Left Chiang Mai, now in Pai - Eric's report

After more eating, more drinking, more Muay Thai (I won $400B from a Scottish guy sitting next to me), and more shopping, we left Chiang Mai on monday morning. So after a 4hr mini-van ride from Chiang Mai we are now in the little valley city of Pai (pronounced "Bye"). We were only going to spend a few days here but we love it so much we're going to finish out our trip here and stay until Saturday morning when we will mini-van back to Chiang Mai and fly to Bangkok... spend the night in downtown, and fly home on Sunday evening.

Pai is awesome... it's a little city basically comprised of a 2km rectangle... so it's very small but it's very artsy, very hippy, and very beautiful. It's tucked in-between the mountains in a little misty valley. The surrounding mountains are very lush and the skies are clear (during the day when it's not raining.. rain starts around 4pm), clean, and blue. There's a nice river that snakes through the town. The first two nights we stayed on the river with an amazing view... there was a little bamboo bridge that connected our side (side the town is on) to the other side of the river. There were three bridges actually.. all very janky. No lights, no handrails, and not very sturdy. On the other side of the river are these bamboo bungalows nestled right on the banks of the river. Guests of those bungalows had to park their motor bikes on our side and walk across to reach their "home". Monday night as we were sitting alongside the river I joked about the stability of the bridges and laughed imagining drunk people trying to cross at night. Well anyway, it rained all night and when we woke up in the morning guess what... all 3 bridges were GONE! Completely washed away. Julie and I sat and ate breakfast watching the unfortunate people who stayed over there try to cross the swift moving river with 12kilo backpacks above their heads... water up to their chest. Sucks. One dude slipped and fell soaking everything.

So later that day we chatted it up with the owner of a restaurant... an American expat from Alaska who's lived here for about 8 years. He told us that in 2005 the river flooded and washed away all the bungalows on that side of the river. Apparently they are built on flood plains. 30 people died as their bungalows were washed away at 5am. Imagine waking up to that. So after 2005 the Thai government stepped in and said no one could build bungalows there..... so what did the owners do? They built them up the hill and moved them back down into the flood zone. Unreal. Anyone who stays over there is literally risking their lives and they don't even know it. Crazy the stuff you learn when you talk to locals.

More on Pai later, I'm hungry. :)

-Eric

Back from the Island... on to Chiang Mai! - Eric's report

So we just got back to Trang Town, same place we arrived via train a few days ago. We spent the last two days on Ko Ngai (pronounced "Ko Hai") in a beach bungalow just 15m from the water. The place was cool and the views were spectacular..... but it rained almost all yesterday. We got just 1.5hrs of sunshine. Luckily we made the best of those 1.5hrs and managed to go snorkeling. The food sorta sucked and there was no way to go to the inner parts of the island, so when it rained we were confined to our rooms... which still had a nice view, but you go to an island resort to swim and play in the sun, not sit in your room. I guess that's what we get for going in the rainy season... duh!

So now we're going to grab a bite and catch a plane up to Chiang Mai, way north near the golden triangle. We finally got usb cables and a card reader... when I get to Chiang Mai and have some time I'll post up my pics. I'll also go back and post pics to previous blogs, so go back and review them.

-Eric

Island Adventures - Julie's post

We're back in Trang, at the same internet cafe we posted from after our stinky train ride.

We stayed at the Amari hotel in Trang for 2 nights which was the most luxurious hotel I've ever stayed at, let alone seen with my two eyes. Eric said it was nicer than anything he's seen in Maui.
I got an overpriced massage at the resort, which left much to be desired. Thanks to our friend Tanya, who by the way is the best massage therapist EVER...nothing ever compares. I'm coming to realize that the more massages I get. Jenny got a massage too which she thought was excellent so that was good.

At the resort Jenny and I took a yoga class. It was one of the many free things they had offered there. The instructor was a 20-year old Thai man who's English was on par with my Thai, ie: non existent. I couldn't for the life of me figure out half of the poses he was doing (neither could Jenny) so we just improvised. Every position we'd do, he'd say, "Next Poh-zi-Shun" very much like a robot. It was very cute, he looked like a deer in headlights teaching to two women who were advanced.

After the resort style living we headed to the island Ko Ngai 2 days ago, on a speed boat straight from the dock of our resort. The speed boat was incredibly choppy the entire way. I've never been on a speed boat in the ocean, it's pretty intense. Luckily the ride was less than a half hour, which was just enough time for me to feel disoriented and shaky when I got off the boat.

The island was fantastic, although the weather was total shit. The day we got there it was overcast but thankfully not too rainy until the evening. Yesterday was a different story. It pretty much rained all day and all night. Although there was about 1 hour of total sunshine and another hour of clouds without rain. Eric and I went snorkeling during that time. Unfortunately it was hard for me to see anything because I couldn't put the snorkel gear over my glasses. :( That was kind of sad.

When we left the island this morning, the weather was perfect, just in time for our departure. The weather made our time there more interesting, even if we didn't get to spend as much time in the water as I'd have hoped. Also, the food wasn't that good, and I've come to find that you either have to have one of the two in this country to make it a spectacular experience- good food or weather. Both were missing.

I finally got the USB cable for my camera!! Look back to previous blogs in the next couple of days for pictures to go along with the stories!

Julie

The first 6 pictures are at the Amari resort in Trang
The last 4 pictures are at our island bungalow