I love Pai!

A la mode... because it's uber hot up here (during the day). Pai is a little town a steep and winding 3hr trip from Chiang Mai. The bus ride over was a little sickening, but the town awesome, nice and small and really laid back. At night every bar has good live music. I hung around a campfire (it gets quite chilly here at night) with a large group of travellers listening to music and was very impressed by the amount they drank and their stories of travelling. It's quite a bit different than my experience, I left them at midnight and heard them return to the hostel around 5am... I was getting up in a couple hours to bike around before it got too hot.

The town is surrounded by trails leading to waterfalls, hotsprings, caves and cool things. So I rented a bike (for a 24hr rental it is the same price as a beer $1.25) and hit the road. I planned on riding around to all the surround waterfalls and springs. But on my way to the first one I took a wrong turn. But it was alright because it lead me to endless bumpy hilly roads and dirt trails. It was so amazing and fun riding around the desserted trails and beautiful scenery until I stopped and realized how bad it would suck to be lost and I'm getting hot and tired and I still have lots to see. After a couple of detours and lots of back tracking I found the correct road to the Mo Paeng waterfall. It was a hot steep uphill battle (with locals laughing at me along the way and scooters wizzing by me) for 8km. When I made it to the top a couple that had scootered past me were cheering me on when I arrived. All this to see a sad flow of water pouring over some rocks (I'm spoiled in Oregon). I didn't care to see the other falls by now and was exhausted but had the best joy ride all the way back into town with another missed turn which ended up being alright again because it extended the sweet ride down hill.
Moral of this story: Bikes are fun and amazing!

I made it back to the hostel took a swim in the river that my hostel is set upon and treated myself to my first Thai massage($5/1hr) I felt I'd deserved it, it was great.

Tomorrow I head back to Chaing Mai and am having dinner with the Aussie couple, we're gonna eat like the locals! I catch a long train on Friday to Bangkok to meet... Kenny!! I am so excited! My guy here, getting to do my favorite thing (rock climb), relax on beautiful beaches and snorkel and have an awesome, awesome time for two weeks as this hardworking guy is taking a much deserved vacation.

...forgive me if I don't find time to write a whole lot.