After a ridiculous and awesome five days at home, which included a happily surprised mum and Hannah, unexpected awesome presents (mostly dvds and slim books, which I have brought with me) and a night out with the one and only Ben Bruce and John Kelly, I have arrived back in Thailand. It was a rather epic journey, taking about 28 hours and involving one car journey, two train, three planes, a taxi and a bus. Almost all of these were caught in the nick of time - I queued at heathrow for an hour or so, said goodbye to Clare and then found that my flight status was 'gates closing', meaning I had to dash (beltless and shoeless - since when have they had a machine specifically for scaanning shoes?) all the way to what seemed like the furthest departure gate in Heathrow. I was sitting next to an arab chap who Clare had earlier accused of having breath "like he'd been eating actual shit" for the first flight, which was lovely. In Doha we had a bout 10 minutes to rush through security and then straight back onto our next flight, which I (miraculously) slept straight through. At Bangkok I picked up my baggage for my 12:50 flight at 12:45, so I figured I was stying in Bangkok for a night. I turned my phone on and received a text update from AirAsia saying it had been delayed by 40 minutes, so I rushed through and got on it just in time. At Chiang Mai, I got in at 15:15, and the last bus to Pai left at 4 - I dashed to a taxi, made it there by 15:53, to be informed that the last bus was full. Shit. At the last second I got rammed into the back seat along with 4 Thai guys, and a four hour ridiculous journey commenced, along the windiest roads I have ever seen. Chiang Mai is only 175ish kilometres away, meaning we averaged about 40 km/h (we had a fried chicken break).
As we arrived in Pai, I was looking out of the window and I saw the Irie bar, and sitting in it I saw two dreadlocked folk who looked an awful lot like Kate's friends Chris and Katie. I asked the conductor (for want of a better word) to stop, he refused, so I jumped out at the next slow turn and ran back - I was right, it was them! Really friendly people, who sorted me out with a place to stay - I am in a tent on the first floor balcony out back, which is a LOT better than nothing. We had a few beers and played shithead for a while, then I hopped on the back of Sam(from Melbourne, lives in a place called Pailand, but more about that later)'s moped for a trip to an art opening nearby. we became deeply engrossed in conversation, which resulted in us missing the turning three or four times. When we got there, it was amazing - you walk through a sort of corridor of plants, over a tiny stream which leads to a waterfall, into a little gallery and on down to the main area - a big fire surrounded by rugs and mats, which in turn are surrounded by noodles, BBQ, local food stalls, a bar and a stage. There were bands playing all night while the guys from Pailand 'played fire'. This involves fire poi and firestick, which fitted in perfectly and was wonderful. Pailand is a sort of farm nearby, down by the river I think, where Sam lives, along with Ben, Joey, Bobby and Bang. They keep their horses out back of the Irie in the garden - last night they rode to the place. Seldom has horseback been a viable alternative to motorised transport. Anyway, the place we were at can best be described as a kind of permanent Glastonbury healing fields. In fact, the whole town can. The second you get out of town there are loads of little hammock filled bars and guesthouses, strewn with cushions and either playing reggae or umm, y'know, trancey indian music. Not sure of the genre.
This town seems really awesome - I can quite see why people come here for months on end. Everyone I have met has been really friendly, although Emily (also staying at Irie) was criticising people for being too hippy. I quite understand what she means, there were some people at the art thing who seemed to be using wafting as a means of perambulation, and others who seemed to be dressed as elves.
1 comment:
HAHA OMG YOU SAT NEXT TO THE SHIT MAN. i hated the shit man so much. i had forgotten about him and now i remember and am all angry about him again. omg. how fucking gross. his breath did smell amazingly bad though, didn't it? have you read any books yet or have you been hippying about too much? no worries if not. i had an awesome new years at fi's, far more fun and less annoying than any other new years i can remember.. went for dinner at the greyhound this evening, i had an amazing sesame soy fillet beef salad thing, then came home and watched harry potter. the puppy remains amazing, my reason for getting up in the morning. not much else to say. hope you're having fun, love you xxxx
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