Lulu and Bill found Paradise Guest House which was exactly what we wanted to find, it was Paradise - cute little bungalows with bathrooms and fans, free wireless internet, a natural spring water fed pool, tropical gardens all owned and cared for by a Gentle Thai family.
Pai is like the name, it conjured up nursery rhymes and lazy do nothing kind of feeling and we were not disappointed. Its a little village backing onto a broad winding river, Pai is filled with an eclectic mix of shops, restaurants, bars, massage, book shops, guest houses and lots of street vendors. Most of the businesses work from converted houses run by the family who live over or behind the shop so you see mama papa granny, granpa and lots of cute Thai babies. No cars are allowed into town so its all on foot, scooters or bicycles.
Scooters are the mode of transport in Pai and for 100 Baht a day (R25) Lou and I were soon whizzing around merrily exploring the town and surrounds.
Yoga keeps you young and flexible and one of our missions for the trip was to continue where we left of in India. We found Mama Lin, a 62 year old - half Thai - half Hindu, ex beauty queen, model, activist, sage, travel agent and much more. We suspect she ended up with Anorexia and at 25 was packed of by her wise mum to live on an Ashram in India. She came back a yogi and has taught the art ever since. She willingly shared her wisdom, taught us to laugh and 5 two hour lessons later we were starting to stretch.
One day found us in a national park with hot springs. Whilst we submerged ourselves in this hot sulphuric water Craig went up to the source and boiled eggs (yes he did) that he bought from the stall on the way up so we ate the boiled eggs with soya sauce for lunch.
As Africans we decided to visit the elephants and go for a ride. Up close Indian elephants are BIG and there are only 2 ways to mount them, up the trunk or up the front leg both seem a daunting task. The first option entails tapping the elephant on the shin and after a few commands from his instructor he helpfully bends his leg so that you step from ankle onto the knee and grab his ear to climb up. The second option involves tapping his trunk prompting him to hoist you up onto his head which was is done without any apparent effort from the Elephant. From there you leopard crawl down his neck and end facing backwards 12 feet off of the ground on a moving beast. Nicky and Lou were on the little ellie (relative term) and Craig and Bill on the big mama. She had a spine like a scaffold plank - sideways, thank god Lou bought cushions because we were riding bare back with just a simple piece of cloth and one rope around the Elephant for some sort of handhold.
The first hour was pretty hellish a slow ramble up into the jungle and then of course down which is pretty difficult on your legs bum etc. Lous and Nickys elephant keep sneezing, blowing snot all over them and Craig was squirming around trying to find a position on top of the sideways plank. We laughed the whole way; I mean what else could you do. During the second half we ambled along the river and then into the river. Its hard to describe the experience it was like riding a whale. Such fun, the four of us, the guides, the ellies and a couple of locals - we were loving it.
They squirted gallons of water at a time, they played, they flicked us off, they rolled over, bucking bronco on an elephant! They are magnificent creatures and by the end of the day sitting around drinking Singha beer with the guides we were looking at these domesticated beasts with a whole lot more insight.
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