Day two in Pai and Christmas fast approaching. With the lack of lights, tinsel and Western Christmas music in Bangkok, it had begun to feel decidedly un-festive that was until my surprise - Santa had popped over the equator a day early. I was presented with a bag full of cards and letters (this is when I found out) along with a miniature Christmas tree, my own tinsel to decorate it and a stocking to hang. This blooming made my day, thank you everyone who wrote me letters and cards I was utterly chuffed.
After filling up on the very Western breakfast buffet (though they were offering fresh fruit with thousand island dressing - a rather odd but surprisingly frequent offering) we decided to walk into Pai town. It seemed to be the best plan to head off at midday, best chance of sunstroke and dehydration, so off we went. The walk in was actually pretty cool; lots of mountains and countryside and a secluded road to walk in on. The 6.5km took us just under 2 hours and it showed, we were sweaty and a little pink on top - it was our very own Christmas eve hike. At the end of the road we stumbled into a vegetarian/seafood (that's how I eat!!) restaurant called The Sanctuary and ate some "Iguana" style food in the form of steamed pumpkin, guacamole and fresh rolls with accompanying dips. A perfect antidote to the heat and sweat (we are Farang after all).
After this we were off to explore Pai town. As it goes this isn't that hard, Pai is formed of basically a square of four roads lined with shops, stalls and food sellers alongside cars, vans and motorbikes. It's busy. Plenty of tourists here, both Thai and Western. After wandering around for a while, buying coffee from the various converted VW campervans along the way, we hear a voice call our names. Odd as we don't know anyone in Pai. It turned out to be Holly and Shannon, a couple we had met during the cookery course in Chiang Mai. We had company for Christmas Eve, and for the next hour or so we all wandered the 4 streets buying food and chatting and they were kind enough to invite us out for dinner with them and some friends that evening.
After some admin, we headed to the restaurant and passed the remainder of Christmas Eve in grand company with some good food. Closing in on 11pm, Pai was looking a little quieter than before, but only vaguely perturbed we ventured onwards to a bar which was seeing in Christmas Day with a sort of live reggae extravaganza (complete with UV spiderwebs as decor). As time ticked on, I was becoming aware of the lack of vehicles on the streets and a distinct lack of taxis (our hotel being 6.5km away this could pose a potential problem). After asking the proprietor of the reggae bar the status of taxis, I was briefly reassured that this guy would help us out - just not right now, a little later he said.
After seeing him raving it up in the crowd and after he popped over to tell us to "relax he'd take us home after everyone else had gone", we decided to seek alternatives. The four of us headed back to the town, which by this time was fast asleep; barely a vehicle, person or animal was to be seen. After enquiring with a few locals as to the taxi situation, and being laughed at with that knowing look and a merry Christmas, we decided that there were no taxis. This posed a problem; a two hour walk home in cold wasn't appealing at this time (1am) and the other option was to sleep on a doorstep which was also not appealing (it's cold in Northern Thailand at night).
Holly and Shannon had a potential viable alternative (this one's for Dave)... They had hired a motorcycle and were kindly offering to lend it to us to get home. We really had exhausted every other option. Although I had planned to take my first motorcycle ride after a rigorous Health and Safety briefing, wrapped in cotton wool whilst riding on a soft mattress just to be sure, we took the bike.
To recount Dave's advice: don't drive without a helmet, don't drive at night if you can help it, avoid driving on New Years and Christmas eve, don't drive in open toed shoes and so on. All was flaunted. But we got home. The roads were dead, not a soul to be seen, it was freezing but actually fun. It was pitch black and we could see all the stars and the lizards and frogs jumping in front of the bike. We were going about 20mph the entire way but what a way to see in Christmas!
We arrived home to our bungalow, giggling with relief that we'd made it in one piece and before the crack of dawn, deftly grabbed the port and played backgammon on the terrace into the early hours of Christmas day. How terribly British!
No comments:
Post a Comment