Pai, Chiang Mai & Elephant Trekking

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This one is going to be very brief. I just spent an hour and a half typing up my most recent entry, only for it to time out when it came to me saving it. So I really cannot be arsed to rewrite it word for word so instead I'll wing it and write what I remember with my shocking memory.

I have spent the last few days in Pai, a small town in the North-Eastern province of Mae Hong Son, close to the border of Myanmar and is situated in the southerly limit of the Himalayas...and I've never been somewhere so nice in my life. Although it is becoming increasingly touristy, it has not yet reached an annoying level. It still contains a complex mix of nationalities and cultures, all of which are incredibly friendly and full of smiles. Thankfully it is still touristy enough to find a decent burger when our stomachs were demanding a change from the rice and noodles (this happened most nights, unashamedly burgers were regularly on the menu). The valley Pai sits in is surrounded by the Himalayan mountains and contains an amazing mix of natural and man made sights to visit, including waterfalls, temples, canyons and hot springs.

The journey from Chiang Mai up to Pai is a story in its own right. You are wedged in to a 'cosy' minivan with questionable air conditioning for a 3 hour journey around 762 bends with roads that change from asphalt to gravel to dirt tracks with out any apparent warning. The drivers themselves are also psychopaths, overtaking slower vehicles on blind corners with nothing but trees to stop us from plunging a good couple of hundred metres down the mountainside. Stupidly I counted my eggs too early, thinking I had escaped the legend that someone always throws up enroute. We were close. So close to making it, but sadly a small Japanese ladies stomach couldn't quite handle the rollercoaster so about 60 bends away from the finish line she chucked up her guts. Having someone loudly empty themselves in to a small bag in a tiny, warm van with no means of escape is not something I wish to experience again. As a result when you finally arrive in Pai you feel like you bloody deserve to be in such a beautiful setting.

Immiediately after setting foot in Pai we knew the 2 days we had planned was going to be nowhere near long enough, although the place only contains 3000 locals, the relaxed environment and the sights are beyond infectious so all you want to do is fall in line and chill. Our first hostel was owned by a rasta-come-hippy, who loved playing reggae covers of pop songs and classic rock/blues tracks. Who can complain with such an impeccable taste. We also got to stay in more wicker huts, this time the wicker walls and the palm roof didn't quite manage to meet each other so we were in effect sleeping outside and the bathroom had a convenient section of wall missing so fellow travellers could see you on the toilet/having a shower. Having said that the place was incredible, there was no internet so all we could do was relax and enjoy ourselves.

On the second day we woke early at a respectable 6.30am to make the walk in to town to be first in line for scooters to hire, this was definitely a great shout but we still had to wait 3 hours. Finally some scooters arrived, and so we were unleashed upon the valley of Pai. As usual in Thailand with their strict anti-health and safety way of life, to hire a scooter you merely had to tell them you reckon you can ride one. To celebrate our new found freedom we decided to make a '7km' trek up to a waterfall which was apparently the thing to see in Pai, I will forever be convinced that this was the longest 7km I have ever walked in my life, sure we were walking alongside a river but we weren't dawdling and it took us 3 hours there and 3 hours back. The waterfall itself as well..to put it honestly was shite. It was basically a stream running over a couple of boulders, so I was fairly annoyed that I had walked all the way with no shoes on to see what was practically a water feature. Irregardless it was still a fun trek being out in the rainforest with no one around except a strange man we walked past twice carrying some form hunting rifle.

With the rest of our time in Pai we visited another waterfall, the WW2 Memorial Bridge built by POW's, Pai Canyon and my personal highlight the hot springs. The springs erupted from the Earth at a temperature ranging from 80-100 degrees and trickled through streams until they settled and cooled in a series of pools which ranged in temperature from 37-34 degrees and could be swam in. You quickly notice why the signs say only stay in for 10-15 minutes at a time, the sheer heat of the water really saps it out of you.

Our evenings in Pai mainly consisted of leaving it far to late to eat, having to settle for somewhere that sold British food (burgers, sandwiches etc) before heading over to a bar called 'Ting Tong' for some cheap beer and whisky, a structure made entirely of bamboo and contained far too much fire to be exactly safe and people acting as waiters who you were sure didn't actually work there.

The second hostel we had to move to was great, very cheap and had quick wifi in the hostel rooms and was just down the road from a swimming pool, lavley. In the hostel opposite we found a bunch of people we had met in Chiang Mai, and thankfully this time without a Scottish dry lunch known as 'Taz' who had finally decided to get on one of the three flights home he had booked and paid for. What an idiot.

Back in Chiang Mai we had organised one of the major excursions we planned to do in our time travelling, elephant trekking. After far too many hours researching the many companies and organisations doing these treks we settled on a group called Baan Chang Elephant Park, considerably more expensive than alternatives but they seemed to genuinely care for the animals they rescued. We woke up at 5.30am to leave for the elephant park at 6.15am, so many early starts. The park itself was fantastic, on arrival we were given uniform to wear and given huge baskets full of bananas and sugar cane to feed the elephants under the watchful eye of the Mahouts. One of the major advantages of going so early was how we were able to enjoy the company of the elephants in such a small group before everyone else arrived and it became to crowded. After this we were taught how to safely ride an elephant bare-back as the Mahouts do and the commands they use to help control them; go (Pai), left/right (Kwei), stop (how) and lay down (Now-long) before being allowed to take the elephants for a solo trek through the nearby forest. One thing I quickly noticed was how the elephants mainly just followed their Mahout in front except for moments of stubbornness when the decided to eat some bamboo or have a rub on a large tree with me stuck in the middle. The finale for the day was taking the elephants down to a large lake and washing/bathing with them. The whole thing was truly an unforgettable experience and one I will definitely remember for the rest of my life.

I think I'm just about done, I've written this bloomin' thing twice now and I'm sure I've still missed out a hell of a lot of stuff. But all I have on my mind now is going back to the hostel to enjoy a BBQ containing 'shit loads of food' as the hostel worker described it and a nice cold beer. In the next few days we are heading further north to a town called Chiang Khong, right on the border of Laos which we will use to move in to Laos, catching a slow boat down to Luang Prabang.

TC

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