Although it was good to have had company in Chiang Mai, I was starting to miss the nice conversations I have with myself (don’t most people talk aloud to themselves?), and so on the bus on the way to Pai I popped in my earphones and watched the scenery blur by, avoiding all eye contact with other farang. Pai was the last destination of Alex-The-Traveller; after Pai I was to morph into a Holiday-er, and so I wanted to savour this last time on my own.

Pai was a good place for it: very relaxed and cool… in both senses: freezing cold at night (well relatively speaking: it got down to about 15deg) and so chilled: Pai is really a tourist town for Thais who seem to visit just to walk around the night market, effortlessly oozing arty sophistication.

On my first full day I woke to a lovely crisp morning, foolishly thinking that the whole day would be as cool and refreshing, and padded down to a bicycle hire (and laundry/internet cafe/pharmacy) shop, hired something that probably once vaguely resembled a bicycle to head off to a waterfall “6kms” outside town. There were several factors I hadn’t thought through before setting off on my expedition, most notably that waterfalls by their nature are in the mountains, ie UPhill. Well I am quite pleased to say that I made it, encouraged mostly by the foul language that came from somewhere near my head; and the misleading distance signs along the way (initially only 4kms away, then 7kms, then about 500m later only 2kms… etc)

The next day I hired a motorbike – the fanciest, fastest, biggest one I could find (ok, only 125cc but it got up to 120km/h quite easily…) and headed off into the mountains towards Myanmar (Burma). Stopped at Tham Lot cave which was surprisingly impressive and so well organised compared to other caves in SEA; and a tiny hamlet called Mae LaNa which was so pretty, more so as it was tourist-free. After a quick map check, I headed off to the Burmese border. Oh, the Lonely Planet mentioned something about fighting, terrorists and refugees etc etc but hey, I thought I’d give it a whirl. I won’t build it up too much: it was late in the day, I was running low on petrol and the road was bad, so I didn’t make it… but so close! Instead I rode the 150kms back to Pai recklessly fast thought the mountains… reckless, and deliciously exhilarating…

Over the next 2 days I went for long walks outside of town (dehydrating quite badly one day when I forgot to take water with me – dangerously close to turning into a crinkle paper version of me), and hired a piddly puttering bike to visit a couple of non-descript “tourist attractions” in the area.

In the evenings I went to the night market, to pick up a few kebabs, and wander around the stalls selling mostly t-shirts. I found one that I thought was quite nice, but didn’t have my size. When I asked the lovely man if he had one size up he told me in stilted English that no he didn’t but I should “cut my body so it would fit”. When I laughed he didn’t. I walked away quite quickly.

Each evening, after my kebabs, I would settle down at one of the bars/cafes to listen to live Thai jazz and slurp mojitos. Inevitably I would have someone try to be friendly, but I was quite content being a recluse and really not interested in people (especially not the German bankers from London: too much reality… shudder).

Rereading that now, I realise that makes me sound a little socially peculiar. Oh well.

Mae LaNa village