Pai with Mum and Dad (Feb 2008)

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We spent the second part of Mum and Dad's holiday in Pai, a small village in northern Thailand set on a river and surrounded by mountains and hills. Mum had booked two beautiful villas on the river, the lovliest place in Pai with really nice gardens and a great restaurant. It was lovely having breakfast in the morning by the river.

We had a really nice relaxing week. We spent the first day strolling around town looking in the shops and sunbathing in deckchairs by the river. Second day we were a little more active - spent the morning at a waterfall where Dad and I braved the freezing cold water and went swimming, joined by the local 14 year olds - they were drinking whisky to warm themselves up. We headed to Pai canyon after swimming which was really stunning - lots of steep dry arid paths intertwining around the trees and bushes.

We spent another day site seeing as well to the temple on the hill where we posed alongside the reclining buddha and went to the hot springs. Most of the pools were too hot to bathe in, you could actually buy eggs to hard boil in the hottest pool, it was so warm. Mum, Dad and Lou paddled their feet though. After the hot springs we went for lunch at a really cool restaurant at the top of the mountain, which has really amazing views of the hills.

The rest of the week was very peaceful and relaxing. We spent lots of time chatting, catching up and enjoying each others company. We ate lits of great food and drinks around the village, inclduing some really great rice pancakes from a street stall.

It was the election during the weekend which meant no alcohol, something Mum was less than impressed with. Fortunately for her the place we were staying at would serve wine in our rooms so we enjoyed drinks on the villa balcony overlooking the river.

We took a bumpy bus ride back to Chiang Mai with Mum and Dad are said our tearful farewells at the airport, had a really great week with them;-)

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