Pai

A windy three hour drive from Chang Mai, Thailand’s populous northern city, is a town with a relaxed vibe locals claim is reminiscent of the 60’s in the states. Here, in Pai, is where we spent 9 days, including Thanksgiving and Dion’s 33^rd birthday. Set in a lush green valley, Pai was a base to explore…be it on a scooter whizzing through the countryside and hills or in town learning thai massage.

One of the memorable aspects of our time to Pai was our trek to a hilltribe led by our engaging guide Somsak. Hilltribe people migrated over 100 years ago from the southern part of China into Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Vietnam and Thailand. Comprising seven major tribes, each has its own distinct culture, religion, language, art and colorful style of dress. They have assimilated to varying degrees and levels of success with modern culture but for the most part have preserved their way of life with little change for over thousand years.

As a visitor, the hill tribes provide a glimpse into the basic lifestyle of living off the land, and residing in small self-sufficient communities that are foreign and centuries removed to many of us. Excluding the recent addition of solar panels, the living environment in the Lahu village we stayed overnight was much closer to that of the Pueblo Indians that resided in 1200’s Mesa Verde National Park we visited this summer, then to what we are accustomed to back home.

As for the remaining time in Pai, a few pictures below illustrate how days in a exceedingly comfortable town can just breeze by.

View of the river and traveler bungalows just outside the town of Pai

Vendors lined the main street each night, offering choice upon choice of food. Here is the best Pad Thai lady we found in town.

Elephants are big, and their trunks can be ticklish.

Our elephant trek was a definite highlight. Despite a backbone for a seat, they make for a great ride through the jungle. They are playful as heck, grabbing whole trees to munch on while walking by, and rolling around in the river (with us still on!)

Our garden bungalow in town

Dion's other playful friend: the mascot of our laundry shop

Samsak: our guide for the 2 days trek. The town is littered with different trekking establishments and guides swooning with the tourists; we were fortunate to connect with him in town early on and have such a quality guide, and friend, to show us the path and spend Thanksgiving with this year.

Here, Samsak is cutting a path for us, while Christy is thankful she brought the extra bug spray.

The hike started about an hour's drive from the center of Pai. The first day, for six hours and the second, five, we tredged up hills, through rivers, along rice paddies, even cutting our way through the forest in some cases. Somsak, very verse in English and knowledgeable about the various birds, trees, fruits and sounds in the forest, kept us preoccupied and learning.

Walking into the town of Eh la- of the Lahu hilltribe. With 20 families in total, there were more animals than people walking around. The sounds of roosters, cows and pigs were heard throughout the night.

Playing soccer with the village kids

Thanksgiving Dinner: fresh Thai food cooked on this open stove. It was a special place to spend the holiday this year, given how we were away from home. Eh la is as far away from Manhattan and South Beach Florida as one could imagine, so it gave us even more opportunity to reflect and be grateful for our lifestyle back home.

Dion learning how to Thai box. After 3 sessions of 3 hour grueling workouts, blistered feet and cut up knees and elbows, he's still far away from a real fight.

With time in town, we took massage courses in Thai Massage, Foot, and Oil.

Dion's birthday coincided with Thailand's national festival: Loy Krathong. It's tradition for them to send off these tissue paper hot air balloons into the night sky like stars. We heard from some that the practice sends away the negative energy for the coming year...athough Somsak's humorous explanation was that it simply floats flamable litter into the air.

Sunset our last night in Pai. After an afternoon riding our scooter around the outskirts of town, we came upon this Pai Canyon- with a spectacular view of the area.

Koh Lanta

Koh Lanta is a short ferry ride from Koh Phi Phi and where we spent the 2nd week in the Thai islands. While Phi Phi's population is concentrated- all walking distance from a single town, Lanta's is spread along a 25 km coast of long, west facing beaches. Instead of the sheer scenic limestone cliffs, Lanta's coastline rises steadily to a mountainous jungle interior. This geography helps give Lanta an even more lax atmosphere, with the biggest event of the day scheduling where you'll watch the sunset- not that there is a lot else to schedule here. However you spend your time on these islands, when its over it always seems to go by too fast.

The big event of the day

Watching the sunset from Bee Bee Bungalows, where we spent quite a bit of time... relaxing, eating and drinking cocktails with new friends we met on the island

An example of the islands creatively constructed "bungalows". Made primarily from bamboo, you can see how vulnerable they were to the Tsunami waves.

Christy cooking again? Taking advantage of another opportunity, this 4 hour class made for an escape from the midday heat one afternoon. This session she learned how to make fried rice, red curry, massaman curry, sweet and sour chicken and stir fry with hot basil leaves.

Ko Ha- 5 rocks/islands about a 2 hr boat ride from Koh Lanta, and where we scuba dived for the first time together- post certification course.

Dion snorkeling in the emerald green water in between our two scuba dives

Thai boxing is as much a part of the local culture as it is their entertainment. We saw 8 intense fights one evening...with most competitors high school age and younger. Different than UFC or boxing known at home, there is a ritual dance done by each guy before the fight. A great deal of respect is shown towards the opponents and the crowd throughout the competition.

There are worse places in the world to get one hour oil massages.

Koh Phi Phi

Koh Phi Phi islands are located in the Andaman sea, on the west coast of Thailand, about a 10 hour bus ride and 1 ½ hour boat trip from Bangkok. They are an extremely popular tourist destination, home of long beaches flanked by limestone cliffs rising from teal water rich in marine life. Koh Phi Phi was hit hard by the tsunami of 2004. It decimated the one town on the island, which sits on a narrow plot of sandy lowland between two arching bays. On just about any other occasion it’s a perfect location. In December 2004 a 15 foot & a 10 foot wave of water from the Tsunami met in the middle of the town.

Hearing recounts from a few of the locals it is difficult picture the scene when it is so idyllic today. Debris filled the streets for months, without the means or desire to rebuild some shops were left abandon, certain unfortunate families had to focus on loss far greater than any business.

Along the main street a bookstore owner placed his hand just above his head drawing a line to indicate the water level. He was one of the many who remained and in the aftermath was the 3rd shop on the street to open. Five or so months after the tsunami the island had reestablished its tourist infrastructure, by far its primary source of income.

Today on the surface, besides a few tattered sections and excess amount of empty concrete bags, you can visit without appreciating there was natural catastrophe 3 years ago. Yet you only need to look to the faces of the inviting, resilient locals to recognize the main reason this place can welcome the rest of us again.

And for the rest of us, time can breeze by on Thai islands. Drink fruit shakes, watch sunsets, get certified in diving (Christy), take snorkeling boat tours; listen to lounge music while resting on foldable beach cushions; we never claimed to be living the tough life.

A picture from the viewpoint, looking down at Ton Sai town on Phi Phi Don. You can see here how exposed the town is the water.

Christy enjoying her scuba diving course

Beach fire twirler shows

Picture inland a block or two from the heavy traffic streets, where the impact of the tsunami is still evident.

Christy beach reading on a wood platform just before sunset.

Taking every opportunity available to learn cooking skills; this time helping prepare our orders in our bungalows kitchen

Snack choices: fruit shakes and pancakes are delicious morning, noon or night. Money conversion: 33 Baht = 1 dollar

Feeding a banana to the tourist tamed "wild monkeys" of monkey beach

The beautiful waters around Phi Phi Leh

Our longtail anchored in Ao Phi Leh Bay, an almost enclosed lagoon which served as a filming location of the movie "The Beach"

Bangkok

Bangkok, the vibrant Thai capital of refined chaos. You’ll find colorful Wats (temples) within streets of backpacker hostels. Some of Asia's top business & luxury hotels a short walk from sidewalks lined vendors of electronics, clothing & assorted trinkets. After an hour of pushing through crowds in one of the congested sections Christy turned to question, ”is this entire city is a giant fleamarket?”. In reality, Bangkok has a range of offerings that will suit just about any taste.

This time our stay was quick, but we will pass through Bangkok several times in the coming two months. It’s a lively city to wander and as the hub for SE Asia travel has the westernized comforts of backpacker friendly Khao-San road. For now its also provides a suiting welcome to highlight our arrival in a new country, Thailand.

One of the buildings in the intricate, colorful Wat Pho

The 135 feet reclining Buddha, reference the people standing at the other end, which depicts Buddha entering Nirvana.


Christy first taste of Phad Thai in Thailand, from a quickly adopted favored street vendor.

Guangzi: Yangshuo and Long Ji

Our last province visited in China, Guangxi,was in many ways the most scenic given its alien-like landscape. The "postcard perfect peak and paddy field landscape" is really karst formations concentrated along the Li and Yulong Rivers and scattered among the plentiful rice fields. Our timing was impeccable for it was the harvest season, ,which made for golden fields and more interaction time with the friendly farmers as well as unseasonably warm days later chilling into more Fall air.

Given the area's reputation for beauty, we made our stay a healthy 11 days- allowing for long, restful reading days by the river as well as time to enjoy the area and local villages through biking, hiking, jogging and simply wandering. The Yangshuo Town, like most discovered gems in China, was crowded with tourists, overloaded with tempting shop fronts and bustling with cafes. We split our time between here and the countryside- for the quietness of the outdoors and the pleasant exchanges with the locals was the heart of Yangshuo we most enjoyed.

Having been in China for over five weeks at this point, we found food we will miss and dishes we hope to recreate at home. Monday, we took a cooking class here in small village of Chaolong, making 5 dishes and then eating our feast for lunch. For sure, a highlight for Christy and admittingly great fun for Dion as well.

With the extended and active time in the area, there are no shortage of pictures we wanted to share:

Classic pictures of Yangshuo and the limestone karst formations that make the area famous

On our walk the first day, these farmers invited us over for some watermelon

Which led to helping them cut the rice stalks.

Working in the rice paddies with a farmer who puts his hard earned money into his silver teeth.

Cooking class in Yangshuo where we learned how to use a Wok, making Cashew Chicken, Beer Fish, Stirfried garlic greens and eggplant.



Scenes along the Yulong River during our bike tour, passing though villages, and culminating with a hike to the peak of "Moon Hill" shown above. Christy catching a break at the top of Moon Hill- justifiably wondering why we can't take the "short or easy route" sometimes.


Christy beating Dion (the sore loser), yet again, at Double Solitare

Photos of our 18k hike from Langdi to Xinping. This included three river crossings, twice on established boats and once bargaining with a farmer for a ride across on her bamboo raft. This route is thought to have the most picturesque views of the Karst formations along the Li River.

Locals along the way: farming, preparing one of our favorite street foods, rolling a smoke, serving a trail guides (kids) and making Christy look big yet again.

Christy with Chun Lee, the Front Desk Supervisor at the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat. Chun Li is a remarkable young lady, self taught in both Chinese and English. She suffers from OI (Osteogenesis Imperfecta) also known as brittle bone disease. The owner of our Retreat started a charity organization called The China-US Medical Foundation to help patients in Mainland China that suffer from this genetic mutation. We were so touched by Chun Li's strength and this organization's mission, that we wanted to help spread awareness in the little way we could, on this blog. We encourage you to check out their website: http://www.china-usmedical.org/. Very inspiring and touching, to say the least.

An aerial picture of the Yangshuo area, captured during a balloon ride by a German & British couple we befriended while at the mountain retreat. Gives a good feel for the incredible topography of the area.

Hiking up to our guesthouse in the village of Ping an, located in the Long Ji Rice terraces located a 3-5 hour bus ride northwest of Yangshuo.

Christy debating whether she'll have ham that night with her fried rice.

Pictures of the rice terraces during our day long hike through the organized contours of the Long ji mountainside.

The map of our final route through China: September 20th - November 3rd