Once Upon a Time in the Thai Hinterland

Waking up at 'Pai Homey' is always nice because then the cold night in our bungalow is over and it's going to be a hot day.

As the name suggests, we are currently in Pai in Northern Thailand. Pai is the third stop of our trip after Bangkok and Chiang Mai. After spending 3 days in Chiang Mai, we continued north by bus. The three-hour journey was so winding that even our driver had to stop and vomit. Luckily, I was sleeping, but according to eyewitness reports, I either almost fell into the aisle or onto Annabell with every turn. Ultimately, we all safely arrived at our destination, this picturesque little town.

Picky Germans or Villa Madness?

After arrival, we had to walk for quite a while with our luggage to reach our accommodation, passing beautiful bungalows and inviting holiday resorts. Pai is a small town with only a few thousand inhabitants, and once you're outside the city center, there are only holiday resorts and smaller groups of local homes. Otherwise, it's mainly fields and streams. We had booked our accommodation online in advance for five nights. We would soon regret this. When we arrived there (in the middle of nowhere), the place was quite old, our quadruple room was small and unkempt, the beds were rock hard, and the whole atmosphere was uncomfortable. The bathroom was accordingly unpleasant. What to do? Accept the problems, as backpackers shouldn't expect European standards? But for five days and at a relatively high price? No, not in the mood. Therefore, we asked the owner if we could cancel for free to search for something else. She showed us another room as an alternative, but we had already decided against the place and didn't want it. So we had to annoy her further, even though she hardly spoke English. It was about as if a blind person described a painting to a deaf person. With the help of a Thai guest who could translate, we were ultimately allowed to leave without any additional costs. Very accommodating.

Closer to the city center, we found the Pai Homey with great bungalows including breakfast. Good exchange. What did we learn from this? Never book several days in advance. Better book for just one day and check out the place. If it's not good, you can choose a new accommodation on site.

The next day, we attended a cooking class for Thai cuisine. If you want to try the best Pad Thai ever in Germany, you have to come to our shared apartment in Karlsruhe. Rolling spring rolls, on the other hand, was not my strong suit. But the teacher overlooked that and praised me anyway. Comparable to parents who assure their child that the painted picture is definitely great. In the end, it's crap, though.

An early riser by passion

But now back to the present, which will already be the past by the time I publish this blog. Complicated game with tenses...🤦‍♂️

Today, we have to get up early because we're going on a hike to Mae Yen Waterfall. But getting up early is not so easy. Dennis and I are not exactly early risers and it goes so far that even Annabell gets angry if we don't stick to a waking time that she considers agreed upon, but that we feel is imposed on us. It should also be mentioned that the night before, we planned our further journey until 01:20. We neglected this planning in Chiang Mai.

Party naked

In Chiang Mai, we stayed at a party hostel. It became clear that it was a party hostel when the hosts stormed into every room at exactly 6:00 p.m. and insisted on pouring a shot into everyone's mouth. And look at the house rules, really wild. 😂

And the crazy thing is, if you lose in a game here, you really have to run naked around the table. They go through with it. For example, one of the hosts had his farewell on our first day and had to perform tasks like drinking a shot from another person's penis, making three confessions while naked, and something with a condom, but I didn't want to know the details. I had a good conversation with a Frenchman who was about thirty years old, had worked on a cruise ship for a long time, and is now traveling the world. His favorite German word is 'verflixt'. 😂

I understood that his name is Julien, but according to Annabell, his name is Jimmy. When in doubt, Annabell is right. 😄

We played drinking games from 6:00 p.m. that evening and by 8:00 p.m., when we were having dinner at a restaurant, we were already drunk. As a result, I was in a good mood, and unfortunately, the waitress misunderstood and asked me if I was laughing at her. Maybe she thought I was making fun of her imperfect English. But that wasn't the case.

Why do I always mess it up with service personnel? A waitress at home has hated me ever since a few years ago on Valentine's Day when she had heart-shaped decorations on her face and I asked if it was a special day. A Frenchwoman hated me when I jokingly said 'Gracias'. And I'm totally out of favor with the cafeteria ladies in Kehl because I always ask if the food is vegetarian or if the soup is available without meat. Well, maybe it's just bad luck with me.

But let's continue with our intoxication in Chiang Mai. After dinner, we took a walk and then returned to the party hostel. The people there were already completely drunk, and the host who had his farewell was totally knocked out by 10:00 p.m. I had a nice conversation with an Algerian flight attendant who used to be a professional football player in France and wants to become a coach. He wanted to recruit me for Emirates right away, and his strongest argument was the possibility of flings with the flight attendants. The stereotypes seem to be true. 😄

But I politely declined since, as a civil servant, I'm not made for stress, and especially not for constantly changing time zones.

We continued to a club at 11:00 p.m., as bars and clubs in Thailand close very early. At that time, I felt sober again. After ten minutes, we arrived with the party crowd from the hostel on a party street, but unfortunately, we couldn't get into the clubs anymore. However, since they were designed to be open, there was a street party. My problem was that there was a lot of space for dancing. Those who know me might know that I'm a rather modest dancer, and because I'm tall, it can be seen from afar. So at first, I was reserved. But at some point, I thought, screw it, no one here knows you anyway.

Hold back the river

But let's get back to the present. The path to the waterfall is supposed to take 3 hours one way and follows a river. Makes sense when going to a waterfall. We start with backpacks full of drinking water. But soon it becomes clear that the path has multiple crossings over the river.

In the end, we cross back and forth twenty times. With our hiking shoes, that means balancing on stones because they shouldn't get wet. In the long run, it's annoying because it takes time for four people to cross the river without getting wet. So, let's remember the last few days instead.

The day before, we visited the 'Conserve Natural Forest Project'. It's a non-profit organization that reforests the forest in Thailand. Very impressive what people have built there. We even got to plant trees ourselves, but initially in pots because the soil is currently too dry. The employees will later transplant the trees into the ground during the rainy season.

However, the main reason why we were there was the opportunity to see an elephant live. In Thailand, there are many places where you can do this, for example, in so-called 'Elephant Sanctuaries'. Just from the title, it is implied that the main focus is on the well-being of the animals. However, anyone with common sense can assume that no animal willingly lives in captivity, willingly allows itself to be petted, and likes it when people bathe with it. And how do you train an animal to display these unnatural behaviors? Certainly not by talking nicely, but by hitting and poking. There may be exceptions, but they are very, very rare, and as tourists, we can't know if the facility we visit is one of them. I won't even start with elephant riding. If you read a little about it, you'll realize it's pure animal cruelty.

That's why it was clear to me that I didn't want to see an elephant under these circumstances. However, in the 'Conserve Natural Forest', there was the possibility to see a freely roaming female elephant live, without it being forced. On the site, this elephant purchased from captivity is being accustomed to a wild life before being released back into the wild. We tourists have the opportunity to see her when she comes to the same spot every day for feeding. But the animal can only be fed and not touched, etc. It can also happen that the animal doesn't feel like being fed, searches for its own food, and as a result, the tourists have bad luck. According to our guide, this sometimes happens because the female elephant is a drama queen. But we were lucky and got to hang out with her for almost an hour.

After visiting the forest, we returned to the city and to the next activities. Among other things, we visited the bamboo bridge. It is a bridge made of woven bamboo that leads across rice fields. Originally, it was supposed to look like this:

Supposedly one of the highlights of the trip. Thanks to the dry season and the location on a hill, pumping water up became difficult, so it looked like this. When reality hits you...

But we were at a cafe, the 'two huts pai', on a hill with a pool from which you had a great view over a valley. There were even green rice fields there...

Johanna also helped me get my problem with service personnel in Thailand under control. She taught me how to say thank you and hello in Thai. The Thais are really happy when you thank them in their national language. However, you have to be careful and use the correct ending. Women and men use different endings, and ladyboys use different ones as well. So if you're not careful...

For me, nothing can go wrong with service personnel in Thailand anymore. However, in the next two weeks in Vietnam, it can definitely go wrong. 😄

Well, now off to Vietnam.

Long live our jet-flying king!

Lukas