Today's Thoughts...
AGH! So it has been a MONTH of life that has disappeared on me. Quite unsure of where the heck August went, I find myself in September and in great debt to all my lovely loyal and Lauren-less readers ;P The past four weeks, I’ve felt like I’ve barely inhaled and all of a sudden—poof! Done. It started with a trip to the tiny town of Pai just a few hours away, continued with a special visit to Indonesia, then back to Chiang Mai where I was whisked away for a speech competition in Lampang, off yet again to Singapore to nurse a certain somebody back to health, and then up a mountain to Doi Kuntaan with a giggly group of students and my fellow Payap faculty. Relishing in the prospect of a weekend at HOME, I write to you now, a report from the frontlines and the past SIX cities I’ve been to since I wrote last. And so without belabored to-do….. PAI.
Jordan, a fellow PiA-er teaching itty bitty first graders in Chiang Mai, and I decided about a month ago that we desperately needed an escape from Chiang Mai. As much as we love this place with its constant stream of motorbikes and cars, honking tuk tuk drivers, spicy papaya salads, and late-night noodle stands, we were dying for the chance to sort of… run free. So we did. We ran (via minibus) straight to Pai, a small town and mildly touristy haven some three hours away. Fortunately enough, Pai was all but deserted given the low season, so for better or worse we had the town to ourselves. Now being in a quaint, mountain nestled town (everything is a mountain nestled town in No-Tho, my catchy name for Northern Thailand) we thought it’d be a swell idea to hop on a pair of bikes and ride out to a nearby waterfall when we got there. I mean, neither of us had really set foot on a bike seriously since middle school, but whatever. It’d be cute, idyllic even. Right. Hahaha. I wish. From the very moment we handed over our 50 baht, our trip to Pai was christened with one disaster after the next.
Okay, so we’re riding these bikes, right? Great. Beautiful mountain breeze (and mountain hills), gorgeous sunny day (and dampening heat), long stretches of peaceful countryside (and the accompanying roosters strolling along the street). Perfect. It really could have been a scene out of the Sound of Music. And then Jordan’s bike chain popped off with a loud squeal and crunch. No biggie; we popped it back on. A few strides later, it came off again. Annoying, but at least the bike was still moving. Now we were going uphill. And then it happened. For the second time in my Thailand days, I swear to you, heaven bore its wrath down on us both and all hell fell from the skies. In a matter of seconds, we were pedaling against pounding sheets of rain until we found temporary shelter under a large canopy tree. Passerby on their fast and speeding motorbikes waved and laughed openly at our foolish dripping selves huddling together horrified at the sudden turn in weather. After about twenty minutes, we tentatively ventured out, only to find that the tree itself had been dumping buckets on us and there was no more than a trickle outside in the open air. Of course. We pedaled on, our Lonely Planet assuring us that there was a whole slew of villages just above the next cresting hill…or the next…or maybe the next.
By the time we reached the farms outlying the town, small Thai children running out to gape and point openly at the foolish farang on bicycles, my brakes now having failed entirely and Jordan’s chain all but a forgotten fancy trailing beside her, our clothes were sticking to us glued by the rain and sweat that dripped down our backs and sides. We asked a small woman hoisting a bundle the size of several small children onto her back, which way to the waterfall (in Thai!) and she pointed to the top of yet another looming hill. Figuring that if this tiny woman carrying six times her weight could do it, we went for it, and….nada. So that waterfall? Was a clean 10-12 miles outside of town. So much for our maps. So much for our bikes. So much for an idyllic trip through the countryside. Laughing in tears, we pedaled back to our fortunately gorgeous and sinfully cheap bungalow “Aqua,” having logged roughly 10-12 kilometers in riding (about 6-7 miles uphill). Oh but of course we didn’t make it there without being chased by a pack of dogs, us DYING on these damn bikes, trying to outrace these street dogs in silence, neither shouting or screaming or panting or anything, just pedaling faster and faster in the dark to escape. By the time we collapsed in bed and endured the terrifyingly shocking visit of a cat who decided to crawl in from outside to join us in bed, we couldn’t stop the side-splitting laughter that rang through the night. (sounding oddly poetic…)
Bright idea. The next morning, we promptly returned the bikes and with four hours to spare until our bus back to Chiang Mai, decided to pony up and rent motorbikes. After arguing in Thai-glish for forever, we managed to secure a half day rate for the usual 24 hour rental. Then we were told that our deal would come only with a tank teetering dangerously on empty, with us on our way up yet another mountain to hot springs and elephant camps near town. As we rode, the bikes alternately shutting off whenever they saw fit or the exhaust pipes exploding whenever we stopped, we were once again amazed at the sheer beauty of Pai. Absolutely breathtaking fields and fields of crops, mountains, everything. We passed several similarly idyllic biker riders, huffing and puffing their way up the hill, and we smiled at their folly. Ha. Ha. Ha. But we made it to the top this time, and relaxed for what felt like an eternity in the medicinal hot springs, sloughing off dead skin, exhaustion, and just life. It was blissful. Racing back down (by which I mean coasting on neutral to save gas), we passed the elephant camps, their namesakes sunbathing with their sad eyes watching us ride by. And before we rightly knew what had happened, we were piled onto yet another minibus, not as good as the first, my seat threatening to plummet out the back of the bus every time we stopped suddenly or someone opened the trunk. Best worst trip EVER. So jerking and bouncing, we made our way back to Chiang Mai and then the craziness in my life really began.
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