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Published: October 17th 2008
We had heard wonderful things about the town of Pai, north of Chang Mai. We had heard stories of the wonderful scenery and it being a great place to chill out. So after a four hour local bus ride we arrived in Pai, the land of hippies. No one had warned us about this! They are everywhere and from every nationality. Japan, France, Germany, US, Australia- the hippies of all those countries come to Pai. So after the initial shock of smelly hippies everywhere we decided to just relax and join in the hippie fun. We found a small bungalow down by the river and went off the first night to find some live music. We found a jazz bar that played all the classics- it was pretty chill to sit on some pillows and listen to some real live music.
The next day we decided to rent some bikes to discover what lay outside of the small town. What we discovered is that not much was around here. We followed a road that was up and down hills, so huffing and puffing we tried to enjoy ourselves. We found a few elephant camps, with elephants that did not look very
happy, a hot spring and that was about it. The way back into town proved to be a little more excited. There was a bridge dedicated to WWII veterans and a Pai Canyon that proved to have great views of the surrounding hills. Plus the ride back was NOT uphill and we actually biked through some local villages. Still... there isn't much to do in Pai.
We decided we needed some excitement in our life, so we signed up for a two day/one night river rafting adventure. The company guaranteed us they would give us the craziest guide and that the class 3 and 4 rapids would prove to be exciting. This was about my 10th rafting trip, so I am always skeptical when they say how crazy the rapids are.
We woke early the first morning and arrived at the rafting place and met Thep, our guide. He was 29, married with a baby and was hospitalized last year after taking a sea kayak down a river waterfall. He was my type of guy!
The first day proved to be less exciting than I hoped for. Especially because I was stuck in the back of the
The countryside around Pai
During a long hard bike ride!raft (because I'm a girl) and I didn't see much action. Everyone got bumped around but me! We finished rafting at 2:30pm, which I thought was early, and went to the campsite. The campsite was a basic facility with no electricity, an open faced hut to sleep in and a small area to sit around a camp fire. It was 2:30pm and we had nothing to do! I expected some sort of entertainment (probably cause I'm American and I don't know how to do nothing), but it never came. The boys borrowed a fishing line and went down the river to do some fishing and I played solitaire with some cards. That was until we ate dinner at 5pm and the sun set at 6pm. By 7:30pm it felt like it was midnight. I managed to stay awake around the fire until 9pm and then set off to bed. Except, a good night's sleep would never come because Thep kept telling us about the snakes, spiders and tigers that lived in the jungle around us. We were the only people for miles and miles and he was telling me all these things! Our mosquito net was not going to be
a good protector from all these things; so of course, I tossed and turned all night. Plus it started storming and the rain was LOUD!
We managed to sleep in the next day and we didn't even head onto the river until 11am. That was nice! Especially because of the day we had ahead of us! The boys knew I was not happy being in back, so they pushed me to the front of the raft so I could actually get wet! After a few rapids, I was loving it. The guide kept telling us the rapids would get bigger and bigger and he did not disappoint.
In all my rafting trips I have NEVER fallen out of the raft and by the end of the time I had gone swimming 3x! The first came unrepentantly and I didn't even know what hit me. I had just bragged that unless the boat flipped I was not going out when we hit a giant wave that propelled me out of the raft and into the water. I was the only one out of the boat and it happened quicker than I could say "rapid." I landed right by the
raft though so I was back in the boat in no time.
From there we stopped at a hot spring, where the super hot bubbling water meets the river and makes for a nice relaxing spot. We covered ourselves in the sulfur mud to make our skin smoother. I do not need to pay a bunch of money for my mud baths! Then it was back to the rafting...
Then, the guide kept telling us about a big hole that we would "surf" on the river and there was a good chance we would flip the boat. Before we went into the rapid we tied down everything that moved to the boat, except for ourselves and our paddles. As we entered the rapid, I saw a giant rock in front of us. There were rapids to the left and the right and the rock straight down the middle. As we kept paddling I thought to myself, "We are going to hit this rock." Sure enough, we hit the rock dead on. Half the boat was stuck up high on the rock and half of it was hanging down this waterfall rapid. We were all doing a good job of
hanging on to the boat until we saw Ryo, the Aussie, fly over Jeff's head into the rapid. Once his weight was gone, the entire boat flipped and we were all swimming. Ryo, Angela (the other American chick in our raft) and myself got pushed up against the rock. I took a deep breath and let go of the rock, letting the current suck me under. It popped us back up and I put my feet down stream to swim the rapid. As it started to calm down I saw Jeff holding on to an upside down boat and I grabbed a hold of his paddle and pulled myself to the boat. The guide was on top of the boat and the three of us flipped it over and climbed into the boat. We then saw Angela floating down and while the guide and I paddled Jeff pulled her in. We were still in bumpy water, but we had no idea what was coming. Ryo was nowhere to be seen and Chris was in front of us. Just as the water started getting more rough the four of us in the boat looked and saw Chris' little red helmet tumble
over a huge waterfall in front of us. The four of us paddled and paddled and made it safely down the next set of huge rapids. Luckily, Chris was ok after his out of boat experience and we all pulled over to the side of the river to gather things up. We were minus two paddles and Ryo. The last anyone saw of Ryo he was hanging on for dear life to the rock we had hit. Our guide trekked it back up to find Ryo standing on top of the rock. How he did this- I have no idea. The rock was big and slippery and I can only guess that his pure adrenaline helped him up. The guide escorted him back to the boat and we were all safe.
We then stopped for some lunch and cliff diving. We were able to eat some food near a waterfall and dive into the river off a 30foot cliff- not bad for an afternoon siesta. After lunch we only had a few more big rapids to go through until the end of our day. By this time we were exhausted from two days of rafting and our arms weren't
working all that well. I blame that for our third swim that day. Once again we hit a rock, knocking everyone in the boat out except for Chris. Our guide even managed to dislocate his shoulder on this fall. We were in bad shape! We did manage to survive the day with some amazing stories to tell. It was one of the best rafting trips I have ever done and Thep really was the craziest guide ever. His moto was "more danger, more fun" and he proved that to be correct.
We arrived late into Pai for one more night here. After two days of rafting we treated ourselves to a nice hamburger and a Thai massage. The massage was just what I needed and unlike any other massage I have had. They not only massaged your body, but they stretch out your muscles using their bodies, feet and arms. The lady will stretch your leg and pull it with her foot. It felt amazing! Then a good night's sleep and a long journey to the country to visit a family friend of mine.
The next day we caught the 4 hour bus back to Chang Mai to
catch an overnight bus to Khon Kaen to visit a family friend.
Quick background: I have known Kathie my whole life (she is part of my parents' volleyball crew for those of you who know about that). Anyways, Kathie has a cousin Bernie who is married to a Thai lady, Lak and who invited us to come stay with him for a few days in the village they live in- so this is how we found ourselves on our way to Khon Kaen.
Ok- so when we arrived in Chang Mai to catch the bus they tell us there are no more seats. But... I had been there three days earlier to buy tickets and they said to just get them the day of. So- now what are we going to do. After searching and searching, we find an overnight bus that will take us to Khorat (3hrs from Khon Kaen) and then we can catch another bus to Khon Kaen the next morning. This was our last option so we took it.
We arrived in Khorat at 8:45am and immediately hoped a 9am bus to Khon Kaen arriving by 11am. Not too shabby I think!
Bernie and
Lak met us at the train station and we began the hour drive to the village they live in outside of Khon Kaen. Bernie and Lak's house is an amazing pink home in a small village (consisting of all of Lak's family). Lak's sister and mother live in the pink house with them and we immediately felt welcome. Lak gave us a nice size room with AC (the first AC room we have had in a while) and from there the generosity did not end. Our first night there, Lak and her sister cooked an amazingly huge dinner and all of Lak's family came for a big feast. There were probably about 15 people there and they were all family. It was a wonderful setting and everyone was so nice. We sampled a lot of the local cooking and loved it all. Lak and her sister had a tendency of feeding us until our bellies were about to explode. I gained back all the weight I have lost on this trip. It was nice to have someone take care of us for a few days.
Our first full day there, Lak played tour guide and took us to so
many sights around the village. There was a gorgeous wood carved temple that was hundreds of years old that was amazing. After seeing so many temples I didn't think another one would stand out, but this one was amazing.
After the temple we went to a dinosaur park and museum. The area around the museum is a hot spot for dinosaur bones. I really didn't expect much considering the museum was in the middle of nowhere and it was free, but I was wrong. It was a total modern museum with plasma TV’s and interactive exhibits. Not to mention the huge REAL LIFE dinosaur bones and models they had. We really enjoyed the museum. After the museum we actually got to head off to the archeological dig sight and see the dinosaur bones still being extracted from the earth. It was really cool and I can't believe they let us in to the actually dig sight.
That night we had a quiet day at Bernie and Lak's house and got some much needed sleep. The next morning we awoke and Bernie and Lak took us into Khon Kaen, the city they have a condo at, about 1 hour out
Girls in front!
Too bad when we were in front the boat flipped and I was knocked out 2 out of the 3 times! of the village. On the way we stopped off at a cobra farm and saw many cobras. Cobras are super common in the north of Thailand and people often have unpleasant meeting with them in the wet rice paddies.
The cobra show was crazy. There were Thai people of all ages playing with cobras and getting really close. There was an old man dancing around one and putting his face right next to the cobra until it would strike. Then... they brought out kids- probably like 10 years old who did the same thing. A few kids got bit, which led us to believe that the cobras are probably de-fanged or something because if not those kids would have been dead.
After the cobra show we continued in to the city for some lunch and ice cream- we never went hungry with Bernie and Lak. Then it was back to the village for our last night. We took it easy, but around 8pm we decided to walk to the local store to grab a soda. Lak came with us and on our way back to the house we noticed some music and people dancing. There was a party and
they invited us in. Lak's sister was there and all the people were drinking Thai whiskey. All the girls immediately wanted to dance with the boys, especially Chris because he was single. This made them super uncomfortable and I was cracking up! They kept pointing to one girl in particular and saying to Chris "Single, single!" After forcing a few shots of Thai whiskey down our throats we managed to leave, escaping with the boys in one piece. I thought this was so much fun and truly an authentic taste of Thailand.
Unfortunately, we said good bye to Bernie and Lak the next morning and jumped on our 6 hour bus to Bangkok. Their hospitality and kindness was truly amazing and we had a great time relaxing and catching up on some much needed sleep. I really believe in travel karma and if you are nice to other they will be nice to you.
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mary
non-member comment
just wondering...
when and where do you do your laundry?? are you ready to send your clothes home and get a new set yet!?