A slice of Pai

We picked a bit of an unfortunate time to visit northern Thailand; it's the end of the dry season and all the small farmers are burning off their fields of stubble (somewhat understandable) as well as any leaves that are lying around, and since this is jungle country there are lots of leaves lying around. The mahogany leaves are huge, up to half a metre long, and when they litter the forest paths it's hard to walk, so that's why they burn them off, but it sure makes a mess of the air. We've been known to lay a napkin on top of our beer glass to keep the black snow (corn stalk ash) from landing in our drinks. Nothing stops us from drinking lots of beer, however, except if Bob has a nap in the early afternoon heat. We just got back to Pai from a four-day sidetrip to Sappong, an even smaller town about 40 km away on a hilly road full of major switchbacks. Our bus was so old the driver was weaving from side to side on the steepest uphill bits of the road, sort of switchbacks on switchbacks, just so the bus could keep climbing. Our home in Sappong (the Sappong River Inn) was one of our favourite places yet (superb room with a deck over a ravine; great food) and we had a fantastic day trek, hiking for three hours up into the hills to a Karen hill-tribe village. (That's Karen the ethnic group, not Karen the blogger.) During the hike we spotted a lot of orchids growing in the crotches of trees. That was a bit of a surprise because an earlier visit to a Chiang Mai orchid farm led us to believe that orchids were rainy season plants, but some of them thrive in this dry heat. In the village, we met a few of the Karen people and bought a few pieces of weaving from some of the women. Our wander through the village was fun, going through their yards and seeing some of the women actually doing the weaving, chaffing the rice, doing the laundry or embroidering their fanciest clothe. We took a different route out of the hills by following a stream back down to Sappong, crossing through the ankle-deep water dozens of times in our squishy hiking boots. At one point we met some village men with small nets working in the stream. They showed us a shopping bag filled with their catch - a few crawfish, lots of giant tadpoles and a handful of wee silver fish, actually all about the same size. Apparently, they eat them all. We've been in Thailand (and especially the north) for so long now that we're getting quite used to the mixed ethnic makeup of the country and little really grabs our eye. At breakfast today, we were eating at a sidewalk table and motorcycles went by with the strangest things - a guy selling a dozen ladders; a trio of Muslim women veiled all in black except for the eyes; colourfully clothed Lahu families of mom, dad and two small kids; whole restaurants built onto complicated tubular sidecars. It eventually dawned on us to take a few pictures, but it was the not noticing that was the most striking part. On our way out of Thailand we plan to visit one more major site, Sukkothai, an ancient capital full of spectacular architecture. That should be enough to get us shooting a flurry of photos. After Thailand is Bali. Oh that sounds good. We hope Bali will be less hot, wtih more refreshing air. And of course we really look forward to meeting up with Bob's parents. It's been a long, long time since we saw a face from home.

off the beach and into the mountains

We finally overcame our extreme lethargy enough to get moving again. We passed through Bangkok's airport before the weekend protests and spent a few days in Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. We stayed in Chiang Mai's old town, which is surrounded by a moat and throbbing with a backpacker vibe. There are guesthouses everywhere and if you wander down the alleys they get cheaper, if a little dingier. We finally got out at night and saw a few Thai cover bands doing mostly old rock tunes. It's easier to name the tune from the melody line than the lyrics because the singers' accents are usually quite odd to our ears. They mostly advertised as jazz but we never did find any. Karen took a daylong cooking class and learned how to make a few of the dishes we've been eating. The leftovers were tasty, although she needs a little practice rolling the springrolls. We should have a good variety at our next dinner party at home. The biggest disappointment in northern Thailand has been the air quality. Chiang Mai has a lot of tuktuks and rental scooters, not to mention the badly maintained cars, trucks and buses. Add to that the soot from the burning crop stubble and the air was quite hazy and gross. We've since left Chiang Mai and are staying further north in Pai where there's less exhaust but more ash, so the haze level is still high but the air seems a bit more breathable. The van ride from Chiang Mai to Pai was more strenuous than we anticipated with hundreds of sharp curves (the T-shirts say 762 curves) in the last two hours of a three-hour drive. We are definitely in Thailand's hill country where there are quite a variety of small-population tribes, each with different languages and traditions. It's part of what every backpacker comes up here for, but we have yet to get out of Pai to see the villages or the waterfalls or the hot springs. You see, Pai is another chill-out place and that's all we've managed so far. Besides there's about five hours in the middle of the day when it's too hot to do anything, but drink beer and read. Yesterday, we over-exerted ourselves walking out of town towards a waterfall but didn't make it due to the heat. We did manage to hitchhike back to town and got a ride in the back of an empty construction truck that was filthy with concrete dust. Got quite a few odd looks from other backpackers who didn't expect to see westerners jumping out of the back of an obviously working local truck. We changed from one guesthouse to another this morning because the first bed was too hard and managed to save some money as our costs dropped from 500 baht to 400 baht a night, that's about $17 to $13 Canadian a night. Everything is so cheap that Karen is having difficulty restraining herself from buying. But who can resist a 70 per cent pashmina and 30 per cent silk scarf for $3, or earrings for half that? That's enough for now. If we sit in these leather chairs much longer Karen's prickly heat will flair up again. It has become our major consideration at dinner - what kind of fabric is on the chair cushions. And because Bob can't sit crosslegged, we can't sit on the floor cushions. We have put up a few pictures of our beach adventure in southern Thailand and will add a few from the north soon. Hope all our new backpacker friends are doing well, we'll try to round up all your email addresses soon and send out a few messages. Thanks especially to Daniel for the comment. Of course, it's always good to hear from home. Miss you. Bye from Pai.

a month on one beach - are we nuts?

Bye bye Koh Phangan, we're back in the Cactus Bungalows on Koh Samui where there's an immigration office and we can extend our visas. We're still undecided on our next stop, however, as we continue to watch the Thai political situation. We are extraordinarily cautious and could just go back to Koh Phangan if there's a safety concern. We sure did love Than Sadet beach. It's the first time in our life that we've stayed in one place for a whole month. We weren't bored, although we did very little except read and eat and play in the waves. Even Karen played in the waves. We spent a lot of our time reading in the hammock so we're not as tannned as those who lay on the beach all day. We met millions of Germans. It was weird - 90 per cent of the tourists were German. It got so we could tell the Swiss Germans from the regular Germans and our own English picked up a bit of German phrasing as we spent so much time talking with them. Going to Thailand to learn German, who would have thought? All the Germans were remarkably friendly and welcomed us into their social circles. In smaller groups, they would all talk English to include us. Even when they had a big birthday party, we were invited and although they talked German among themselves, there were always a few talking English with us, late into the night. We exchanged emails with dozens of them and have even thought that we might go west through Germany to return to Canada instead of going east - it's about the same distance. Drinking beer in the ocean was fun and seemed to be the spark that got the Germans interested in socializing with us. The jungle wildlife freaked us out occasionally. We had our own gecko in our room so it's a bit surprising how many insects we had as well. The gecko was the big kind, a foot long, with a head bigger than a golf ball and he was a bright baby blue with orange spots. The thunk, thunk, thunk as he ran across the wall from one corner cranny to another was always worth a smile in the early morning hours. Still, there was other wildlife in our room. Cockroaches, of course, and Bob screamed like a girl when he found a huge millipede when he picked up a Tshirt from the floor. Then there was the hairy spider the size of a hand that kept us on alert when we entered our bathroom. He was actually only there for a few days but our spidey senses were on alert for weeks. Karen had a succession of small health issues, including both kinds of tummy troubles (too fast, then too slow), a wicked fever in between, and a bruised toe that she smashed between the dinghy and the ferry when she was boarding the ferry in high waves. She's all better now, but that was a bit of a bad end to her four-day solo visit to a yoga retreat at a beach a few kilometres down the coast. She went to yoga classes twice a day and ate lots of healthy vegan food, but despite a mostly positive experience, still wanted to reunite with Bob after four days. See, we're still getting along well after all this togetherness. Sorry our last picture is still from Christmas. Soon, soon, we swear.