we have left our little haven of pai (but only for three days!) as we venture up to burma to do a "border run" so that we can stay in thailand for another month. we arrived to chiang mai yesterday after a car-sickness provoking ride on the little minivan through the windy mountain roads (tip: bring an orange on a potentially carsickness-provoking journey so that you can squeeze the rind to release fresh citrus scents in case the girl behind you happens to be throwing up repeatedly....thank goodness for those oranges!)
we have been having so much fun! mostly because we met some absolutely GREAT people in Pai and have been going on adventures with them every day. we drove about 60km up to soppong, and went to lot cave up there, one of the largest caves in thailand with a river running through it, thousands of bats, an enormous stalagtites and stalagmites....we didn't hire a guide, but traipsed our way through with headlamps and little flashlights and a beeswax candle, and turned them off when we were up in a humid little chamber...wow i've never been in such darkness before, complete. we drove through beautiful lush green rice paddies on a bumpy dirt road and then hiked for a couple of hours to a beautiful triple waterfall, swimming past the falls into a little cave behind them....we have gone to hotsprings a couple of nights for $1 a person, sitting out under the stars for hours....we did an herbal sauna at the good life, fresh with camphor and steam and tiger balm...we eat long yummy meals at the good life (great french toast!) and meet new travelers coming through. we are enjoying our light filled, wood floored, spectacular view-blessed cottage up in the hills....it's a wonderful life :)
we ran into our pai frend claire yesterday literally 30 seconds after we hopped off our little taxi truck, and had a fun evening with her at the chiang mai sunday market ...today we hope to go to monk chat at one of the wats (temples)...they have it three times a week, and for two hours you can go in and have conversations witht the monks and ask them questions, and they will share with you and practice their english. it sounds amazing! tomorrow we are going on a long bus ride north to the burma border to basically walk over the border and then get a stamp and come back into thailand...and then head back to pai the next day for at least a couple more weeks :) luckily our new friends rachael and mike (an amazing couple from maine) have decided to stay in pai longer with us too, so we will continue the breakfasts at the good life, the cave exploring, the evening hotsprings, and whatever else we discover!
happy new year everyone!
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