Charlotte's Web: Weekend in Pai

On Friday Andrew, Jack, Tammy (all from SLU) and myself joined our Thai friends Prince and Kunthara for a weekend trip to Pai. We drove there in the back of Prince's aunt's truck, with four people and a lot of camping gear in the truck bed. The drive there was through the mountains and 762 turns later we arrived at our campsite. This video wasn't taken by me, but gives you a good idea of what the drive was like. We set up two tents, but I chose to sleep underneath the stars in my hammock. It was a bit chilly so I bundled up in my comforter and wrapped myself in the hammock like a cocoon, making for a very cozy night's sleep. Waking up to the sun was wonderful and I enjoyed some alone time while sipping on coffee.

Once everyone was awake we walked into town for a good American breakfast before exploring the area. We visited a little Chinese village a few miles outside of Pai where we got to test out a human-powered ferris wheel. Although the highest point wasn't too high, it was still a thrilling experience seeing as the four of us were screaming and laughing the whole time. Right as we left the Chinese village, it began to rain, so we went back to the campsite to rescue our tents and gear. We ended up renting a cabin for our second night in case it continued to rain, which of course it didn't. An hour or so later the weather had cleared up and the sun was back out. We found some unused trash cans and set up a game of kan jam, a game that involves throwing a frisbee to your partner about ten yards away in attempt to hit the can or get the frisbee to land inside the can. We played this for a while before heading into town for a hot pot dinner, where we ate A LOT of meat that we cooked ourselves on a tabletop grill/boiling apparatus (see picture below). Later we returned to the campground where we made many new Thai friends by joining a group around the fire and spent the night playing games. Despite the language barrier we still ended up laughing the night away with them.

We spent the night inside our cabin, but woke early to the sounds of Thai music played by the campsite owners. Then we returned to town for another hearty breakfast before packing and loading back into the truck to head back towards Chiang Mai. The beautiful weather at the beginning of the day disappeared as we drove into the mountains, and the four of us in the truck bed huddled together underneath towels in attempt to stay somewhat warm and dry. Luckily we were driving right by a hot spring so we stopped there and enjoyed a nice hot bath for a while before hitting the road. The rain had stopped by the time we left the hot spring so the ride back to Chiang Mai was quite enjoyable as we all laid in the back of the truck bed with comforters and pillows. We got to see a great lightening show as we drove back at dusk. We stopped at Prince's house for a great home-cooked meal and got to talk to his stepfather who is American. Just after we returned to campus it began to downpour, so we made it just in time to avoid getting wet once again. It was quite a successful weekend trip!