Pai!

Well Pai is disappointing... Not one Pie anywhere that I could find!

I'm staying in the Darling View Guesthouse, which is on the hill just across the river from Pai. There's a little dirt track down to a bamboo bridge across the river so it's not far from anything. When I arrived here the owner showed me a room which was 500baht/night, which I thought was a bit expensive for what it was (3 double beds, next to each other along one wall, with a toilet and hot shower). So I told him I'd think about it, even though it's got a good view out over Pai. I went for a ride to look around some more, and then got some money out, and by then it was getting getting late and I gave up looking for somewhere else so I came back. But this time he had a room available for 300baht/night (That's more like it!) which had 3 double mattresses on the ground next to each other along one wall but with a shared bathroom. I took that one, not realising two things... a) it was near the fire which they play loud music at until 1am, and 2) it was right above where people eat breakfast in the morning. So I didn't get too much sleep. I think tonight most of the noisy people have checked out though, but we'll see how this works tomorrow...

So here are more pics from today around Pai!

Another river picture from the bamboo bridge, on my way to get breakfast.

A temple on the main walking street. I don't know the english name of it.

Everyone ignoring the helmet law.

Shiny.

Colourful statues along the fence.

A chedi (I think)

The view from the guesthouse in daylight.

It's like the Thai authorities have a time machine and can predict what's going to happen in the future! I sat in the bar near the corner for a bit and yes. there is most likely an accident a head, probably from whiteys on bikes.

More river, from the non-bamboo bridge, at sunset.

Where I ate my Pad see ew in the markets, 35 baht! Bargain! But then I went and had some spring rolls (20b), a sausage (20b), and a ham and cheese potato thing too (40b), all for $4.

These things need to be in any future cupboard I own. They are, in a clockwise direction: ground peanuts, vinegar and bigchilli(tm), sugar, fish sauce and littlechilli(tm), dried chilli. There's a careful balance of the chillis that I'm perfecting, so far it's about 1 spoon of littlechilli(tm) to 3 spoon of vinegarchilli(tm). In the south they throw fried garlic into the littlechilli(tm) too.

Reflections of the light on the river.

So tomorrow it's off to Mae Hong Son. No Idea what's there but according to the shirts they sell here it's another 400 or so corners...