Pai in sky!

Greetings and Salutations!

Well we never made it Mae Hong Son, but that's fine cause we found its little offspring and have chosen to stay and take our time here in Pai.

Its hot, so we can't do much during the day, but that's fine cause there isn't much to do. It is a small place with a big heart. Many "hippies" come here relax and kick back with a wheat grass shot and shoot the sh@t. Our first night here was one for the books. We found a great place where bungalows covered the landscape. It was cheap (100 baht, which is under 4 dollars a night) and we thought, great we might be able to get our budget back on track. Inside the bungalow was a "mattress", mosquito net and a fan. The toilet and showers were shared with the other twenty or so bungalows. After relaxing for a bit we wondered through the town and found a quiet, little place for some dinner. I had spaghetti and Kelly a burger. We wandered some more then returned to our bungalow for some gin (cards that is!) I won of course! Kelly has yet to win in about 12 games :( its the cards people!! Any who, lights out and its bed time. Then it hit me, my stomach hurt something fierce, I layed there on our "boxspring for a mattress " for about two hours, Kelly would wake up and hear me moaning. Then that was it, out the front door I went and out my mouth it went! I believe I had food poisoning. For the next couple of days Kelly and I were not doing so well, it was hot out and we both were sick. It was about 38 in the shade (Christy, I'm not sure what that is for you, google it :)) We tried laying in the river to cool ourselves down, but again in a hour or so our core temperature was just to hot to feel good about anything. So we said enough is enough and rented a scooter to find a place with a/c. There isn't to many places here with A/C, lots of places though with a fan. We found a place that we loved, but unfortunately it was full. Back to our bunglaghetto for the night. The next day we tried again and success!! Conveniently with a PPPPPOOOL! Any who, now that we are staying at the Ritz we have new roommates. An all day alarm clock roosters, and because of this we have slept or walked in about 8 out of there 12 bungalows. Last night I found a crazy worm, cockroach and scorpion!!! in our bathroom. I offered my zest bar, but they refused to wash up. The beds and pillows are comfy and the staff is amazing! (I might have a couple love interests here, if things between Kelly and I deteriorate.. j/j, but I have noticed them talking and gawking at me. It is obvious, so I know that I am not making it up in my crazy little mind! )

Any who, back to Pai. It is a small town about 200 kms N.W of Chiang Mai. The drive here is 3 hours long, and like a ride at Disneyworld. In total I have been told, there is 762 curves. It didn't matter what your view was on your side, cause in three seconds it was on the other side. Luckily our driver wasn't part of the Red Neck Circuit (Nascar) out of the states and he drove rather slowly and cautiously. We have fallen in love with slow pace and relaxed atmosphere of Pai (pro. Pie) and like many others are finding it hard to leave this laid back scooter loving town.

About three days ago we booked our trek off into the jungle. (we came here to do a trek, much purer then the ones in Chiang Mai) We shopped around and found a great company that contributed a percentage to the tribe( Karon) that we visited rather then putting them up like a circus. Our trek began by boarding a local bus and heading out of town. The bus was JAMMED packed, only standing room and roof riding was left when we left Pai. We headed in the direction of Mae Hong Son and along the way picked up more and more people. On the bus I was able to get to know Christina the other person accompanying us on the trek, Kelly was shuffled to the front to stand the whole trip. The roads continued to be a roller coaster and luckily the journey was no longer then an hour. We got off in a little village just off the highway and to my surprise the guide and our new friend were road sick and needed to relieve themselves, leaving Kelly and I to gloat about how we were able to make it and not them. After a brief layover in the village we were off, accompanied by our new local Karon tribe guide. The five of us right away we were heading up, straight up a sun scorched, fire ridden hill side. It was hot and not a pleasant way to start. We thought we were entering hell. Luckily because one of our guides was sick (with a hangover) we were able to stop alot and enjoy the breeze and views. We were atop a mountain walking the ridge line for about three hours, it was awesome ( this mountain range is part of the Himalayans and stretches all the way to join with Mount EVEREST! ). Dom our Karen guide(who only attempted to speak broken english after a few shots of moonshine) led us a way no other groups had gone before us. It proved to be very difficult descending so they made us walking sticks!! There were lots of slips but no crashes. We descended to a creek and along the way Dom was gathering supplies for our lunch. Jungle noodle soup. He made everything we needed out of bamboo!! It was awesome, we had bamboo cups, bowls and even bamboo chop sticks! The soup was delicious and was fallowed by.. you guessed it, bamboo tea!! We had a couple hours to relax along the creek. Where we found a "boxing insect" as Dom called it in his best of english. A praying mantis, it was cooool. Last time I saw one was when I was in Thailand twenty years ago! After a relaxing couple hours we were off. We followed along the river bed until we reached the tribes village. We were welcomed right away in our home for the night with tea and snacks. We met our hosts and their son and began more relaxing. Kelly and I went for a walk to see the village of about 70 people and found it to be very clean and organized. Each dog had a collar and tag saying it had received a Rabies Vac. Although we did turn down a wrong side path and was greeted by a un-happy pooch. Kelly and I just kept our heads down and returned "home". The families cat had just had kittens and one still remained out of the litter of two. It was super playful and quite a source of entertainment. Some locals came over to join in dinner and some of the home made moonshine. They then took over for the entertainment, man they drink! Dinner was great Kelly, Christina and I cooked it!! With a little help from Toil, our guide whom we met in Pai. Dinner was a very fresh chicken, I mean fresh.. wink wink!! We had the option to try the kill ourselves, but opted for the veteran to make the kill. We had Spicy Chicken Jungle soup, Curried potatoes with Chicken and some sort of Vegetable and of course rice. It was delicious and plentiful.

The next day we wondered the village for an hour and half way through had a pack of dogs who just loved to be with us. We then returned home to pack and take off. We headed for a waterfall and we were accompanied by one of the dogs we had met in the village. It was an easy valley floor hike. Through the bamboo forest and into the oak tree hill sides, it was beautiful. The areas that were clear cut were HOT, these areas are being turned into rice fields, the sad part is that they just burn everything, even the hundred year old trees! Fire is used by everyone out here, whether to cook, slash and burn or even to hunt! Dom had caught a iguana some days before and offered it to us for a snack. Kelly says, it was the best meat she had ever had. The iguanas are caught when they climb into a tree. The hunters lights the tree on fire and smoke them out. We arrived at the waterfall in about four hours and enjoyed a three hour rest. Dom and Toil made more soup from the foliage in the surrounding area and the rest of us swam. After lunch a hunter came by to check on one of his fishing traps. We couldn't believe our eyes at the sight of this old timer. You could spit threw him, he was so frail and lanky but was eager to finish off our lunch. We learnt he was from a near by Lisu tribe. Somehow he knew that we were trying to guess his age, cause then he made attempts to tell us. Turns out he was 70!!! He carried a home made gun that I was given the privilege to shoot!!

From there we headed back STRAIGHT UP!! This time it wasn't so easy as both our guides were making short work of it all. When all was said and done we made it to the top. It was a beautiful sight again. We walked for about two hours until we reached a Lisu tribe. This tribe was much different then the Karon tribe. It was a large tribe and they covered a lot of area. Unfortunately animals were not as taken care of as they were in Karon. We walked past three or four boys forcing chickens to attack each other, one boy had a knife roped into his fingers, we weren't sure what it was for. The livestock was everywhere and filthy, a pig was eating a large plastic bag that was with the rest of garbage everywhere! It made us very grateful for the experience we received at the other Karon village. Toil had a arranged a truck to take us all the way back to Pai! Kelly or as the Thai's pronounce, Kalli was very happy to jump in the back and not take another step. She has six blisters on one foot!

We are about to book a trip to Laos, so unfortunately this is it for now in Thailand! It has been a beautiful place with large diversity. From the warm clear oceans in the south filled with many islands, to the bustling cities and then all the way north to its large mountainous, jungle range. We're sad to leave, but know that Laos is very unique and going to be a great experience. Laos population is much ,much smaller and the original rain forests are still strong! So until next time, same bat channel, same bat time !!!

Love to all!!

Kelly and Dean of kellyanddean at blogspot!!