Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Excuse me...I'm Pai

So we walk into a bookstore and Rachel asks what time they close, the girl says "at 9 or 10." A bunch of Thai hippie kids are jammin Bob Marley songs and Oasis on the side of the street sharing whiskey and cigs.  Pai lifers teaching yoga and bamboo tattoo artists at every other corner, 2 street lights, and beautiful mountains, sunsets, waterfalls and hot springs = Π (pie, or PAI).  If I lived here I'd turn into a pot smoking hippie - probably selling ice cream in street made waffles, just like the ones we ate before going to the pool (where I wrote this from). 

Our first day in Pai we ate some amazing curry from a man who was running the tiny little shack all on his own - doing it all - and all so well.  That night we decided to go out to some bars and ended up in a all reggae music place with strong whiskey buckets.  We tried to bargain prices - the dreadlock Thai Rasta was not havin it.  We proceeded to the next bar, Don't Cry, for free shots.  We bought 2 and got 2 free...and 2 more..and 2 more..and so on...We met some cool ppl and by the end of the night Rachel and I talked with English accents and repeated the infamous "you sound like your from London," where ppl responded "I am."  Which made us laugh bc we don't think they understood our reference to Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  Regardless, we had a great time drinkin, minglin, and chillin by the bonfire which has become a regular routine for us.  I have also concluded that fire and water are my favorite elements.

The next morning (a big hungover) we headed to the hotsprings with our new friends from Bend, Oregon and Australia..Logan and Harly.  They were so goofy and made us laugh.  Logan says some off the wall shit.   The kinda stuff that you have to be there to hear and think its funny.  The hot springs were SOOO hott that they were BOILING and smelled like sulfur.  We caught the sunset on the drive back.

At night we were walking on the street and saw some Thai hippies jammin out.  We joined their circle, where they shared their whiskey and had a cool jam session.  Singing bob marley and oasis...thought of JULIA :).  Just chillin in the middle of the street, in Pai, with alcohol and music - why not this where I come from?  Later that night we relocated to one of the dudes houses - but who really knows..who or how many ppl lived there.  They made LOTS of instand Ramen noodle in a big community bowl for everyone to share, more whiskey and 4 french dreadlock hippies jammin french reggae.

Next morning I went to a 2 hour yoga session where the "yoga hut" i called it, was just like you'd picture...a light breeze, mellow music, and slow yoga with 30 minutes of meditation....tmrw we are going to another yoga place and then off to Phuket Island in the South!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Falling into Lao

Human beings are very adaptable creatures.  Just when you think you can't endure a 20 hour bus ride ~ you do, and then take 5 more.  When you couldn't imagine going #2 in a public squatter toliet ~ you actual prefer it and just when you thought motion sickness only happened to you when you were younger ~ you freak out during a mini van bus ride. Traveling is a great way to get to know yourself (not necessarily find yourself..but u can do that too) and has a funny way of surprising you and what you are willing to do.

Somewhere in between Laos and Thailand I have fallin "into Lao" with Lao.  You know when you hate something and it irritates you and you think you could never like this or that and then one day you prefer it, you miss it, and then realize you are in love with it...well this is how I felt about Laos.  I had come to this conclusion when we got into Thailand and we stopped at a bathroom and I asked one of the guys how the bathrooms were and he said, "very nice, western toliets," and I thought...that's too bad, I'd rather it be a squatter!!!!

Before we get into Thailand, I have to tell you about "our Lao."  After Vientiene we went tubing in Vang Vieng where Joni had a new mastercard commercial:

"Renting tubes 50,000 Kip.
Magic Shakes 100,000 Kip.
Tubing down the Nam Song River in Lao time, priceless"

Rachel has the pics of our awesome Tubing experience.

Then we headed to Luang Prabang and ate a HUUGE plate of food, buffet style at the night market for a little over $1.  From there we headed to an river village called Muang Ngoi.  In the middle of the boat ride we had to get out and hike for over 20 minutes because the river was to low to carry us over (not included in the explanation when we booked our ticket).  Finally got over and it was very chill.  We got a place in the garden and relaxed.  The village only had electricity that was powered by generators from 6pm to 10pm everyday.

We went on an all day excursion to caves and villages.  We got to the top of a hill and saw an amazing view from above of the river and the village we stayed at.

We got back to Luang Prabang and decided to book a 20 hour bus into Thailand that left a few hours after we got back to the city.

We got to Chiang Mai and booked a 3 day trek where we hiked, rode elephants, checked out waterfalls and rode a bamboo raft.  We are on our way to PAI!