Pai

When our time in Chiang Mai had come to end we had a decision to make. Should we head to the well known and loved "sister town" Chiang Rai or try somewhere new that we knew little about; Pai. This decision I decided to leave to Jonny as the previous decision to head to Kanchanaburi had been my choice. He opted for the adventure and before we knew it we had booked ourselves on to the minibus to Pai leaving the following morning.

The actual small town of Pai has succumb to tourist and by first glance looks similar to most other towns in Thailand with its many guesthouses, bars offering happy hour cocktails and tour shops selling treks, elephant rides and day trips. However taking a closer look there is a real sense of pride among the locals, they seem proud to be living where they are. It only takes a few minutes on a scooter to understand their pride; you find yourself in lush green jungles, high up in a mountains, rubbing shoulders with ancient hill tribes. This is all land that is untouched by tourism. This landscape that surrounds the town is just beautiful and it becomes obvious why it hasn't been advertised as a must see place. The secrete feel and small tourist numbers helps keep the character, so the town remains special and unspoilt.

The journey to Pai is a fairly long, up and down and round and round mountains for 3 hours on very narrow roads with rather large drops either side. It reminded me of a road that Clarkson and co would love to bring a sporty new number to test drive for a special Top Gear episode. The road actually has some 1864 curves (no we didn't count them were just clever and know these things) it is in fact the windiest road in Thailand. It was therefore understandable when we had to stop to let one lady be rather ill. The motion sickness was not helped by the monsoon rains that had followed us all from Chiang Mai. Anyway we did arrive safely and were met, as promised by Run, the guy who owns the hotel where we were booked to stay.

We decided to treat ourselves and go for a slightly more expensive room (£10 a night rather than our usual £6) due to the amazing reviews it had been given. Run told us straight away that we needed to hire a motorbike, Jonny and I looked at each other slightly worried. Run went on to explain that his kitchen was closed and the hotel is on a farm which is 2.5km away from town. We decided if the reviews were as good as they say, then it was worth the traveling on scooter into town each evening. When we arrived we learnt the swimming pool that i was very excited about using is a natural pool . . . with fish . . . that bite?? We then realised just how far we were from everything and if we wanted a bottle of water it was a trip on the bike into town. Because of this, we just stayed the one night then checked out and moved to a hotel in town, where we were back to paying our standard £6 a night.

As we had hired the bike, we wanted to make the most of it so we headed for the mountains to explore a bit of Pai. We managed to find the most beautiful waterfall, the biggest one in the area. It was amazing to just stumble across something so big and powerful among the jungle. We had a bit of a paddle and took some photos then headed on the road again to the local canyon. This was one of the first times i have seen a canyon and it was incredible, just a massive hole in the earth with no explanation. Needless to say it wasn't doing Jonny's vertigo any favours. He didn't fancy walking along the 2 foot wide platform which had a 200 foot drop either side. He also decided that he didn't want to have to explain to Dad that he watched me slide off a mountain, so we didn't mess around. The next stop on our journey was a bridge that was built in world war 2 by prisoners of war. Our trip to Thailand has really taught us how heavily they were involved in the war, and how much respect they have for their history.

On our second day in Pai we decided to pay for a private tour as we wanted to visit the long neck tribe which are located to far away to be able to reach on our scooter. Our tour guide was fantastic, he was a native of Pai and even showed us his old high school, his knowledge was worth every penny.
Our first stop was to a view point but unfortunately the clouds were in the way. We were over 4200 feet above sea level so we really were in the clouds, we even felt the temperature drop. We drove past many sticky rice fields which he explained are one of the only types of rice that need water constantly to grow. The other types of rice need water, but not as much. With Thailand having its rainy season, this allows for 2 harvest a year of rice which is why it is Thailand's biggest export. We next stopped at the fish cave which was a small cave filled with massive koi-carp. We learnt the reason for so many fish is that once upon a time, locals were fishing and caught and ate Koi-carp but became really really ill. They believed that they were being sick as a form of punishment and fish must have been sacred. So now the fish have their own cave, they get fed constantly they are left to just keep multiplying. The reality is that Koi-Carp have a poisonous vain that must be removed before eating, it really requires a specialist chef and a brave diner to give it a try.

Our guide was very religious and taught us about Buddhism as we visited a temple. Buddhist believe that spirits are everywhere, they look after everything and shrines are built along rivers, in gardens and in areas to give the spirits shelter. Every time our guide saw a shrine at the side of the road on our journey he would beep his horn and say a quick pray in his head. He also showed us the 7 different images of Buddha which represent him on a different day of the week. For example one day he meditated and another his laying resting, traditional you pray to the individual Buddha that represents they day you were born.

Finally we went to the long neck tribe, this tribe is based really close to the Burma border. We found out that it is just 3km away from a refuge camp that is home to some 10,000 people who have escaped from Burma to claim asylum in Thailand. The camp has been there for 17 years now. The king of Thailand has promised to continue helping them and sending supplies as he does with the Long Neck Tribes, who technically are not Thai citizens. He has also given them the same rights as all Thai people, allowing them to use Thai hospitals, an education and the vote. The long neck village wasn't anything like we were expecting, it is 100% self-sufficient. The money people pay to visit goes towards teaching and maintenance of their village. They have their own school which we were allowed to walk round. The story of the long neck is one related to religion, evil spirits are believed to always entire the body via the throat and it is believed that evil spirits do not like the colour gold and therefore the women place as many gold hoops as possible around their neck to protect themselves. These hoops weigh some 5kg which is incredibly heavy on the shoulders so eventually the shoulders wear down which gives the appearance of a long neck.

The final fact we learnt is really quite fitting as we are currently on the slow boat through Laos leaving the amazing Thailand for a few weeks. Before the war Thailand was know as Siam meaning land of smiles, this is something we can completely understand, it is such a happy, friendly place. We are both leaving without one bad word to say about any person we have met. The Thai culture is just so hospitable and loving, a place were if you smile at someone in the street they still smile back. Thailand was named Thailand after the war, its meaning, the land of freedom, with the Kings efforts with the refuge camps and them opening their doors for anyone to visit for free, their name is perfect. We are so excited about the next stage of our adventure but at the same time we are so sad to be leaving such a wonderful country behind. Neither of us expected to have the attachment we do to Thailand, but when it comes to leaving Asia in December i think were going to find it very hard indeed.