quintessential Pai

Pai was a particularly magical place and I thoroughly enjoyed the two weeks I spent there. It’s such a small friendly town that after only staying two weeks, I felt like I had lived there for years. Everywhere I went, I saw someone I knew, both locals and fellow travelers alike. Pai and the people I met during my stay there awakened Thailand for me. Before I left town, Daniela, my German traveling companion, and I decided to launch some “wish lanterns” as I had seen people doing on the night I arrived in Pai.

As I understand it, wish lanterns originated in China, but are widely used in the northern parts of Thailand which are strongly influenced by the Chinese. The lantern is made of tissue paper which is wrapped around the sides and top of a wire frame. A flammable wax circle is attached to the bottom of the frame. When the wax is lit, it basically works like a hot air balloon capturing the hot air inside the lantern causing it to fly up, up and away. When it does, the fire inside creates a warm, mystical orange glow. People who use the lanterns believe that you can make a wish on them and send your wish to heaven or, alternately, you can put all your bad luck on them and send it far away from you.  To see video of Daniela and I launch our wish lanterns along with our friend Nook’s help, click here.

On the whole, I’ve been feeling pretty lucky lately (it’s not every girl who gets to take seven months to travel around Southeast Asia) so I made a wish on my lantern. It was enchanting to watch it fill with hot air and float away, high into the sky.

Soi One Grand Opening

My last night in Pai before heading to the elephant camp, I attended a party. A new boutique of shops was holding their Grand Opening two doors down from The Good Life (home of campucha!). Daniela had lent her graphic design expertise and designed the invitations which were distributed all over town. Not surprisingly, the hosts presented guests with delicious food, great music and exceptionally stylish ambiance. When the power went out (which happens frequently in Pai) the party continued by candlelight. So many of my favorite people that I had met in Pai were there, including a few of the guys from my Muay Thai boxing class who surprised me and showed up.

I thought it was especially fitting as I walked home that night (I had turned in my motorbike earlier in the afternoon) that a woman who had given me a massage a few days earlier stopped as she passed me on her motorbike and gave me a lift home. On the way, we passed people on the bridge sending off their own wish lanterns. It was all quintessential Pai.

open 7pm ... a fun sign found in Pai

Of course, not every moment in life is magical and I’m not always lucky. That evening began a series of seven sleepless nights which will drive even the sanest person a bit crazy. Among the funniest reasons for my insomnia (if you can find humor in not being able to sleep) … torrents of rain poured down starting around midnight my last night in Pai. Remember that charming thatched roof I had? Well, I discovered they’re not so charming when it rains that hard. Minutes after the rain started, drops of rain splashed intermittently on my forehead and cheeks. This continued torturously for the rest of the night. (And yes, it did the same on my feet as well so turning the other direction in my little twin bed was not an option).

Despite that incident, I was very sorry to leave Pai. I left on October 22 and headed to Mae Taeng to attend the birthday party of a lovely Thai woman, Yao, whom I had met and clicked with the previous week at my Pai guesthouse. She and her husband operate an organic cooking school and coffee shop (You Sabai) next to an organic farm where they frequently volunteer their time (Pun Pun). I took the bus from Pai to Mae Malai, a small town where Crit, Joe and Nate (Yao’s husband, Pun Pun owner and Joe’s brother-in-law respectively) picked me up and gave me a lift to the You Sabai/ Pun Pun farms. The gusy were in Mae Malai running errands for both birthday party supplies and materials to build a solar water heater at Pun Pun. In the course these errands, (which ended up filling the back of Crit’s truck to almost overflowing) we stopped at two of my favorite places … a food market and a hardware store.

While Crit placed his orders at the food market, I wandered, munched and photographed. Although I had eaten lychees before, I discovered what they look like in their “shell” … beautiful and exotic. To date, on this trip I have eaten six new types of fruit that I never tried or (many) never knew existed: salak, durian, jackfruit, mangosteen, pomello, and dragonfruit. Of course I’ve also delighted in many fruits that I already knew and loved; mangoes, passion fruit and pineapple being my favorites.

lychees in the Mae Malai market

At the hardware store, while Joe and Nate were measuring and debating on the water heater supplies, I browsed and found some delightful pieces of metal cut from recycled aluminum that are somehow used in roofing here. I loved both the shapes and designs on the cans from which they were cut … and bought all that the hardware store had! These will be perfect to use in some of my mixed media art pieces!

Several hours later, after the guys had finished all their errands (and they think we girls spend a long time shopping!), we finally headed for the farm. Due to space limitations at You Sabai, my home away from home was at Pun Pun. Joe and his wife Peggy who run Pun Pun have really put a lot of effort into making everything on their farm natural in every respect.

my adobe home for the night at Pun Pun organic farm

The bungalow that I stayed in was made of adobe and had a thatched roof. They built shelves into the adobe - some were hollowed out of the walls and others were built to extend out from the wall. Even my bed was made of adobe … with a mattress pad and mosquito net. They had cleverly installed old glass soda bottles in parts of the adobe walls that guests could use for hooks to hang towels, etc. In keeping with their “back to nature” mentality, the hut had no electricity. A hemp hammock hung from two posts outside for guest enjoyment. I found some quiet time to laze away in it and read a book. It was all very charming … and one step above camping. 

On the walk to the party, we had to pass through an orange farm that, interestingly, operated in a manner completely opposite to that endorsed and practiced by the two organic operations on either side of it. They planted crops in such a way that erosion was a big problem. Rather than planting a variety of crops to reduce pests, this farm utilized only one type of crop (mono planting) and, as a result, used pesticides heavily. The orange trees grown there were a new hybrid type that grew more fruit than the tree could support on its own and depleted the soil of its nutrients so that the land would be rendered relatively useless within a few years. Listening to the discussion among these people who were well educated about self-sustanance was certainly an education for me.  

with Michelle (my "bungalow mate") and Yao

The party for Yao that evening was lovely. Many very interesting and eclectic people from all over the world were there and I enjoyed visiting with so many of them. One of the guys, Justin, from Yao and Crit’s cooking school whipped up all the food for the evening so, no surprise, it was AMAZING!!! People had also brought red wine (which I hadn’t tasted in a while and had missed) and then someone broke out some homemade rice wine … wow! One of the guests presented Yao with a homemade passion fruit cake which was passed around and seemingly inhaled by the group. Could this get any better? This was easily one of the best meals I’d had in the past three months. It was a fabulous evening, but my previous sleepless nights were taking their toll so I decided to turn in early. It was dark and raining when I left the party, but someone loaned me a flashlight (which they call a torch here) and I was convinced I could find my way back to my hut.

Remember that erosion problem the middle farm was having? Well, I can tell you first hand that they have serious issues. The rain, which was steady but not pelting, had formed small rivers that were cutting deep ruts into the dirt road that was the path back to Pun Pun. I slipped and fell in the mud and water several times as I walked/slid down the steep hill. At the bottom of the hill, I came to a dead end which I hadn’t expected and, in the dark, I couldn’t find the path to my hut. Rather than risk getting lost, I headed back to the party a little frightened, but mainly frustrated.

A thoughful guy named Zach, whom I had met the previous week in Pai, escorted me home. The rain had gotten worse and we both slipped and fell in the mud even worse than I had done on my way down the first time. I concluded that falling almost face first in the mud is much more fun when someone else does it with you. Nonetheless, my jeans, shoes, hands and arms were caked by the time I got home. Somehow my one-of-a kind shirt that I had bought just before leaving Pai managed to escape unscathed.

I showered off, changed into my pajamas (ah, fresh and clean again!) and crawled under the mosquito net onto my adobe bed for what I hoped was a good night’s sleep. Unfortunately, the adobe beds, though quite natural, didn’t produce a very natural sleep for me. The mosquitoes that managed to invade my net didn’t help either. (I discovered in the morning light that there was a large hole in the net rendering it pretty ineffective). So, sleepless night number three. 

the breakfast gang in You Sabai cafe

The next morning, I headed back up the eroded dirt road which had dried considerably in the short time since I had made it my personal slide. Several of us gathered with Yao at her cafe for a leisurely breakfast and coffee. Yao reminded me that she had forty monks coming the following day for a class making soap, shampoo and other items by hand. As a result, they would need my room. Although I had been looking forward to visiting with Yao longer, I can’t say that I was sorry to give up the adobe bed.

A charming lady, Jah (far right in the “breakfast gang” picture), and her friend Mike (third from the right in the same photo) offered me a ride back to Chiang Mai … after they got their truck unstuck from the storm’s greedy mud. I had visited a bit with Jah and Mike the night before, but of course got to know them better on the ride back to the city. They are both teachers at Chiang Mai University. Jah is a full time tenured professor who teaches Thai to foreigners and English to Thai students. Mike, who’s British, is a part-time English teacher for Thais. Although we had just met, Jah generously invited me to stay at her apartment while I made my next travel plans. Her parents were visiting from out of town so she basically turned over the keys to her apartment to me during my stay. I greatly appreciated her trust and her generosity. We did have a chance to have some delightful visits before I left Chiang Mai and, in a short time, found a kindred soul and made a friend for life in this tremendously bright, independent and spirited woman.  

beautiful offerings for sale in the Chiang Mai flower market

On October 24, I took an overnight bus from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. Ten hours. Illadvisable. The flight between the two cities takes an hour and costs only about $40-50. I’m not sure why I didn’t do that … trying something new I guess. Chalk up sleepless night number five (the night before was my own fault … I intended to go to bed early but lost track of time catching up with friends and family on the internet). I blame sleepless night number six (Bangkok) on the karaoke blaring from the first floor of my hotel. Sleepless night number seven (Kanchanaburi) was due to my roommate … a girl I met on the bus to Kanch lost her wallet and didn’t have money for a hotel. Unfortunately, she snored. No good deed goes unpunished, eh?

But finally in Thong Pha Phum, my week-long streak of sleep-deprived zombie-dom came to an end. It also began my interesting week-long motorbike ride around the Kanchanaburi Province….

Additional photos for this and other blog entries can be found on the “Photos of Her Adventure” page of this blog.