51. Northern Thailand: Chiang Rai and Pai

North Thailand.. wow..what a beauty! I was so so excited to come back to my second home I could barely breathe – and it’s been the first chance I got to travel speaking the Thai language ALMOST fluently. I mean, when I was living in the village I would go away for long weekends but usually to see my English friendlies so I didn’t really use it – and now I could, would and did! It was so much fun, and boy did it increase my bargaining power! Not that that needed much increasing ;) 

I had previously spent a few weeks in Chiang Mai and loved it so naturally I was excited to see her sister Chiang Rai, and their much talked about cousin, Pai. And they did not disappoint! In Chiang Rai I was on a mission – rejuvenated energy was abound and I was up early and ready to go go go!! I saw landscapes that put Laos to shame, and that is saying something! I even bought a new camera because the thought of not being able to take pictures of all of this was devastating. I got to see the golden triangle where Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet, as well as some temples – ah! Yes the temples..I honestly thought id burn the next one I had to see down – out of sheer frustration and the Thai temples have never really blown me away - especially after India – but Chiang Rai’s white temple was a beaut and I was happy to be blown away on my last temple hora!  The opium museum was interesting, as was chillin with some long neck karen’s! 

I teamed up with an Israeli dude and investigated the villages..which, as always with an Israeli – made it even better! In the evening the Chang’s awaited J That’s beer for those of you who don’t know the land of Thai.

 And on the last night in particular they made their presence known! David, a lovely British person, an American dude – I’m terrible at names L and I drank, chatted and debated politics (some things never change) into the wee hours. In fact David and I had bought our bus tickets for the following morning – we had to be there by 6am (it left at 6:15) And outside of this local pub-ish hangout he suddenly got out his phone, “I wonder what the time is.” And..the clock struck (an EXACT) 6:15. FUCK. 

Never have three people EVER jumped out of their seats so fast and RAN their asses off – David got the bus to wait 15 minutes for us..it was crazy – pissed out of our minds hurtling to the hostel, checking out, throwing keys at the receptionist and bolting to the bus. As soon as we sat down we were out for the count. You can imagine the locals thinking,”Those bloody dead drunks making us late.” 

Anyhoo – our next destination was Pai. And after all the hype I did not know what to expect – but the whole,”Pai Pai Pai!!” must see PAI!! thing could have been hyped up a million trillion times more and still not done herself justice – right up there on her pedestal she is without a doubt the most beautiful place I have EVER come across.

And the Hostel, Spicy Pai covers her with cherries on top! Rice fields, mountains, canyons, waterfalls, sunsets, rainbows,hammocks, sunshine, beer, people from all over the world, days filled with scooter missions and late nights. It was a beautiful six days and the perfect place to be in before the end..

Now it’s time for Bangkok baby – last stop!!