Thailand
Wat Pa Kham

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    • Day 12

      Day 12

      February 17 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

      Pai

      We woke up too early for my liking and Alfie didn't quite make it for his morning swim, but eventually we made it to breakfast and checked out. It was the day for the bus from Chiang Mai to Pai, infamous for its steep winding roads with 762 turns. When we booked our ticket it suggested we took motion sickness pills beforehand. We boarded at 9.30 into a small bus where our luggage was concerningly strapped to the roof. I quickly fell asleep on the way out of the city but not for long, as I wake up to my head being slammed into the side of the bus on the first hairpin turn. I guess the road had started. It was a beautiful road and would have been lovely to ride a scooter on, but that'll have to wait to tomorrow.

      I'm not sure if it was the motion sickness pills or I was super tired but I kept passing out before being woken from another slam of a hairpin turn. We stopped halfway where I grabbed an ice cream before heading back on the road to Pai. We ended up arriving an hour ahead of schedule so I guess our driver was cruising along. We hopped out the bus in Pai before we could check-in to our hostel but thought it was worth a shot anyways. We arrive and meet our host, Momo, who all the reviews had raved about. He allows us to check in early and we sort ourselves before heading out into Pai's main street (which for once was directly outside our hostel) and went for some lunch.

      After, we went on the hunt for renting a scooter. After realising that we were too late in the day to get any from the big companies that we were gonna get some from originally, we eventually found this small place with a very nice couple of people running it. They were fine renting to me as I said I had ridden before, which isn't technically a lie but isn't far off. My logic was an automatic would be easy enough - and I was right... only after taking slightly too long to turn the scooter on. Alfie however hadn't ridden before but one of the guys there (I think his name is Eddie) who was an 18 year old English teacher so, was generous enough to give Alfie a free lesson in an empty lot. What a dude.

      After the amazing lesson, Alfie hopped on the back of my scooter and we drove to "Two Huts" to watch the sunset over the mountains. It was as beautiful as it was touristy (which yes I know still includes me and Alfie). We drove back and meandered around the night market, looking at dry bags, a bookstore, and Jetboil brand backpacks??? We then grabbed some food - I went for a mystery meal but the ladies running the stall pointed and said spicy so I fucked around and found out. It wasn't too much that I would have started sweating but I was definitely not far off. We went via a 7-11 to grab some snacks then sat on some chairs at our hostel and ate. This was when we started properly chatting to Momo. He is hilarious and a lovely, giving guy. We were then joined by a German guy who kept telling me his name but I kept forgetting, and 2 English peeps and we sat around chatting and talking whilst Momo grabbed us some blueberry fried rice with sesame seeds and milk. Its hard to explain but apparently the people in the mountain make it once a year during Chinese New Year and we were lucky enough to try some. He then promised to cook some more up for me and Alfie to pack away tomorrow, as well as giving us melon and some soju, absolutely free of charge. He said he loves seeing people enjoy new food. What a fun guy.

      And with that, I had a shower and popped to bed.
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    • Day 13

      Pai am Abend - alles Party

      January 18 in Thailand ⋅ 🌙 19 °C

      Heute auch das erste Mal abends in Pai gewesen und es war definitiv nicht das letzte Mal. Leckere Garküche, Bars, Klamotten und Nippesstände. Jeder dritte Laden bietet Marihuana fein sortiert und aufgereiht wie in der Apotheke an. Auch Magic Mushrooms soll es hier geben. Wir kaufen nix, uns reicht schon, was so in der Luft liegt 🥴.Read more

    • Day 12

      11.Tag: Pai

      August 10, 2023 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

      Heute kam Irmi spät aus dem Bett, das letzte Bier gestern muss schlecht gewesen sein!
      Unser Tag begann um halb 11 mit einem leckeren Frühstück in einem der tollen Lokale hier. Dann holten wir uns einen Roller für die Tage hier in Pai (2,50 € pro Tag 🤯). Wir fuhren durch die sattgrüne Gegend und schauten uns einiges an. Highlight war heute der Pai-Canyon und nach regnerischen Tagen das erste Mal wieder Sonnenschein☀️.
      Am späten Nachmittag sind wir in unseren Hotelpool gehüpft und jetzt zum Abendessen holten wir uns auf dem Nachtmarkt ein paar typische Leckereien.
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    • Day 16

      Chiang Mai ➡️ Pai

      March 26 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C

      Quite sad to be leaving Chiang Mai today, it's such a cool city, I feel like I only scratched the surface, definitely my favourite stop so far. Plus I loved my hostel and met some really nice people. But unfortunately on to the next place, I know I can always come back and don't want to get stuck in places too long.
      After breakfast and packing up my bag, I went to a few second hand stores in hope of finding another pair of trousers. I'm not great at clothes shopping at the best of times but with the heat, a lack of concentration and such a huge selection of clothes with tiny sizing, I didn't succeed.
      I got picked up in a mini bus from my hostel and had a 3 hour drive to Pai. The roads for the second half of the journey were so windy as we drove up and down through the mountains, some of the corners were so sharp we were doing over 180° turns.
      I had purposely skipped lunch as I knew the journey would be winding and I didn't want to feel ill, so by the time I arrived in Pai I was STARVING. By some happy accident I walked in the opposite direction from where the minibus dropped us to where my hostel was, (poor sense of direction even with Google maps) but I came across a tiny Banh Mi (Vietnamese sandwich) stand. And omg was one of the biggest sandwiches I've ever had and was so damn delicious!
      I'm not sure what I'm doing in Pai for the next couple days. The place has a bit of bohemian feel to it, and because of it's location I think there's lots of nature things to explore.
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    • Day 130

      Pai

      November 3, 2022 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

      Pai ist ein sehr süßes Hippidorf und da vor einem Monat Marihuana legalisiert wurde war der Duft in den Straßen sehr Pflanzlich 😄 hier wimmelt es von Backpackern, den man kann sich einfach einen Scooter Mieten und sich einen schönen Tag machen. Wir haben wundervolle Wasserfälle, tolle Landschaft mit herrlichen Aussichten und heiße Quellen mit bis zu 80 Grad Wassertemperatur gesehen. Da fragt man sich natürlich zurecht wer warme Quellen braucht bei 35 Grad außen Temperatur aber Sina und ich haben uns zu richtigen Frost Beulen entwickelt und erfrieren bei Temperaturen unter 30. Deshalb haben wir im Gebirge von Pai Abend auch immer lange Sachen an gehabt. Denn die Temperaturen sind jeden Abend unter 27! Grad gefallen. Sonnenuntergangen gesehen. Es gab jeden Abend streetfood auf dem Nacht Markt und tolle Bars. Wir haben Marie in unserem Homestay kennengelernt und viel Zeit mit ihr verbracht.Read more

    • Day 4

      Day 4 - Food and fighting

      June 15 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

      05:00
      I wake up at 03:00. Bah humbug. Once again, I’m instantly awake and clear-headed. I try to sleep for 30 minutes, but even I’m sceptical. I give up, and read for a while, in the hope this will tire my eyes again. My reading is briefly interrupted by a somewhat urgent dash to the latrine. I don’t think it’s anything sinister - just my stomach recovering from the long journey out here, and likely acclimatising to new environment / food etc etc. I’m heartened when a further hour’s reading doesn’t require any additional latrine based dashes. Feeling fairly tired again. Hoping I can grab a few more hours…

      10:30
      Sleep never came. At 07:00, I give up trying. I grumpily make a coffee, and make for my balcony. The day feels sweaty. It feels like it’s rained a lot overnight. The verdant leaves of the Pai Loess garden are heavy with water. Felix is awake a little before 08:00, and we compare sleeping notes. He struggled to get off to sleep last night, but has at least slept through till now. We grab some breakfast at our resort, and make something approaching a plan. We’re both reluctant to bike ride today, so decide an afternoon cooking class is in order. I find a suitable option, negotiate starting time / dishes we’ll cook, and agree to pop in this morning to pay for the lesson.

      Payment sorted, we head off on a meander around Pai. It’s a little after 09:00, and the town feels like it partied too hard last night, and is struggling to wake up. There are very few travellers up and about at this time on a Saturday. Felix and I both heard revelry going on near us last night. He - some sort of rave based activity, and I, a rather bizarre post-punk rockabilly sort of band. Reading that back, I do wonder whether I dreamt it, but I’m pretty sure not. We stop to chat to a few tour operators, to try and make plans for tomorrow, to get out of town to see some of the beautiful scenery surrounding Pai. The sun is trying to shine. Even at 10:00 it’s feeling pretty hot. We see a sign for some Muay Thai boxing this evening, and decide this will probably make for some decent entertainment. Felix heads off for a swim, while I head back to Pai Loess to try and catch up on some zizz.

      19:15
      Success! I manage a good 3 hours, waking at 14:00 ahead of our 15:00 cooking class. I feel a LOT better for it. Quick shower, and we’re heading off to Saveoi. We’re the only people in our class, which is great. The set up is awesome - a proper garden kitchen behind their restaurant. We’ve each selected two dishes to cook - spring rolls and a Paneang curry for Felix, and a glass noodle salad and stir-fried chicken noodles for me. We start with the noodle salad / spring rolls. Our teacher, Mwanee (sp?) is a patient and insightful coach. She talks us through some of the basics of Thai cookery - ingredients, styles, flavourings. Our ingredients are carefully laid out in front of us, and we’re walked through each stage. The resulting food is, and I’m not kidding here, tremendous. I ate similar salads a bunch of times back in April, and I’m delighted now to know how to recreate them at home. Felix’s spring rolls are properly excellent. There’s more technique in his dish, and I’m more than impressed at the quality of what he creates. We sit to scarf these down, and move onto our second dishes.

      There’s a brief hiatus as we come to realise Paneang curry heavily features peanuts, to which Felix has a slight intolerance. Plans are adapted to a yellow curry instead, and all is well with the world once again. There’s some quite intense manual labour going in to making his yellow curry paste. I realise I’m being less than sympathetic towards his efforts. I’m hopeful my stir-fried noodles are in the same vein as those Vicki and I tried on our street food tour of Bangkok. The ingredients certainly seem to be pointing in that direction… The dish is simple to cook, though I’m surprised at the use of water at a couple of stages of the cooking. There’s also a store-bought ‘XO’ sauce used at the end of cooking, about which I need to learn more as it seems critical to the colour, texture and flavour of the dish. Felix has done great things with his curry - it smells wonderfully aromatic and enticing. Again, we sit to eat - and we’re both more than a little pleased with ourselves. As we eat, Mwanee brings us a cookbook, containing the recipes we’ve cooked today, as well as others that are available to cook. I’ll treasure it.

      Food and heat combine to leave Felix feeling nap-destined. We head back to Pai Loess, and agree to touch base a little later, before the boxing starts at 20:00. I read for a while but can feel my eyes growing heavy, so lay my head down - you know, just in case there’s some nap to be had. It transpires there is. I’m conscious that I’m doing very well catching up on sleep through the day, but it would be far preferable to manage a full night’s sleep at some point. I’ve brought some Zopiclone with me. Reckon I’ll treat myself to one tonight, to see if I can course correct a little…

      23:50
      We’re up and out around 19:30. We stop at a cool little bar called Vinyl Sky - a rooftop cocktail joint. Tunes are good, chat is awesome, cocktail is brilliant. I have something called a Flying Moon, which is basically a vodka martini with some lychee liqueur added to it. While chatting, we dissect the nature of monogamy, views on friendship, the challenges of parenthood - despite neither of us being a parent.

      We head further up the road, to the Muay Thai boxing promotion. The big top is constructed with bamboo, and has some more than avant-garde décor. The fighting is visceral. I think this is the first live pugilism event I’ve attended. When I use the word pugilism, Felix laughs, but then acknowledges that despite sounding like I’m from the 19th century, it’s the right word. The bouts are well matched. We see at least one, and possibly two bones broken. The rituals when the fighters enter the ring, which are somewhat spiritual in nature, are entrancing. Neither Felix nor I are particularly familiar with the rules and regulations of Muay Thai. Yes - kicking is encouraged; elbows are a must. We’re both unsure about the more judo-oriented elements we witness, but they’re cheered by the crowd, and seem to be viewed well by the judges. We’re one row behind ringside, and the view of the ring is primal. Despite not necessarily feeling 100% comfortable with some of the beatings that are happening, I enjoy the evening more than I maybe thought I would. It’s £8 for 4 hours of brilliant entertainment.

      The bouts finish about 23:30. We think briefly about grabbing some street food, but are both pretty jaded. We’ve got vague plans for tomorrow, so agree to meet for breakfast to thrash out what Sunday will entail…
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    • Day 36–38

      Pai

      May 29 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

      Trip to Pai for a couple of days. We visited Nam Lod Cave (which was really cool! 3 caves and a bamboo boat ride), Santichon Village (Chinese village), Kho Ku So Bamboo Bridge, Pam Bok Waterfall and Pai Canyon. All beautiful places.Read more

    • Day 9

      Savoei A Taste Of Pai

      February 15, 2023 in Thailand

      Ein absolutes Highlight: heute haben wir einen Kochkurs gemacht! Jeder Teilnehmer durfte sich vorab drei Gericht aussuchen, somit haben alle etwas anderes gekocht und das trotzdem gleichzeitig. Wir bekamen eine Einführung in die thailändische (Gewürz-)Küche und dann hieß es - Feuer frei, Wok drauf und ab gehts. Schnibbeln, Frittierten, braten, mörsern, alles war dabei… 🤩Read more

    • Day 27

      Sticky Waterfall and Pai

      January 12, 2022 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

      We left Doi Intanon national park and headed north west to stay a few days in Pai and enjoy the nature over there. As it was getting late when we left the mountains we stopped on the road just north of Chiang Mai and stayed in a Boutique Hotel we found for only £9 a night, ridiculously cheap for how nice it was

      On the way, we stopped at a very special waterfall, named 'Nam Tok Bua Tong' , but more famous for being sticky...strange right? Well, because of a minerals in the spring water which are very high in calcium a layer of calcium carbonate has coated the rocks in the water fall creating a unique structure which made the surface non slippery! That means that without problem we managed to climb up the waterfall! That was very fun 😊

      After that we drove on one of the windiest road in Thailand to arrive at Pai. A small town on a plateau up in the mountains, it has become a backpackers retreat, with great restaurants and bars. After some good dinner and drinks we headed out the next day to check out the hot springs, canyon and Bamboo bridge,the main attractions in Pai.
      The natural hot springs push up water from deep in the earth's core and hit 80° at their peak, hot enough to boil eggs, although that is specifically forbidden. There are a serious bathing pools that range from a more comfortable 40° down to around 25°. We had a good soak and felt very relaxed.
      The canyon, although I'm not sure it is actually a canyon based on the geological description of what a canyon is, was more of a steep ridge line but have great views of the surrounding mountain ranges.

      We finished the day with a walk along a raised Bamboo bridge across the rice fields to a forest temple. As it is dry season the rice fields had not yet been planned so the scenary was yellowing fields rather than the lush green we had expected but it was still a delightful walk and we stumbled across a secluded waterfall set onsite a cave which was very calm and serene. .
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    • Day 2,297

      Off Road

      March 13, 2022 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

      Omg I need to get to Chang Mai to stop this every day drinking. I've partied more in the North than I did in the South and its time to have a break for a few days.In the morning i share a last coffee with Romain as he leaves today. I also received a call from my friends Ged Darryl and Jon in Singapore, i shared such good time's with them and love the fact weve stayed in touch Ip and Golf have offered to take me out again today and Daisy and Satya are going to join us so I will get to ride the Atv 4x4. He picks us all up in the truck and we head to his house so everyone can meet. We ride down through the river and spend a good few hours just exploring the area before returning to the river and joining the other Thai families that just sit in the river bathing. We are the only foreigners here and even though I have my bikini on it seems totally inappropriate to start stripping off. I sit in the river in my shorts and t shirt and love the fact the kids play so happily. On the banks of the river are little bamboo chairs and tables but they have carried them into the river to sit on. By the time we have got there there are none left but within 20 minutes a guy turns upwith fold up chairs and table and we're soon sitting as comfortably as everyone else. In the evening we share a few beers but I have an early night as just feel I'm constantly topping up the hangover.Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Wat Pa Kham, วัดป่าขาม

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