After my 80th trip to the Indian Consulate in Chiang Mai, and after spending “1 MILLion Baht” to secure my visa, I grabbed some Tom Ka Gai and Luke and I jumped on a mini bus bound for Pai. A nauseating three hour drive through windy mountain roads led us to a very charming mountain town that was worth the trip.
Our first night was spent in bungalows right on the river over a rickety bamboo bridge. We slept on a spongy mattress on the floor under a large mosquito net after wandering around checking out the town, grabbing dinner, and watching Pirates of the Caribbean II. It felt a lot like camping trips as a kid, hearing whispers and low music coming from surrounding flashlight lit bungalows. We had a great time, but Luke was ready to seriously step it up for the next night.
The next morning, we carried our stuff across the bamboo bridge to a resort on the other side of the river. Luke booked us the nicest room in the place, complete with the largest jacuzzi pool I have ever seen RIGHT in the room. After a quick dip and a long lounge on the cushy couch and chairs, we left our palatial suite and ran into Dan and Molly on the street (my travel friends from Vietnam). We invited them over at 6pm for drinks and a dip in the jazcuzzi. Luke bought candles and lit up the whole place and set up his laptop so that we could listen to music, throw in all our sim cards to look at pictures of where we had been, and watch music videos in the jacuzzi. We were all happily overwhelmed by the extravagance, and felt purdy darned spoiled.
We went out for some great Indian food, played ping-pong with some locals, and checked out 2 clubs. We returned with 2 more new friends, and all 6 of us enjoyed the jacuzzi until someone from the hotel asked us to keep it down. Pretty soon after, everyone left, and we went to sleep.
The next morning, we had a huge shock when we received a lecture and a big bill for bringing ‘guests’ back to the hotel. A favorite quote for the interaction was “Would you do this in your country?” Um, YES, in fact. If we rented the best room in a hotel that had a jacuzzi built for 12, I do believe we might have a few friends over. The aggravating thing was that we were pretty quiet, and once we were asked to be quiet, everyone left. Luke has been plotting his retribution in the form of letters from high ranking US officials. So much for the high life.
We left shortly thereafter and caught a bus back to Chiang Mai, where I had some more Tom Ka Gai before we left for the train station. We boarded our train bound for Bangkok and settled into our private room for our overnight journey. We watched the sunset over passing towns and country sides, played zilch, drank beer, and ate a late dinner (which, for train food, was actually quite delicious). Luke broke out his computer and we watched “High Fidelity” before crashing.
When we woke up the next morning, we decided to bust through Bangkok and leave for the beach that night. We used our 10 hours well, getting a tuk-tuk to take us to a bunch of temples, seeing a tailor about a very nice suit for Luke, and walking up and down Khao San Road. Right as we were having a quick last beer on Khao San before our bus, Brad comes walking down the street (my friend from Cambodia and Vietnam). It was so much fun to see him. We quickly shared a beer and stories from where we had been since we last saw each other, and Luke and I bolted to a tuk-tuk where we had a Mr. Toad’s wild ride to the train station. We made it just in time, and got on our tourist bus headed South. As always, this turned out to be more of an adventure than we bargained for.
