About half way there we stopped at this random small shop. It was sort of like a tiny convenience store. They sold some candy, drinks and a few actual meals. We just took a short break to use the bathroom and buy a snack. A couple of us headed to the bathroom, which was down some stairs. These stairs were so unusual. The top half of the stairs were really wide and flat, but the bottom half were narrow and steep. It was odd. The bathrooms were obviously not the nicest. At first we thought there was only a squat toilet. I was not about to use that. I haven't had to use one since being here, and hopefully never have to. Luckily, the next two bathrooms were western style. We were pretty stoked on that until we saw the sign that said you had to buy toilet paper at the front counter. What?! Who doesn't provide toilet paper to people? Good thing our friend was smart and had some with her. The bathrooms were so dark. The sink was outside to wash your hands, but of course there was no soap. After about a 15 minute break, we loaded back in the van to continue on.
Roughly three hours after our journey began and about a million curves later we arrived in Pai. Now, I had heard great things about this town. That it was a great weekend trip. There was a lot to do. It would be a blast. While I did enjoy my time there, it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. This could be because we didn't rent a motorbike, which basically everyone else was doing.
As soon as we arrived we booked our return taxi ticket for 3:30PM on Sunday, but me and two girls later changed it to 12:30PM. Then we went on the search to find a place to stay. Even though we were a group of eight, it actually didn't take long to find a place. We checked out a couple before deciding to stay in a bungalow a little bit outside of town. I shared a room with two other girls. The room was nice with air conditioning, but the bathroom had some bugs and slugs in it with no hot water. The wifi was also a bit sketch and always cut out. The worst part of the bungalow though was the bridge you had to walk across to get there. This bridge is going to collapse any day. It stretches over a filthy river. The floor of the bridge is just a bunch of wooden planks. Actually, it's not even planks. It's much thinner than one would imagine a plank would be. Anyway, it wasn't a smooth surface and if you weren't paying attention you would've tripped and fallen overboard. The bridge also swayed..a lot. Especially when all eight of us would walk across at the same time.
After settling into our rooms we went to lunch at this hole in the wall restaurant, where I ordered a toasted ham sandwich and a strawberry banana shake. The sandwich was alright and the shake had weird seeds in it. Not the best. We then took a taxi to the waterfall and canyon. The waterfall was pretty cool. You had to hike a little ways and then climb down some rocks to reach it. I am not the best at this. I was terrified I was going to slip on the rocks. I finally made it though and it was nice. The water was refreshing and not even waist deep where I stood. But it was much deeper closer to the waterfall. Deep enough for some people to cliff jump. I was too scared to climb up the rocks in order to jump in though. Only two girls from our group did. Of course, it was the other two Americans which just made me look like a total wimp. We spent roughly an hour there then headed to the canyon. The canyon reminded me of the Laguna Canyon in California, except the Laguna Canyon is way cooler because it looks out over the ocean. This one just looked out over some fields. It was still a pretty view and there were some trails you could hike around. We took a cute group photo and then headed back to the bungalows.
That night we went to dinner at a nearby restaurant where I ordered spaghetti with beef sauce. Only they had ran out of beef so I had to go with pork. Surprisingly, it wasn't too terrible. We then walked around the town and ate some dessert. My dessert was delicious. It was rotie with banana in the middle and Nutella spread on top. So good, I didn't even share with anyone else. It began raining so we quickly walked back to our bungalow to hang out and play some card games. I taught a few of the girls how to play Spoons, which was fun. We talked a bit then headed to bed a little before midnight. I was half asleep when Mai tapped me on my shoulder at midnight to tell me Happy Birthday! It was really sweet of her.
The next morning I ate a great birthday breakfast of pancakes with banana and chocolate syrup. It was the best! The drive back to Chiang Mai was so slowwww. This time we had a super nice van, but our driver was very cautious which is unusual for Thailand. It felt like it took twice as long to get back as it did to get there. It was a much safer drive, that's for sure. We were tired of being in the van though. Once we got back to town, we had to switch into one of the pickup truck taxi's with the boards in the back for seats, which took us to Tha Phae Gate. We then had a short walk to our volunteer house, where we relaxed a bit. Actually everyone else Skyped their friends/family, while I showered, packed for the elephant camp and sat there bored. This 11 hour time difference is beginning to suck especially since most of the other girls are from Europe, so while everyone I know is sleeping, their friends/family are awake and Skyping.
We finally left for dinner, where we went to our usual Coffee Club restaurant. It is super nice, clean with Western food. My favorite. I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich with fries. It was a really nice birthday dinner. Afterwards, we walked the night market where I bought some postcards and Kaj bought me a cute bracelet for my birthday! Then it was time for McFlurry's!! Sunday night was actually the very first time I had stepped foot inside a McDonald's since arriving here. Surprising, I know. The only topping we could get was Oreo, which was a bit of a bummer. I wanted M&M and Mai wanted Smarties. Apparently in Europe they have this candy called Smarties, which aren't anything like the Smarties we have in the States. Smarties in Europe are similar to M&M's. Who knew?! We got our McFlurry's then walked to the nail salon for a pedicure.
It was the worst pedicure I have ever gotten. They literally soak your feet for five seconds, scrub them for two seconds then proceed to trim and file your toes. After which they paint your nails and you're done. No massage. No lotion...just Vaseline, which is weird. My lady couldn't even paint my toes, so another girl had to do it. It was terrible. Let's just say, if I ever go back there it will be to try the fish pedicure and get a foot massage. (Update: I went back tonight for the fish pedicure and massage. The fish part was strange. It felt like pins and needles. The foot massage was really nice though. Thirty minutes wasn't long enough!)
All in all, I had a great birthday weekend and enjoyed spending it with new friends!
No comments:
Post a Comment