Climbing in Mae Sai

Mae, myself and Sak, just before dropping me off at the bus.

Another activity without any photographs was the rock climbing in Mae Sai. When I was in Bangkok I was spectator at a Thai climbing tournament. One of the organisers gave me a flyer and this is what brought me to a climbing wall next to the 'fish cave'. Again this was an initiative where the local villagers had learnt to climb and belay. After a couple of difficult phone calls, because my host-to-be Mae didn't speak a lot of english, I got picket up from the main road. Everything was pretty well organised. There were a lot of routes set up in the rock and all the materials - shoes, harness, ropes - was available. After starting with a top rope climb I did a couple of lead climbs. The guys, Mae and Sak, tried to give me more difficult routes every time.

At the end of the afternoon I could stay to spend the night at Mae his house. He took me to the local karaoke bar where his girlfriend worked as a waitress. A lot of fun. Sak didn't know any english, but managed to teach me 'mang ma'. 'Mang ma' means 'very much'. So every time he asked me something, eg. 'muan mai?' - 'did you enjoy?' - I needed to answer 'muan mang ma' - I enjoyed very much'.

The next day I could borrow Mae his scooter and spent a day on the road visiting tea plantations and mainly enjoying the scenery.

Akha hill tribe village

I spent 2 nights in the Akha hill tribe village. A guesthouse set in the mountains in the middle of a local hill tribe village. A very interesting experience, when the rest of the group that were on the truck was having dinner in the restaurant, I was walking through the village and got talking to one of the locals. Of course I don't have any pictures of this, better luck next time.

The man that I got talking to was building a house for the family and his sister in law invited me into the kitchen. "Please come in and take a look". Her mother and her baby were in the kitchen, which was nothing more that a bamboo hut. Half of the floor in the hut was elevated with bamboo mats to sit on. The other half of the floor was used for cooking. A small fire was lit for the kettle with the jungle tea. I never turn down a nice cup of tea.
After a while the brother/father/husband came home and I got invited to stay for dinner. Dinner being rice with omelet and a mixture of small bird crushed with ginger, garlic and some other herbs. I left the hut at 23.00, when it was time to go to bed.
The next day we had a walk around the village, which included the tea plantation, a river, another, different type of hill tribe village, hotsprings and waterfall.

Pai on foot

My passport at the Chines embassy was ready on Monday, so I spent Sunday as my last day in Pai. Again Peter, Shane and Gary were too ... to join me to the waterfall. This waterfall was a short trip on the motorbike and then a long walk along a very nice path through the jungle. Sometimes I needed to wade through the stream to find the rest of the path. All the way at the end of the waterfall, after 2 hours walking, I wasn't expecting to find anybody, but it turned out that a young couple from the Ukraine had put up their tent at the base of the fall and were camping there for 2 days. They had hitchhiked from home, through Russia, Afganistan, Pakistan to India and were now on their way back through Thailand, Laos and China.

The butterfly enjoyed the salty sweat on hand and leg.

Pai by motorcycle (2)

Peter, Shane and Gary are probably still sleeping when these pictures were taken. I took the motorcycle out by myself on the beautiful road through the hills north of Pai. A very scenic route of about 50km leads to Tham Lod. Tham is cave in thai. Tat is waterfall and Nam is river or water. A river runs through the cave, so the locals have seized the opportunity to make some money. After a five minute walk after one of the female guides we arrived at the entrance of the cave. The oil lantern is lit and a boatman is selected. Ready to go through the cave. Downstream on the way into the cave and upstream on the way back. At 18.00 all the bats in the cave apparently fly out to go hunting, but I had to go back because I didn't want to drive in the dark.

Back in Pai, every evening there is a market with souvenirs in the main street. The king is also the patron saint for this little stall, like he is everywhere for all the Thai people.

Pai by motorcycle (1)

After more than a week spending time in Chiang Mai a very windy road took me to Pai, a laid back little town surrounded by hills in the north west of Thailand. This was an ideal place to finally do some yoga. After a short stroll through the town I came accross the yoga studio - a bamboo hut - of Mama. Mama, as it turned out, was a very active and cheerful older lady with a lot of energy. A very nice way of just relaxing a little before Gary, a couchsurfer, Matthias from Germany and Peter and Shane, Irish, arrived in Pai.

A motorbike is the way to go around Pai. In about a day we got to see a chinese village with a wooden ferris wheel, a couple of waterfalls, a canyon, a hotspring and a nice Wat on top of the hill.

You only live once, so we just had to give the ferris wheel a go.

At this waterfall the local Thai kids were having fun in the water. They showed us the best places to slide down the slippery rocks.

At the end of the day we enjoyed a nice sunset from the temple on top of the hill. The view however is not all that great because of all the burning that the locals do. A lot of the forest is being burnt to be used for agriculture. The result of this all is that the sky is not clear, but more blurry due to the smoke in the air.