I "Heart" Pai

Pai....sweet; hip; artistic; progressive....

We came to Pai for a couple days and will stay a week. If we had more time we would surely stay longer. It's a small town, the road lined with shops and cafes, each one totally unique, and artistic. Live music every 100ft...organic restaurants, wheatgrass shots, tea houses, gardens, walkways lined with stones,every night a long street market with crafts and food, crepe carts and chai...the party scene is here too, and it can be loud at night in town, but it's easy to forgive when everything else about this town is so lovesable.

Unfortunately, the air quality up here is also horrendous. Apparently it is due to farmers doing a lot of controlled burning in order to prevent forest fires as it is the dry season. I am still so congested and many others are as well. I read that the rate of lung cancer has doubled and the number one reason for doctor visits is respiratory and eye irritations. I hope one day in the future to be able to help educate the local people of alternative methods of preventing fire damage. I have never been so grateful for (relatively) clean air, and when I taste it again I will gorge myself on it.

We have been here for two and a half days. Immediately after we arrived we met a girl named Liz from Australia. She has been here for 6 weeks and is playing tour guide. She was an instant friend, and we Love her!! She took us to an art show our first night with live music and fire spinning. Wonderfully beautiful community, lovely venue and we made many friends.

We also met a girl named Maja ("maya") from Germany who we have adopted and have also fell in love with. Today the four of us ladies rented scooters and went adventuring. Liz took us to nice waterfall, and a pretty view point, but it's so dry here now and with all the burning, you couldn't see too much. We visited an eco- village, and then we stopped at a sweet cafe called "cottage in Love" and each got a different dessert and then passed them around the table tasting them all. There were some fun mini photo shoots throughout the day, and we ended the circuit with plates of organic veggies and baked spring rolls. We parted ways after a delicious cup of Chai at one of our new favorite restaurants "good life", and Alesha and I headed to the hot springs. It actually gets quite cold here at night so it was the perfect time to go. The springs are at a resort and it is stunning. The cost was $2.65 and came with a bottled water. The pool was designed in a huge U-shape with palm trees lounging over head and beautiful gardens all around. The water was very hot and mineral rich. Really what can I say??? Tis a very "good life"...and I am soooo grateful!