More Pai

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Still in Pai, but had told Ellie of plan to do meditation retreat at a Buddhist temple in Chiang Mai and she wanted to come. Then she didn't, she wanted to go to the organic farm, then she did, then Claudia did and Martin said, no he'd meditated enough under a tree, but seeing as Claudia wanted to ...

Him and Claudia were having a scratchy period. Bascially she wouldn't talk to him. Then he told her to get out of the room they were sharing and then she explained why she was annoyed with him and all was jolly again. Spent May 5 at a dam during the day where Zee sings for us and some Thai kids, then we have dinner later and let people know we'll be incommunicado for ten days or so.

The next day Martin wants to get the 8.30am bus, but we vote for the noon bus, although that's an aircon minibus and the local, cheaper bus is at 2pm and Martin tells me it's all a con because of something that happened with tuk tuk drivers in India, and I say whatever, you check with the ticket guy and he won't and eventually we get on the 2pm bus.

While waiting, we have a discussion about whether the dam is near or far, and Ellie says you need a scooter and Martin says it isn't that far, especially if you walk there between 5am and 7am when it's cool. I don't plan on doing anything except lying down between 5 and 7am, but Martin says that's when farmers get all their exercise. Ellie says it's still far, and I just don't care.

Then we talk about sex drives, and Martin says ideally he'd have 3 or 4 women a day.

I ask him if that would be between 5 and 7am when it's still cool.

It's a scramble to get a seat on the bus what with the people and all the produce.

A woman from a hill tribe up the back insists on feeding me fruit, so I'm sorry when she gets off with her ten sacks of rice. The conductor, who is about 14, spends most of his time hanging out the door or napping. We reach Chiang Mai about 6pm and although Martin keeps talking about a guest house he knows, we check out a guesthouse Zee recommended, except it means climbing seven floors.

Martin doesn't want to climb the stairs, so he says he'll find a guest house and guess what - we end up at the one he'd been talking about. It had a niceish courtyard, but our room was grotty and full of insects. 'This place is a shithole,' said Ellie.

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