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!