April 21
Today we get up and head out very early to the Post Office
to mail off some of the spices we have accumulated from Vietnam and Thailand,
as well as some other souvenirs and clothing that we no longer want to lug
around. We also need to get to the Air
Asia office to change our departure from Bangkok heading to Hong Kong. We are expecting to depart by minivan at
10:00 to go to Pai, but we ask if the driver can arrive a little later so we
can take care of the above errands first.
It works out great and we get everything done and are ready to depart
right on time. The van seems to take a
long time to just get out of the city, but once we do, we start climbing high
into the mountains. We soon lose AC in
the back of the van where Annie and I are packed in like sardines so, needless
to say, it is a very long hot ride. We
stop after about an hour and a half at a roadside toilet and restaurant (not
necessarily in that order). We haven’t
had a decent breakfast so we order a couple of plates of stir fried veggies
with white rice for $1 per plate. It is
quite yummy and when we return to the minivan for the continuation of our
ride, the AC has been completely
repaired. The driver seems to have a
sort of death wish as he Kamikaze’s around the extremely winding road…..I
really feel like the van is going to roll off of a hillside never to be heard
of again….this goes on for another hour and a half. We pull into the town of Pai and the driver
pulls into a quasi parking space and lets us all out. We inquire as to which direction our hotel is
in and we head off on foot….good thing we sent off so much stuff that we would
otherwise be carrying. We walk a pretty
long ways and then down a short alley to find our guesthouse – Baan Tawan
Guesthouse. The place is nestled into a
lush garden setting alongside the Pai River.
We are shown to tour rooms that are in the Lanna style – a lot of teak
wood with large balconies and low tables with tilting chairs that scream “sit
in me”. We settle in and after we get
unpacked we head out to check out the town and get a bite to eat. We find a very nice, European style café where
we get some grilled sandwiches and wonderfully refreshing lime and mint “shakes”. After lunch, we amble along the main walking
street and vow to return later when the streets will be alive with a festive
atmosphere and night market vibe. We
walk around for a while and then return to our hotel to rest up. We are all totally beat….not too sure why,
but we nap until around 7:30 at night and then head back out for dinner. We find an old style Pai restaurant and after
dinner walk around a very unique marketplace to see wares that we have not seen
anywhere else. I find some very unique “fisherman”
pants…a style that is very indicative of Thai style pants and we also pick up
some knick-knacks. We return to the hotel
and off to bed…except for the black ants in the bathroom and the poor AC in the
bedroom, we are able to settle in pretty well.
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