Pai
Saturday 2nd July 2016 – We woke to news that Wales were through to the Euro semi finals…well done Wales! Aaron had a lot of blogging to catch up on…I was up to date with mine so I left him working hard in our room as I wandered around the streets of Chiang Mai. A canal runs all around the centre of town framed intermittently with fountains and parks…it really is a pretty town to spend time in. So many Western tourists frequent Chiang Mai…everywhere you look you see a multitude of restaurants, cafes and shops. At lunch time the heavens opened and a curtain of rain surrounded me…I took shelter in a cafe and sipped on a velvety cappuccino while I watched the world go by. As soon as the deluge stopped I picked up a few cold beers for Aaron…an incentive to get that blogging done…and returned to our hotel. He was delighted with his unexpected refreshments. That night we got up at 2.00am and wearily stumbled to a local bar to watch Germany play Italy…what a match…I really thought Italy were going to do it…and then it went to the dreaded penalties and knew that the well oiled machine that Germany was would triumph…and so they did!
Sunday 3rd July 2016 – After just 3 hours of sleep we vacated our room, booked our tickets to Pai and had breakfast. At 10.30 a van arrived to take us to our minibus…little did we know that he was quite possibly the worst driver in Chiang Mai! First he sped off when a young British chap was only halfway into the van…he went flying but luckily didn’t get really hurt. Then there was a screeching of brakes as we all slid along the seats onto one another culminating in an almighty smack…we had crashed into another car! Shaken and stirred we were all ushered off and put into another van…as I looked around I was incredibly amused to see a man on a motorbike with a dog…paws on the handlebars…modelling a red Mohican…a driving dog with a Mohican…brilliant! What a bizarre day…and it was still only morning! Relieved to reach our minibus we all hopped on and enjoyed a 3 hour air conditioned journey to Pai. The last hour and a half was a mountainous, curved, winding road that included no less than 762 acute bends…not great if you suffered from travel sickness! As we arrived in the small town we sighted elephants on both sides of the road…chained to their pens…every time I see a magnificent animal like this in captivity it just breaks my heart…especially after seeing them so happy and free in the wild…I looked away…beautiful, intelligent elephants once again prisoners to the beck and call of humans…so wrong in my eyes. Pai was bustling when we arrived…we walked across the bridge and checked in at Rainbow Guest House then treated ourselves to pizzas at Angelos…run by an Italian…the pizzas were delicious…just like being in Italy…I couldn’t resist and added a home made tiramisu to my supper…yum. That night we slept soundly surrounded by the Northern mountains of Thailand.
Monday 4th July 2016 – Happy Independence Day America! Tired from our travels we slept till 12.30pm…we so needed to recharge our dwindling batteries. After my favourite breakfast of fruit, muslei, yogurt and honey we set out to find some luxury accommodation for a few days. En route, as we crossed the bridge, we spied a stunning moth with a skull and crossbone pattern on its head basking on the pavement…he was sure to get trodden on there as it was a much used walkway for people coming into and out of town. I voiced my worries to Aaron saying we should move it to safety. As Aaron knelt down to get the moth onto a leaf it squeaked at him…very strange…we’d never heard of a squeaking moth before…it was a little unusual to say the least…I immediately nicknamed the moth ‘Squeaky’. Squeaky was not amused at being bothered by Aaron and flew right onto his crotch…it was hilarious! There he stayed all snug while Aaron jumped up and down squealing not knowing what to do…I was laughing too much to be of any help when Squeaky decided to walk up Aaron’s t-shirt…lots more jigging about and Squeaky had had enough and finally flew to safety…Squeaky would live another day having frightened the life out of Aaron! It wasn’t until we looked up Squeaky on the internet that we realised he was a Death Head Hawk Moth…their scary squeak is a defence mechanism to confuse predators…Squeaky thought Aaron was a predator…his squeak had worked! Continuing with our quest we found a great place with AC, TV and fridge for the next few nights called Pichai House. Happy with our find we returned to our guest house. There Aaron put up his hammock, blogged and drank beer while I read my book reclining on the verandah…mountains surveying our leisure in the distance.
Tuesday 5th July 2016 – At 10.00am we left our guest house and headed for our ‘luxury’ accommodation. I was feeling tired, worn out with no energy whatsoever…I laid my head on the soft pillow and slept soundly for 5 hours while Aaron had cave time on the IPad. On awakening we ate at a local vegan restaurant…it was delicious. Wandering the streets of Pai in the evening we happened upon a bar playing live music…it had a great atmosphere and vibe so we swung in one of the double hammocks and drank local rum while listening to cool tunes echoing into the night.
Wednesday 6th July 2016 – The only way to describe today would be a spectacular ‘hair raising’ experience! Aaron had been wanting to dye his hair blonde for a while…it was a travel thing…almost like a new identity…today was the day he had been waiting for and off he trotted destined for a new look. An hour later he returned…ginger! There was not an inch of blonde in sight! Now don’t get me wrong, on the right person red hair can look fab…but on Aaron it was not a good look at all! A peroxide cool look was what he had been after and he had missed by a mile! Having checked with him that it really wasn’t the look he was after he returned to the hairdressers with me as back up. Take two and three came with continuous re-dying of his hair in the empty salon…no wonder it was empty (it didn’t help our confidence in the stylist when we saw she was looking up how to dye hair peroxide on YouTube!) It was then that Aaron mentioned that his scalp was burning…I couldn’t believe it…enough was enough and I got the hairdresser to rinse his hair immediately! His scalp was oozing…it was like third degree burns…all in the name of vanity. His hair had now mutated to what I can only describe as a golden Buddha look…we agreed that we had never seen a colour quite like it…most unusual…luckily he saw the funny side of things and we couldn’t stop giggling about the whole unfortunate episode. Careful what you wish for was definitely the lesson of the day!