Friday, 7 October 2016 to Thursday, 13 October 2016
Supper Friday night was had at The Blue Ox restaurant where they have the Oktoberfest celebrations and where we had a great meal a week ago. Tonight though there was no German folk music, no beer on tap, seemed like the Oktoberfest was all fested out. There was though a three piece local Pai band that was playing farang music. The one guy was on guitar and lead vocals, one was on bass and backing vocals and an oldish hermit type of a chap on percussion, and he was not vocal at all. They produced some pretty good sounds and by the time our pork wiener schnitzels were done, they were too.

As we left the restaurant with the band in tow we noticed the oldish hermit type of a chap rummaging through a glass container full of sweets on the bar counter, pocketing the lot, every single one. This was a very strange sight indeed but the girl behind the counter smiled at us and shrugged, this was obviously a weekly occurrence. I really don’t think that he was hungry, I think he just digged those sweets!

We left the Blue Ox and went up to the Mountain Bar and would you believe, Tommee Balukea was performing again tonight. We settled down in our by now reserved table and watched in amazement as Tommee was let loose on that guitar of his, what a joy to watch… and how he loves to play! Soon enough many would-be passersby had stopped at the bar and ordered drinks, staying a while to listen to these sweet sounds. What a great vibe there was.

After the show we had a chat with Tommee and when asked when he was playing again he just smiled and said “Maybe tomorrow night… I don’t want to kill this vibe!”

We also had a chat to Man, the boss of the bar, a lovely and friendly chap who usually sits in his chair across the road from the bar, watching the people having fun. Adri asked him about the regal looking person in the picture behind the bar counter and was told that it was the King. Not the current King though, but Rama V, or King Chulalongkorn, who is known to bring good luck to your business.

The current King, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, or Rama IX, has been very sick and has spent most of the last few years in hospital. He was now 88 years old and has been the King of Thailand for 70 years, the longest reigning monarch in the world and is absolutely revered by his people. There has not been much reporting on his health since he fell ill but the last week or two it has been widely reported that his health was now not stable. I fear the people are fearing the worst.

We got home feeling a bit woozy, it’s not that we had too much to drink, we just drank deurmekaar (mixed our drinks). Beer, Sangsom and red wine don’t go together well, but that I knew before the evening started. Just for in case, I took a Nurofen 400mg tablet before passing… going to bed. I woke up feeling 100% in the morning we were just a tad tired having gotten to bed only at 01:30. What a night it was!

After a late breakfast on Saturday we lazed about reading most of the day. We were about to go for a ride when it started raining, not so hard but so incessantly. It was already thoroughly dark when finally we had the chance to escape for supper, once again at Pen’s Kitchen.

Tonight Adri had the massaman curry and I the stir fried chicken with cashew nuts. Both dishes were outstanding, and what made the stir-fry even better was that the cashew nuts were roasted, which made the dish especially tasty.

For a nightcap we went to the Sunset Bar which is just a short ride across the river Pai. It was too late to check out the sunset but we saw another sunset in the making… we assumed. I had just ordered and received our drinks of Chang and Sangsom when the barman, an old greasy looking geezer, called out to some of his patrons that were lazing about on the provided pillows on the floor. When these young fellows failed to respond – obviously they just did not hear him – he threw my Chang bottle cap at the one chap, in anger, which finally attracted their attention. This seemed quite strange, but I let it go.

This old greasy geezer was a bit of a menace and with pure disdain in his eyes he looked towards these young farangs, not a pretty sight. Eight young farang lined up at the pub counter after which this geezer guy poured, into eight glasses, some vile looking mixture from an old greasy glass bottle. This stuff was just a shade or two lighter than dark black motor oil. His ever obedient younger helper then poured a clear watery liquid from a large wine bottle. The fact that he smelt it before pouring told me that it was not water in there, nor was it wine. Man, this was like a scene from a bad Frankenstein movie. The whole setup looked disorganized and unprofessional, but mostly dubious. And when we heard that the price of this motor oil mixture was 500 baht apiece, we knew this was no ordinary drink, it was obviously some kind of a magic mushroom drink. We did not wait for the effect to kick into these kids, there was rugby to watch.

The wifi was not that hot so I could not stream the SA/New Zealand game. I employed my trusty TuneIn Radio and tuned in to Radio Sonder Grense (radio without borders) for the Afrikaans commentary of the match. When New Zealand scored their second try I switched off, I could not bear listening to the seemingly crap that was dished up by the Springboks, or at least that’s what it sounded like. My fears were realized in the morning when I read that SA lost 57-15, the biggest loss ever to New Zealand. “Where to from here”, I asked, but Adri also had no answer.

Sunday morning after a great breakfast we went for a ride in a southerly direction on the way to Chiang Mai. Just over and past the World War II Memorial Bridge, which we would encounter later again, we turned left and headed back in a northerly direction, hugging the mountain on a winding road back towards Pai.

We took a detour to the Pong Nam Ron Thapai hot springs but were put off by the extortionary prices for farangs versus the entrance fee for local people. We went back to hugging that mountain heading north, passing many wonderful looking resorts, elephant camps and little restaurants.

We stopped off at the Tree House Resort where they have a number of bungalows and one actual tree house, quite a fantastical affair straight from some fairytale book. Continuing on our way, at some point we made a u-turn and stopped off at the World War II Memorial Bridge. One can easily miss it as there is a more modern bridge which the traffic travels on, the memorial bridge is a wooden one right next to the new bridge.

The Memorial Bridge over the river Pai was made of iron and was built in 1942 by the Japanese to transport weapons and provisions to Myanmar (Burma) during World War II. This bridge was destroyed by floods, rebuilt by locals, destroyed again after which a bridge was brought in and erected some time later.

On the road just before and after the bridge there are many food, clothing and curio stalls which we of course inspected. And that was where I was shown how to do the extended puppy yoga pose properly, by an extended puppy yawning his way into the correct position. I always knew I did it wrong!

We double-crossed that bridge and our next stop was the Pai Canyon. The start of the trail through the canyon is quite traumatic and a slight blip on my acrophobia meter appeared after many years of hibernation. You see, one has to cross over a kind of a precipice, not a long distance but too many metres nevertheless. This ledge that is used for crossing this abyss is probably 40cm wide with a sheer drop down and down on either side. I was thinking how cool it would be to take a picture, sitting astride that narrow ledge, like on a pony, with both legs dangling into eternity below… but my nerves fortunately abandoned me. I gathered my senses just in time and walked, or rather skuifel skuifeled (shuffle shuffled) across those few too many metres.

I was unnecessarily worried that Adri was going to bump me from behind – by accident of course – as she was still standing on the other side of the ledge. She carefully approached it for a third time, me coercing her to “just do it”, when she finally and defiantly shook her head vigorously and turned around, not to be enticed by my coercion. OK, Adri was not coming along.

And so it came to be that I continued on my perilous journey all alone. It started rather dangerously down a short but steep mini ravine – which is situated right after that dangerous ledge – not quite wide enough for one person. From there it was around the side of the one canyon wall, the footpath there barely wide enough for a small mule. There were no restraints with a sheer drop to your left.

But just then things got much easier until I got to a point where few souls have trodden. The souls got less and less down this steep embankment… Slip, slip… slide, slip, slip, slide… but it was not that dangerous. Had I slipped and slid down that embankment I would have come out of it with some bruises and grazes, maybe a broken ankle or collarbone, nothing too serious.

I got to the bottom of that embankment and crossed a small ditch that many years ago entertained a small stream. It was at this point that all souls disappeared and I decided to turn around to follow the path well trodden.

At some point one crosses a little wooden bridge and then there is yet another steep embankment where one has to climb up, somehow, with a lot of loose gravel, no footholds and no handholds to contend with. Somehow I made it up there but by now the sun was beating the living crap out of me. It was 13:30 and I thought aloud, to myself of course, “What a dumb thing to do in the middle of the day, you silly shit!” The going just then eased out and I could enjoy the wonderful views down into the canyon below.

When I got back to the starting point, Adri took a stroll back the way I came which was less perilous while I chatted to a lovely young French couple who wanted to make small talk. Funny how we tend to meet up with people that take extended journeys, this young couple has been backpacking for five months and had another two weeks left before heading home.

Hard work like canyon climbing in the midday heat deserves a reward which came in the form of an ice-cold big Chang at the same pub we were at last week, the one where I help myself from their fridge. This time though I went for a second helping… just had to.

Monday popped around and it was the second US presidential debate which I watched at 08:00 Thai time. Trump had to fleetingly defend his deplorable remarks about grabbing woman’s crotches, because he can, because they allow him to do that, because he is “famous” and a “star”. This is sexual assault, he should be locked up… and he’s running for president of the United States?! What a twat! And no, I did not been twit. It is just beyond belief that there is even one person that still supports this excuse for a human being. His ardent supporters are probably those deplorables which Clinton referred to a while back. Anyway, maybe Trump should change his campaign slogan from “Make America great again” to “Make America rape again”, it will be more in line with his pussy grabbing comments.

Today Adri started to prepare some of the older posts on WordPress in order to migrate them to www.travelandall.com in due course. In order to make this possible I had to add Adri as a user of www.travelandall.com with a role of Contributor. This role entitles someone to write a post but not to upload media such as photos and/or video clips, which is really of no use, just does not make any sense. I went to the trusty WordPress plugin library and found a plugin to rectify this anomaly and within a few minutes Adri’s role of Contributor also had the function to upload media. After a quick training session she was up and running and uploading and naming photos like a pro.

After a quick late afternoon snooze we hit the town and had a drink at the Mountain Bar. While there we met another young French couple who gave up their respective jobs to go travelling. They’ll be travelling around Southeast-Asia for four months and then head to Australia where they are hoping to get some work to further fund their travels. She is a professional waitress who worked in a high class restaurant on the avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris and he is a sommelier who worked at the same restaurant. Wow, what a nice couple and with so many dreams still to be realized.

We were by now pretty hungry so we crossed the street to eat at Pen’s… again. Pen’s Penang curry and stir fried chicken with cashew nuts again; this lady does not know how to disappoint. Pen’s little restaurant is always abuzz with activity; she really does deserve the success she seems to be having.

After we had our fill we crossed back to the Mountain Bar where Tommee was about to perform and what a crowd he pulled in tonight. Apart from the French couple that were sitting with us there were another two French couples in the bar as well as a young and friendly French guy, of slight build, who danced the night away, by himself or with anyone who cared to join him.

Afterwards Tommee and I chatted and I remarked that there were so many French people in the pub it felt like Paris in Pai. Tommee went one better and said, ”Yea, it feels like Pairis!”

While performing earlier on Tommee joked that from the money people were putting in his tip box he will be buying a tuk tuk which will become his home, and his stage, and his mode of transport from gig to gig. Afterwards we joked that he will then be known as Tommee Tuk Tuk, but that’s maybe not a good idea, it sounds too much like a name of a mafia family member, you know like, Tommy Two Triggers or something like that. And that Tuk Tuk does sound a bit like an Uzi submachine gun spitting bullets.

We sat chatting with all and sundry and we finally got away after midnight. It’s not that we had so much to drink, but again, beer, Sangsom and red wine does not mix very well so I woke up to greet the new day with not much enthusiasm.

So, Tuesday morning and afternoon saw us reading, relaxing and recuperating. Tuesday evening saw us prowling the walking streets for supper. I fancied a falafel from one stall and chips from another and Adri ordered the chicken tikka masala from the only Indian stall in town. And of course we had to support our pancake lady. Now there are a few pancake stalls but we choose to support this particular one even though the lady is very slow, but we had the time. But the reason she is so slow is that her left arm and hand are much smaller than her right, with her left hand all crumpled up with just a few tiny fingers visible. And this was not the only reason we supported her, her pancakes were top class!

It was early Wednesday morning when we filled the tank and rode the same way as a week or so ago, to the lookout point up high on the mountain. But today that was not our intended destination. We continued on past that lookout point to the Lod Cave some 20km further on, off the main road, down a narrow swerving road which eventually deposited us at the caves.

On the way there I saw a gross looking road kill, it was either a cat or a small cat-sized dog, the body was unrecognizable, hell it could even have been baby armadillo. As I passed the “road kill” I thankfully realized it was a red rag which must have flown off the back of a truck. Now I felt much better.

At the Lod Cave there is no entrance fee as such but you have to make use of a guide carrying a lantern, else you may never emerge from there. This money is used to support the local village so it’s all for a good cause. The entrance to the cave contained too much water so one was forced to use a little bamboo boat, more a platform than boat, for a small fee, that takes you safely from dry land to dry land. Our lady guide was quite informed and showed us all the stalagmites and stalactites that resembled some animal or other figure. There was a camel, a turtle, an eagle, oh, and also a flying saucer and King Kong.

On the way back we stopped off at the lookout point when it started raining, not hard, but just hard enough to ensure that we put on our raincoats. After a cappuccino with a view we slowly made our way down the slippery road back to Pai.

Returning to Pai it was time to return the rental bike – which has served us well indeed – after extending the rental agreement twice before. We walked the two blocks or so back home and fell into a deep snooze until it was time for supper and such.

I was ready to get on the bike when Adri reminded me that we were now bike-less and the feet will have to do its bit for a change. For our last supper we just had to support Pen and her kitchen one last time. After supper we walked the walking street for the last time, everything now will be the last time, it all feels and sounds so final.

After that stroll we strolled back to the Mountain Bar to watch Tommee for the last time. There we met a young girl from Cape Town who came to Pai a year ago, fell head over heels in love with it and have spent eight months over the last year here. She works in a backpacker’s hostel to sustain her life here, not sure whether she will ever go back.

Tonight we also met a French Canadian called Baeng who has a consulting business that does product quality assurance for companies in all parts of the world. He also loves to travel and does so between his homes in China, the Philippines, Canada, Singapore… you get the picture. We had wonderful and interesting conversations during the course of the evening, what a nice guy Baeng turned out to be.

After Tommee’s session we said our sad goodbyes to him, but again, I am sure we will meet up again somewhere… somehow… We also said our sad goodbyes to Man, but it was not as sad as we will soon see him again. His soon-to-be-wife and young son lives in Chiang Rai so he will look us up when he visits them within the next month. We’re really looking forward to meeting up with him again.

On our sad and lonely w

alk back home Adri and I commented on the extraordinary people we have met since we started our sabbatical last year. Man, it is good to know there are still so many good people left in this life, one sometimes forget.

Having booked our minivan ticket to Chiang Mai earlier in the week we had a date of 10:00 to keep. As our luggage was loaded onto the minivan we met an SA couple, in their mid thirties, who now lives in the UK and who have become UK citizens. She’s originally from Brits which lies northeast of Pretoria and has been in the UK for 12 years. He’s from Roodepoort to the east of Johannesburg and has been in the UK for seven years. They quit their jobs and are taking a year off work to travel. How good it was to hear die taal (the language – Afrikaans) out here.

The vomit inducing ride back to Pai was uneventful although I must admit I felt a bit queasier than the trip to Pai. Adri felt a bit queasier than me and I guess it was because she was trying to read on the way, not a good idea. I would think the best way to survive the trip is to close your eyes and try to sleep, or keep your eyes on the road or in the distance, although there is not much distance to see between the hairpin bends. I also don’t think it is wise to look left or right and watch the trees pass by in a blur; I guess that would bring on a vomit attack in no time.

We arrived in Chiang Mai and wanted to purchase our bus ticket for our trip to Chiang Rai on Saturday. I enquired as to where we could purchase such and the lady replied “At the bus terminal next door” and that it was the clean bus service. So I thought “This is great, we’ll have a clean bus to Chiang Rai”. But as I walked into the terminal next door I noticed advertisements all around for the Green Bus service. “OK, so that’s what she meant”, I smiled to myself.

After booking our tickets we hailed down a taxi. We had too much luggage for his car so the driver motioned us across the road to the taxi depot where he got us a larger vehicle. It’s not that we have so much luggage, it’s just that his car was so small.

We reached Food 4 thought 150 baht later; the taxi guy was a good man. It was great to see Charles again who was busy recovering from Dengue fever which he picked up just after we left Chiang Mai a few weeks back. Wow, what bad luck and it seemed like he was still really struggling to get better.

After taking a quick well deserved rest we called Ten from Mango Bikes and 30 minutes later we were mobile on a Suzuki. Adri was feeling under the weather after the ride today, feeling rather odd she said, so we biked off to our local pharmacy for tablets that we needed, and also to have Adri’s blood pressure checked. Man, was her blood pressure low, 105 over nearly nothing… Fortunately the next day she was just fine.

We got back to Food 4 Thought from that low to another low. Charles informed us that His Majesty the King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) had just passed away an hour or two ago. Wow, what sad news that was. As I reported previously he reigned for 70 years, so the king is the only king most people in Thailand has ever known. With the Kingdom mourning the departure of the King an official period of mourning was declared for one year from 14 October 2016. The government has also announced the curtailment of entertainment-related activities for 30 days.It was time for supper and of course Adri wanted pork from the cowgirl’s stall and of course I wanted a cordon bleu from John’s place and of course we did both.

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