PAI, hippy epicenter of S.E. Asia!!

Our Bungalow In Pai
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Ahhhhh the smell of nag champa and patulie oil!!! What can you say, the hippies can choose there locations!  With the knowhow of hippy vill (i.e. San Fran and Taos) we understand that with hippies tend to be good food, relaxed environment, and more times then not a rather beautiful area.  Pia, Thailand has all of those things...thats why we have chosen to only stay one night. We found a nice little hut to stay in by the river, a motorbike to see the area and a ticket out for later tonight.  Pai is up in the mountains of Nothern Thailand, which kicks the humidity down a few notches and makes for a very pleasant area to hang out in.

Sunset beer at the river
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Since we had nothing but time to kill today we decided to take a bike ride to Tom's Elephant Park in the expectation of going for a little ride. We arrived at the Park and there were seven elephants lined up enjoying there truck load of a bamboo lunch, yum. The boss let us know that she buys multiple truck loads every day because they eat so much.  The elephants were great, but the ride is nothing to get too excited about.  It is painful to ride an elephant, and they are not really treated that great by the handlers...sad really.  We took a strole on the elephants back down to the river where they proceeded to spray us with water and dump us right in.  Pete had a great time becasue the elephant was able to throw him around (not something that a 6'2" 220lb. man experinces very often).  Fun, but unexpected, and since we have a 9 hour bus ride tonight and no way to shower before hand jumping in a dirty river was not what we had in mind.  Anyway, we can now knock "ride an elephant" off of the old to do list.

Ahhhhh the smell of nag champa and patulie oil!!!

Pai
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Tonight we head to Laos by bus.  We are hoping that luck will smile upon us and we will be able to charter a boat up a river in Laos to a small eco-village on the Laos Chian boarder so that we can do some rafting and hiking.  Wish us luck.  Take care everyone!