Pai and Leaving Thailand

I woke up in Chiang Mai resolved to make it over to the smaller town of Pai that day, as I had heard it recommended by quite a few people in my time in Thailand. The transport service was entirely comprised of minivans driving back and forth between the city of Pai and Chiang Mai on a long and windy road with an approx. 4 hour travel time. I caught a ride over to the bus station and booked a van for a little after noon. I had some time to wait before the trip, so grabbed lunch at a local spot and before I knew it, it was time to load my bag onto the top and start the journey to a new city. The ride took us through lots of beautiful forest and over a hilly pass before descending into a valley towards Pai. When we disembarked, I grabbed my bag and started looking around for accommodations, as I hadn’t booked anything ahead of time, curious how last minute bookings would work for me and confident that there would be something available. I ended up finding a beautiful spot with a sizable yard and just two dorm rooms, as well as a kind owner who was excited to help me plan my time around the city. With the evening quickly approaching, I set off for a little walk around town and found several beautiful sights as well as a night market quickly picking up in intensity. I tried a vegetable omelette, steamed in a folded banana leaf, and some roasted pork with two delicious spicy sauces and vegetables. I explored the city’s nightlife for a little while longer before heading back to my hostel to sleep. The next morning as well I stepped out for a walk, finding a wonderful temple and numerous remarkable flowering trees. I made my way out of town to some farmland and grazing cows before the heat picked back up and I decided to return to my hostel and plan out the rest of the day.

When I returned to my home base, I chatted with some of the others staying in the same dorm, 3 Israelis traveling for a little time after their mandatory military service. They mentioned that they were headed for a waterfall that afternoon, and I gladly agreed to come along with them. Still at the very end of the dry season, the flow was fairly low but still definitely present with a few nice pools. We enjoyed the water for a while but eventually left as the sunset approached, heading out to a recommended sunset spot that overlooked the entire valley. after enjoying the fading light, we went out for a quick dinner and evening out before retiring back to the hostel. The next day was almost a total write-off; I managed to get out of the hostel, but almost immediately after breakfast I started to feel really tired and slightly feverish. I quickly returned to the hostel and ended up resting all day, drifting in and out of poor quality sleep as I occasionally googled the symptoms of various tropical diseases. I told myself if the symptoms continued or worsened the next day I would drag myself to the local hospital, but luckily by about 9pm I started to feel significantly better, and found myself feeling pretty much 100% the next morning. Having had fun the other day, I elected to go out to the waterfall with the same group again the next day. I enjoyed the water for a little but eventually felt the urge to explore somewhere new and decided to hike back into the surrounding forest a little and work my way up the river that feeds into the waterfall. There was a small path along the side of the hills leading to several beautiful views of the valley below. Eventually it dropped down to the river with some other small waterfalls hemmed in by banana trees and bamboo. When I got tired of the extra mosquitoes in the jungle, I turned around and worked my way back to everyone else lounging in the water, just in time for us to head back to town for dinner.

For dinner I was feeling fairly adventurous, so I went with a spicy fermented sausage salad. It came out looking gorgeous, with lots of cashews and fresh onion, but underneath laid a salad comprised maybe 50% of sliced fresh chilies. I did manage to finish, but it was easily the spiciest thing I had had thus far during my travels. The dish was still absolutely delicious, but slowed down my eating quite a bit and left me feeling fairly pronounced psychoactive effects from the absurd amount of capsaicin I had consumed. We walked around the beautiful downtown street listening to the live music floating out from various bars before making our way back to the hostel as the evening drew to a close. The next morning I set out around 7 in an attempt to reach a large Buddha statue and temple looming above the town. After a little walk through town I found myself at the bottom of an imposing staircase stretching out into the distance. I started the climb grateful that the weather was still relatively cool, and eventually made it all the way to the temple at the top. There was then one more large set of stairs, and some attendants who gave me a sarong to cover my exposed legs out of respect for the temple. I made the final climb with the slightly-too-small sarong and finally found myself at the base of the massive Buddha statue, After taking a moment to enjoy the statue and the beautiful views of the town below, I made my way back down the stairs just as the day was really starting to heat up. I made it back to the hostel a little after 9 and super happy to have managed the hike to such an impressive local landmark.

Later that day, I joined some of the people from my hostel for a cooking class with a local restaurant. They had a truly impressive setup in the open air behind the restaurant itself, and I got to choose 3 dishes that I was interested in learning to make. My first was a thick noodle dish with a thickened savory sauce. Next I learned to make curry paste for a delicious Panang Curry, one of my favorite Thai dishes and one of the best versions of the dish I have ever had. The school even helped with garnish and plating, making for particularly nice photos. My final dish was Tom Yum soup, a slightly spicy tomato-chili-seafood soup that had also been one of my favorite dishes while traveling around Thailand. Every dish I had was immensely satisfying and quite tasty, and the teachers were helpful and clear. They even sent us away with a simple paper recipe book featuring everything I cooked and quite a bit more. I can’t wait to try some of these recipes once I get home! After some rest and relaxation, I went out with my hostel friends once again, but headed back fairly quickly once some rain came through town. On my way back, I ducked into a small restaurant for dinner. I was drawn in by a sign advertising boat noodles, a dish I had seen advertised a few times but hadn’t yet tried. Without looking too much at the entire menu, I placed an order for a bowl of the noodles and waited hungrily to try a totally new food. The noodles arrived in a dark broth with pieces of meat and vegetables, fresh green onion and fried garlic on the top. I tried and was so impressed by the rich, slightly sour and savory flavor that I looked up precisely what boat noodles were. I was fairly shocked to learn that one of the defining characteristics was a broth incorporating either pig or cow blood, as well as pig liver and of course, numerous other slightly less disquieting ingredients. With considerably more mixed feelings, but a soup that I knew was delicious sitting in front of me, I finished the bowl. Ultimately I was fairly proud of myself for trying something so new, and happy it had turned out so well, and I suppose I can now confidently say that, if prepared well, I do enjoy the taste of blood. What an interesting thing to discover! When I finally made it back to the hostel, I waited outside calling on my phone for a little while, and was happily surprised when a very friendly cat appeared, meowing up a storm and nuzzling me up and down for almost half an hour. Feeling now totally better from my brief and mysterious illness, I was thrilled to have had such a wonderful and diverse day.

I had the majority of one last day in Pai before I needed to head back to Chiang Mai for a flight, so I booked my van back and spent the last day walking around the town attempting to find more beautiful corners that I hadn’t yet seen. I walked through another temple admiring the gilded towers and colorful statues, and found some overgrown roads leading back into the forest. I really enjoyed my last look at Pai but felt like I had spent quite a bit of time there in the town, and was very ready to go when I set off on the minivan back to Chiang Mai. When I arrived at the bus depot there, I hailed a grab bike to get over to the fairly cheap hotel I had booked near the airport. Once I arrived there (and managed to get checked in, via a lengthy process involving some other guests and a phone number that I for some reason couldn’t call) I walked around the city for a little bit one last time, and then returned to enjoy the sunset from my surprisingly nice private balcony. In the early morning, I caught another grab to the airport, and before I knew it I was in the air, flying to the Lao capital of Vientiane. I already can’t wait to return to Thailand!