Pai, Thailand- Day 6-10

Days 6-10 - Pai, The Bellingham of Thailand

After visiting Pai for 5 days, I think it's my new favorite city in Thailand. There is so much to do that you simply don't have time to just do nothing. Which is nice, actually! Pai is pronounced almost like it begins with a B, and it is a little hippie town. The coolest looking bars, great little restaurants, near the river, and offers so much within such a walkable distance. It's a really great little town. We took a motorbike drive through and up the mountain to explore the caves, and when we got to the top, look what we found! Now I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to take this up or down an extremely steep mountain full of twists and turns. Something about it just says.....not....safe?

 We fueled up with water and dim sum at the top of the mountain. The view, though pretty clouded, was amazing. We were so high up. Off to our right there was a police station, and to our left were several vendors selling food, clothes, accessories and of course, the delicious dim sum we devoured. Our trip did get rained on, but not much considering it's monsoon season. It's surprisingly fun to enjoy a motorbike trip in the middle of a downpour. Try it some time.

Monsoon season is actually quite entertaining. One minute its 92 degrees, the next it will be pouring rain along with roaring thunder that sounds like it's going to tear a house down. Shortly after it's done? 92 degrees, humid, and really stinkin hot again. May not sound like the most pleasant weather pattern, but I love it.



The caves were definitely a highlight of this trip. I have never been inside a cave like this one, let alone a real one that isn't the picture posing ones at the zoos in America. It was like being inside everything you learned in school. The amazing formations in the cave, and different textures and rocks, the size and shapes of them...it was all very breathtaking. If I could post all of the pictures, I would. You'll probably see more, and maybe some different ones on my Facebook page when I get around to uploading the rest. But for now, here is a good example of some of the amazing rocks we saw. Oh, and creatures.

Our drive to the cave was at the least, a couple hours on our motorbike. On our drive back we had several places we could stop off at and explore. We attempted to find a waterfall, and somehow managed to pass up the sign prompting us to turn for it. We saw a different sign and followed it, then we came across these! Completely natural hot springs. The water was so hot that you couldn't do more than tap your finger to the surface. We found a couple sand bars to stand on and take some pictures. It was insane to see how a random river of water could be so hot. If you looked close enough, you could see bubbles rising like it was boiling. Look at all the steam rising in the background! When we left it started to get dark, and as luck would have it (or monsoon season for that matter), it started to pour. We had a dark and wet, and very long motorbike ride back, but honestly it turned out to be a lot of fun.

The next day we found our waterfall! This one
was shallow enough that we could wade into the water pretty close to the to it. This was only the first one we found. We continued up the path and came across a super sketchy bridge. Not only did it bend and make noises, but it had rotted out boards across the middle, right over a rocky river outlet from the falls. Fun, right? Once we crossed it, it was just another short walk up rocks and trails until we found the big waterfall. Man, it was gorgeous!

I know I've been saying this a whole lot but the next day set the bar high for favorites. We headed out on another motorbike ride, and stopped at Noi's Elephant camp. As you can imagine, WE RODE ELEPHANTS! I am still amazed at how crazy it was to be ON an elephant. We rode bare-back, through jungle and roadways and into the river. Isn't she cute? Look at her crossing her foot! 

The funny part of our ride was that Branon told our mahout (the elephant guide) "Not too deep!" He laughed and said "ok" a little deviously. The elephant slurped up water in her trunk and sprayed us a couple times, I think for a second we all thought that was as wet as we were going to get. Boyyyy were we wrong.
The elephant was shoulder deep in the water, then the mahout signaled something to the elephant, and she started to rock back and forth until she threw all of us off. Multiple times. It was obvious the elephant was having a great time. Even though it was super muddy, the water was so refreshing, I have to admit.

And there we are on the left, soaked, coming out of the river after she tossed us around in the water. Of course, I chose to wear a white swim top, and tank top. Needless to say, neither of those are at all white anymore.

The next day, we left to find the hot springs, the ones we could actually get into this time. Get this, the springs are in a park (kind of like a state park) so much like in Washington, there is an entry fee that you have to pay to be admitted to the park. Totally normal, right? Sort of.

For the people of Thailand, the admission is 40 baht. For fahrangs (white/foreign people) the entrance is 200 baht. Ting tong, I say. But hey, that's only about 6 bucks, not so bad.  Just something you would never see in the states.Which brings me to my next highlight of the day...

 Should you ever visit the hot springs in Thailand, leave your eggs at home, folks...because you can't boil them here!

However, you can relax in the glittery mineral springs and monkey around on the hanging vines. Ah, and meet all the spiders that blend into trees, that are the size of your hand....eek.

Every night, we came back to the place we were staying at called Sylvana Pai for some music, drinks and our every night favorite, street food! The vendors in anywhere in Thailand are AMAZING. You can actually buy an entire meals worth of street food for cheaper than you would spend buying the ingredients to cook with in a store. In the picture there are baked potatoes with the works, grilled chicken skewers, corn on the cob, fresh fruit smoothies, sticky rice, and papaya salad. All for under $10...Yes, please!

More Pai, please!

Chian Mai-Day 5

Day 5- Zoobilee Zoo & Squatty Potties
Today we went to the Chiang Mai Zoo. Not only do I recommend coming to Thailand, but if you do, you absolutely HAVE TO see this zoo! The laws are much different and probably a little less safe, but hey...you are allowed to get in the animals face, basically. Which is...awesome!

 This is one of the first animals we were able to feed. We were so impressed with the hippos just being so close to us. Theeeeen we realized you could feed them and oh my word was that the best choice ever. For only 10 baht, which is like 20 cents our money...we could feed them all the veggies they love. They knew what was going on, came out of the water and sprawled open their jaws. 

How bout them snappers.

This guy was just walking around the park with everyone else. To be entirely honest, I have no idea what he is, but he had incredibly sharp and dangerous looking little teeth. We fed him leaves from the trees and bushes around us, and he was very friendly. So long as we gave him food anyway. He charged at Kendall while we were taking a picture. Harmlessly, but it was pretty funny. We found more like him as we climbed the massive stairway in the arboretum. Meeting this little leaf-nomming dude was a blast.


The giraffes were incredible. In the zoos in America, you can see them from an inclosure that allows you zoom in with your camera to maybe get a close up. Here, you are face to face with one of the largest animals you've ever met. To even imagine an animal that size within 1 foot of you is insane. Feeding him was another story. THAT TONGUE! He totally licked my hand while he was slurping for the green bean.

After Kendall and I fed him and took pictures, we attempted to take a picture of the giraffe and Branon. The giraffe was being a wise guy and decided to play hide n seek from the camera, behind the big pillar. He really did seem to be camera shy! This is hands down the most adorable picture I have from the Chiang Mai Zoo. My two favorite guys!


 If there is one thing I thoroughly enjoyed about this park, it was the workout we got simply walking through it.  Uphill and downhill, crazy paths through woods and bridges through the animals habitats. It was like we were never done seeing everything. Just when we thought we were approaching the end, we would find another exhibit, another viewpoint, another map that would take us somewhere else, or another animal we could feed and ogle at. We by chance had missed our morning workout before leaving for the zoo, but we made up for it by walking about the zoo, I tell ya.

Ah, and lastly. I totally encourage visiting Thailand, just one tip! Make sure you're ready to familiarize yourself with these nifty doodads. Behold... the Squatty Potty.

Chiang Mai- DAY 4

DAY- Frogs & Crazy Thirsty Tourists 

Our morning begins daily with this little guy greeting us in the bathroom. We'll call him Hershall for now. Kendall thinks that's what she named him in June, so we'll go with that. I'm not sure what kind of frog he is but he's pretty darn cute!

It's so humid here that you don't even need or want to take hot showers. Cool water is normal, but houses like the one we're guests in have a hot water heater.

Mid-day we rode with Sandy and Dan, our hosts, to town and parked our motorbike (nearly everyone here gets around via motorbike. Not only are even the junkiest cars expensive but a majority of the roads are really not made for cars. Gets a tidbit treacherous.) After parking we caught a songthaew, (pronounced song-tau). It's kind of like a bus with a row of seats on each side and is open in the back. Totally safe, until they pack them full of people and some are hanging onto the bus from outside of it!

Another form of transportation in Thailand is a tuk-tuk. Crazy little ride that will get you to where you want quick but it's a little scary to ride in considering its half the size of a mini-cooper, and there is technically no limit to how many people they cram into those things! Not to mention, really no set traffic rules here. I have to admit though, being driven in a tuk-tuk was my favorite ride. Our first one was mild and the second sped like crazy and wove in and out of traffic. Way to go turbo, yeah?

When we got to town, there were numerous tents of vendors selling anything from live fish to  hand-made shoes and clothing. There were some really awesome shops inside and some pretty unique vendors. We decided since we're in Thailand, we should probably sample the local fare, right? I hate to use an incredibly over-indulged-in phrase but it tasted like chicken! Ever tried crickets? We did.

Now, because I am writing this nearly two weeks into my trip, I think I can say this is officially my favorite picture in Thailand thus far. Something about this woman was so compelling, and very moving.

For the rest of evening, we roamed the night markets and explored different vendors. We stopped at a restaurant in town, and it looked delicious! Our intention was to just get a dish to share and a couple drinks. Miscommunication happens all the time here, as I'm sure you can imagine. So we sit down, and order beverages. I order their ginger tea, cold. Branon orders a diet soda, and Kendall orders water. 10 minutes go by and nothing but Kendall's water is delivered. Shortly after, our server stops by again and I remind him of my tea, and that I would like the cold option. He leaves and comes back with a coke and a soda water. And soon after, another coke. When we are finished drinking the miscellaneous drinks that were delivered, a diet coke arrives, long with my ginger tea. We were confused but laughing. My tea was translated as "two" and cold as "coke". Branon's diet soda was communicated as soda water. Go figure. They must've thought we were some crazy thirsty tourists.

Chiang Mai- DAY 3

DAY 3- Pineapple Rums At the Poolside
I don't know how any vacation will live up to this one...and we've been here only three days! Things truly do seem to get more and more exciting every day. Not only do we have an awesome place to saay, in the middle of a gorgeous bamboo garden, but it's just a bike ride away is Kiree Thara Resort where we get to go for pool time and drinks. It only cost us about 150 baht, which is like $5 our money. That's less than one drink in Seattle, and you don't even get to swim there. BOOORING. Thailand wins.

We spent the rest of our evening hanging out in the sala enjoying eachother's coconut cracking company. I can now say with confidence...If I were stranded on a dessert island and had nothing but coconuts to survive on, I'd be the coconut queen. It's amazing how an afternoon of coconut cracking can turn into a night. Maybe the day doesn't sound like much, but today was one of my favorites. Can't beat a tropical day at the poolside, with a tropical drink, and some authentic tropical coconut deliciousness.

Chian Mai New Faaaave- DAY 2

DAY 2- Waterfalls and Pork Balls
We slept in like nobody's business. Everyone was surprised considering most people wake up in the middle of the night after 24 hours of traveling. We took things easy and explored what was in our immediate grasp. Literally. Like a slingshot for example. Branon and I were pretty easily entertained seeing who could shoot down the leaves on the other side of the water with the slingshot. Don't worry, things do get more exciting than this. The area we are standing in just next to the water is the sala, the hang out, or patio of the guest house. It's basically where we hang out, karaoke, watch movies and Breaking Bad, breaking coconuts, etc..... every day. It's so beautiful here! All day we can hear cicadas making their loud noises and a variety of other bug and bird noises we've never heard before. At first we were both so distracted by the noises, in a good way, whereas Kendall and her dad were used to them. Now they've just become a normal noise we were and don't notice as much. It will be weird to go home to normal light bird chirps and bug noises only when thy buzz by your ears.

We explored the area and hiked up to an awesome waterfall near Suan Pailom and waded in the water with Lady (Pictured right, full name Lady Ga Ga) and Marmi (Pictured left, named after her color), the house protectors and adorable dogs. They are the sweetest, and most fierce poochies I know. Love these two!

Later in the day Branon went to town with Dan and came back with a Thailand treat. Pork balls on a stick. Okay okay, I know what you're all thinking. NOT ACTUAL ONES. Just tasty pork on a stick. I'm not a big pork fan, but I have to say, they were delicious. One of the many things you'll see in Thailand are the food vendors. There are certainly a variety of food balls here. Tasty too. (Blossom, we're trying as many as we can!!) The street vendors have been a new favorite experience for me. I was apprehensive at first but now, in love with em. (;

Chiang Mai Pen Rai- DAY 1

So we made it safely! I have to apologize to everyone for not keeping up with the daily blog promise while we're here! I plan to from here on out, promise. (: The trip has just been so amazing and so action-packed that I haven't had the time! Let's start from day one.

DAY 1- Crazy Airports & Beer Greetings

Surprisingly, the flight over flew by so quickly! (Pun totally intended). We traveled for around 24 hours before arrived in Chiang Mai. On the way, we enjoyed seeing the different airports in Taipei and Bangkok. Taipei was definitely the most interesting. HELLO KITTY EVERYWHERE.
I realized how static and blah our airport in Seattle is after experiencing airports in Asia. While on our layover in Taipei we decided to exchange some money and try out a couple of the things that stood out to us as foreign. We sampled some foods and bought some drinks from the crazy looking vending machines. One tasted like some sort of melon and was entirely too sweet (as many of the things here are, including orange juice.) Branon got something that tasted a lot like root beer, and it was delicious unlike the first one.




We weren't so lucky when it came to our connect flight from Taipei to Bangkok. Being the brilliant two we are, we booked the connecting flight merely 1 hour away from our flight in to Bangkok. One would think you get off one flight and hop on the next, yeah? Nope. We hadn't considered the time it would take to run through the foreign airport, and I mean literally RUN.... make it through Customs and Immigration...oh and wait over 20 minutes for our luggage at the return, and get through the line to re-check it for the next flight. We were about 7 minutes away from making our connect flight, so we were told we needed to re-book it. It wasn't too bad considering we got an amazing lounge full of free snacks and drinks!  The flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai seemed like we were up in the air, and back down within a matter of minutes when it really took just about an hour and a half.


Kendall met us at the airport, and Brenna, don't you worry... I hugged and kissed her for you as requested. We took a taxi back to her dad's humble abode in Suan Pailom (which means Bamboo Park), where we'd be staying for the next month. He greeted us with the must-knows about Thailand, and a lovely beer sampling which included Chang, Leo (Kendall's favorite), and Singha (my favorite!) To adjust to the time change we attempted to stay up late. We adjusted pretty darn well to the if you ask me! Day one, we already felt a connection with Thailand.