You need to have a strong stomach and a lot of time in front of you to spend if you want to go to Pai. This little hippie town in the North mountains of Thailand is, said the Lonely Planet, “more a place to live and a state of mind than a place where you will visit”. Not a lot of lines to describe the place, I just take my chance and buy a ticket to go there.
The night before, I met some German dude, cool as hell, Marcel from Holland, Fabio from Italy and Evgeny from Russia. We went to the night market then to a cool Rasta bar in the center. We finished the night eating a too much noodle soup bought in the 7-eleven at the corner of the street. This place start to be my favorite shop in Thailand…
A pumpkin cake in my stomach, Noi, a Mahout, an elephant and me started to climb the mountain in the jungle for a morning walk.
The rain starts to fall on the Elephant Retirement Park. I watch the rice fields and the luxuriant jungle surrounding what will be my home for that night. For a short moment, time stopped here in these green lanscapes. It feels good.
I can’t remember which blogger said that but this quote is one of my Mantra for this trip: “when you travel, you vote with your dollars”. That sentence made sense when I had to search for a place to spend some time with elephants.
I woke up with difficulty as my nose was bloked and my throat was sore as hell. I decided to skip the cooking lesson class and met Chloé for a quick breakfast and a visit of a temple. Afterall, I am staying in South East Asia, I will have the time to cook on the way if I really want to. Traveling is also choosing. You can’t do everything and go everywhere!
Thierry and Arnaud invited me to this big reunion of French people met on the way. How could I say no! With my little experience of traveller I know that it could be a great night or a disaster, depending on which kind of “French” they were. Fortunately, they were the good ones and even if it’s really hard to enter a group in which everybody already knows everybody, I had an amazing time that night.
Thailand is really open in terms of graffiti and street art. I doubt it’s legal but they are everywhere!
Chiang Mai… You are healing my soul and my body.
Time to say hi and goodbye to Marion and Eddy who just arrived and I packed my bag direction the train station for another great adventure: the night train direction Chiang Mai.
The Wanderlust Queens Project 