Nestled in the mountains several hours north of Chiang Mai is the beautiful village Pai. On Saturday I decided to take part in a cooking course and work out why Thai food is so good! I chose a little course by the name of 'Tase of Pai' that was taken by Pinpaa (most likely I have spelt that wrong, apologies). There were four of us enrolled in the course and spent the first few hours at the market, where Pinpaa showed us all the different vegetables, herbs and spices that are used in Thai cooking. Then we were off back to the school to cook 6 (yes 6!!) meals. I cooked Pad Thai, Spicey Tom Yum prawn soup, stirfried vegetables with ginger, sticky rice with mango, penang curry paste, and penang curry. It was really cool to be able to learn how to make the curry paste from scratch. Oh yes and Papaya salad, which was definitely my favourite. We used the coolest mortar and pestle I have ever seen. It was made of wood and it was used to crush the young papaya, chilli, tomato and beans. Spicy, fresh and delicious!!!! (Photos to come, now I have misplaced my sd thingamejig). All in all the day was a huge success and I left feeling extremely full and optimistic about my thai cooking skills.
On Sunday me and our little Pai pack all took off on our mopeds to visit some waterfalls. The gang consisted of Cherise and Tracey are South African girls who were kind enough to befriend me on my first day. Chris who is English and traveling with them. And Bengi, a kiwi/Australian/London lad who arrived in Pai a couple of days before me and liked it so much he got himself a job at a resort for a couple of months. Score. All wonderful companions to have. The first waterfall we went to was called Pam Bok and was incredible. We all had a little dip and then headed off again on our bikes through the rice fields and amazing countryside. I have never seen green this shade. It is really quite magical. Mountains all around and cute little bamboo bungalows, in a way it reminded me of being in the Wairarapa, only greener Thai style. The second waterfall was fantastic and you could see it was a popular swimming spot for the locals. Very picturesque indeed.
Pai is such a nice little town and again I have been blown away by the friendly people that live in the town. Many, like Phi Phi, seem to have come and not wanted to leave. Sign of a good town. At this point I decided I had better book my ticket out of there or I would never leave my new friends and relaxing atmosphere.
As a result I am currently sitting in Vientiane, Laos, after traveling on an overnight bus from Pai. I have had very little sleep and am on my way to Vang Vieng to see what is in store for me next.
Will post photos soon. People are yelling at me in Thai. Got to Go!!!
Monday, August 8, 2011
Friday, August 5, 2011
Pai: A town above the rest, with smiley happy people
Three, possibly four, days ago I arrived in Chiang Mai. I spent a day cruising the very cool city looking at the Wats and generally being a tourist. The most impressive Wat I have been to was Wat Chediluang Varaviharn (I think). Built in the 15th century the stupa was enlarged by King Tilokarat to the size of 56 by 56 meters in width and 80 meters in height. In 1545 there was a very big earthquake and it collapsed as it is today. Still massive, but somewhat demolished. There is a Buddhist school at this Wat where you can go and talk to monks. So I had a chat with a man about being a monk and practicing Buddhism. How I understood it is that one can become a novice at 7 with around 200 rules. At 20, one (well, actually only men) can either stay a novice or become a monk with around 470 rules. Women are Buddhist nuns with 8 rules (go figure) and these include no lying, stealing, sex, um I forget the rest apart from no comfy bed. Gotta keep it simple. Being a monk is about getting through the day with only what you need. You take what you can, you meditate, you stay in the day and you don't accumulate things. That was some of the information I got. I'm sure there is more to being a monk than not sleeping in comfy beds, but I'll leave that to you to research.
Day two in Chiang Mai involved me going on a 'jungle flight'. This was up in the rainforest and was pretty amazing. We had 30 stations with ziPlines and abseiling and the like. The longest zipline was 300 meters long and had the most incredible view ever! Mountains, mountains and more mountains. The highest one was 180 meters and the highest abseil was 40 meters. The abseiling freaked me out. It consisted of sitting out over a drop and the guides dropping you. Heart beat was going for it!! Falling is something I do not like, this is what my nightmares involve. The guides were hilarious. They were all Thai men and the main guide kept singing a soundtrack to suit the occasion. 'I'm free, free fallen!' and 'evrything I do, I do it for you'. Kept me amused that's for sure.
Yesterday I jumped on a mini bus and headed north to Pai, a little mountain town. The drive here was possibly one of the worst drives ever. Here I need to digress to another car story. Seems to be a running theme on this blog. Back in the day I used to hitchike around NZ with my buddies. Most of the time it was sweet. There was the time that a puppy peed on my friend Sarah, that was kinda funny. Then there was the time that my friend Kate and I fell asleep in the back of a car because we were really hungover. That was not funny, that was stupid. Then there was the guy with the shifty eyes...mmmmmmyes. Then, and this brings me nearer to the point, there was Tonya.
It was about five years ago and Preston and I were hitching up north of NZ somewhere. We ended up in this car with a girl named Tonya. Preston was in the back seat wedged beside Tonya's life and under her TV. I was in the front seat and Tonya decided I was her new best friend. She started telling us her life story and doing everything she could, besides drive. Putting on her makeup, eating herbal highs (like legal speed), playing with the radio, looking in the back seat, the list goes on. Meanwhile telling us how much she hates bad drivers and especially those that tailgate. She tailgated every car she could and at one point pulled out to pass a truck on a blind corner with rain lashing the windshield and I was preparing myself to die. Seriously. When we finally got out of the car and we had fleed Tonya Tailgator I vowed never to give control of vehicle to someone as completely insane as Tonya. Which brings me to my point. The minibus ride was more of the same. Why do people insist on being shut drivers?! Beats me.
I arrived in Pai safe and sound and it is the cutest town ever. I ended up in lounge bar or ting tong reading my book and found some more lovely traveling companions. As well as meeting more smiley, friendly and oh so generous Thai locals. One man named Bank has the biggest smile ever. Always. And he has an Afro and dances to disco. Go Thailand.
Song of the holiday so far that I've heard at least once every few days 'don't worry be happy'. It's pretty much Thailand's soundtrack.
Day two in Chiang Mai involved me going on a 'jungle flight'. This was up in the rainforest and was pretty amazing. We had 30 stations with ziPlines and abseiling and the like. The longest zipline was 300 meters long and had the most incredible view ever! Mountains, mountains and more mountains. The highest one was 180 meters and the highest abseil was 40 meters. The abseiling freaked me out. It consisted of sitting out over a drop and the guides dropping you. Heart beat was going for it!! Falling is something I do not like, this is what my nightmares involve. The guides were hilarious. They were all Thai men and the main guide kept singing a soundtrack to suit the occasion. 'I'm free, free fallen!' and 'evrything I do, I do it for you'. Kept me amused that's for sure.
Yesterday I jumped on a mini bus and headed north to Pai, a little mountain town. The drive here was possibly one of the worst drives ever. Here I need to digress to another car story. Seems to be a running theme on this blog. Back in the day I used to hitchike around NZ with my buddies. Most of the time it was sweet. There was the time that a puppy peed on my friend Sarah, that was kinda funny. Then there was the time that my friend Kate and I fell asleep in the back of a car because we were really hungover. That was not funny, that was stupid. Then there was the guy with the shifty eyes...mmmmmmyes. Then, and this brings me nearer to the point, there was Tonya.
It was about five years ago and Preston and I were hitching up north of NZ somewhere. We ended up in this car with a girl named Tonya. Preston was in the back seat wedged beside Tonya's life and under her TV. I was in the front seat and Tonya decided I was her new best friend. She started telling us her life story and doing everything she could, besides drive. Putting on her makeup, eating herbal highs (like legal speed), playing with the radio, looking in the back seat, the list goes on. Meanwhile telling us how much she hates bad drivers and especially those that tailgate. She tailgated every car she could and at one point pulled out to pass a truck on a blind corner with rain lashing the windshield and I was preparing myself to die. Seriously. When we finally got out of the car and we had fleed Tonya Tailgator I vowed never to give control of vehicle to someone as completely insane as Tonya. Which brings me to my point. The minibus ride was more of the same. Why do people insist on being shut drivers?! Beats me.
I arrived in Pai safe and sound and it is the cutest town ever. I ended up in lounge bar or ting tong reading my book and found some more lovely traveling companions. As well as meeting more smiley, friendly and oh so generous Thai locals. One man named Bank has the biggest smile ever. Always. And he has an Afro and dances to disco. Go Thailand.
Song of the holiday so far that I've heard at least once every few days 'don't worry be happy'. It's pretty much Thailand's soundtrack.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
The wonderful world of scuba.
I thought I would backtrack somewhat just to explain the awesomeness that is scuba diving. Being somebody that gets a little panicky in certain situations, I was a little apprehensive going 16 metres under water to look at the fishies. But, let me tell whoever's out there listening slash reading that whatever fear or phobia you may have...walk through that fear my friends. It is so worth it.
I was lucky enough to have a very close friend - Chris - instructing me and just waiting patiently under the water with me to overcome certain obstacles (like swallowing sea water! Not fun). Once I had passed all the little tests and done a few dives I was able to relax and just enjoy the amazing marine life around Phi Phi. We saw so much it was just incredible. We were all discussing diving and it came up that everyone has their 'thing' that they are into down in the deep blue sea. I was very suprised to find that my 'thing' was the coral. It was absolutely beautiful and I could have stayed down there all day looking at it as it swayed with the current, except I would have run out of air and died. So good thing I didn't. I just thought the colours were really amazing. To me it looked a bit like trees swaying the breeze, but pink and purple and white trees. A whole new world. So to anyone out there that is wondering whether they would like to dive, I highly recommend it. In the words of PADI "Meet people, go places, see things!!" hahaha
I have posted some photos on my Google+ account because I couldn't sign in to Flickr for some weird reason. So feel free to have a look there.
I have been flying in the rainforest today, but more on that later....
I was lucky enough to have a very close friend - Chris - instructing me and just waiting patiently under the water with me to overcome certain obstacles (like swallowing sea water! Not fun). Once I had passed all the little tests and done a few dives I was able to relax and just enjoy the amazing marine life around Phi Phi. We saw so much it was just incredible. We were all discussing diving and it came up that everyone has their 'thing' that they are into down in the deep blue sea. I was very suprised to find that my 'thing' was the coral. It was absolutely beautiful and I could have stayed down there all day looking at it as it swayed with the current, except I would have run out of air and died. So good thing I didn't. I just thought the colours were really amazing. To me it looked a bit like trees swaying the breeze, but pink and purple and white trees. A whole new world. So to anyone out there that is wondering whether they would like to dive, I highly recommend it. In the words of PADI "Meet people, go places, see things!!" hahaha
I have posted some photos on my Google+ account because I couldn't sign in to Flickr for some weird reason. So feel free to have a look there.
I have been flying in the rainforest today, but more on that later....
Note from my phone
'I am really going to miss Phi Phi. The paved streets busy with people, bikes and carts and the human 'beep beep beep' as those pushing the carts get a run up to make it up the hill, often getting a helping hand from a friendly local or tourist. I will miss the cute young woman with the donut stand saying, 'donut, donut, anyone want donut?' and Shon who has the fruit cart piled high with Ngor, dragonfruit, pink apple, pineapple and papaya. I will miss all the tattoo parlors where tattooed Thai men sit back, relax and share their tattoo stories. And the leather stalls with amazing bags, shoes and wallets. Most of all I will miss the ocean and the simplicity of life.'
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Farewell Phi Phi
Monday, August 1, 2011
To just 'be'
Apologies, having a few technological problems! The photo bellow
apoologies, am having a few technological errors.
The photo below was where I enjoyed my morning cuppa.
Yesterday I was looking through all my photos and realised about 90% of them are of boats. Lachlan, a lovely fellow traveller laughed at my boat fetish. The longtails are just such beautiful things. Simple and wooden. Give me one of those over a flash speedboat any day. Yesterday Charlotte, Gabe and Jonti (two lovely New Zealanders living in Melbourne much like myself) and Lachlan and Dustin (brothers from Melbourne on holiday) all went out on a longtail to Maya Bay. This is the beach that is famous from 'the beach', but to be honest, I was happy to just sit in the boat! We got to the beach and it was all a bit hectic. Boats everywhere scraping along the coral and so many people. Beautiful scenery though. Amazing rock formations.
One thing that struck me about people in Thailand, and on Phi Phi in particular is they keep it simple. In Melbourne it is so easy to get caught up with doing things. Where do I have to go? What should I be doing? What could I be doing? What do I need to be doing? You get my drift. Here, people are content just to be. Present in the moment. It has opened my eyes to the simplicity of life and that people need very little to be happy.
When I am next at a computer I will upload my Phi Phi photos and especially some of the boats :)
Farewell to you Phi Phi Don, khap khun kaa, it has been a pleasure.
apoologies, am having a few technological errors.
The photo below was where I enjoyed my morning cuppa.
Yesterday I was looking through all my photos and realised about 90% of them are of boats. Lachlan, a lovely fellow traveller laughed at my boat fetish. The longtails are just such beautiful things. Simple and wooden. Give me one of those over a flash speedboat any day. Yesterday Charlotte, Gabe and Jonti (two lovely New Zealanders living in Melbourne much like myself) and Lachlan and Dustin (brothers from Melbourne on holiday) all went out on a longtail to Maya Bay. This is the beach that is famous from 'the beach', but to be honest, I was happy to just sit in the boat! We got to the beach and it was all a bit hectic. Boats everywhere scraping along the coral and so many people. Beautiful scenery though. Amazing rock formations.
One thing that struck me about people in Thailand, and on Phi Phi in particular is they keep it simple. In Melbourne it is so easy to get caught up with doing things. Where do I have to go? What should I be doing? What could I be doing? What do I need to be doing? You get my drift. Here, people are content just to be. Present in the moment. It has opened my eyes to the simplicity of life and that people need very little to be happy.
When I am next at a computer I will upload my Phi Phi photos and especially some of the boats :)
Farewell to you Phi Phi Don, khap khun kaa, it has been a pleasure.
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