Friday (16 September 2016)
On my way back from dropping Adri at school I was on a keen lookout for that thin longish black-as-night snake that I inadvertently rode over yesterday morning. There was no evidence of a body on the road so I guess he got away with a mere physical bruising from our encounter, mine was a more severe mental one.

The laptop was as slow as a trapsuutjie (chameleon) this morning so I guessed there was another Windows 10 upgrade lying in wait, and I was right. After an install and reboot things were flying again. I started working and as if on cue, Sarah by Starship played in the background with the line “no time is a good time for goodbyes”. That is so very true and there were still so many goodbyes to come before we leave for Pai tomorrow.

It was mid afternoon when Frank came over with two ice cold Heinekens to have a final chat. It was not long after that when Dolly came by on her electric scooter when she was politely sent back with a “bitte, zwei Heineken, danke”. She made an abrupt u-turn and a minute later we were topped up with another cold one each. A third was ordered with a shout to Dan, the waitress at the bar.

It was time for me to fetch Adri, and Frank needed to go for a nap, his night watchman had the night off so he had to watch the night tonight. I weaved my three-Heinekens-in-quick-succession way towards school. There I was met by Banks, one of Adri’s pupils and budding artist, and also his mother saying a final goodbye. After hugs all around we were off to start our final preparations and goodbyes.

All the stuff we bought in Nong Song Hong to make our lives a tad more comfortable we loaded up on the bike and delivered that to Summer and Lucy. They will be here for at least the next semester so would be able to put all the stuff to good use.

Jay and Patrick joined us for dinner at 18:30. Jay actually had his last supper last night already but his bus to Bangkok was only leaving at 21:00 so he managed to fit in a really really last supper. It was Friday so it had to be that cheeseburger in paradise, as always.

A friend of Jay was due to receive her chemical engineering degree today and the graduation ceremony was being streamed live from Cape Town, so he kept one eye on that during the evening. He waited until the last possible moment before he had to leave to see her, and would you believe, as he was about to close his browser, her name was called out. He took a short video of it and us, I am sure she will appreciate the video and well wishes from us all on that video.

What nice young chaps Jay and Patrick are, always good company, jokes and laughs all around, very much part of our extended family here. We wish them both well for their future. Yes, and saying our final goodbyes were really sad, as always, but I am sure we will see them again sometime… somewhere… somehow…

We’re leaving Nong Song Hong tomorrow morning so I guessed it was time to start packing, but I was just guessing here. Adri had a draining day and was not about to be coerced into packing, not tonight anyways. “Uhm, okay?” I thought but left it at that. The alarm was set for 05:00 so we’ll see how that works out for us in the morning.

Saturday (17 September 2016)
It was 05:00 and of course the alarm went off and of course Adri started packing. I was trying to continue snoozing with not much success through all the rumbling and tumbling going on. I raised myself up from the near dead and with a shock I realised that it was 06:45 already… Crap, I needed to hurry up and pack the few things I am responsible for in order to leave the resort by 07:30 to catch the minivan to Khon Kaen at 08:00. Adri was not nearly finished and with a matter of fact tone she said “Oh, we’ll just take to 09:00 bus”. Hmm…

By 08:30 we were all packed and loaded onto Frank’s double-cab ready to be dropped at the bus stop. We said our final sad goodbyes to Dolly, Oi and On as well as Pen and Dan. Frank dropped us off at the bus stop and let me tell you, this was truly a sadder than sad goodbye. I once again remembered that song by Starship with the line “no time is a good time for goodbyes”. Man oh man, I’m sure gonna miss this guy, I’m sure gonna miss Cheunjai Resort.

The minivan ride to Khon Kaen turned out to be quite pleasant. I think we paid for three people as our luggage took up one of the seats. No problem though, the trip cost us a very reasonable 222 baht or thereabouts.

As we pulled into the bus terminal in Knon Kaen the driver pointed us in the direction of the taxis that could take us to the airport. As you by now know, I hate taxis so it was with a ton of trepidation that I approached the first one in line, we had no other choice of getting to the airport. Adri had the good sense to ask “how much” but he just pointed to the meter. I liked him already, he dropped us at the airport 85 baht later, I handed him a 100.

We were a few hours early so we got comfortable at the coffee shop at the bottom level, which was very comfortable indeed. Once it was time, we approached the Air Asia counters with some degree of apprehension as you will remember that I captured Adri’s date of birth incorrectly when booking online. The months were specified in Chinese and my Chinese is nowhere near to what it should be, hell, it is nowhere at all. Anyway, there was no need to worry; the check-in went perfectly smoothly.

The sun screen and shampoo were last minute additions to Adri’s carry-on luggage. The security officer at the X-ray machine inadvertently labeled that bag as checked-in luggage so raised no alarm. When we went through the next security check the sun screen and shampoo raised the alarm, no can do ma’am. We had to say another sad goodbye to the two of them. Anyway, this is a lesson we keep on learning… we’ll get it right sometime.

An airport announcement was made, I did not understand it, then I realized in was in Thai. The next announcement was made in English, I did not understand that one either. Don’t you just hate airport announcements? Can you understand what they’re saying through that tunnel-like deep maze underwater muffled sound that has either too much treble or too much bass base with words flowing into one another like an alphabet soup?

I went to toilet just before we boarded, as I always do, whether I need to or not and today was no exception. In the cubicle next door I heard a huge scrunching sound followed by a barrage of plonks in quick succession after which all went quiet, and then came the deep sigh of satisfaction. The whole of last night had just dropped into that bowl next door. Now I’ve heard that scrunch sound before and I knew I had only seconds to get out of there. It was less than those few seconds when the obnoxious fumes started floating over the cubicle divider. Man, this guy must have had a dead rat buried in his arse for the longest time.

I was tired and I wanted to knip ‘n uiltjie (Owl’s blink, meaning to take a short nap) on the plane but that proved to be a fruitless endeavour. Next to me sat two ladies chattering away. Now I don’t mind chattering, I love chattering, but they were relentless, the one only breathing when the other one takes over. If you don’t believe me, take a listen to the recording below that I managed to make… Well, I couldn’t sleep now could I.

 

As we entered the terminal building our luggage entered with us, great service I’d say. Outside the building we found the familiar swarming of taxi marketers but we pushed through the crowd when my eye saw the familiar sign of “Taxi-Meter”. It turned out not to be a metered taxi at all. According to the taxi driver we got there were no more metered taxis in Chiang Mai. The distances are apparently too short so they don’t make enough money and thus they all charge exorbitant flat fees. Hmm… so they’re making their problem our problem? As I’ve said before, I hate taxis.

You may recall that we met Charles and his girlfriend Meena, Bass’ sister, a few weeks back. They have a restaurant in Chiang Mai called Food4Thought and also have a few rooms that they have available. We decided to stay with them for our few days here and how great did that turn out to be.

After the taxi delivered us and we checked in we immediately set about arranging a bike. The one rental company required me to leave my passport with them as a type of collateral? What the… As if I’m going to pack that motorbike into my carry-on luggage and flee back to SA under the cover of darkness. “Screw them”, I though aloud. We still had the number of Mango Bikes that we used in January, albeit as a sub-contractor to another company. They had a good bike for us at a good price, and only a copy of my passport was required. With these guys I can do business.

Mango Bikes were 2Km away, we needed the exercise so we donned our running shoes and off we were. The guy that helped us is called Ten, I thought it was Pen, but I was corrected me with a “Ten, like in eleven”. Nice sense of humor Ten has.

Back at home we rested for a while, had a shower and then were off for our Saturday night jol (an occasion of celebration and enjoyment; a good time). We were on our way to John’s Place, obviously, when we passed the cowgirl with her pork legs… You know what I mean. Adri could not resist the temptation and demanded that I stop. She had her pork leg fix with my mouth watering but I was holding out for that chicken cordon bleu at John’s Place.

John’s Place was just as we left it seven months ago, still great food, ice cold beer, great service, great music, it was as if we had never left. Even the waiters and waitresses were the same. Man, it was great sitting on the third level looking out over the moat and the tourists below. I really did miss this place, and of course the cordon bleu did not disappoint, it was excellent as always.

From john’s place we went to the street market close to the university and walked around there for a while. Adri found a lovely navy blue top which was bagged and bought. I was also in need of something, a pair of plakkas (sandals). You see, Friday evening, as I got off the bike back in Nong Song Hong my left plakka left me as the one thong had come undone. As a temporary measure I used Frank’s staple and put a row of staples on that puppy, a fix that needed to last at least to Chiang Mai. I found a pair that seemed okay but we’ll have to see how they work out for me over the coming days.

Sunday (18 September 2016)
We had a wonderful refreshing sleep and woke up to rain coming down really hard, it was raining felines and hounds. It was past 09:00 when we ordered breakfast in bed. The Food4Thought breakfasts we received were hands down the best restaurant breakfast we have had in Thailand thus far, simply delicious. When you’re in town, do yourself a favour… And the coffee was also wow!

I read with more sadness in my heart that SA lost yesterday’s rugby match 41-13 to New Zealand. Thank goodness I was not in a position to watch that dire display. Apparently things did not go very well – no shit Sherlock – and it was also the third heaviest defeat against New Zealand in 95 years… The coach Alister Coetzee talks a good game, but can he walk it?

One of the reasons for our stopover in Chiang Mai was to do our 90-Day reporting which was now due. Charles came over and informed us that there were two Immigration offices in Chiang Mai and in his experience the one close to the Promenada Mall was the best. He would provide us with their address details and what not in order to make our reporting as smooth as possible.

And the rain kept coming down past 10:00, it eventually petered out just past 14:00. We were hoping to have a lie-in this morning but this little gift of rain and forced lie-in was unexpected, this was just great. It was 14:30 when we nosed our way out of our doorway to the bike.

Last night when we got home, Adri hung her helmet on the bike hook like a begging bowl just below the handle bars. This morning her bowl was full, full of alms… alms of rainwater.

Adri wanted to go to the Central Airport Shopping Mall and the shortest route from where we were is a road that runs right alongside the airport’s perimeter. There was a security guard at some point letting cars and bikes through but when it was our turn, he turned us round, apparently because Adri did not have a helmet on. Remember… rainwater? Anyway, that notwithstanding the fact that many bikes were coming in the opposite direction, riders and passengers sans helmets. What does one do? One just smiles and accepts. We re-routed and got there 10 minutes later than expected, no biggie.

It felt like a homecoming walking into the mall as we were there many times before. We split up and agreed to meet back at the entrance at 18:00. I did not see anything that rocked my world but then again I wasn’t really looking for anything in particular, I had my new plakkas. That being said, my feet were getting sore, maybe I’m just not used to these new plakkas, or maybe they are just no good, so I settled down at a coffee shop called Fang and ordered a hot cappuccino.

“Sorry sir, no wifi” came the answer to my question. Damn it, I now remembered this from last time, should have chosen another coffee shop, but the coffee made up for it, really good. The barista is not only an artist of coffee, but an artist as well. It took some time before I received my cappuccino and would you believe, it had a sketch of me sculpted into the foam… sort of. No seriously, check out the evidence!

After shopping we did the exact same trip as last night, first it was cowgirl and then back to John’s Place, you don’t mess with a winning formula. Tonight I brought my Ipad along and would you believe, it picked up that wifi immediately where it left off seven months ago, no need to select and no need to enter the password, it just worked.

Monday (19 September 2016)
The alarm went off at 6:35, time for Adri to get up and get ready for school… huh, no wait, that was then, this was now. But why get up so early? And then it dawned on me that today we had a date with destiny, that destiny called officialdom, our next 90-day reporting to Immigration was due.

The plan was always to do our 90-day reporting at Immigration in the morning, then leave directly thereafter for Pai by minivan early afternoon, arriving in Pai late afternoon. Everything went so well, until… but I’m running ahead of myself.

We left for the Immigration office close to the Promenada shopping centre with Maps.me as our guide. It took us via various back roads and alleyways to a derelict Immigration office which has been out of commission for seemingly a decade or so. Bummer. I rechecked with maps.me and this time it found another office not across from, but directly inside the Promenada shopping centre. Who would have guessed. We got there in a roundabout way again via various back roads and alleyways, but this time we were at the right place.

After completing the TM 47 form we proceeded to the TM 47 checking station. There we were required to complete a Foreign National Information Form which was never required before, and this was where things started going askew, but this was not yet even the tip of the iceberg.

After completing this new form and some further checking by the lady officer we were given a number for the 90-day reporting cubicle where the actual processing takes place. When my number came up I watched as the lady ruffled through my stuff, I by now know what facial expressions to look for to know what’s going on in that mind. And that’s when that dreaded deep frown appeared, eyebrows becoming question marks… Instinctively I knew that things can only go south from here, and it did.

From the little English and hand gestures I gathered that, because our previous reporting was done in Khon Kaen, we needed to have our address validated which can only be done at the Immigration office next to the airport. Once that was done, we could return to the Promenada office to complete our reporting. I just smiled.

It was twenty minutes later that we stopped at the airport Immigration office and was sent packing from the main parking area. Bikes have to park next door, silly me, I should have known. Then we were sent from the one pillar to the next post and eventually found out that we needed to go to Building 3 at the back of the complex. Silly me, I should have known. We were given forms which I wanted to start completing and was told that the owner of the address needed to do that. Silly me, I should have known. We left the building, just like Elvis, and fortunately we were held up for some or other reason. The person that we dealt with inside also made like Elvis so I rushed over to him just to make 100% sure, and yes, the owner had to bring the documents in themselves. Silly me, I should have known.

After several phone calls to Charles and Meena we went back to Food4Thought and found that Meena was still feeling very weak with a stomach bug that she picked up a few days ago. She however braved the outside world, had a shower, got dressed in her finest, and accompanied us to Immigration where she sorted everything out for us. It seems like the additional forms that we had to complete is part of a new clampdown on tracking and tracing foreigners in the country.

Getting the owner of the accommodation to validate their address, which is a once off irritation, seems to be part of this clampdown. This seems to be in line with a report that I read a few weeks back that the Thai Government wants to monitor the movements of foreigners in Thailand more closely, to the point of making it mandatory for foreigners to have a Thai sim so that they can track and trace one via that. Wow, not sure whether all of this will actually happen but it is not a comforting thought. Ostensibly these measures are there for the safety of the foreigners, a very positive spin but no, I’m not falling that one.

It was by now too late to leave for Pai so we decided to stay another night with Meena and Charles. So after our 90-day reporting cards were safely stapled into our passports we were off to the old town, to our other favourite, The Writer’s Club And Wine Bar. There we found the same owner with the same waiter doing same same, just like seven months ago, just great.

After an ice cold one we left for dinner at the same Thai restaurant that we visited on numerous occasions on our last trip here. It’s always good to revisit the same places and find that everything is still the same, great service, great food, great smiles, and here tonight it was no different. Adri and I shared dishes of grilled chicken with a lemon sauce, chicken satay with peanut sauce, pork and veggies on rice and of course the roti with condensed mild dripping down all sides. Before my mind could get there Adri had already ordered a second helping of roti.

Tuesday (20 September 2016)
After another refreshing night’s sleep we woke up with much to do, sort of. After a strong filter coffee from the restaurant we moved our bodies through the shower, packed and paid up for the few days’ accommodation there.

Meena arranged a taxi for us to the Terminal 2 bus station called Arcade in order to catch the minivan to Pai. There is one departure every hour on the half hour for most of the day and costs a reasonable 150 baht per person.

While we were waiting for the taxi and saying our final goodbyes to Meena, she suggested that we take barf bags along. We have read that the road is very long and winding, but barf bags, we did not even give it one thought. Apparently if you get to Pai barf-less you will probably never get sea or carsick.

Anyway, this reminded me of a chartered flight I was on many years ago, when a senior official had a few rounds with a barf bag, he just kept filling it up man. The problem was though that the bag was a clear plastic bag, that thing should have been any colour but clear. What were these people thinking? The growing contents of that bag were on display for all to see and this guy did not have the good sense to even try and cover it up. It sat there proudly on his lap, happily sloshing and splaying away, the reds, greens, oranges and browns forced to intermingle and as you can imagine ended up being a very colourful and seemingly crunchy affair. Not sure what this guy had for supper the previous night.

And you know that feeling when you know you should not be looking at it… but you cannot help to take sneak peeks at it… just one more time… just one…. I think they call it L’appel du vide or “The call of the void”, that sudden, strong, but usually very quickly dismissed, urge to do something incredibly stupid, like throwing yourself over a cliff. And this was an incredibly stupid thing to do as I was retching uncontrollably like a bucking rodeo horse for the rest of the flight, fortunately I managed to keep it all in. But you know, even when you do not look at that mess you can still clearly see it with your mind’s eye, it’s something you simply cannot un-see.

The taxi arrived before I could act on my retching thoughts and the arranged 200 baht journey turned into a 250 baht ride when the driver realised we still needed to take a very slight detour to deliver the bike to Ten at Mango Bikes.

We said our goodbyes to Meena and I remembered that we never did get to say goodbye to her brother Bass of Dee Café in Nong Song Hong. What a pity. When we did go for our final coffee, there had just been a huge storm and he had no electricity. We planned to go back but time was not on our side.

The taxi driver was a good man though and he delivered us right in front of the Pai minivan ticket office. They were very efficient and 5 minutes later we walked out with our bums booked on seat numbers 3D and 3E for the 12:30 bus. We were actually just in time for the 11:30 bus but there was only one seat left which was maybe a blessing in disguise. This gave us enough time to settle down, have something small to eat and get some padkos (provisions for the road) for the apparent arduous journey ahead. I had a very fresh chicken mayo and egg toeba (sandwich) and Adri had a bun with chicken embedded in there. Coffees were the 3-in-1 kind but went down well. Now we felt we were ready… for what we did not know yet.

As we embarked the driver’s lady co-driver handed out barf bags to everyone, the clear plastic ones, I kid you not! Not a good omen. The trip started out on an even keel but soon turned into a rather rocky ride. The road winds up and down and around, hairpin bend upon hairpin, down and up… And so it continued for most of the trip. Before such a trip it’s always a good idea to acknowledge that your fate is in the driver’s hands and although it may seem like he’s driving recklessly at times, he also wants to get to the other side unscathed. And he was quite young, long life ahead, so we were okay, I convinced myself.

There was an English woman sitting in front of us with three small kids, aged maybe 3, 5 and 7. The little girl aged three needed to go to the bathroom, badly, but it was still 20 minutes or so before the halfway stop. The mother and kid started groaning and urging the co-driver to stop sooner. This co-driver lady looked around, fed-up with this continual harassment by these farangs, and said in a verbal tirade “I hate this effing job… sorry for saying effing… but I really do not know why I am doing this effing job”. I am just being polite using effing here, capeesh?

That tirade helped the little girl to keep it in I guess. When we stopped at the halfway rest point we chatted to the co-driver and she actually seemed like a very nice lady, just needed to blow off some steam like we all need to do from time to time.

We arrived safely in Pai at 15:30 and thank heavens we had a barf-free trip all around although there were a number of rather lime green faces that stumbled out of the van. The luggage waited with Adri while I scouted around for a taxi and a rental bike. Fifteen minutes later we loaded the luggage into the taxi and I followed behind on the rental bike.

After a bit of to and fro we finally found the Art Farm Studio – which is 3.5 km out of town – just as the rain started pelting down. I was drenched by the time we had offloaded our luggage and got it safely into the studio that will be our home for the next two weeks. I looked out the large wooden framed glass doors to the world outside and it was lovely to be out in the fresh countryside with mountains abound and all around.

The owner of the place is Vacharamon , his nickname is Job. He made it his job to make us feel comfortable and quickly acted on the few requests we had. The rain continued for another hour or so and as the day turned to dusk we made our way into town for a look around and supper.

Now one thing about Pai is that it seems to be a very artsy, hippy-ish and a seemingly hedonistic place with Rastafarians well represented. There are probably more tourists here than local people with the tourists ranging from young backpackers to middle aged and also older folk, from nationalities far and wide. One immediately feels rather comfortable, content and at home here as everyone seems to be minding their own business most of the time.

We rode around and came upon the night market street where we parked the bike in search of supper. It was much later that we realized that this was the same street we arrived in today, it being transformed into a night market late afternoon, a fantastic transformation I might add.

The food stalls and fare offered here are very different from what we’re used to. In addition to the Thai foods there are many farang offerings like fully loaded baguettes, Indian curry and rice, lasagne and what not. We ended up having the lasagne, a huge portion compete with a side salad and a few large French fries. Man, was this good, cheddar cheese dripping in all directions from this scrumdiddlyumptious creation.

We decided to share one lasagne and that essentially filled us. We later on shared a chicken kebab and we finished off with an ice cream each, me the chocolate and Adri the coconut milk one. These ice creams come as a rectangular block individually wrapped without a stick, and as the lady presents it to you she sticks a stick in there, removing the wrapper at the same time and away you go.

We were ready to go back home but we had forgotten one small thing; we have not had a drink yet. We trolled a few bars and decided on the Mountain Bar where a few people were playing pool and yet another few were just generally chatting away at the bar. I had a big Chang and Adri had a Sangsom on the rocks. When the bartender delivered Adri’s Sangsom he gave it a furtive second glance, came back with the bottle and topped her up, the level looked a bit low to him. I liked this place already.

We got home just after 22:00, read and relaxed, settling in to our new home.

Wednesday (21 September 2016)
The first night in a new place is never 100% comfortable. New bed, new pillows, new sounds and creaks, you know what I mean. But there was more to it this time around. I woke up in the middle of the night, not sure what time it was, but it was till dark.

A little red rooster started crowing in the very wee hours of the morning, never on his own accord, always in reply to a rooster further down the muddy track. In between crows I fell into fitful sleep upon fitful sleep. I finally woke up at around 08:00 feeling surprisingly refreshed. Tonight I will close the windows and see how that rooster does in the morning.

We now again have our own kitchen, nothing special though, but a kitchen nevertheless, so we can at least now make ourselves a hot breakfast in the morning. It was 11:00 when I started blogging and Adri started to unpack and organize the place to make it a home. I must say that Adri has a knack for settling us in and making our new abode feel like home almost immediately

The bike that we rented yesterday, an older model of the Honda Click variety, was grossly underpowered and it just did not feel right. I at least had the good sense to rent it only for one day with an option to extend at a better price if we so wished. We wished not to so by 16:00 we returned the bike after making a deal with another rental company called Aya just down the road. Now I have read some good and some bad reviews on the web about Aya but I must admit that my experience was that they were mostly efficient, friendly and professional. We were off before too long with a later model Honda Click with high mileage, or is that high kilometreage, but high on power.

We went to the fresh produce market for some fruit and eggs, which 7/11 here does not stock, then it was off to that same eggless 7/11 for other sorely needed items. It was late afternoon when we arrived at the same pub as last night, the Mountain Bar, and ordered same same.

And that’s when we met Tommee Balukea, the only other patron at this ungodly early bar hour, playing a game of pool against himself. Tommee came over for a chat and reckoned that he had just lost a close contest. What a cool guy he turned out to be. Tommee is a musician who sings and plays guitar, kecapi (a zither-like musical instrument), cello and percussion, and writes all his own music. He was born and grew up in Indonesia in a town called Bima which lies on the eastern side of the island of Sumbawa. And by the way, the island of Sumbawa lies just east to the island of Lombok which we visited earlier his year.

In his early twenties he left Indonesia and spent some 30 years in Australia from where he travelled the world making music. He mentioned that he and his band toured as the supporting act with that great South African band Mango Groove when they toured Australia a number of years back.

He’s been to most continents but not yet Africa, leaving the best for last, and that visit may come soon. Through his travels Tommee have come to the realization that there is a similarity and interconnectedness between the different styles of music of the Indian ocean islands and countries that border this ocean. If all works according to plan this theme will form the basis of a documentary to be created, featuring Tommee of course. If this all comes to fruition he will start that documentary journey in Cape Town early next year.

I found the following article about Tommee on the web, please check it out. While we were chatting he connected my Ipad up to Soundcloud which features some of his music. Some of the songs have a very African and others a very Reggae influence, wow, really great stuff, please take a listen to some of his songs like Kemangi and Tamirind, and all the others.

While we were chatting to Tommee the boss of the bar came over and requested that he do a session in the bar on Friday night. You get only one guess as to where Adri and I will be Friday evening!

Thursday (22 September 2016)
There were no roosters this morning, or at least not any that woke me up. Maybe it had something to do with the chicken barbecue they had next door last night.

We slept in or more correctly, I slept in. Adri did the final bit of unpacking and did a spot of washing, while I received coffee in bed. It was not long after that when breakfast was ready which consisted of eggs, fried sausage, cheese and jam. Man, it sure was good to be able to make one’s own breakfast again.

We decided to give the new bike a baptism of fire and go up one of the mountain roads to test its power and endurance. Thus far the bike has performed very well but we needed to make sure as we needed to extend the rental contract today.

We took a right rather than our normal left from our home, a kilometre or so further we took another right and then started our winding climb up and into the Huai Nam Dang National Park. We continued on up and down a narrow cement road that in patches turned into a dirt road until eventually it was only dirt. The scenery was spectacular with views, through the tall trees, of the mountain ranges beyond. The road continued its up and down elevation, hairpin bend upon hairpin, slow kilometre after slow kilometre. We intended to do a 22km trip to what seemed like a little village but doing 20-30km/h we were never going to make it home before dark. At a convenient photo opportunity stop we made a u-turn and headed back to Pai.

The bike definitely made the grade so we stopped off at the rental company and extended the motorbike rental for another 10 days at a better price. Adri wanted to know why only for 10 days. Uh-oh.

We then rode around town, identifying all the little restaurants and pubs and shops we wanted to visit, but there were just too many, we will have to do this trip on foot. We then rode out of town in a south-easterly direction and there were many more pubs and restaurant and places to stay out that way. From town we saw the big white Buddha statue further up the mountain so went in search of that. We stopped off at the Chedi Phra That Mae Yen temple, climbed the hundreds of steps to the top and were rewarded with wonderful views of the Pai valley and surrounds. The white Buddha was worth seeing but I do believe that Buddha needs a bit of maintenance.

Back in town we went to a Frank (read German) inspired restaurant. They advertise Oktoberfest and schnitzel and German sausages, so I assumed it’s meant to be German. Unfortunately they only open at 18:00 and my thirst for beer was never going to be comfortably waiting another 45 minutes.

There is no shortage of pubs and/or restaurants here, believe me, so we walked down the road to the river where we previously spotted the Kanad restaurant. We sat on the wooden deck overlooking the river Pai, not to be confused with the river Kwai. Man, this was so relaxing; you have no idea, Chang and shandy in hand we sat there endlessly pondering Pai. Pai lies in a large valley with mountain ranges all around, with spectacularly green scenery. I am mostly a sea-kind-of-a-guy but I must admit that Pai is probably the most scenic inland area that we have seen to date in Thailand. We watched, almost hypnotically, as the river flowed by on its road to somewhere, ripples of water rushing past making only the slightest sound of a watery murmur.

We tore ourselves away from there when the hunger pangs started ripping away at my insides. We walked up the walking street where Adri had her fix of freshly fried vegetables that she’s been craving since our first night here. I got my cheese and bacon burger fix which was okay, just okay, nowhere near Oi’s cheeseburger back in Nong Song Hong.

While walking around I noticed two t-shirts that made me smile slightly. The first one was worn by a really big fat guy and it said “Too big to fail”. The second was worn by a lanky youngster and it read “Same shirt, different day”. Not that funny, but quite clever.

After supper we went back home and watched a few episodes of season 4 of House Of Cards which only started coming to life after the fourth or so episode. It was just past midnight that we switched off, bringing another night in Pai to a close.

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