Berry's SEAJ trip Day 35: Exploring Pai (7/10/15)

After sleeping in a little, we decide to go explore around Pai. After breakfast we get on the scooter and head to the canyon. Not an impressive canyon, but cool destination to walk around a bit with some good views of the surrounding area. Checked out the nearby memorial bridge, which wasn't anything too special but again, had some good views going up the river; this whole area is extremely green and beautiful. After that, we head to the waterfall nearby the turnoff for the canyon. We swim around a bit in the nice, cool water and enjoy that before going to the land-split farm.

Little panoramic view of the Pai canyon. Time of us to take a hike.

Berry taking the grand canyon of Pai.

Another view in the canyon of Pai. 

Steph wants to go down that way. My fear of heights prevents me from walking down narrow paths like that so  I go down another path.

View down the path Steph wanted to go down. Now you understand better my objection.

This is me trying to be brave. Not for long hahaha

Steph on the edge of the world. Cool place.

Walking across the Ta Pai bridge - built back around WWII. 

Berry likes the view from the bridge back towards the city.

A little part of the history of the bridge.

Making our way to the first waterfall for the day. Pambo Waterfall.

Berry and I swimming around in waterfall. 

Steph photobombed Berry's pic of the waterfall. 

Berry made all those people leave so we could have the water all to ourselves. Nice private bath.

Just swimming around in the refreshing waters. Those people are scared to be near me. Rightfully so :)

Saw this sign on the way out. Glad to see people respect the city's signs. :(

This guy's land naturally has been splitting for the past 7 years or so; you are able to look at the splitting land and then he prepares you an assortment of foods and drinks all for a donation. One of the main crops he grows is Hibiscus (Rozelle) and has the fruit, tea, and even liquor made from Rozelle, all of which are great. Being in the area, I highly recommend everyone to go as the guy is incredibly friendly and the food is natural, fresh and very tasty.

Sporting the sexiest helmets of all time. Oh yeah!

Land Split. This guy's farm had the land split about 15-20 years ago and is slowly creeping farther apart every day.

Down the chasm, a new jungle grows. Kinda cool.

Berry no dont go down there, it isnt safe. 

Steph doing her best impression of a dancing tree. :)

Instructions on how to make a tree dance. Useful, Useful indeed.

We found the dancing tree and had a midday rager. 

After exploring the grounds, we ate and drank produce from the farm. Looks delicious? yeah it was.

Berry and Steph drank all the rozelle wine. Hope they liked it.That dog definitely looks jealous of the food in front of Steph.

Inside of the roof we were under. Shelter comes in many forms.

Some hardwood hammocks, I wonder if they are comfortable?

No not at all but Berry wanted to try em out so we did.

Sign pointing us in the right direction to see what is special about this land.

Guy who runs the farm with all his goodies. They dont charge for the food. You come and eat and drink and leave whatever you can/want. If you want to buy the jam you have to buy them. 

Beehive or wasp nest or something that was near the car. Massive!

After eating, we head up to a different waterfall in the NW corner of the city where you get to slide on the rocks into the pools of water which was a lot of fun. We head out a little earlier than expected as it looked like a storm was heading our way and we didn't want to be caught out in it.

Main road had all kinds of signs posted for the various B&Bs and what not. 

Some sights from the ride around town to the different waterfalls.

Our shadows are staying with us quite well. And yes that is us driving on the left side of the road. 

Odd city indeed.

Wooden giraffes. I think this is where the creator of Lion King found their inspiration.

Out on the open road.

Beautiful day to be out in the countryside looking for water falls. 

Now sure this place really knows how to advertise. If you look, it is a sign for a guesthouse/restaurant/cooking school with a guy throwing up.  Not sure what it says but that wouldnt be a sign I would advise making.

Slip and slide waterfall. We started at the bottom and worked our way up. Berry can't wait to get in the water.

Storms are a brewing. 

Berry found a small waterfall at the top of the slide waterfall

I wonder if Buffalo Bayou needs a male model for their beer. I know 1 guy who could do it justice. :)

Steph is ready to take the plunge.

In she goes!

Time to go down the slide into the pool. Berry can't wait.

I might as well be wearing camouflage :) hahaha goofy looking mofo there. 

Sun setting as we ride our way back to our hostel for another round walking around the main area at night.

Light meets dark.

Car vs. scooter chicken. I never loose.

We get back and after dropping our bags in the room, we head to find some food. As we are walking around, I forget the conversation, but I said “squirrel” referencing Up and Steph looks over trying to see the squirrel asking “where is it?”. It worked! After eating, we bounce around to some bars which all seem to have live music, before going to a bar down a long narrow alley which had a very psychedelic feel to it and a shirtless old man walking around with fluorescent paint all over his body and face. After our drinks there, we head back to the hostel to get ready for the trip back to CM tomorrow.

Getting back to the hostel through these "busy" streets. 

Berry is glad to be back home after a long day of exploring Pai.

Met a little girl at the restaurant we had dinner at who also had a stuffed bear friend. Stuffed bears are friends for all, big and small.

Berry's SEAJ trip Day 34: Scooting to Pai (7/9/15)

Went to the scooter rental place around the corner from Non after breakfast to see about getting a scooter for the next week as I make my way to Pai and Chiang Rai. Bikes are usually 200/d, but we got one for 1000/wk which seemed to be normal in the area. Get the bike with the helmets and I go to fill it up as Steph goes back to start consolidating bags as we have no real luggage compartment.

Our trusty steed for the next week.

We are again allowed to leave our bags at Non and get our gear into one bag for the whole trip. We head out with a small detour to the train station so Steph can get her departing train ticket back to BK. We start heading to P and it is a drizzly day which makes driving without proper gear frustrating/annoying. The lack of proper highway signs don't help, but we eventually get on our way up the right highway. As we are navigating the mountain path, we get caught in a torrential downpour and are laid up at a little “cafe” until it subsides. After that we head up the road and stop for lunch at a restaurant with a pretty great view.

Fountain at the train station. Berry wanted to go for a swim but we had places to be.

Berry and our ride at the front of the train station. Steph went in to get her ticket so I chilled outside so we didnt have to actually park the scooter.

Seeking shelter during a torrential downpour. 

View from lunch spot. Calm after the storm with a beautiful back yard to enjoy lunch overlooking.

Look at that sexy beast on his powerful 2 wheeler. Yeah baby!

After lunch we continue on our way and it is here that I really missed a manual bike as the up/down winding road to get to P was not appropriate to be on with a 115cc scooter, but we made it :). We were staying in the Canary guest house and it turns out we have to park our scooter across a bridge from the place and walk our stuff over to it as there is no direct parking at the guest house from what I could see.

View from the bridge to our place. 

That is a giant mountainside Buddha in the distance indeed. 

They painted a window on one of the walls. Sneaky people. This is our room for the next 2 nights.

After checking in, we head out to find dinner and happen to run into some friends of Steph from earlier in the trip and have some drinks with them. We then go find more food and wind up finding locally made feta at a middle eastern convenience store, putting that on a baguette, and calling it dinner. Great cheese. We head to the jazz club in Pai for a drink before heading back to the hostel to get some rest.

Berry enjoyed the evening sky as we begin our walk around town.

Steph enjoying a smoothie out of her jar. 

One of the ladies we stopped at to grab some food on our walk around town.

Berry and I enjoying the lady's samosa. Delicious indeed!

Night market in Pai. 

Berry's SEAJ trip Day 33: Back to reality (7/8/15)

Woke up early (5am) to do some individual mediation and learn about offering food to monks before breaking for breakfast. During individual practice we break into 3 groups to do monk chat where we get to ask KK anything we want (which is a pretty cool idea if you ask me) for about an hour. It is pretty impressive to hear a man of the cloth, if you will, be candid about things that people want to know about; granted I remember thinking some of the questions were politiciany – seemed to dodge answering the actual question. After lunch we have some more free meditation practice were I work on many of the counting exercises either in standing or laying pose as my knees/hips are having none of the cross-legged sitting anymore. After that, we head back to the real world. We scheduled a massage for later that evening so we went back to the hostel to get things together. When its time for our appointment, we go to the place with (female) ex-prisoners who give massages; this would wind up being a bad idea for me as my neck hasn't been the same from this massage to the day I am writing this  (almost 2 months later). They do all kinds of contortion of the body and cracking you left and right, at one point twisting your neck (did not like that), before being reversed stretched and overall just being manhandled. They have a really good reputation and I do believe my complications are a one off. After the massage, we stop by a random food place on the way over to see a muy Thai boxing match and had one of the best meals of the trip, Kao Soi, which is a curry noodle soup dish with fried noodles on top. The dish has everything; flavor, contrasting textures, noodles :). Really was a great dish. Meet Michele at the Muy Thai match where Rosa Li joins up as well and we enjoy the nights matches; one of which was the mystery match that pitted 4 dudes of various sizes, blindfolded, against each other for a couple minutes.

Berry excited for the muy thai matches that are about to get underway. New experiences all around.

Action shot. These guys are skinny. 

There was even a ladies match in the mix.

Among the fighting, they had this special match that they got 3-4 guys, blindfolded them, and had them go to town on the others. The refs kept getting punched as the fighters would find them and punch away. 

A video of the blindfold boxing match. Enjoy! :)

Was pretty hilarious as the ref was battling the biggest of the 4 dudes because the big dude kept punching the ref and then the ref would drop kick him and subsequently help him up. Was pretty awesome to watch, though I would hate to be one of them. The actual boxers are incredibly skinny (cannot stress how tiny they were – some weighed 110 lbs). After that, we say bye to them and get ready that night for our trip to Pai.

Berry's SEAJ trip Day 32: Beginning of the Meditation retreat (7/7/15)

Had a chill morning before we head out to the temple to begin the retreat. The guy who runs Non let us leave our bags in the hostel as we only needed a change of clothes for this trip. So we get to the temple and our monk leader (KK Marma) gave us an introduction into Buddhism (apparently Thai Buddhists do not believe Buddha to be a god and therefore is not considered a religion by them; which seems to be counter my understanding of Buddhists in other countries but then again I am no religious scholar.) before heading to the retreat center which is a nice little compound.

After arriving, we explore the grounds of the mediation compound. Berry likes the quiet.

The grounds were pretty with tons of space that would come in handy in the upcoming retreat.

Different Buddhas for different days of the week. 

The rest of the week  along with the big bad Buddha. Berry likes all the statues.

Berry and I have found our room for the night.

Berry and I in our mediation outfits. We are ready for a day of silence.

From the outside, I can understand how this compound could be confused for a cult; we were all wearing somewhat matching white outfits, were supposed to be in silence (we had a group of American high schoolers who not only weren't silent but not even quiet), had designated times to eat for everyone, and a gong to signal when to congregate. KK leads us for our first mediation practice that destroys my hips/knees as I am not built to sit like that for any period of time. I try to push through and I should have just wussed out from the beginning and got another pillow to ease the strain cause my legs were hurting in places I didn't know they could after trying to sit cross-legged for that long (sad I know but my flexibility is what it is). After a couple of sessions and learning some different ways to meditate, we break for dinner before more practice. KK has a great personality and a friendly guy. After some practices, we break for bed where me and my roommate take showers and get ready for bed without talking which was kinda cool to be able to communicate just with hand gestures.