Escape to Pai

It was time for Adventure Shark to cool her jets, and take a "vacation within a vacation".
A little town called Pai on the northern edge of Thailand seemed just the ticket. It has only about 5000 people, but has evolved into a hangout town for foreigners, complete with a live music scene and all manner of food and backpacker amenities. Plus, it is nestled in a lush green valley surrounded by mountains, rice paddies and hill tribe villages.
Right before we left Chiang Mai, we enjoyed a few hours in a national park that was breezy, cool and smelled of pine needles (Seattle, anyone?). However, we had to endure a two-hour round-trip, five-leg, bargaining and waiting-filled sangthew journey just to go 16 km away and back for a little natural respite. Escape was in order.
Chicken Bus?
We knew it was to be a four-hour ride through hair-pin mountain roads to get to Pai. The condition of the bus was a mystery - would it be a chicken bus like Guatelmala? Would we stop for a bathroom break? We completely lucked out in getting the back row, where Shane had some leg room (after clearing the extra bags, spare bus tire, and sprawled out beer-swilling, mohawk-sporting Dutch passenger. The windows did open, we got some air, and no motion sickness ensued as we ascended through the hills.
Bungalow-ville
The favored mode of lodging in Pai is the bungalow. A small river hugs the outskirts of town, and one room bamboo structures on stilts crowd along the banks. We managed to find a small cluster on a dead-end street (shadier, quieter and with nice greenery and common garden). It is very basic but we have gotten great sleep and the occasional 10-minute stretch of hot water. And...
Conditions
No mosquitoes! (Well, only a handful). Our REI-purchased Deet is going completely unused, as is the billowy pink mosquito-net hanging above our bed. And the weather is lovely - chilly in the mornings and evenings; hot and dry from 12 - 4.
Laissez-Fair Yoga
On my first morning here, I decided to try out a yoga class and see what a Thai-trained guru had to offer. Hmmmm. So for those of you familiar with my "Yoga Nazi" stories, I have taken mostly Iyengar Yoga classes in the past. This branch is very strict, with a lot of emphasis on discipline (show up to class on time, respond quickly to the teacher, perfect alignment).
But here in Pai, "Mam" runs a different game. It was a two-hour class that started 15 minutes late when the last of the four students showed up. We did one pose, then rested in savasana. Now normally you don't lie in corpse pose until the end of a session, but we alternated the whole time like this - a few minutes of a pose, then rest for a few minutes. And during these rests, Mam conducted other business - taking a cell phone call, feeding her cats, receiving payment from one of the students! Not so restful, but a great challenge to your concentration skills. Mam provided fresh papaya and 'chatting' at the end, but I don't think I'll be going back...
Liberation on Wheels
The time was finally right to rent the ubiquitous moped. In Chiang Mai, the traffic was just too overwhelming, but here it is rural and seems more do-able. I turned over my passport as a deposit (no driver's license requested), and we were off on our navy 125cc Honda Wave.
It was great! We were loosed from the tethers of seeing whatever was in walking distance, or whatever tour someone wanted to provide. Buzzing through the country roads, we saw rice fields being watered, cows grazing, and small roadside stands. Our destination was a waterfall called Mo Ben Paeng. We poked around through the rocky pools, then Shane settled down to paint while I posed for him (book in hand). After, we stopped at a little open-air restaurant perched on top of a hill and whiled away an hour looking at the vista and relaxing. Relaxing - on a vacation - what a concept.
I Love the Nightlife
There is an overwhelming amount of restaurants in this town, most offering the standard Thai menu, but also everything from Tex-Mex to Indian to Weinerschnitzel. At night it all comes alive - hill-tribe women spread out their blankets of embroidery and jewelry, vendors sell vats of lemongrass tea and fried foods, and mini-bars on wheels spring up. Tonight we split a pitcher of margaritas with a couple from the Meditation Retreat we ran into again. As we make our way home, we will try to avoid the multiple bad acoustic renderings of Dylan and The Stones echoing out of the alleys...

Pai