfall (see pic).
That night we went to a party just outside of town which was surreal. We turned up to what looked like the set of 'Cocoon 3; Lucy, the Septuagenarian with Diamonds'. Pai was a hippy colony long before it was a town on the tourist route and some of the ex-pats had been there over 30 years. Dancing to a live band with a very enthusiastic bongo-ist around a fire, we were just praying the 'free love' wasn't about to kick in any time soon. We saw some pretty cool fire dancing, before heading off to another bar for
an after party.
We left Pai to make it back to Chiang Mai for the light festival and although it was a wrench to leave Pai, we were glad that we did. The light festival, coincidentally on November 5th, included fireworks (none of your light the touch paper and stand well back stuff mind you, instead launched from the hand), floating banana leaf boats down the river (See pic) and launching lanterns into the sky (see pic) which worked along the same principal as a hot air balloon. The sight of thousands of these lanterns floating through the sky was awesome. We saw a colourful street procession (see pic) and met up with Sam and Max for the rest of the festivities before a few beers and some pool.
We left the next day for a night in Ubon Ratchathan which was our first taste of getting by with no english menus and very little English spoken. Although there was no Farang there, there was a very impressive golden water fountain (see pic) with swimming Buddha's and statues of Naga's eating people. We left on the bus the following morning for Southern Laos, where we write this entry
(we have caught up at last).
Beer Lao here we come ........
More pics can be seen
here. Thanks for all the new messages - please keep them coming!
All our love
G & Nat
xxx
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Ricko
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Pai
Hope you trust that guy behind you on the elephant...? And... you're up to date - I dont believe my eyes!