bird legs getting bigger

A few days ago Dave and I took a cheap  local bus (so much fun!!!) to Mae Hong Son - about a 3 hour ride away. Mae Hong Son is nestled in the mountains - very misty and everywhere you turn there are great mountain peaks in the distance. We went with the intention of booking and doing a trek. But it just didn't work out! The first day Dave and I really were not getting along, so didn't go out together. And the next day the place where we had been recommended to go book a trek by numerous people never opened. So we just decided not to. - The city itself is very small and we were driving each other crazy with not much to do, and missing Pai. So, we are back in Pai for a few more days now.

We did however have a great day in Mae Hong Son the day we wanted to book the trek. To kill time we rented a motorbike and decided to go for a cruise. On our way out our guesthouse owner asked if we were going to the river. We had no plans to, but now I definitely wanted to! So we got a small map and were told where to go. We biked to a bridge that crossed the river and then decided we had no idea where to go. We then biked in all directions for about an hour, wondering where the swimming spot was. Near the end when we were about to give up we realized that right under the bridge was the swimming spot! How obvious! Under the bridge was just the parking and meeting spot, and then the swimming area was spread out. WOW this was the coolest river hang-out I've ever seen! All along the river there are food and drink vendors, and then going into the river are bamboo 'floors' that go off into separate bamboo rafts with leaf roofs. You can rent a space for a little over a dollar and then you just chill on your bamboo dock for the day! There is a table and a mat and it's your own private area but everyone else is so close by. It creates a great sense of community! and it would be SO awesome if they did that on a part of a Vancouver Island river. EVERYONE would go. I'll try to post pictures soon, it was so neat!

Dave and I were the only foreigners there, otherwise it was mainly Thai teenagers. We ended up getting two large beer and spending our afternoon there. All the girls here swim in their clothes, so I knew if I went swimming in my skimpy bikini everyone would be staring at me and I would probably seem disrespectful. So I jumped into the river in my clothes! I've never done that before! Man was it hard to swim. - my tank top straps kept falling down and locking my arms against my body, and if i  tried to swim fast my pants would slide off! So you'd really have to plan good clothes to wear in!

After I was in the water Dave followed. The water was nice! you could dunk your back in right away, it was not freezing but still refreshing.  Within a minute of Dave being in the water, a young boy threw seaweed at him, and then another, and another and another! In about 5 minutes there was a full on seaweed fight: All the young thai boys against the lanky white foreigner!!! it was so much fun. It was all out of good humor, they never aimed for his face and actually seemed to purposely miss wacking him. At one point I was on the little boys team! - But eventually I got out to watch. The fight probably lasted over 30 minutes. It was sooo funny to watch because there were so many boys against Dave. Dave did good though, he caught almost all the flying pieces and threw it right back at them.

Near the end of the fight I decided to go back into the river, but carelessly I wend out to the center and backfloated with the current. As I floated past Dave he said "you're gonna get washed away, the current is strong". And then I realized he was right. I tried to put my feet down but I couldn't get a footing, and I tried to swim up back to Dave but I couldn't. I panicked and started yelling for him. He came and grabbed my hand but obviously could not save me, so he looked at me and said seriously, "you've got to swim with everything you've got." I swam SO hard, and the river kept pulling my pants off =( =( =( I was prepared to just let them float away and I'd have to motorcycle home with no pants =( but I gained my senses back and instead of swimming up river with dave to the shallow part I swam to the side. Then walked foolishly back to my dock. My heart was racing and my whole body was shaking and I was out of breath. I felt so dumb, and I learned my lesson. I should have known not to just jump in like that, but I forgot how powerful a river could be. Scary.

Anyway the day still ended fine, I'm alive, and being with the locals in their cool river hangout was such a fun experience! I seriously think Canada should get something like that. It's so simple, just bamboo docks. But obviously all the kids wanna go there, see if their crush is there, hang out and drink soda with their friends.

The next day we took a bus back to Pai! And now this is our first full day here again. I wanna go explore, but Dave seems mad and is hardly talking to me, so I might just go to the pool, by myself. We'llllll see.