up in the mountains, north of Pai
farmlands near Pai
Though my stay in Chiang Mai was supposed to be only a month, things change (as always). The day after my birthday, I traveled 120 kilometers to a small town called Pai. Pai is a artists' community (both Thai and foreigners) that attracts like-minded tourists. Most of these tourists are dreadlocked hippies, but they often travel together in groups, so it's easy to avoid them.
The town is northwest of Chiang Mai and up in the mountains. The bus ride was painfully slow at times, both up and down the mountain as it inched around the hairpin turns. To make the ride more interesting, the already-full bus picked up five more passengers just after leaving Chiang Mai. They were forced to stand in the middle walkway between the seats, so I got up and let a couple girls take my space. As we went thru the mountains, I was reminded of being on a MUNI bus in San Francisco because my body was shifting left and right with the bus.
Pai itself doesn't have much in terms of landmarks or fancy attractions. But it is close enough to many parks and caves. A Hungarian that I befriended in Chiang Mai met up with me for a few days. We traveled north thru another set of mountains to a huge cave. We hired a bamboo raft (more like a canoe) and checked out three sections of the cave that have rock formations and cave paintings from many centuries ago. We also trekked thru random forests in hopes to find ancient coffins made from wood that were stashed up in caves. We were successful once and it turned out to be an archeological site and off limits.
I left Pai a few days ago and am back in Chiang Mai to take care of some business. I had to renew my visa by crossing the border into Myanmar, but didn't do anything there. Just a quick in and out. (There's strange things going on in Burma - the capital just up and moved a few weeks ago without any real explanation to the outside world... it's doubtful anyone inside of Burma really knows either.)
Tomorrow I think I'll be departing this city for another adventure...
