Pai

After I made it to Chang Mai, I rented a motorbike and road for the whole day over the mountains and into the town of Pai; one of my favorite places in Thailand. Its a little sleepy hippy town in north eastern Thailand. and its famous for being so layed back, that travelers usually get stuck there for much longer than they had originally planned- There, instead of staying in the tourist area, me and the German girl I met up with stayed with some one from couchsurfing.com. A worldwide community website where people allow you to stay at their house for free. Here, I stayed with girl who lived in her bamboo hut on a plot of land in a Burmese refugee village at the end of a dirt road. I got the chance to talk and drink with a few refugees and one who had actually been shot in combat against the Burmese army. Just meeting these people made the visit to this town amazing. Days were spent at the waterfalls, pubs, and just hanging around painting in the bamboo hut listening to blues records powered off the solar panel setup. It was the second time I had stayed in Pai, and the experience was completely different, and completely amazing. Here I remembered why I was traveling.