Goodbye, Pai!

Well, our time with John is officially over, as he drove a scooter back to Chiang Mai this morning (brave soul...there are about 768 curves between the two places), while we're awaiting an evening bus to the Laos border. We really enjoyed travelling with John and think that more people should come join us between now and October!

Pai, as I mentioned in my last post, is a sort of hippie town, a bit like Woodstock or Montezuma in Costa Rica (minus the beach). It's not much of a hot spot for Thai culture, but it's a fun little town with nice, laid back people, good food, and beautiful mountains and rice paddies surrounding it. Pai is also very self-aggrandizing, with its name on just about every souvenier here. Anybody need an "I love Pai" shirt?

Debbie and I spent our days here mostly wandering through town, swimming in the pool at our hotel, and reading. John rented a scooter and drove around the countryside a bit, but I somehow failed at scooting on my first attempt. For some reason I couldn't teach my brain not to turn the accelerator when I meant to slow down. After fifteen minutes and a number of tries, the guy trying to help teach me suggested I give up. I'm sure with more practice I could get it, but remember, I only learned how to drive relatively recently! It's worth noting that Debbie actually got the hang of it but was kind enough not to abandon me, so she didn't do much scooting either.

We did, however, take another Thai cooking class here, where we learned how to make Pad Thai, red curry paste, stir-fried vegetables, mango with sticky rice, and Tom Ka Kai soup. Again, a lot of fun and really delicious! During this class we also got to walk to the local market and try some fun things there, including bananas in sticky rice, mangosteins, fish cakes, and a delicious coconut milk & flour pastry. We also learned that in choosing pineapples, when the eyes are the same size, the pineapple tends to be sweet. When the eyes at the top are a different size than those at the bottom, it's sour.

Yesterday the three of us did a yoga class (my first, I believe), which was really intense but lots of fun! Suffice it to say that the number of poses we couldn't do (or at least couldn't hold for more than a split second) inspired us to want to do more yoga. In the evening we went to a local hot springs, where we were almost the only people there (a Japanese couple showed up about 15 minutes in, and when we were leaving we saw another couple in one of the pools on the way out). It was definitely the most natural of the hot springs we've been in, as it was in a national park (as opposed to a spa as in New Zealand or resort as in Costa Rica).

Tonight Debbie and I begin an epic three-day journey to Luang Prabang in Laos. We're on an 8:00pm mini-bus to the border with Laos. We arrive at 2:00am and stay overnight on the Thailand side, then in the morning go across to Laos, where we catch a slow boat down the Mekong river. We stop about half way for the night, then continue on the rest of the way the following day. So we're leaving Pai (and Thailand) today, which is Thursday, and will arrive in Luang Prabang on Saturday. Should be an experience!

In the meantime, as Debbie noted to her sister, we probably won't have internet access on the Mekong River, so no posting for a few days. But feel free to comment so that we have something to read when we finally get to Luang Prabang!