#12 Pai: Hippie-ville / Hippi-falva (Thailand / Thaifold)

English version:

I was really looking forward to this place: Pai. I read and heard a lot of good things about it and I was not disappointed. This little village is situated in the North East, about 150km from Chiang Mai and very close to the Myanmar border. The route there is interesting 🙂 I wouldn’t recommend to people who get sick in the car. You take a minibus from Chiang Mai for 150 – 200 baht and go through route 1095. Route 1095 goes through the jungle, mountains and consists of 762 (wtf!!!) turns, which makes it interesting 🙂 The view is amazing though. Some people rent a bike and go on their own and then drop the bike off in Pai. The journey took 4 hours and finally I got there. And finally I met Lila the hippie girl from Berlin who came out from the monastery close to Pai.

Pai – this small village in the mountains – has a vibrant, hippie atmosphere. You see a lot of free-minded people here, loads of vegan food and nice things to do. You can just relax, meditate, join a muay thai gym, hike or drive around with your scooter.

My temporary accommodation was the Nusha Homestay which was a fantastic experience. Rafi, the owner lives there too and rents out 4 – 5 bamboo bungalows to his visitors. He and the family takes care of you: they cook breakfast, lunch, dinner what they bring to your house and they help you with anything and everything. His garden is the paradise with loads of different palm trees and with a tree of rose-apple. This is a little apple which smells and tastes like rose. The bungalow itself is incredible, all from bamboo and some kind of leaf on the roof. Simple and incredible. Just like the view from the porch and the starry sky in the night. There is zero pollution here, therefore the sky is just amazing. By the way the garden. 10 metres of my bungalow there was a spring where frogs live. Frogs were loved by some small snakes what I could not see unfortunately.

There were a few attractions I checked out. One was one of the most amazing caves in Thailand: the Lod or Tham Lot cave which is 1 hour bumpy ride from Pai. The cave is 1,6 km long, there is a river inside (Nam Lang) and loads of swifts and bats. There are some narrow teakwood coffins which have been carved by the Lawa tribes thousands of years ago. The first part of the visit is on foot, then you sit on narrow boats (3 people) which are pushed with bamboo sticks. Difficult to put in writing or in pictures, what you experience. The end of the boat trip is an other entrance of the cave where you see the living jungle.

I also visited a hot spring where tourists had a bath, but it wasn’t a big deal. Big deal rather was the Canyon. Hundreds of tourists gather there to see the sunset. The view and the place is incredible and looked dangerous too, so I took it easy and just stayed in the beginning, and did not climb to the farther ends.

The way the sun first painted everything to orange, then fire-orange it just something again I cannot put in writing.

“So far” facts – English version:

# of travel buddies: 3
# of travel buddies murdered: 0
best meal: Thai cashew chicken curry
best dessert: coconut rice
worst meal: some brown soup with cooked pork, blaaaaaa
# of flights: 1
# of trains: 5
# of taxies: 10
# of buses: 5
# of shared taxies: 1
# of motor-taxies: 2
# of waterfalls: 5
# of snakes: 0
# of big spiders: 0
# polar bears: 0
# yetis: 0
# of dives: 0
# of sharks: 0
# of manta rays: 0
# of whale sharks: 0
# of dolphins: 0

Magyar verzio:

Alig vartam, hogy vegre megerkezzek Paiba, mert sok jot olvastam es hallottam rola korabban. Es a hely nem is okozott csalodast. Pai Chiang Maitol kb 150 km-re helyezkedik el, nagyon kozel a myanmari hatarhoz. Az odajutas erdekes 🙂 Nem ajanlom olyanoknak, akik rosszul vannak az autoban. Szoval minibusz visz Chiang Mai-bol kb 150 – 200 bahtert a 1095-os uton. Ez az ut atszeli a dzsungelt a hegyeken at es 762 darab kanyar van a szerpentinein. Ez teszi erdekesse es a fantasztikus kilatas az autobol. Van aki motort berel es azzal vag neki, amit aztan traileren visszahoznak Pai-bol. 4 oras kanyargas utan vegre megerkeztem es vegre ujra talalkoztam Lila-val a berlini hippi csajjal, aki egy kolostorbol erkezett ide.

Painak – ennek a kis hegyi falunak – van egy teljesen kulonleges vibralo, hippi atmoszferaja. A sok turista mellett rengeteg szabadon gondolkodo arc van itt, rengeteg vegan kaja es sok jo dolgot lehet csinalni. Ha akarod csak pihensz, meditalsz, muay thai-ozol, turazol vagy csak robogozol…

Atmeneti otthonom a Nusha Vendeghaz volt, amit nagyon szerettem. Rafi a tulajdonos ott el a csaladjaval es 4 – 5 bambusz bungallot ad ki a vendegeinek. O es a csaladja gondoskodik rolad: reggelit, ebedet es vacsorat foznek, amit levisznek a hazikodhoz es segitenek barmiben, amire szukseged van. A kertje egy valosagos paradicsom sokfele kulonbozo palmaval es egy rozsa-alma faval. Ez egy pici almaszeru valami, aminek rozsa ize es illata van. A bungallow maga nagyon kiraly, minden bambuszbol van benne, a teto pedig valami fa leveleival van befedve. Egyszeru es fenomenalis, csak ugy mint a kilatas a tornacrol es az ejszakai csillagos eg. Itt a hegyekben, a myanmari hatar mellett nincs legszennyezes, ezert az egbolt tiszta es a csillagok dragakovekkent ragyognak. A kertrol jut eszembe: 10 meterre a kecotol volt egy kis patak bekakkal. A bekak pedig sok kis kigyot vonzottak oda, amikbol sajnos egyet sem lattam.

A pihenes mellett elzarandokoltam nehany tuti dolgot megnezni. Az egyik Thaifold egyik legszuperabb barlangja: a Lod vagy Tham Lot barlang, amely 1 oranyi hepehupas, kanyargos autoutra van Paitol. A barlang 1,6 km hosszu, egy folyo – a Nam Lang – folyik benne. Elolenybol sok hal, denever es madar talalt itt menedeket. Az allatok es a cseppkovek mellett lattam teakfabol faragott keskeny koporsokat, amelyeket a Lawa torzs keszitett evezredekkel ezelott. A tura elso resze gyalog ment, aztan beultunk vekony bambusz ladikokba (3 fos) amiket bambusz botokkal toltak elore. Nagyon nehez szavakba vagy kepekbe foglalni, amit a hajon utazva atelsz. A hajotura vegen a barlang egy masik bejaratahoz erkezel, amin keresztul ott a vad dzsungel.

A barlangon kivul elzarandokoltam egy termalpatakhoz is, ami nem volt olyan nagy durranas. A nagy durranas viszont a Kanyon volt. A kilatas es maga a hely dobbenetesen szep es eleg veszelyesnek is tunt, ezert szigoruan maradtam az elejen es nem masztam at a tavoli vegekig. Turistak szazai gyulnek itt ossze nap, mint nap hogy megnezzek a csodalatos naplementet. Ahogy a nap eloszor narancssargara, majd tuz-narancssargara festette a horizontot es a hegyeket, ezt megint csak lehetetlen leirni.