Pai

Pai is a small village about 3 hours drive from Chiang Mai to the North East through the mountains. The teacher at the cooking School we had attended on the previous day had recommended a guesthouse called Mountain View which was about 10 minutes outside of Pai centre.
On arrival one of the guys from Mountain View came to pick us up from the bus stop with our luggage and I decided to hire a scooter and follow behind so that we didn't have to walk back into town later. Half way up the final hill to the digs the scooter started to splutter and as I looked down at the fuel gauge I realised I had ran out of petrol. The bike came to a stop and I had no choice but to coast back down the hill then push the rest of the way to the garage. Gutted!

Our home for the week

Pai is a really nice place and both of us liked it straight away. Despite its small size Pai has a wide range of bars, restaurants and excursions/activities to go on during the day. Included in the cost of our accomodation was free daily entry to Fluid Bar's Pool and gym so most days we lazed  around there most days.

We took a trip up to one of the many local waterfalls not far from Pai which was beautiful. The cascading waters had smoothed the rock so much that kids used it as a water slide. I covered myself in mud for a laugh but when I got out of the water I discovered I was covered in tiny leeches! Alba had to spend ages picking them off. Another waterfall we visited was really dry with the water only about ankle deep as the hotter than average temperatures have caused a lot of the water sources to dry up and there has been a number of forest fires too.

One afternoon exploring on the the bike brought us to Pai Canyon which was suprisingly good. Huge drops and precarious cliff edges on all sides without the slightest hint of safety precautions what so ever. Alba didn't enjoy the danger element as much as I did so I didn't clamber along the edges or across any gorges but it was still fun.

We rounded off the week in Pai with a trip to The Piranha Fishing park. After an hour of nowt, Alba caught the first fish of the day, not sure what it was but it was small and white. We didn't have much more luck after that so we moved to the next pool where I caught a Piranha. Alba then hooked the biggest fish of the day out of anyone at the park- a 3kg catfish while I was at the bar (on my line I might add!). Me and another bloke ran back round with a net and tried to get the beast onto dry land. In the melee that followed the 2 rods got tangled and the fish managed to get off the hook much to Alba's disapointment. She is now quite a keen fisherman (or fisherwoman if you're getting all P.C)!.