I love Pai

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From the northern capital of Chiang Mai we had a 3 hour bus ride to our next destination, Pai (Pie). The journey there alone is an experience, up and over some very high mountain ranges, superior to that of Ben Nevis! They don't do mountain climbing here though, instead they build a road all the way to the top and then give you the option of riding a scooter or walking the 100m pathway to the summit. Not much of a challenge. Anyway, the journey there would be awe inspiring in the daytime but because we were travelling by night, we could see nothing and only feel the never-ending windy traverse, quickly sending me to sleep. Laura on the other hand was being driven nuts by a American telling the two people either side of him, and consequently the whole bus, his stories of his travels, needing no encouragement to start talking again.

Pai was the Sapa of Thailand, very mountainous and beautiful and filled with tourists. Although filled with tourists it had a very laid back feel to it, probably because of the marijuana fumes floating around from the dense population of dreadlocked hippies. Still, it was a good place to be and dissimilar to a big city. Initially we planned to spend 3-4 days there and go on a hike into the jungle, but none of the guides had a big enough group together to accommodate a trip. So we spent the next full day there doing what we do best, fitting as much into the day as possible. We set off in search of one of the less touristy waterfalls, Pam Bok, at the end of a 14km road hidden away in the jungle. It was a good waterfall but nothing special, the journey there was much better with views of the mountains, farmland and rivers. It wasn't or didn't look like an inviting waterfall to swim in, so we quickly up sticks and left for another, more touristic waterfall.

The second, Mo Paeng, was well worth the ride, up into one of the mountains along a very bumpy, pothole ridden track. Nothing like a bit of a challenge though. It was a tiered waterfall, with 3 different levels to it and between each one a natural stone slide!!! We were hesitant to start with but after a while the deed was done. It wasn't until a group of local kids rocked up that we felt like health and safety conscious twenty year olds. They had no concept of death, more than happy to run down the waterfall which I had slid down and jumping of rocks after running down a slope to the launch point. These kids were nuts and all the time we were cringing! Not one of the tourists there attempted to do what the kids did, where usually people including me would. Have a look at the photos.

We checked out the Pai canyon too that day, which does not look anything like the Grand Canyon like guide books say, but if it wasn't compared to that it wouldn't get the reviews it does. We thought we'd finish the day at the hot springs, not to be as they were hellish expensive for what they were and instead we took a round trip on the bike back to the town. The whole town when we got back had changed from a docile little place into a street market filled with people. Needless to say the options for tea were endless and finished up a feast of bits and bats. The best way to finish the day, laying in a hammock at the bar with people we'd met having a few beers.

Because our plans of a trek had failed we now had another 4/5 days up in this area, so after a run and muesli/fruit/yoghurt/honey combo later we hired out a scooter and set off on a 120km marathon over the mountains to Mae Hong Son, detouring via some natural hot springs along the way. And when you think of a spring you imagine a pebbled jacuzzi or something along those lines, this was a river that was warm dammed up a bit so you can sit in it. The best bit was when it started to rain, not just drizzle but proper full on rain, making the water splash up at your face. We then had to face the 5km drive back on a dirt track to the main road, up and over extremely steep hills (Dougie Lampkin would be proud).

The ride to Mae Hong Son was awesome until the last 10km, winding down the mountainsides and then crawling back up them with view pouts after viewpoint. The weather the whole way there looked unstable, black clouds gaining allies with the clouds around them making for one big storm. And it was in the last 10km it killed us, making my hands lifeless and body saturated with rain water, I've not been this cold since an English winter. The whole time Laura was ok though, she'd packed her coat (good move) and had me as a wind break. When we finally arrived at Mae Hong Son the first question we asked the guesthouse owners was 'hot showers?' and then 'price?', which is often the other way round. We got our showers, we got a cold and we got there. And to ease away the cold we got pizza for tea. The cold still hadn't left our bones and our last option was to apply bucket loads of Tiger balm (deep heat but more intense) everywhere, with a few exceptions! It did the job!

Mae Hong Son is similar to Pai, only less touristic and easier to find your way around. We still had the bike too so ventured off towards Pha Sua, a big waterfall in the area. As you can see waterfalls are a big attraction here. This one was a OK, good for 10 minutes to look at but wasn't swimmable or anythingable. What we did see though were some mahoooosive spiders, about the size of a hand, and they weren't the leggy type either, it had a body in proportion to its legs. Laura loved them but I'd have preferred a zoom lens rather than getting this close. Afterwards we continues up the road to the palace at the top of the mountain. It had to be one of the strangest places we have been so far. It was a really well maintained beautiful place that lacked an actual palace, instead having countless large wooden huts and animal enclosures. There were even helipads up there, just no palace. The whole journey there was occupied by a fear of being kidnapped by the Burmese, which there have been stories about, but we must have missed them that day, returning alive and well.

Laura wants to mention the food that we had on the way down the mountain, here she goes: -

" For starters, there has been a distinct lack of food talk in these blogs. Maybe it holds true that, for James, food and eating is just a daily necessity to sustain life, to keep up energy for the days activities. However, this is a story of some pork that would turn his centre of gravity and his focus towards this very matter, and even dictate the planning of the following day. Yes, it has been a first: a whole day revolved around a single food item in the life of James. Needless to say for me, this is not out of the ordinary. So let me introduce to you the Honey Pork Grill. Not particularly 'thai-ish', it was ordered as a side dish to our main, the fried noodle. But in all its succulent meat glory it should it have had such a belittling status. We have never tasted such delicious meat. It was cooked to perfection, a melt-in-the-mouth, lip-smacking honey sweetened sensation. And what other to accompany it but a coriander fuelled chilli and garlic dressing. It was a dish that could rival a Nobles beef joint, a Fleming lasagne or Longleys cream cheesed bagel. Our minds were blown, lives changed and pork will never be the same again! "

It was pretty good I have to say. We had seen a lot about a cave filled with fish too, for reasons unknown. It was close to the waterfall to so we thought it would be worth a visit. The journey to the cave was the best yet, driving past rice fields that had just been harvested and now burnt off leaving these patterns everywhere. Tham Pla cave is misleading because you then expect a proper cave filled with fish. What you get though is a wall that is slightly concave, with a hole below filled with big carp. It's amazing how all these fish end up in the one place of which very few make it back out, again for unknown reasons. On the way back we stopped off at a temple overlooking the town to watch the sunset, it topped off another awesome day. Street food tea, few beers and bed was calling.

We needed to get back to Pai the next day to drop the bike off which meant another long journey. However we broke this one up much more and the first stop was a health spa?!?! They say it is 1 of 3 places in the world to have a natural mud spa from which they make loads of different things. It was cheap though and we gave a foot massage a go, which wasn't ticklish surprisingly and left us with 'babysoft' feet! The main reason for going as to kill a bit of time before lunch because we wanted to go back to Tower Trees, the place we had been the day before for lunch. Only this time we didn't get our pork (it was forgotten), but the owner Patork wanted to try out some new drinks on us and we were more than happy to try. It's definitely worth a visit here alone.

We drove for a few hours after lunch in search of a big cave near Sappong, 40km away from Pai. It took what seemed forever and a lot of dodgy roads later to get there but we did eventually arrive. It was the Tham Lod cave that we were hunting down, a 1km long cave that was only accessible by bamboo raft. It was massive and you needed a guide to go in. She lead us around using a gas lamp for light, not telling us anything at all about the cave only grunting at points where there was an information board. It had all the things you would expect in a cave, stalactites and stalagmites, different compartments within the cave and loads of bats making more noise than our guide. It used to be inhabited thousands of years ago, with paintings and wooden coffins the only things remaining but adding to the coolness of the cave. We even saw a snake in there, meandering its way upstream before latching onto the side walls. This takes our snake count to 7.

We toyed with the idea of staying in a local village for the night, where we had seen accommodation and it was going to be dark in an hour, maybe less. Instead we opted for driving over the mountain and back into Pai, inevitably arriving in the dark. It was a good call because we got to see the last of the sunset as we reached the top, where the red sky hit the black and dotted all around were the stars. Although cold, it was a good ride back and passed by quickly. Once we had arrived in Pai it was warm shower time, something that we haven't been accustomed to over the last 9 weeks away, and then food time.

The next day was our last full one in the north before heading back to he middle. It was the kings birthday which is the equivalent of a bank holiday at home, so nothing happens quickly and we thought it a good idea to have a lie in. Laura had her banana pancakes, I had my muesli/fruit/yoghurt/honey combo and we wanted to get into the jungle a bit/get some exercise. There's another waterfall, Mae Yen, 6km into the jungle with a bit of a pathway to it and took our chances on this. The gamble paid off and we got a 2 hour trek through pretty thick jungle, crossing the river loads of times before getting to the waterfall. We met quite a few people on the way, one who we went there and back with, and a few we met further on the way. We took a route over the hillside, and a steep one a that, whereas the others, who we hadn't met, stuck to the river. The waterfall itself was the biggest and by far the best we had seen, over 20m high and water gushing over. We climbed up to one of the plunge pools, had a bathe and then set off back before the sun went down. As a group we split, 3 of us taking the river route whilst the other 3 took the hillside. The river was better and much more adventurous, proving challenging at times. We never saw the other 3 again, I'm sure they made it though! The sun hadn't set by the time we got back, so we had some light left to drive back in.

The jungle adventure was one of the best days to date and what made it better was that we didn't pay to do it. Tour guides would have charged us £15 each to do it, and that meant some beer money for the night! We haven't had a burger in a while and found a good spot to get one, they looked amazing. What we got had mixed reviews from the two of us, Laura hated it and I loved it, it was a reminder of home and Atlantis/Rajput after a night out, a big sweaty dirty burger. We were owed a calorie overdose though from our expedition.

A lazy morning later, Lord of the Rings trilogy book purchased and coffee consumed and our time in Pai and the north was up. This has been an awesome place, would advise to anyone to come if possible and we might be back! Australia is only 4 days away and Ayuthaya is up next.

Over and Out

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