Thursday, November 28, 2013

Pai- Our Love/Hate.. But Mostly Love Relationship

Wow I am on my last day in Thailand. The month flew by, except for a couple days when I was very very sick. 
The last stop of my trip was in Pai. A small town three hours north of Chiang Mai.

It is the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life!

This was a shot I look the second day I was in Pai and got on the back of someones bike to go to two water falls. The views were breathtaking!


Waterfall #1


It was such a beautiful day the waterfall was busy with backpackers.


Of course you could slide down this waterfall as well.. so I did.




Some people were also jumping in, I didn't do that.



You could sit up top the waterfall in little pools. The water was really cold but refreshing.






Waterfall # 2

This waterfall was in the shade so it was a bit cooler but it was still nice.






People were doing flips into the water, I didn't do that either.



We stopped at a cute restaurant on the way back to our hostel to take in more of the beautiful views.






Cute decor.



There was a bar called "Sunset Bar" where everyone in Pai would hang out most days and nights. One of the guys who ran the first hostel I stayed at, Common Grounds Pai, was a musician and would play here with some friends most days. They were really good but would play at our hostel until all hours of the night which was a bit frustrating when I was trying to sleep.


There were tubes in the river you could float on while listening to the music.


The first night we went to another bar, also with live music. Pai was crawling with musicians.


Theres me, always the odd one out with my club soda.

This was the Common Grounds puppy. She was so cute! She had flees though...


I signed up for three days of Hatha Yoga with Mam Yoga. She was a crazy 67 year old women but her story was amazing and her yoga was fun. She had us doing headstands the first class! (With help of course).

This is her studio. Beautiful backdrop. That's her in the photo.


She used to be a beauty queen, model and actress and developed a pretty serious eating disorder. She was always in and out of the hospital and her mother (a yoga instructor) sent her to India to an Ashram to heal her. It worked and that is where she discovered her love for yoga.

Unfortunately I was only able to do two days of yoga. I got ridiculously sick. As much as I loved all the food at the night market, I think I may have overdone it.

Here are some of the food vendors. This was omelet in a leaf bowl.


I refuse to believe the Ro Tee banana nutella was what got me sick! This was my favorite! You could get ro tee with soooo many different toppings. My favorite was nutella, peanut butter and cinnamon. 



After a couple of nights staying in the party hostel I decided to move to a quieter one called KK Hut. It was about 10 minutes from town but the people who ran it were the most thoughtful people I have ever met. The first night I stayed there I got really sick, I was throwing up constantly, couldn't keep anything down, water, nothing! They tried to give me some herbal medicine and another backpacker gave me some stomach medication but all of it came up right after I took it. The man who ran the hostel took me on the back of his motorbike to the hospital for the night where I was hooked up to an I.V for the night. It was not a fun experience, the beds felt like I was lying on cement and a women who had just given birth was in the same room as me (along with the newborn) and the baby screamed all night. It was also very difficult to leave in the morning. I did feel a lot better but spent the next day trying to sleep it off. The man who ran the hostel also came back and picked me up from the hospital. Such nice people. It was nice to know even though I was travelling alone someone was still there for me. If I ever win the lottery I will send that hospital a million dollars specifically to get more comfortable beds and to create a wing for pregnant women to have their own private rooms. :):)

Some of the other backpackers at my hostel would bring me water and bananas the day I slept all day. Backpackers really take care of eachother. It was nice to see that people really do care.

I am now at a hotel in Bangkok waiting to go to the airport. It'll be a long day of travelling but soon I will be home to Andy and the kitties. My trip was really amazing, Thailand is so beautiful and the people are so kind. I met a ton of people from all over the world. Thailand was the first place I downhill mountain biked, went rafting, slid down waterfalls and hung out with elephants. This was an experience I will never forget and look forward to more experiences. As cheesy as this is going to sound it made me realize what is important in life. So many people living in Thailand have very little but are so generous and happy. It just shows you don't need a lot of stuff or a high stress, high paying job in order to be happy and enjoy life.What's important to me is my family, friends, Andy and the kitties.

Goodbye Thailand, It's been swell ;)

Xoxo- Michelle

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Goodbye Chiang Mai, Hello Pai!

Hello everyone!!! Today has been extremely hectic but I have calmed down. I took some deep breaths, remembered how lucky I am to be in Thailand and got over it.

Here's what happened. I usually book all my hostels on hostelworld.com but they didn't have very many for Pai (which is apparently pronounced Bai but spelt Pai). So anyway I started to look on agoda.com and found one that looked cute and modern called Dorm Pai Hostel. So I took the four hour bus ride from Chiang Mai to Pai today and when I got here one taxi company wouldn't help me because they didn't know the address of this hostel. (On agodas website there is no phone number or e-mail address for this hostel, on hostelworld there usually is only this hostel wasn't on it). Before I left my hostel in Chiang Mai I had them translate the address to Thai for me thinking that would make things easier. I then got a taxi company to agree to take me, dropped me off at the end of a dirt road and told me the hostel was there, I paid him, he left, I walked up the road and there was no hostel. I was in the middle of farmland. Luckily there was a farmer there who called the tourist police who drove around with me for an hour trying to find the hostel, he asked about a million locals for help, let me use his home internet to get a map, we went exactly to where it was supposed to be and it wasn't there. He took me back to the town and I called agoda's customer service line. She said she had the number to the hostel. I took it, gave it to A NEW taxi company and it was for a different hostel! At this point I had been trying to find this place for about three hours and was done! I booked into a guest house right in town for $15 Canadian just for the night. I also sent two angry e-mails to agoda telling them what happened and that it would be very uncool of them to charge me a cancellation fee. I still haven't heard back but I'll keep you posted. Going forward I will stick to what works and book my hostels through hostelworld.com!

O.K now to saying goodbye to Chiang Mai. I LOVED Chiang Mai. So far it has been my favorite place in Thailand. The day I checked out of my first hostel Eco Resort I went with some Irish and South African people I had met at the hostel to a day of flowers, butterflies, waterfalls, rafting and elephants. They are teaching english here and it was organized through their school but I was aloud to come. So far its been my favorite day in Thailand.

Flowers and Butterflies






The Waterfalls

The waterfalls were my favorite part!








You could actually slide down one of the waterfalls which of course I did! 

Here's me on my way..



Here's me at the top...



And here's me freaking out as I'm landing in the water...



Here's me under a different waterfall. It was super strong.


Now as far as the elephants go, I am not sure how well they were treated at this training camp. I didn't research it as I was just kinda tagging along with the rest of the day. I really wanted to go visit the Elephant Rescue Center but it was booked up until the day I was leaving for Pai.





The girls


These girls were so much fun and so funny!


I wasn't really into doing this but I did it anyway. The girl I was with on the back of our elephant (above) was freaking out the entire time. It was quite entertaining though I did wish I could've helped..


We went rafting as well but of course I couldn't take my camera due to all the water involved in rafting but it was fun. I was nervous but it was extremely beginner so I was O.K.


Now the second hostel I went to was $4 canadian a night called Aoi Garden Home. It had excellent ratings on hostelworld so I went for it but when I went from the Eco Resort to that the pretty factor decreased significantly. The first night I thought I was going to check out early but I met a new friend from Ottawa the following day and stayed for three nights. I am so happy I did! The people who run the hostel are amazing, so helpful and friendly and I met some really cool people there. I even ran into a girl I had hung out with when I was in Koh Lanta. Another plus, they had a cat!

This is Meow. I smothered him so he didn't like me very much.




Me and my new friend Matt from Ottawa explored some temples on our first day there.






My last day in Chiang Mai I went zip lining with Dragon Flight. It was so fun!





 The is "handsome" one of the guides. He was fun.


 Beautiful views!!

 This was a free fall, the guide made sure I went fast, scared me half to death.

My zip lining crew

My last night in Chiang Mai I went for dessert with some people from my hostel and at the coffee shop there was a big cat bullying a kitten so I took the kitten away from it. Later the kitten curled up on my jacket next to me and cuddled with me all night. Made my day! I'm sure I have flees now though.



I am now in Pai with one night booked at a guest house as of right now. My friend recommended I come to Pai because it was a relaxed hippy town. (She was here 10 years ago). It's definitely tourist-y now but there are yoga and meditation places everywhere and it looks like a ton of hiking is to be done. I think I will be here for awhile anyway. I like the vibe I just need to figure out where I am going to stay. 

I will keep you updated!

Xoxo- Michelle



Sunday, November 17, 2013

Phuket and Chiang Mai


Hello Hello everyone! It's been awhile... I am in Chiang Mai and loving it. Phuket was probably my least favorite spot but it was still great. 

In Phuket I went to a Butterfly Garden, Monkey mountain and listened to some music with some girls I met at my hostel. 

The butterfly garden was a bit of a let down, then the taxi driver took me to this really expensive mall I didn't want to go to. I spent all of two minutes in it. Monkey mountain on the other hand was great!


The Butterfly Garden

The butterflies were really pretty, hard to get photos of though. There were other insects there as well, of course I ran past the spiders!


















Monkey Mountain

The view

I came around the corner and monkeys galore!



Monkeys doing their thing



Dinner and Music


Pineapple and chicken curry.


Desert- Banana, chocolate, roti. AMAZING!


Music



The guitar and bass player only played together for five minutes before performing but they were having a good time. The drummer in the photo was just a guy in the bar who decided to join in.



The guys kept asking for a singer and one of the girls I was with could sing really well so she joined in.

I stayed in a hotel the last night of my stay in Phuket, near the airport as I was flying to Chiang Mai the next day. The hotel was lonely though.



Me hanging out by the pool by myself. Getting my tan on :p



The view from my hotel room.

I will say I had a bit of a frustrating situation with my flight I booked via www.skyscanners.com

I was to fly with Thai Airways and had my ticket confirmation emailed to me but when I got to the airport apparently I wasn't booked in their system. I had to wait on standby but luckily I got on the flight to Chiang Mai. I didn't want to stay in Phuket any longer.


Eco Resort in Chiang Mai



The Pool



The Gym



View from the treadmill... not bad.




Loi Krathong and Yi Peng Festival.

Out and about in Chiang Mai























Lighting the Lanterns

Yi Peng

During this centuries-old celebration thousands gather to send the country’s famous paper lanterns skyward; paying homage to Lord Buddha and wiping the proverbial slate clean.  
via http://www.holidaysia.com/events/loy-krathong/










After most of the day by myself I walked up to a group of people at my hostel and asked them what they were doing that night. Some local girls they met were taking them out to celebrate the festival so I tagged along.


 Made from a crafty combo of banana leaves, lotus flowers, candles and incense, these floating rafts (the literal translation of Loy Krathong) are sent flaming down Thailand’s waterways, carrying away the owner’s bad luck and insuring a fresh start.



Heres mine floating down the river. 



Hiking and Biking

I did a hike and bike tour today and it was amazing! Sometimes with the tours they aren't very challenging but this one was great!


The Germans I was with. I have met so many Germans in Thailand.






Me looking super cool in my biking gear!






Such an amazing view!

I am loving Thailand! It has been such an amazing experience. I am in Chiang Mai for at least three more days then I am off to Pai and possibly Chiang Rai. 


Xoxo- Michelle