Good Vibrations

Like an episode from ‘Survivor’, I clung to the door frame of the rickety local bus while standing on the lower step, wedged between my wife and another person, challenging myself to hang on just a little while longer, hopeful that someone, anyone, would get off at the next village and make just a little more room for me. When the local bus pulled into Ma Ma Lai, we could see it was full, with people already standing in the aisles, yet 15 more people needed to fit in, and Marge and I were last in line.

Little did I realize that 3 hours later, I would still be occupying the same 1 foot section of the lower door, as even more people squeezed in the back section of the bus. As the bus

navigated endless switchbacks on the uphill climb to Pai, and my body occupied a space half in and half out the bus, I developed a rhythm - relax on the left hand turns as my weight was thrown inwards, and maintain a death grip on the right hand turns as my mass was thrown outwards. The kilometers passed by agonizingly slow as I shifted my weight to prevent cramps and watched the landscape from the door, careful to duck inside when we passed low lying branches, or the driver cut a corner sharply. Then at the end, the money collector wanted to charge me full price – whereupon I smiled and negotiated a much smaller fee for the standing room only seat.

 

We had left the small town of Tha Ton, set north of Chiang Rai, after 3 days. We were kind of neutral on Chiang Rai – having spent 2 days there, it didn’t really merit any more time.

We did get to see the ‘White Temple’, a magnificent wat just outside of town, whitewashed in color and embedded with thousands of pieces of reflective glass which gives it this hard to describe look and feel which changes based on the mood of the day. Would we recommend Chiang Rai? – only 1 day stopover at best.

 

Tha Ton, on the other hand, was a great little town, with the Kok River bisecting the downtown and a limited number of guesthouses scattered throughout town. Not many tourists come here, those that do use the town as a base for visiting local hill tribes - in fact, you can simply walk from downtown and visit a number

of indigenous villages. We’re kind of ambivalent on these hill tribe visits – some have big signs on the side of the highway and charge admission, some are tucked away and require a few hours walk to get to, while there are others
(like the Karen long neck tribe), that deliberately create a market for themselves. On the one hand, for many it’s a source of income, yet how would you feel if a big tour bus dumped a load of people in your neighborhood and they proceeded to wander through your yard taking pictures. Hence the ambivalence – we like to observe, but not to intrude.

 

One day we rented a motorbike to tour some of the outlying areas – they’re cheap, everyone rents them and you can see every wat within 30 miles if you so choose. We drove up to the highly touted Mae Saelong, a Chinese settlement set high up in the hills,

which took most of an hour. Other than the beautiful drive up, we didn’t think there was that much to see or recommend in this town, unless you like to shop Chinese souvenir stands that sell basically the same thing – tea and dried fruit.

 

Tha Ton itself is smack up against the border with Burma. One day we meandered down a

dirt road and came upon a gate guarded by some military guy who wouldn’t let us pass. Later that day, we asked someone what that was about and they explained that there is military there that watches the Burma border and discourages people from sneaking across into Thailand. We did hear the sound of gunshots every now and then, and we think this was the ‘discouragement’ we heard about.

 

Tha Ton is a great little town, the Garden Home Nature Resort is a gem of a place to stay

(cute bungalows right on the river set in an orchard, $15/night, local family runs the place) and we heartily recommend this as a 2-3 day stopover – 3 hours north of Chiang Rai by local minibus.

 

Unfortunately, we spent most of one day getting to Pai, set in a valley in the northwest quadrant of Thailand. Fortunately, we arrived in this charming little town and found that it is one of the best little towns we’ve visited in Thailand so far. There are more

accommodations that you can imagine, there is a large enough nightly food market to satisfy most everyone, a number of book stores, outstanding local scenery, coffee shops,

and a great mellow atmosphere. In fact, we would say that half the places are accommodations, a quarter are restaurants and the rest rent motorbikes.

 

In the guide books, they describe this town as a hippie mecca. It’s definitely moved beyond that and is somewhat upscale – Marge says it’s the Luang Prabang of Thailand. There is a backpacker presence here, along with the seedy tattoo parlors that are so

appallingly appealing to these knuckleheads (isn’t it about time this stupid fad came to an end?), and the accommodations range from $2 to $200. If you can’t find something in Pai that satisfies your accommodation appetite, I don’t know where else you could. We rented

a motorcycle for a ridiculously low $4/day (with insurance no less) and toured all the local sites – hot springs, various wats, and small villages – and realized why everyone loves Pai – it’s a totally laid back place set far enough from civilization that one could get lost in it for a very long time.

 

Yikes, it seems that Pai has squeezed its way unto our already crowded favorite place list – and justifiably so. The place we stayed is 3 months old, it’s called the ‘Baan Suan Rim Pai Resort’, located right downtown at $22/night, wonderful atmosphere, great local owner – we ended up staying 4 nights and could have stayed another week. As we said, many, many places to choose from, all very nice and very cheap.

 

Next stop Soppong, an hour up the road from Pai, for maybe 2 nights, then on to Mae Hong San, another 2 hours further, for 3-4 nights. This part of Thailand is very appealing, people are friendly, scenery is magnificent, and costs are minimal. All in all, definite good

vibrations. And you never know what will happen when you take the local buses – three

days later my upper thighs were still sore when I got out of bed in the morning...