Pai..A Slice of Heaven

As our ride pulled into the countryside resort, Marina exclaimed, its the real Thailand. It looks just like the pictures in my passport stamp. And truly, it did. After the bustle of the big city of Chiang Mai and finally recovering from our travel sickness is, Phai pronounced pie, seemed a slice of heaven.

The pastoral landscape is bright green with newly planted rice fields, and the bucolic Hills rise up around them as gentle protectors. Our little bungalow is nestled among this idyllic scenery, and the only noise is the sounds of the crickets and frogs in the evenings. The air is cooler here, and a brief pocket of rain in the afternoon further refreshes us.

Today, we rented bikes, as Benji said, the civilized way. Essentially, we asked the hotel to shuttle us with our rented bikes to our destination in the hills, and we planned to coast down the 10 miles back into town!

The friendly driver dropped us off at a waterfall, overrun with motorcycle riding, batik wearing, pubic hairs displaying, unshaven hippies. We swam in the cool waters and watched as travelers, don't you dare call them tourists, young enough to be our kids risked necks and limbs sliding down the bumpy rock into the waterfall. It's exactly what Steve and I might have done 20 years earlier. We felt so old!

The only bikes available to rent were built for adults. Even with our adjustments, the kids had a tough time gripping the hand brakes. So our descent down the hills was a fun yet treacherously wild ride.

We paused to check out a Chinese temple and had coasted a couple of miles down hills when we suddenly realized that the temples marked our turn toward town! It was 2 in the afternoon and the heat with bearing down on us like a heavy blanket. We would have to ride back up that hill!

It was slow going on the old bikes. We had run out of water, and had plans to get lunch right after the temple, so add to the mix, four irritated hungry souls. We rode back past the vicious dog that I had been relieved to pass the first time. When the temple finally came back in to view, I could have thanked that Chinese Buddha with blood and tears, but he probably would have preferred if I just meditated. At the small stand next to the temple we bought a liter of water and drink it down in a minute or two.

Mildly dehydrated, but still hot and hungry, we rode around to the proper turn and found ourselves in a small Chinese village. Plenty of outdoor eateries lying to the road and we settled in for some delicious chicken fried rice. The sky overhead turned gray and then slack. Finally the rain pour down on the 10 overhang and we played charades as we watched as we waited out the storm.

Impatient after an hour we hopped on in the drizzle and coasted the last few miles into town. We picked up a curry and steamed fish in the market, along with Steve's favorite dessert --mango with sweet coconut milk and sticky rice!

The kids fell in love with the owners adorable toy chow puppy they played for nearly an hour with the black, fluffy, ball of joy and went to bed dreaming of playing with him tomorrow. And of riding elephants, of course. More on that later in about 4 days when we get internet connection again.