Pai-radise

Both Fran and I had visited Thailand on previous occasions so it’s difficult not to have preconceptions of the place. (Drunk teenagers, hi-rises, old men with young Thai girlfriends) Fortunately we did pretty well to steer ourselves away from that scene and spent our first few days in a lovely little village in the far north of Thailand called Pai – much to the delight of t-shirt makers and their corny puns.

Even our hotel owners had a stab and called their place Pai-radise. It did well to live up to our expectation. Super chilled out a nestled on the side of the valley with some lovely bungalows around a central lake. Waking in the morning to the sound of fountains and Yogic meditation (Why do people actually need to go Hmmmmmmmmm?)

Pai has become a mini-retreat for the affluent Bangkok weekenders with their t-shirt procuring Thai baht and their super 8000000x zoom lenses to take photos of, er, everything. Preceeding them were the lost Americans from the 90s who ffound themselves, in more ways than one, in Pai but have yet to really wake up. You can practice different types of yoga, standing meditation, sitting meditation, walking meditiation (I prefer the sleeping meditation) – you can drink green tea, black tea, red tea, blended wheatgrass super-tonics, Aura of Defence +3 potions, all sorts.

WELLIPHANT!

Fran and I amused ourselves for 10 minutes riding an elephant and then enduring the remaining 50 minutes getting sore thighs. However the swimming with the elephant at the end was hilarious and well worth the agony getting there. If not a little scary when the elephant begins to lose his footing when you’re right beside him. Oh, and when it decides to shit in the water. And trust me – elephant dumps are BIG.

Swimming with elephants in Pai

Anyways, touristy but ultimately very relaxing and beautiful, Pai was left behind us as we crossed the mountains to Chiang Mai. Great Thai curries and huge markets kept us occupied in the capital of the north. Fran lost herself in beads and I got excited by the prospect of learning Chinese Chess. We paid a visit to Thailand’s most auspicious monuments – Doi Suthep.

Gates to the old city, Chiang Mai

After a failed attempt at reaching Sukhothai, the old capital of Thailand, we found ourselves at Ayutthaya, the even older capital of Thailand. We took a lovely sunset boat trip around the “island” – a world heritage area of old temple complexes and experienced our first feeling of being very, very, very hot. A taste of things to come me thinks.

Most photographed buddha? - Wat Mahathat

Postures of the Buddha, Wat Phra Boromthat

Boat trippers in Ayuttaya

Ancient Wat Chaiwatthanaram

And yes, Bangkok was hot. The IMAX cinema was cold though and Alice in Wonderland 3D was cool. With no energy to visit more Wats (Buddhist monastries), we took time to check out the weekend and night markets – both really worth a visit. I guess we were too excited about the prospect of heading to the beach to do much more.

IMAX goon

Thai curries near Chatuchak weekend market, Bangkok

The night train south was a mini adventure (Fran almost freezing herself in the top bunk) and made our journey to Koh Lanta somewhat pleasant after the tortuous night buses of Asia.

Koh Lanta was to mark our last bit fof “Chill Out” before heading home. A holiday from holiday if you will. A relatively undeveloped island in the far south west of Thailand, a decent distance from the tourist ridden islands of the Gulf on the east coast. We spent a decent amount of time here doing very little. Snorkelling at Koh Haa was amazing – pufferfish, triggerfish, corals, anemone fish (nemos to the kids) – a great day out on the boat. In the evening we took time to cross the island on our Honda Wave and soaked up some of the atmosphere at the Lanta Festival – yummy street food and cheap beer at the open air stage.

Street food at the Lanta Festival

Snorkelling at Koh Haa

It was a pleasure to spend a few days in Koh Lanta and we had some spankingly new accommodation just a few yards from a gorgeous beach – a bargain at the price we paid. So for anyone visiting Koh Lanta, get in touch for a recommendation! Thanks to Fran (and parents) for paying for it out of her christmas fund

Thailand is what you make of it – there’s enough for the history hunter, the party planner, the beachcomber or the barefoot hippies – and most people, rightly or wrongly, keep themselves to themselves. (Why is it that where you find more tourists, you meet less people?) It was certainly a different experience from our previous visits. For once it wasn’t same-same.

Sunset from the balcony, Ko Lanta

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