On the border between Laos and Thailand, about to cross over and pay my exit fine of 1000 baht ($33). I will be getting on a boat for the next two days, so we will see about updates…

Happy New Years everyone! We rang in the new year with style here in Pai, Thailand. Style, and Singha beer. The night was uproariously funny from the get go. From having candle wax sprayed all over me to the table bench collapsing under four of us, we we a walking accident all night long! The new year actually hit while we were dancing around a fire in an open air bar next to a river. There was a live reggae band counting down the time till the fireworks went off and hundreds of lanterns were lit up into the air. Floating lanterns are like little hot air balloons that are incredibly beautiful.

I am leaving here tomorrow to go to Laos again, and I have already overstayed my visa, so I will have to pay 1000 baht ($33) to leave Thailand, then $30 for my Laos visa. I will spend a few weeks in Laos, making my way slowly towards Cambodia.

(These pictures are from Bonnie’s camera, as I know better than to take mine to a New Year’s Party!)

 
Bonnie, Me, and Uri

Fire Show at the New Years Party

I arrived in Pai yesterday by way of minibus from Chiang Mai. I got in around 3 pm, and began my search for a place to stay. This city, which is really a small town of 3000, is packed with Thai tourists. It was the setting of a Thai romantic film in 2006 and since then, has become the holiday spot for Thais. It was described to me as laid back, full of fun things to see, and a good place to kill a few days. When I arrived, I killed a few hours walking with my pack on trying to find an open place. Everywhere was full! I finally got very lucky, and landed a bamboo hut next to the river for 200 baht a night. This is expensive for Pai, but I just needed to drop off my bags and get some food. These two missions accomplished, I began my standard walking tour of my area. I still find this is a great way to settle in to a place, and I generally meet people while I do it.

This time was no different, and after I had completed the circuit of my footprint (the area I can comfortably travel on foot) I passed a group of people sitting around in front of a small bar/cafe speaking English. I pulled up a seat and hit it off with them. There were three guys from Israel, a girl from Canada, and a girl from Australia. Two of the three guys were together, and the other had just met them that day. The whole group had met oat the bus station that day or the day before, and I settled in nicely. We had a fun night of wandering the town, and I made plans to meet up with Bonnie, the Canadian girl the next morning to ride motorbikes around.

We met up at 10:00am, but all the motorbikes were already rented in the whole town, so I had to fork over some extra cash and rent a bigger bike that was some sort of chopper. She hopped on the back and we took off for a full day tour of the mountains and surrounding area. We went to two waterfalls, a crazy canyon that was unlike anything I have seen, and had lunch with the best view I have ever had while eating fried rice. When we got back, we grabbed two beers and went down to the river to drink them. We sat on a bamboo bridge over the water and watched it get dark as people slowly drifted on bamboo rafts below us, occasionally getting stuck among the pillars of the bridge. When it finally got dark, we moved over to a camp fire that had been set up with pads around it, and spent a while just talking about randomness. She had a room that was huge, and she was only paying 150 baht a night, so I moved my stuff in with her and am now only paying 75 baht a night.

We met up with some people we had come to know, and got dinner, followed by a few hours at a live jazz bar set away from the main road. Today we decide to be lazy, and woke up around 11, before she went to lay by a pool, and I got a massage and went to the Internet cafe where I presently am. No plans for tonight, but tomorrow is New Years, and from the amount of flyers being past around, it should be an incredible time.

Oh, Update: I ran into Greg, the Canadian that I hung out with in Ton Sai. We had been planning to meet up in Laos, but it didn’t work out. He was walking down the street one night and I literally ran into him. So we have been hanging out some, catching up on th emonth since we have seen each other.

Pai Panorama, the main city is actually out of site in the valley.

Just some sunflowers near the mountains

Me, Bonnie and the Bike

The guest house i stayed at has been awesome, it is cheap, fun and in a great location. I spent a week here, and helped Robert, the guy who owns it, set up Wi-Fi and get some advertising out on signs about it. He treated me to a few free meals as payment, which was fine with me because i got to work online the whole week.

Visit them at: www.samesameguesthouse.net

Robert

Same Same

The Inside

I have spent a great deal of time over the past few days working online to update the back end of my blog, and to work on how it is displayed. I am not sure that this will be the final version, but for a while, it will work. I have downloaded a new program that allows me to blog with ease even if I am offline, which is always a plus. It will automatically update once I get back to the Internet. It also has this nifty option to insert a map quickly, so here one is.

I have been in Chiang Mai, the northern capitol of Thailand for the past week or so (maybe longer? not quite sure anymore) I leave tomorrow for Pai, where I will spend New Years’s Ever before booking it to Laos the next day. My visa expires on Jan 1, but if I overstay, it is only $15 a day, which I may be willing to pay to avoid traveling on New Years Day. (I am sure that everyone parties here just as much as anywhere.)

I am able to leave Chiang Mai because the author who was going to have me do his blog has decided to wait until after he finishes his current publishing contract to start up anything new.

Other than this, there is very little to report. Please comment and let me know what you think about the new layout. It will change soon, but not much. Just going to edit the side bar some and make it work how I want it to. Last night with decent Internet for a while, so I will be busy.

-Ben

I always find it interesting to spend a decent amount of time in a city when I am traveling. You get to know the local population, the local hangouts, even where the best prices can be found. Since I am currently spending a great deal of time in Chiang Mai, I have begun to learn the area. First, when I had a motorcycle here, I learned my way around the town city at large. Now that I have stopped renting a motor bike everyday, I am beginning to learn my current “footprint” – the area I can comfortably cover on foot in an evening. I know that one book store has cheaper books than the other, and that the 7-11 on one corner has a better selection of junk food than the one down the street. I know that if I head this way I will find bars with pool tables and foreigners, and if I head the other way I will find local hangouts with Thais sitting around drinking Sang Sam, the local whisky.

In order to do the work I need to right now, I have helped the owner of this guesthouse make his place wireless. So now I can sit up on the balcony, editing my webpages all day and designing the new ones I am going to get paid for without having to wander to find internet.

Here is a sample of what I have been designing so far. The guy is starting a complete online site to talk about Foreigner – Thai relationships, which seem to flourish here. So… back to work!

Side note: I will be changing the layout of this site soon. it is getting old to me

Christmas in Thailand has been actually pretty decent. I got a great dinner with with an English guy I have become friends with, we sat around his cafe drinking wine and telling stories, while I ate pork chops and mashed potatoes. I even got some carols from the school kids singing last night!