Pai cont'd

It's early morning here in Pai and I'm in a gorgeous coffee shop overlooking the valley (thanks for the suggestion Jaime), watching the fog clear and just enjoying some alone time. Alone time, which I have quickly discovered, is actually hard to have when you are travelling. I am not complaining as I have met some amazing people thus far, but it is rather ironic that I feel the need to seek out some time to myself when I was supposed to be on this trip by myself.

Since the Tahoe boys took off, I decided it was time to embrace the 'solo' part of my trip and set out yesterday to do nothing but hang out by myself, read and figure out my plans for the next month and a half. Failed that. Went to start off my day with another great breakfast from The House- i feel bad not exploring more places but it is just so good. I think I am also realizing that, while traveling, I need to have some sort of routine, even if it's just eating at the same breakfast place everyday. While at breakfast I ran into the isreali girl I met on the bus over here. Her and a girl from holland were going to get motobikes and tour around... Did I want to join? I first declined but then rethought out my day a bit. I had been wanting to rent a motobike to take out and explore by myself but knew it probably wasn't a great idea to start out by myself since I had only played passenger thus far. Thought I could join the girls for the first waterfall they were going to go see and then go find the coffee shop Jaime has told me about-then I can get on with my chill, quite day. We decide to meet back at the same place in 2 hours to start our little adventure.

I went back and changed out of my dress, walked around for a bit and then went to rent my bike. It's a painless process that includes a driving lesson for first time drivers- sweet. Get taken out to this little road and told by my chubby Thai teacher to drive, turn around and come back. Easy enough. The driving part is easy but my teacher gave me no instructions for making a u-turn which almost had me in the bushes. I finally make it happen (by no means gracefully) and when I get back to Fattie, he tells me 'again'. I think he just wants to finish his cigarette but do as I'm told and attempt to do my u-turn again with less flailing. I guess I passed though because Chubs Mcgee tells me to move over and gets back into the drivers seat, smelling like an ashtray. Get back to the rental place where I am given the girliest pastel pink bike ever (this thing makes my cruiser bike look manly). I ask for a less girly bike but they don't understand and I just suck up my pride and jump on my little 'barbie's dream bike'.

Meet the girls at The House and also run into a Canadian guy we met the day before at the hot springs. I tell him our plans and he decides to join. So the four of us take off with the Isreali girl leading our little gang. We stop for gas at a very bizzare gas station (similar to a vending machine) and head off. We quickly realize that our Isreali friend is reading the map completely wrong so we put John, the Canadian, in front to lead the way. We finally make it to the waterfall after passing a few elephants being ridden on the side of the road and a few stops by our impatient Isreali friend who was convinced we were lost. The waterfall was a short hike up but John wanted to grab some food before we headed up so we sat at the base of the trailhead as he got some grub. As we waited, another huge group of Isrealis pulled up and sat down next to us. Our Isreali friend (if you can't tell already, I can't remember her name- I apologize) starts talking to them and we are quickly all introduced to them. It is funny to see this big group of kids together and notice the cultural differnces. First off, they are all overly friendly, talkative and loud. They all start taking out their food and trying to share it with us. I politely decline only to have oreos and banana bread put right in front of my face while they scream 'oh come on, eat! Eat!!'. So I eat.

We walked up to the waterfall now all together and cross the water to get over to the good swimming area. This waterfall is tucked away in a slender canyon of sorts but has an awesome pool at the base- the whole scene of it all is just beautiful. By this time, though, it's close to 5 and my urge to swim before getting back on the bike has been lost with the amount of daylight we have left. Snap some pictures of the other kids swimming who are also taking 800 pictures of everyone (they are really good about getting up in your face and saying 'smile' after they have just snapped a picture of you), and just chill for a bit. The two girls take off to catch the hot spring before it closes and I tell the crew I'm going to head to this coffee shop. As I attempt to do this though, I have somehow invited the whole lot of kids to join me. We all get back on the scooters, get to Coffee In Love and take up a large part of the deck with our new crew of friends. It is, undoubtably, good company- just a bit different than what my original plans for the day had been. We watch the sun set from the beautiful spot we are at and then head our seperate ways back towards town.

Drop the bike off at the bungalow, grab a longsleeved shirt as it is quite cold here at night and head out for some street food. Another thing I love about this town is the fact that the main drags are littered with vendors and street carts with all my favorite foods for a mere 10-20 baht (about 30-60 cents). Grab a pumpkin spring roll, veggie noodle soup and a chocolate crepe... So good!! While I was sitting at the little vendor eating my noodle soup (a place I picked purposefully because it had no westerners there), I had this English gentleman sit down next to me and order soup as well. We started chatting and then his French friend joined us. Other people we had all met along the way were walking by and stopping in here and there as well to talk. I'm telling you- it really is a challenge to be alone over here!! The two guys invite me to meet them later for a drink. I'm taking some antibiotics right now so tell them no drinks for me but that I will come meet them again to go out for a little. (At this point I have made sure to mention the word 'boyfriend' more than a few times and feel like they are after nothing more than company so please don't worry mom...). Walk around to kill some time, run into other people we have met along the way and go back to meet up with the guys. The older English man doesn't show but the French guy and another Brit he had met in southern Thailand come over and we head off to the bar next to us. I order a soda and sit down at this nice little casual outdoor bar. I last for about an hour before I have had enough socializing for one day. Shoot off some emails at my little wifi corner and head to bed.

Woke up this morning to take the bike out before I have to return it today. Jumped on my wet motobike and slightly froze driving through the fog to Coffee In Love but it is so nice to be here before every tourist bus starts dropping people off here. Was planning on journaling but have no pen and everytime I have tried to ask for one, the employees think I'm motioning for the check and try to explain to me that I have already paid. So, it is iPod touching and reading for me. Meeting Bianca, the girl from holland, for breakfast at ten to discuss staying at a monestary- think she is going to do a 26 day stay whereas I'm looking for about maybe 2-7 at the most- and then hopefully completing my quite, me-time day.

My other mission for the next couple days: trying to figure out a general timeline for my trip before starting at CCPP. A good friend of mine from camp messaged me and told me he will be out in Asia travelling for a few months and informed me that the whole slew of Brits, welshmen and crazy Americans are making a trip out for Xmas which i am now invited to join in on- which makes me so happy and excited. Hanging out with this group of boys is kind of like being drunk and on laughing gas constantly- I always leave them with a hangover and my stomach and face hurting from laughing so much. Anyways, if I'm to meet up with them, I essentially have a month and a half to split between the rest of Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. I don't think I need to rush off anywhere but I need to remember to balance out my schedule so I can see everything I want to see. If any of you world travellers have some advice about how I should split it up, please give me some suggestions.

As it is getting later in the morning, this place is starting to fill up pretty quickly. I had a feeling a couple people were taking pictures of me but thought: 'that's a pretty self centered thought... I'm sure they are just taking pictures of the scenery and it just looks like I'm in the frame'. But I just had four women who came up behind me and, one by one, had their picture taken with their arms wrapped around my shoulders???

I think it's about time to go.