Pai day 1

First day in Pai! Was pretty lively down the main street yesterday afternoon and evening but it's like a ghost town this morning. It's definitely a place aimed at tourists, so think most people were recovering from the night before.
I found a girl with a spare seat on her scooter on hostelworld and we drove up through the mountains to the Nam Lod caves. It was over 1 & 1/2 hours drive, but we had beautiful views. We met another guy when got there and got a tour around the three caves, led by our guide who was leading the way with a gas lamp. The first caves was so huge, even when shining your phone flashlight, you couldn't see the bats at the top of the cave. There was a lot more stair climbing than expected, but the stalactites and other rock formations were stunning. There were 30 wooden coffins that were discovered in the caves, estimated to be 1000 years old, and even some ancient carving in one dating back 3000 years!
The highlight of the tour was going through the final cave on a small bamboo raft, with only the light from the lamp illuminating the fish in the water, and drift wood washed up along the rock wall. As the cave mouth opened up, the sunlight uncovered hundreds of bats encircling the top of the cave. Was a very very cool experience.
We met up with two guys we had chatted to on a snack pitstop on the way for lunch. It's honestly so easy to make friends while travelling, everyone I've met is so chill, someone you've just met will ask if you wanna grab some food or go on a day trip, it's crazy but so nice.
In the evening we checked out a couple live music bars and got to experience a bit of Pai nightlife.Weiterlesen