| my hat in a fun toilet..bit blurry but so was Pai Posted Monday, 22 May 2006 | ||
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| Hello people I do hope this isn't the first thing you open on a monday morning in your offices...it could worsen your monday morning depression.. I'm in a little place called Pai in the north of Thailand... We moved on from Chiang Mai last week. Before we went we were casually chatting to a girl from Brighouse the same town as Rachel (flatmate for those of you who haven't had the pleasure)) and she mentioned Visa's...we suddenly had the realisation our ran out in a few days...WHOOOOOPS..panic ensued..however we weren't the first, in fact there are many minibus trips specifically aimed at tourist running over their sell by date...so we did a visa run to BURMA!! waaaa! We were in Myanmar for all of 5 seconds, but still I have a passport stamp from a dictatorship and given them 5 dollars..Thank god I still have my direct debit to Amnesty International to quell my conscience. we got to see the Golden Triangle and our guide insisted on lots of 'who wants to try opium ha ha ha' jokes..hmm Chiang Mai took a little sinister turn during the water fight festival...we were sitting in a bar watching Sex in the City (Ben was desperate for it)..and a girl ran in, in a bad way having just been mugged..as most people in the bar we glued to the whinging slappers on TV I ended up being 'mummy Wendy' and escorting the girl to the police station and hospital to get her cleaned up. The police station was a bit of an eye opener, in that they bought with them to work their own laptop, mobile phone (no land lines) printer, paper and wait for it DESK !.. they thought it really funny that in the UK that this stuff was given to our coppers for FREE!! The hospital was nice enough, the nurses wore out fits that made them look like beauty technicians... oh how we joked about a quick bikini line waxing..etc. The girl (Sarah Jane from OZ) is fine and dandy now having to go through all the rig-ma-roll of bureaucracy... she had to call America to get her cards stopped..she said that she was calling from Thailand, the American asked what country that was in...dear lord.. The Lovely Pai..it's the sort of place people come here for a weekend and end up with a long beard and 20 years down the line selling bracelets. it is a laid back tiny 4 road town in the beautiful mountains. There isn't an awful lot to do, but chill out and do nice things...reminds me a little of Brighton..we now walk down the street and say hi to half it's population. There is a party every night that go onto about mid night then you go onto one of two bars made of bamboo until the wee hours...we have made friends with some Thais who keep us up to date with where tonight's party is. The parties are kinda mini festivals with beer bars, live bands (invariably the international language of Reggae) and some hippie twirling things around their heads and by the end of the party some twat on a bongo...last night it was at a really nice art gallery guest house in a valley.. the band played one indie tune... I was happy.. I got chatting to a bar man who has got stuck here. He's invited me to his party monday. I am on a mission for him to play some good indie tunes with guitars played by boys looking at their shoes......I can't take any more bloody reggae or trance I want the 'Arctic Monkeys' I don't care what I have to do!! i'll be taking my ipod, there must be a way! we kinda do 'stuff' like hire bikes for a ride in the countryside, read a little, sleep a bit, do some yoga with a crazy old lady we call 'Mama', drink some shakes, nap, wonder, get some water, breathe, walk a little, squat a mozzie, look, breathe, eat, sweat. shower, chat to people... you get the gist. although we have found a place where you can hire a DVD in a 'private room' in the evening, fits in nicely before a party ( this becomes a days accomplishment)...we are doing a Thai foot massage course tomorrow.. wow using the 'doing' verb is kinda new around here. There are no muggings here in Pai, but EVERYBODY falls off their motorbikes and mess up their legs and arms. the hospitals call the scars the Thai tattoo...the Thai's are expert drivers as they ride here from the ages of 5, or as soon as they can reach the peddles, but the stupid westerners (ferlang) spend their time acquiring their badge of honor. I'm sticking to the old lady push bikes. anyway we are taking it up a gear and heading to Laos on Tuesday. we are being dead lazy and taking a mini bus that gets you across the border and gets you on the slow boat down the Mekong river.. | ||
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