The Beauty of Northern Thailand - Pai, Chiang Mai, Mountains, and Tigers!

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Day Seven

Today we got up early and took a taxi to the airport for our flight to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, to eventually catch a bus to the mountain town of Pai. The flight was uneventful and our arrival in Chiang Mai was really nice, as passengers were greeted by ladies in traditional Thai dress offering free local snacks – despite Chiang Mai’s population of around one million people, it had a much more relaxed and personal feel to it. We managed to make it to the bus depot in plenty of time, although it took us quite a while to sort out our bus tickets. We had a bit of the wait at the bus station, so we got some more water from the 7/11, and some street food for lunch. It was interesting to see the Buddhist monks up close, as many of them were waiting for buses to the more remote regions. The wait was a bit boring as well as being hot, as the seating was open-air (ie: not inside an air conditioned building), so by the time we got moving on our bus four hours later, we were really ready for the next part of our trip. We took a mini bus (rather than a larger local bus) as they have air conditioning, and I sometimes get travel sick – we knew that the mountain road was notorious for travel sickness even in hardier travellers, depending on the driver you had at the time. There were plenty of stories around about drivers taking the 762 bends at breakneck speed, overtaking on blind corners etc, and we were trying to avoid a bad experience. Luckily we had a really good driver, and as the van was mostly filled with tourists, he seemed willing to take it easy on us for the four hour journey. Heading out of town it was only a few minutes before we were in the countryside. The tropical vegetation became thicker as we headed into the mountains, and there were palm trees everywhere. Higher up the mountains it became a lot less humid, and the palm trees gave way to fir trees and vegetation more suitable to the altitude. It was really beautiful up there, and the mist began to form the higher we got. We could see that the earth through the vegetation had become a really red-coloured clay, and it looked like it would be incredibly slippery and treacherous in the rainy season. Partway through our journey we stopped at a small roadside marketplace for a toilet/food break. I was glad I had taken travel sickness pills as of the 762 bends from Chiang Mai to Pai, at least half of them were full hairpin turns. As we reached the valley a few miles outside Pai, the land opened up into rice paddy terraces, and we saw brightly-dressed local farmers out tending their land and looking after their cows. As it was not the rainy season, the rice paddy fields were relatively empty, but everything was still so green, lush and amazing to see.

We reached Pai and disembarked, noticing immediately that the place was filled with tourists, however it was more of a younger, relaxed hippie backpacking crowd looking for a more environmental holiday, so Pai itself was not overly commercial in that sense, and there were no hotels or resorts. It was really too small for that anyway, with only five or six streets, mostly filled with tiny rickety bars, genuine low-budget open-air Thai eateries, old bookstores, and scooter-hire kiosks. Our accommodation hosts had offered to meet us in Pai, as they were located outside of town, and we found them easily at the small bus station. John and Gaynor Quinlan were from the UK and ran a small complex (consisting of three guest houses, a swimming pool, open-air lounge and their own house on a large piece of grassy land) about 6km from the town. They sorted us out with hiring a scooter (just one at first), took our gear in their 4WD while we followed them to the petrol station for gas and air for the tyres, and then lead us out to their place. With loads of space, their two pet dogs roamed free and were keen to greet us on arrival. John and Gaynor were enthusiastic about the area and it was easy to just sit talking with them for hours, as if they were old friends – they were both really funny, and seemed to enjoy our company so overall it was already a really positive experience. They invited us along on any mission they had planned during our stay, and helped us plan what we wanted to see while we were there too. Out in the country the wildlife was so loud – crazy-sounding birds and bullfrogs, and little geckos would also come inside through the gaps by the door. It was so relaxing and really kind of reviving for the soul, and Vaughan and I both knew that we would enjoy our time in Pai a great deal. After talking with John and Gaynor for some time, we headed off into Pai on the scooter for a better look. Despite the remote nature of the location and the tiny businesses there, there was still a couple of 7/11, which we found incredible – good for us really though, as at least we always knew where to get cheap water and breakfast. Pai is a market town, and a number of people from the different hill tribes are known to come down and sell their goods in the town on certain days/nights of the week. When the market isn’t on, the shops still have a real market feel, and you could buy all kinds of brightly coloured cultural knick knacks, jewellery and what not. You could take Thai cooking classes or learn traditional Thai massage. You could go on horse or kayak trips into the country for weeks at a time. You could even hire old rickety bikes and lazily cruise through the countryside. Hardly any of the Thais there spoke English, and it was a fantastic challenge to stay somewhere so remote, but we loved every second of it. We noticed that a lot of the tourists were young people from the UK, and that in fact, quite a lot of the locals who lived there were Muslim rather than Buddhist. It seemed that most of the tourists had come in groups to party with their friends in the bars, but we had heard that Southern Thailand had experienced severe flash flooding, and that lots of the younger tourists had come up from the island beaches of Koh Samui etc to visit Pai for the weekend instead, so the demographics of the town were different than usual. We sat at a cheap tiki bar called Jikko’s, which was right on the roadside, and ordered a couple of cheap cocktails each. The music was good, the bar tender was singing happily to himself, and we just sat on the bar stools watching all the people go by. It was dark by this time, and after about an hour we decided to move on and find some dinner – we weren’t quite sure where to try first, but ended up at an open-air BBQ buffet place, where each table had it’s own special metal BBQ contraption in the centre, with hot coals underneath. You helped yourself to different kinds of noodles, salads and a variety of raw meats, and you lay the meat out on the BBQ to cook while you wait. The service was excellent and the people were just so friendly and pleased to see us. We stayed for a couple of hours (Vaughan can eat a lot, as many of your know), and by the time we had finished, it was quite late, so we jumped on the scooter and headed back to the Quinlan’s, getting lost a couple of times in the dark, which just added to the adventure. Pai, we love you!


Day Eight

Today we had a small sleep in and then joined John, as he was taking us out to the elephant camps for a ride. John chose a different camp than usual, as he knew they had bigger elephants, and he teased Vaughan about being too heavy for the smaller ones at his usual camp. When we arrived he still seemed to know the camp employees personally, and spent some time talking to a mahout (elephant boss or trainer – each elephant has their own one), who he knew was new. While we waited we chatted to two ladies from the USA, who knew about the Christchurch earthquake, and they were very kind and interested in the recent events. Eventually someone picked our elephant for us and we got to feed her big thick pieces of bamboo, I think it was. John showed us how to get her to wrap her trunk around us while we fed her, which was pretty cool! Vaughan got up on the elephant first – he literally had to scramble up her trunk, but got stuck on her head and couldn’t turn around, making an ass of himself, much to everyone’s amusement. He sat towards the back of her shoulders. Then it was my turn and I was worried about looking like an idiot, but I got to climb the elephant a different way – by climbing up the elephant’s raised knee, grabbing where her ear joins her head, and hauling myself up. It was much faster and easier than the way Vaughan had gone. I had to sit right up by her head, her flapping ears hitting me in the legs every time she moved them. As we started to walk down the dirt road through the jungle, I kept feeling like I was going to fall forwards over her head, so I had to prop myself up with my arms. We were both worried about hurting the elephant, but when we saw how thick and rough her skin was, we realised that it would take quite a lot to really do any damage on our part. The elephant had coarse black sproutings of hair in places, and we were glad we had worn long shorts (as recommended), as the roughness of their skin moving against yours can apparently leave our more tender human skin a little worse for wear. The elephant took big slow lumbering steps, and John drove just ahead in his 4WD, to take photos for us (very nice!). The mahout seemed like a nice guy – he was the new guy than John had been chatting to earlier. The mahout would give commands to the elephant to tell her to slow down, speed up or whatever. As Songkran was starting that day (the Thai Water Festival), kids started to come out with buckets of water and water pistols, and tried to drench us, although we were up a little high. John got out of his 4WD ahead and we couldn’t see what he was doing, but when we reached him we realised that he had given money to some cheeky kids from one house, who ran up and drenched the mahout with water, while John took photos of him and laughed his head off. Everyone was so happy that it was Songkran, and outside every single driveway there were kids with their brightly coloured weapons of water saturation. We reached a track down to the river and as we headed downhill, I really thought I was going to fall off the front of the elephant, but I managed to hang on – the closer we got to the water, the faster the elephant went, as apparently they are very excited to have their daily bath (and they go for one anyway, whether there are tourists to ride them or not). She tore into the water with us on her back, and then flopped onto her side and we went flying through the air – lots of fun! The water was cool after the hot sunny morning, and we floundered around for a few minutes being silly. Then we had all kinds of games with the elephant for about an hour – the main game was to climb onto the elephant, sit up by her neck and then hold on to where her ears joins her head. She would flop on her side and you would be underwater while she moved her head all around, then when she came to stand upright, you had to try to hang on so that you were still sitting on top of her once she was standing up again. Vaughan and I never managed it once, despite multiple attempts each, but I got really close a couple of times. Another game was to walk up onto the top of her head using her trunk to hold on to, and you’d think you had managed to achieve your goal by letting go of her trunk and balancing there, when the cheeky mahout would give a command and the elephant would give a tiny flick of her head that was enough to send you flying metres through the air, and back into the water. It was so much fun but really, really tiring. As we climbed on her back for the last time, ready to exit the water, unfortunately I managed to sort of slip and hurt my knee – it gave a massive pop, so that even John heard it from the shore and asked if I was OK. It hurt a lot although I thought it would be OK, but by the time we got back to the elephant camp, I could hardly get off the elephants back or bend my knee in general. I was really worried that I had done something significant to it, but was still convinced I would be OK after resting it for a couple of hours. We got to feed the elephants again, and watched them break really large bits of bamboo with their trunks and feet. We didn’t see any terrible treatment of the elephants going on, despite the rumours you hear about some Asian countries (although I guess they would keep that hidden if they could), and the mahout had needed only vocal commands to control the elephant when we were out. Their living area looked tidy, and they had plenty of food and water. It was nice just hanging out with them and seeing these amazing animals up close. It was such an incredible experience, and I would do it again in a heartbeat!

From there we went back to the Quinlan’s and then headed off on the scooter into the town for a late lunch at one of the dodgy open-air places called Tik's, which served cheap and authentic local dishes. I had difficulty bending my knee up to rest my foot on the footpeg on the back of the scooter, but managed it in the end. On the way we were drenched constantly by the local kids and their buckets of water, but it didn’t really matter as we were still wet from our elephant adventure, and we dried easily in the sun. After lunch we found an old internet café (one of those internet/laundry combos that they like over there), and we managed to catch up on a few things before heading back to Quinlan’s again. I was in agony by this time and my knee was quite swollen. I could hardly walk and I had to let it stick out straight on the scooter as we trundled back. It felt like every bump in the road as the size of Kilimanjaro! I rested in the room with my anti-inflammatory tablets and gel, while Vaughan sat by the pool with John and Gaynor, and some new South African guests for some drinks. It eventually became dark and my knee wasn’t any better. We could hear a thunderstorm rolling in and then it rained. And rained. And rained. John had told Vaughan that it shouldn’t last long, but about three hours later we were still waiting. It wasn’t quite as torrential anymore, so we jumped on the scooter (well, Vaughan jumped and I gingerly hung off the back) and headed back into the town for dinner. We stopped in at a place called Almost Famous, which had about four junky tables plus some old couches and chairs, (as well as some outdoor ones), and had another couple of cheap cocktails while we decided where to eat. While we were there, the storm really hit Pai, and the staff at Almost Famous had to pack up all their outdoor furniture and marquee, as it was all being damaged and hurled into the street by the wind. It was intense! The thunder and lightning were crazy, and things outside were tipping over, breaking and flying through the air. Trees were being uprooted, and the power (mainly the lights) was fading in and out. Eventually the power went off completely and the stereo in the bar blew up with a big bang – it was really random, but after about half an hour, the worst of it was over, and we ventured out with everyone else, into the street to start helping the locals pick up some of the loose and broken items from their shops. After that was done we got some dinner at a slightly more upmarket restaurant, and the food was so incredibly divine (and still really cheap by NZ standards) – it was probably the nicest meal we had while we were in Thailand. Not as fun as some meals (like the BBQ), but definitely something to write home about! From there we headed back to Quinlan’s again. The storm continued to rage overnight a short distance away, so we watched the lightning for a while before turning in. I didn’t get much sleep because I couldn’t even move without causing myself real pain from whatever I had done with my knee, but despite that, our day had been so incredible, and I would do it over again any day!


Day Nine

We woke up in the morning and my knee had improved somewhat, so we headed into the town to pick up another scooter so that I wouldn’t have to scrunch up in the pillion position behind Vaughan all day, as we had decided to spend the day scootering around the amazing countryside. Scooter sorted (my knee was SO much better with more space) we headed up to a place called the Chinese Village. Apparently about 5 years before, a mudslide had wiped out the entire original Chinese Village, and the Government had put all this money in for it to be established again – there was a small museum type place (I think), a few shops and restaurants, and a lot of cultural decorations. Not really amazing enough to stop off at, but it was still nice to see it in the middle of nowhere. We continued up the hill although we knew it ended in steep rutted dirt tracks, and we continued to be drenched by loads of kids, and even some adults. The most annoying part of it was that when you were going really fast and someone hit you with a full bucket of water, the impact was enough to nearly knock you off the scooter, and it hurt a bit too, but it wasn’t in the spirit of Songkran to get annoyed about it, so we just carried on. We turned around, came back down (got drenched by the same kids) and headed up another steep hill, to a large waterfall (which I think was called Muang Soi waterfall) – the waterfall was sort of over the edge of some massive rounded rocks, and it looked like you could almost ride down it like a waterslide. It was quite impressive and nice to stop at for a few minutes. Vaughan decided to try some noodle soup from one of the local ladies at the waterfall. It looked like they lived there too, and slept on wooden platforms at the back of their little vendor stands. We could tell that the lady was asking us (in Thai) what we thought of the soup, and we managed to tell her that it was delicious (I had randomly learned the Thai word for ‘delicious’ before we arrived), which the ladies all looked delighted about, and they offered us more for free (although we declined, as it is their livelihood, and we didn’t want to take up what small profits they made). On the way back down the hill, an old crone on the side of the road offered us opium, but we had be warned about it already (as it is a real problem in Thailand, especially in the countryside), and managed to escape her evil clutches. On the way back down the hill we saw that several families who were celebrating Songkran had dragged gigantic amps out into their backyard, and were playing festive music at jet engine volume while the kids danced and threw water on people. It was bizarre that many of these family homes were really just the most basic of huts, with no running water, and it was odd to see these massive modern speakers just sitting in the middle of the dirt. We continued just to cruise down tiny dirt roads, through small gatherings of family huts and past fallow rice paddy fields, and over small bridges, getting saturated by kids throwing water until it was time for another break. We stopped off at a small open-air restaurant at some crossroads, where the building was on large pilings high in the air, giving us a fantastic view of the surrounding area. We sat with iced coconut drinks while the locals cooked up a storm of inspiring food, still cheaper than anything you could ever buy back in New Zealand, and we just relaxed on the deck while we dried out (especially our shoes). It was very peaceful and pleasant!

From there we continued further on some other country roads, in search perhaps of some hill tribes, and we headed up further past the rice paddy fields, completely off-road by now and loving it. It started to get a bit muddy and as I was sore and not very experienced on a scooter, I was quite proud of myself for making it through some of the more slippery areas without falling off or even having to put a foot down to steady myself. We continued up the hills and it became incredibly rocky, but we just kept on going. We saw a couple of brightly-dressed families, who peered out at us as we went by. We passed local people going the other way who were also riding scooters, and they seemed surprised to see us, all of them called out a greeting as they went past, smiling broadly. One guy stopped to ask if we were lost. He spoke some English, and when we said we were OK and just riding because we wanted to see the beautiful Thai countryside, he seemed so pleased and grateful that we were interested. After a while we decided to head back, as we knew that the real hill tribes would probably be significantly higher up into the mountains, and we didn’t really want to force our presence on them, even though we would have loved to have seen their traditional buildings, dress and culture. We had heard that tourist-loads of 4WD's had started going up to some of the tribe locations, and it was slowly causing the loss of their culture(s). It took us a while to get back (and of course, on the lower roads were we drenched again and again with water by the kids). In fact, we were over it a little bit by now, especially when some of them started adding food colouring to their water, so all our clothes became stained. We went back to the Quinlan’s, put some music on in the open-air lounge, and had a swim in the pool, as everyone else was out and it was nice to have the place to ourselves.

When it got dark we headed down into the town for dinner. Vaughan wandered around while I used the internet again at another small café, but the power was again intermittent as another storm was brewing. Vaughan quickly went back to Quinlan’s on the scooter to grab the ponchos we had bought, in case it started raining while we were out, while I wandered down the main street, realising that a night market had been set up while I was emailing. I bought a bracelet from some random guy, and then a little zip pouch from a lady from one of the hill tribes. I really wanted to take her photo but knew it was better to ask permission first. I wandered further up the street and noticed a number of other products being sold by ladies from the same tribe. It looked like I would get to see some people from one of the tribes after all, and I found it really interesting. They appeared to be from the Lisu tribe (each tribe has different clothing and identifying features, including things such as rings around their necks to stretch them out) - some of the younger ones spoke some English, but the older ones definitely didn’t. They were all smiling and friendly, and I wandered back down to the old lady who I had bought the pouch from, to ask if I could take her photo. Another lady interpreted for me, and the old lady nodded to say that she agreed. I saw that her teeth were all very black and she wanted to cover them up, so she refused to smile for me, pointing at her teeth and then miming an embarrassed look, covering them up with her hand, and then closing her mouth to get ready for the photo. I would have liked a far more spontaneous shot, but I was just pleased to be able to get a photo at all, and was grateful that she would let me take some of her. I thanked her afterwards, as well as the girl who had translated for me, and headed off to look in the secondhand bookstore while waiting for Vaughan to come back. He didn’t take too long and it was starting to rain by the time he arrived, so it was a good thing he had gone back for the ponchos. From there we went back to Almost Famous for a couple of cocktails, where we saw John and Gaynor outside having a drink, and they invited us to join them for a while. It was heaps of fun and very amusing, just chatting away with them, discussing Thailand and Pai, the UK, New Zealand, life in general, and their next project that had something to do with accommodation in the South of France. John and Gaynor headed back to their place, and Vaughan and I dashed into Tik’s for another cheap authentic dinner. We managed to make it back to the Quinlan’s before the rain properly set in, although only just, and we were treated to a second night of intensely loud thunder and crazy lightning. Pai really turned the weather on for us, abut it didn’t dampen our spirits or opinion of this amazing little town.


Day Ten

Sadly it was time to leave Pai, and although we had hoped to attend the Wednesday morning street market, the rain hadn’t eased off at all, which put a kibosh on our plans. We said a sad goodbye to our wonderful hosts and then headed into town to return the scooters. We had bought bus tickets for our return trip the previous day, but had a lot of trouble trying to find the right bus. With big packs and in pouring rain, we were pretty much wet right through, despite the ponchos. In the end, we managed to fit on a minibus, and made the return journey to Chiang Mai. Our driver was not unlike our first driver, and his driving was pretty reasonable around the 700-odd curves. We ended up falling asleep after the rest stop, and when we woke up we were just arriving at the bus station in Chiang Mai. Luckily it wasn’t raining there, but when we tried to catch a taxi to our guest house, no one would take us as it was located in Old Town, which was surrounded by the moat where practically the whole city was celebrating Songkran. After a while we managed to find a driver who would drop us as close as he could get, but it was already obvious that it was going to be a mission. There were people everywhere and traffic was just about at a standstill. After about half an hour we made it to the moat where the road was closed, and the place just looked incredible – everywhere you looked their were people with buckets and water guns, dressed in bright clothes, refilling their containers from the moat and throwing water over anyone and everyone who passed them. There were live bands playing on the side of the road, street food vendors, and hundreds of open-backed utility vehicles full of kids and giant water barrels dumping water on pedestrians. It was madness, and everyone looked like they were having the time of their lives! Luckily no one threw water at us as we walked through the crowds, as we had our big backpacks on, and I was still limping heavily from my knee injury. After walking for about 10 minutes and getting lost, we managed to find where we were staying, and immediately enquired about getting to Tiger Kingdom, as were departing for Cambodia the next morning and wouldn’t have another opportunity to go. The lady who ran the guest house was fantastic, getting us a driver within 15 minutes (one who was willing to brave the traffic and who knew all the short cuts), and we headed off with our umbrellas and ponchos, knowing that as we were sitting in the open back of a utility vehicle that we were about to get wet! In fact, we only got wet once, and that was because the driver purposely slowed down so that some kids could get us, which was pretty funny in itself. Even the ponchos and umbrellas didn’t help much, but we made it safely to the Tiger Kingdom and sorted out what we wanted to see. Vaughan decided he just wanted to meet the smallest tigers. I wanted to meet the smallest and the largest. While we waited we went to see some large tigers sleeping in their cage. We had been told not to touch their face, head or paws, but Vaughan couldn’t resist, and started tickling one tiger’s nose through the cage bars. It put up with it for a couple of minutes and then had a complete fit, leaping up against the side of the cage and swatting towards Vaughan as fast as lightning. Vaughan didn’t have time to do anything other than jump with fright, as the tiger moved so quickly. I felt sorry for the tigers because Vaughan had disturbed them, and they probably get bothered by tourists all day long. I noticed that they seemed to have a tiger rotation system though, so tigers get some days on their own (and/or with other tigers), away from the crowds. Their cages looked clean, and they had some outdoor space. It seemed as if there were larger areas for the tigers out the back too, so that they could run around more. First up I got to go in and see the large tigers – they were so huge, but seemed OK with people around. Only a few patrons were allowed in at once, at certain times of the day. The guides would give the tigers toys to play with and chew on, and then take photos or allow you to take your own photos. It was pretty cool, especially being so close to them (like leaning on them and stuff). Their fur was quite coarse, although still soft enough, and their paws were so incredibly massive! After a little while we headed over to see the small tigers – they didn’t have any real baby ones at that time, but we got to spend time with ones that were only five months old. They were really cute and much softer than the big tigers. We got the opportunity to do heaps of things with them like cuddle, and lay our heads on the ones that were sleeping. It was loads of fun, but we didn’t stay too long because we knew the tigers must see a lot of people sometimes, and it must get annoying. We were so glad we had made it – our tiger encounter was pretty exciting and we got loads of photos! From there we went back to the guest house. I had wanted to go to the night markets but my knee was really sore, and I was kind of over getting drenched with water anytime we went anywhere, so I stayed back at the guest house for a rest while Vaughan went back out. He left me a couple of drinks and I just read, wrote postcards and watched TV. It was nice not to be rushing around because my knee was still giving me considerable pain. Vaughan bought a large water gun while he was out, and went to properly indulge in the water warfare at the moat. He wasn’t able to get any photos as the camera would have been waterlogged, but you can see some here - it’s basically just one massive water party! Vaughan came back with some type of savoury mussel pancake thing to eat, but it was a bit greasy. He went on another mission down at the moat until after dark and then came back again with some more drinks, a stir fried pork meal and some pork buns to share, which were yummy. Although I hadn’t been able to see as much as I wanted in Chiang Mai, we had a really great time with the tigers (which was the main thing for me), and Vaughan had a fantastic time for Songkran. Everyone likes a reason to run around on a hot day and have a massive water fight, so Chiang Mai had really turned it on for us. Nice!

Tomorrow - on to Cambodia.......

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