YA LEUM.2 — Pai, the place for travelers with fake returning tickets
Madalena is a happy story. Friend of a friend, also her planned to travel in Southeast Asia by herself to take photographs.
We talked on the phone and planned to travel together. Why not? We were both alone, somehow anxious to travel by ourselves, she wanted to do travel photography and I had a plan to shoot a mini documentary. We met once before our first day in Thailand. We had a good feeling about each other, so we started making plans!
As first-time-backpackers, we flew straight to the backpackers starting point — Bangkok.
The right place to start exploring the Asian vibes, learn how to make friends with others travelers, get tips on how to carry your heavy backpack and design a killer plan to discover the country in one month!
After Bangkok, we did stops in Kanchanaburi, Ayutthaya and Lamphun.
In Kanchanaburi we stayed in a dreamy place by the river! I have been there already three times since then.
On the way, we met some of my back home friends who coincidentally were also doing such a trip. Already felt we haven’t seen each other for ages, we are really so dramatic. :P
We arrived in Chiang Mai!
Chiang Mai has its own soul. Less hot than Bangkok, surrounded by an enormous forest, coated by charming corners and a fairy tale breeze. The epicenter of hipster coffees with bamboo as its main themes, never old fashion accessories, tradition craved in everywhere patterns, waterfalls, mountains and coconuts. For me a sort of a city heaven.
I am addicted to anything Made in Asia — noodles soups, Asian outfits, ancient beliefs and traditions and most of all, the people. Somehow, I see bits of my Asian family everywhere. Comforting at least.
After Chiang Mai, we headed over to another type of paradise — The backpackers paradise. By its name — Pai.
Once you go, you stay. It is the rule. You never stay for the period you plan.
To avoid any sort of guilty feeling for spending the days doing yoga, swimming in the waterfalls, driving the motorcycle around the hills, drinking papaya juices, taking naps in the bamboo hut, writing your journal — Just buy an one way ticket.
Yes, I am hearing you saying how Pai became so touristic, but that is when people just visit the center area. Spend there longer, explore around and you will find some magic places.
We took a three hours bus from Chiang Mai, booked two bunk beds in the Pai Zen River hostel, probably one of the cheapest and there we go!
We arrived at night, usually not my favorite thing to do, but it was certainly not a problem…
The drop-off was in the center of a cute small town, packed with delicious food stalls, boys and girls showing off tanned skins and the invisible freedom spirit roaming around. Did you just have a Woodstock feeling? Indeed, some people call it the hippie place of Thailand.
Hippie or not, it was the first place where I felt that both myself and the other travelers, I mean those with a fake returning ticket, found what they wished and imagined for so long back home.
The time to experience the world from a different perspective. Not through books, pictures or other people’s stories, but through our own eyes, tastes and feelings. Soon, we learnt the world is just an enormous living room.
We got off the van feeling truly backpackers. Ready to discover what everyone was talking about.
We dragged our backpacks to Pai Zen River Hostel. A hostel by the river, two floors open air, built on bamboo, coated in grass and hammocks everywhere. We took the second floor, climbed the almost-I-am-going-to-fall-bamboo-ladder while trying to keep the balance with my double size backpack.
At last step of the almost-I-am-going-to-fall-bamboo-ladder I could overlook the entire scenery: open air, mosquito nets for every mattress, one mattress — one backpack in front, each backpack had its own girl feeling. Sounds busy? A little, but no big deal. We dropped off our belongings, like everyone.
We took our time to adjust to the place, get the vibe, understand how it works, and feel part of it. Everywhere you go, there is always a piece of adjustment. However, Pai is not just a backpacker town, it feels more like a community and not everyone likes it. Nevertheless, we did!
Picture this routine: wake up with no alarm, sometimes yoga, sometimes meditation, sometimes just coffee. You find a cozy spot, continue with a coffee or a carrot juice. Sometimes you write, sometimes you plan the next stop, sometimes you stare (my favorite). The guy next to you plays the ukulele, behind you have someone still half-sleeping, the owner is probably hangover. Everything is slow. Everyone follows his or her own timing. The village wakes up softly.
Later on, the adventurers gather in groups of two and drive to the waterfalls for a swim, the soul-searchers attend the yoga classes and meditation gatherings, the loners stay alone doing stuffs nobody understands and the party animals will be probably still waking up.
By night, the soul-searchers try the last vegan trend, the adventures mix burritos with mango stick rice, the party animals buy two pizzas and the loners always go from vegan pad-thai to chicken pad-thai. Enough said, people stay on average a month, so everyone ends up trying everything.
We are all under the same roof — sometimes you share a table with someone from your hostel, other day with your yoga fellows and other times just with people you meet randomly in the village.
The goal is more or less always the same: get a beer a 7/11, try a different food, enjoy 28 degrees at night and make a new friend.
Guys, I don’t like this, I love it!
