Pai, Thailand

I love Pai. Pai is awesome. Pai is my favorite.

Day 1

I don't get motion sickness, but on the ride from Chiang Mai up to Pai, I didn't feel too hot. The road was so twisty, turny, & hilly. But I made it! I had about a 15 minute walk from the bus station to my hostel and half way through it started pouring down rain. Luckily, when it rains here it usually pours but only for about 5-15min. So I took shelter under a random storm awning and set off again once it let up. I made it to my hostel and basically relaxed most of the day on their lookout porch. This hostel is amazing. It's set up just outside of town, right on the river, with an amazing view of the mountains. It's pretty basic and rustic, only $3/night. I kind of feel like I'm camping and our "mattress" is about 0.5in thick. But I think the view and the atmosphere more than make up for it. I met two guys, Connor (US) and Florian (Austria) and we all went out for dinner that night and made plans to rent motorbikes and explore in the morning.

Day 2

The boys slept in and I spent my morning reading on the porch in a hammock. The three of us set out for a late breakfast/early lunch and then went to find some motorbikes. Note: I've never technically driven a motorbike before but I've driven a 4-wheeler and a mini dirt bike so I was confident in my skills. I somehow ended up with the most powerful motorbike out of the three of us and the Thai man warned me that my motorbike "speed up very fast, be careful". I immediately gunned the gas way too hard and flew across the road, forgot momentarily that they drive on the other side of the road here, and almost hit a parked car. I sufficiently made the man who rented me the bike immediately regret his decision. I looked back and he was shaking his head in horror. But I quickly regained my composure and drove up and down the road to prove myself and got a thumbs up of approval.Note: I am now a professional at driving a motorbike. I have mastered the art of driving on the left side of the road. I have also become just as aggressive as the Thai drivers and can weave throughout traffic like a pro.Today we set off to explore Pai canyon which is like a very miniature version of the grand canyon. Kinda? It was really cool though. We got some good pictures before it started pouring down rain. We took cover in a small restaurant and got food while we waited for the rain to let up. On the way home we stopped at the "land split" Basically, back in the early 2000's there was an earthquake which split this farmer's land. Literally a giant split in the ground. It was really really cool but I was too lazy to take any pictures so you'll have to either use your imagination or google it. At some point we also went to a waterfall. We wanted to swim but it started pouring down rain and the waterfall turned into a crazy rapid of brown muddy water. So instead we just looked at it.We spent the rest of the day hanging out at the hostel porch until it was time for dinner. Which is how we spend the majority of our time.

Day 3

Today we set out again on our motorbikes, this time to find the hot springs. We had Alice (China) join our crew today. We read that the road to get to the hot springs was a bit crazy. Lots of hills and turns which could be dangerous if you're not careful. Luckily, since I'm a pro-motorbike driver, I had no issues. Poor Alice however was using her selfie stick, connected to her motorbike, to display GPS directions to the hot springs. She got a bit distracted and crashed her motorbike. Luckily she nor the bike were badly hurt. We confiscated her phone and selfie stick and found the hot springs accident free after that. The hills were pretty crazy steep. The boys' bikes couldn't make it up and they had to walk their bikes up most of the way. My bike however, was super powerful, and I flew up the mountain past all the boys. While we were at the hot springs we met an American couple from Pennsylvania. They were really cool and we ended up spending the rest of the day with them. I also took no pictures of the hot spring. But it was basically a pond in the jungle that had warm water.After the hot springs we went to Burger Queen for lunch. They had surprisingly very good burgers. Back at the hostel we met a new girl, Trista (Canada). The four of us set out that night for the market for food and then to the bars for some drinks.

Day 4

We ended up staying out until about 4am which led to me getting a cold and not feeling too hot the next morning. To all the non-native English speakers in the hostel, I taught them the word congested. This day was spent mostly by sleeping, reading, and eating Thai chicken noodle soup. It made me feel very old that I couldn't handle a night out but I'm blaming it all on the cold and not on the Chang. Anyways, I recovered around 4pm and we set out for food where I ate a giant cheese pizza and felt much better. Tomorrow I have a very long day of travel to the islands!