New friends and Stolen Moments in Pai

Pai is blistering at this time of day – so hot even the lizards are keeping their tails curled into the shadows to avoid any glare of sunlight.

Sensible creatures, I think. Earlier I made the mistake of leaning against the metal skeleton of this rickety truck, and am now sporting the red stain of a burn. It throbs slightly as I sway, feeling a patch of dampness as my filmy dress clings to slick skin. I'm trying to appear worldly in front of a group of strangers and I’m sweating like cheese left out at a garden party.

The vehicle that we’re bundled into – six of us, being jostled like sacks of grain in a cart – manoeuvres the track with discomfiting speed, kicking up shards of rock as it noses closer to the jungle. One of the girls is telling a story, speaking English with the lilting intonation of a Dutch accent. She has hair the colour of wet sand, and her ears glitter with studs, hoops, and tiny stars.

We all met last night, when I was offered a Chang beer and joined their knot of companionship in one of the road-side bars. Soon we were sharing experiences, unsurprised that our reasons for being in Pai did not much differ. It is as beautiful as we’d been told, with stalls stacked with fresh fruit, the smells of sizzling banana pancakes lulling our senses, and bamboo huts arranged like examples of exotic perfection.

When they suggested something different – heading to a waterfall nestled within the jungle – then I had agreed wholeheartedly. It would be a chance to go ‘off the beaten track’ – a dream of every traveller. So here we are, suddenly plunging into the shade of trees, swerving round a bend so the truck begins to follow the course of a river.

And suddenly I see the boy. Only for a flash – the tiniest portion of a second – but in that moment a little brown body has leapt through the air, arms outstretched, towards the water’s surface. I still don’t know whether it is a pose of thrilled abandon, or a kind of submission. It’s hard to put my finger on it. His limbs are splayed, and there is something almost detached in the way he flies through the air. And before I can see if he is alone, or with companions, or is now swimming… we have passed.

This image stays with me - after the wonderful afternoon at the waterfall; after I have explored more of Thailand’s treasures; after I return home. It is like something snatched up and kept safe. It reminds me of the joys of accepting offers, of making new friends, and of journeying into the unknown.