return to Pai. seems like such a long time ago now.....
i don't even fully remember the events. i remember going back to the pool the 1st day and relxing and reading. later that night landon and i had a bit of a problem and decided to part ways for a while. luckily we made friends with a nice couple renting a house in town so they took her in. i spent the next few days in pai exploring the countryside on my motorbike in the day and drinking at the bars at night. i ventured 9 km south on the highway towards Chinag Mai and found pai canyon and it was, up until 2 days ago, one of the coolest places i've seen on the planet. i have pictures and videos so i'm sure whoever is reading this will see it one day. but to sum it up briefly (i need to update more frequently, i really am not looking forward to the next 20 minutes of this) you climb up this hillside off the side of a highway. it's not even much of a climb. but what i see at the top is the last thing i expected. it's just nature as far as the eye can see, with differently purple-shaded mountains along the horizon. right before me was the real treat. multiple thin 2-3 foot wide ridges that snake out into the jungle bellow. i don't know, google it if that doesn't explain it well enough. i was alone and in awe. i braved many of the pathways and was alone there for actually quite a while until a swiss dude and french couple showed up. they were pretty nice and are responsible for any photos of me there.
later on i went out to ting tong and had some drinks with some americans. always nice, however most americans i meet are still cocky bastards. i generally prefer europeans of any sort. the next day was st. patty's day i think.... landon wanted to meet up so we could send some things to canada that we bought together. if mrs. spenrath is reading this (do you prefer karen?) you will probably die of laughter at how we packed this up. you'll see...
we followed this by a movie because we then encountered our first real rain in asia. it was pouring so we went to see a movie. we decided on 'the kite runner' since we both read the book recently. alas! the rain cut the power out in the entire town! i drove landon home and then retired to my own until the power returned. i then ventured out to a nearby bar that i knew had the cheapest beer in town. i sat alone and was about to pull my book out when a plastic california girl with fake boobs called me over to drink with her and 2 guys from israel, 4 more americans and an english guy. we all sat there for a few hours and drank whiskey and beer until the sun went down. this experience, fun as it was, still did not help my opinion on american travellers. still cocky, still braggart know-it-alls. smile and nod. smile and nod. we all agreed to meet at ting tong later for drinks because it was real fun to drink with them... and what else did i have to do? so we parted ways and i went to pai country house (decent tofu burger) for dinner. as soon as i got there there was no power again. i ate my dinner and after that the chef came out and talked to me and this israel girl sitting next to us. this went on and on until and austrian joined us and it was a really cool experience. the restaurant was closing down and here were 4 of us, an austrian, canadian, thai and israeli drinking and chatting in a candle lit room. we were finally asked to leave. the austrian disappeared along with the thai and it was just me and HAGAR. yes. her name was hagar. ting tong was definitely closed. it's an out door bar and it was still pissing rain. i asked hagar if she wanted to join me at bebop. indoors and probably has a band playing if the power comes back. she agreed and off we went. i thought it would be jammed packed with people. as it's one of the few indoor late bars. it was DEAD. we drank anyways, candle lit once again trading stories from canada and israel. she doesn't understand north america and made it sound pretty stupid alot of the time. i can't say i don't agree. eventually the lights came back on and people started coming in and the band arrived. i watched a fat irish man sing his irish songs. st. patricks in thailand... what an interesting night.
i think the next day was my last day. i jumped on a bus to chiang mai while landon was on a trip to luang prabang in laos. i needed to do some last minute stuff. i had 3 or 4 books to trade, i had to pick up a dry bag for when i go tubing down the mekong in vang vieng and wel, i just like chinag mai. oh, and i wanted to space out my travels. so 1 day and a half in chinag mai, mostly reading, book shopping and resting. doing nothing. i booked an expensive slow boat tour from chiang mai to luang prabang which ended up being one of the coolest parts of my entire trip!
