I had an inner conflict this morning: Should I stay or should I go? Pai is a small town in Thailand’s northern mountains and its touristic infrastructure has been built up 10 to 15 years ago by some hippies and alternatives. Then 6 years ago they filmed the movie “Pai in love”, which was a huge success in Thailand and suddenly Pai turned out to be a favourite destination also for Thai people. Now, there is an interesting mixture of people here who come from all over the world, mainly backpackers and then there are also the Thai tourists and ex-backpackers who decided to live here permanently, who I think are quite a lot. In Pai there is everything from a steakhouse to French cuisine restaurants, hundreds of bars and also open air discotheques. Nevertheless it has still preserved its calmness and is a perfect place for hanging out. I have a small bungalow in a garden with hammock and Wi-Fi connection, really nice. Taking all this together and considering the fact that meeting people is very easy, you might understand why leaving is so difficult. My personal trade-off this morning was staying one day more but in change I already bought tickets to Chiang Mai for tomorrow, so I cannot change my mind any more.
Friday evening after arriving in Pai I met Gaby from Québec. She is travelling for the first time in her life and has saved money from 4 years of working in a bar. She told me that besides the fact that she wanted to travel, she also needed a break from drinking too much alcohol (because of working in a bar). I didn’t really notice her abstinence because she was already drinking a gin tonic when I met her. We had some more drinks that evening and agreed on visiting a piranha fishing farm the next day. The site is about 10 km from Pai, so we rented a motor bike. The place is run by Dave, an Englishman who settled in Thailand 10 years ago. It’s really nice, you can even fish from the bar while having a drink. Good point, because Gaby ordered gin tonics from 1 pm on. At Dave’s place there is happy hour all day long, so one must take advantage. I was very unsuccessful with fishing, I didn’t catch a single fish. Gaby was already an expert because in Canada fishing is quite common. She was surprised that I have never done this in my life.
Yesterday we went to Dave’s place a second time because there is a famous Sunday roast barbecue. That was my first real Western food since I arrived in Thailand, really delicious. After the barbecue we went back to Pai and the evening turned out to be related to drinking a lot. We went to the Yellow Sun Bar where I met more people between the bar and the pool table. Gaby was in her element and ordered B52 shots, for me one of the ugliest things in the world. Then later in the evening she became less communicative and suddenly disappeared when I was playing pool. OK, no big drama, I guess she found the way to bed. I met some Austrians and we went later to one of the open air discotheques. Because of the cold there was no real dancing. People were rather meeting at fire places which they installed for these cold “winter” nights. Seems strange but they really call that winter, 32°C the day and 10°C in the night. Anyway, I had to give up at 2 am because 2 days with Gaby have left their mark on me.
Today is for hanging out and writing. This evening I will go back to the Yellow Sun Bar to play some pool and tomorrow leave for Chiang Mai, the biggest city in Northern Thailand. I am finally in the mood to go on a larger trekking tour, so I will check out there.
I think it really turned out to be a good idea to skip Myanmar. I have finally found a nice and slow travel mode and I think I wouldn’t have had time to do so if I had gone to Myanmar for more than three weeks. From what I have heard so far, Laos will be a perfect place for me with lots of nature, rivers and waterfalls, so my plan is to spend there maybe three weeks or even a whole month.
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