Pai to Chiang Mai

After braving the Night Markets one last time in Pai With a new arrival to the hostel, Adam, I spent a chill night playing pool and ping-pong.

The next morning was similar to the day I arrived: people preparing for tipsy tubing as I moved my large rucksacks around. It was sad to say goodbye to a lot of the people I had met as they had made Pai A very enjoyable place to be despite my illness, but I also knew I would likely bump into a lot of them in Laos in the not too distant future.

The bus ride back to Chiang Mai was wild, I thought we were driving pretty fast uphill then when we crossed a ridge and started the descent into Chiang Mai I was partially convinced that I wasn’t going to make it. The mini van driver was following a convoy of others from the same company and they would overtake everything. Mopeds, Cars, lorries, it didn’t matter if they were going a reasonable speed or if a blind corner was coming up, the minivan with rev up and go barrelling past into potentially oncoming traffic.

Anyway I’m writing this so I must’ve survived and I managed to avoid being carsick unlike one poor girl in the back row. In fact I was finally feeling back to myself so I ended up having two meals at a delicious local restaurant around the corner from the hostel (the Ka Preow was unbelievably good) before the social event organised by the hostel that evening.

The event was the Ladyboy show which is effectively a Thai Drag show. There was a huge group going from the hostel and we all piled into two red Songtheaw taxis with some people even hanging out the back.

I think the people who have been the most dismissive of the show beforehand ended up being the ones who enjoyed it the most potentially because they got the most drunk. I thoroughly enjoyed it too and the large group from our hostel sitting at the front definitely helped make the atmosphere.Read more