Pai (Part One): Motorbikes, Elephants, and Caves

On the elephant on dry land...
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Pai is a small litlle mountain town of about 3000 people in the Northwestern corner of Thailand.  An interesting place with a cool mix of Thai people, groups from the local hilltribes in the surrounding areas, and a decent amount of semi-permenent westerners who found a little chunk of heaven here in Pai and decided to make it home for a while.  A cool mixture to say the least, with a fun variety of outdoor adventure, social activities, and motorbike exploration.

My time in Pai (a total of about 2 weeks) can be easily divided into into two different segments; the dividing factor being something rather dramatic, my motorbike crash.   Now before anyone starts to freak out (Mom, Aunt Lori, I'm looking at you :-) I'm am fine, in good condition, and great spirits.  In fact my experiences after the crash were some of the most fun that I've had on the trip so far.  But as the title of the blog states, this is Pai-Part One (i.e pre-crash).  So I'll get back to catching up, and will address my wipe out in it's proper place...

Action shot of the first time the elephant threw us off in the water. We played rodeo with him for half an hour.
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So when Brett, Jodi, and I arrived in Pai from Chang Mai we took it relatively easy that first day.  Food and reading, shower and nap... just what the body needed after a bumpy, winding ride from Chang Mai.  Just kind of settling into the rhythem of the town, which has an incredibely slow, laidback pulse, conducive to strolls and siestas.

Day two was where the fun began.  We rented motorbikes in the morning and went off to explore the roads and villages outlying the town.  Southeast asia in general is a motorbike culture, with everyone from 65 yr old ladies to 12 yr old kids cruising around on their little 125cc bikes.  Often you will see a whole family on one bike: dad driving, mom on the back, and little kid between dad's legs hanging onto the handlebars.  Up here in Pai it's even more dramatic, with everyone jetting around on their little bikes, through the dusty narrow streets and back alleys. The merchants carry their goods on their shoulder as the ride between store and home, balancing baskets or clutching a big bag of rice between their legs.  Many interesting sites to see....

Brett and I trying to stay on as we walked out of the river.
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That first day with the bikes we set out on the road with an elephant camp as our destination.  There are a few of them about 10km outside of town, so off we went.  We found our way to Joy's Elephant Camp where, for 250 baht (~$8) we got to ride and 'swim' with an elephant for a little over an hour.  I had been on top of an elephant twice before, both during the two week trip to India/Nepal during my senior year of high school, but this experience was in a different league.  In India/Nepal we'd been on a platform strapped to the elephant's back... not here.  Brett, Jodi and I were all sitting directly on the elephants back, bobbing back and forth as she walked, on the edging of tettering over a few times.  When we started off I was sitting at the front on the elehant's neck feeling her shoulders move back and forth with each slow but deliberate step.  The power is unbelievable.

Our bamboo raft ride through the massive Tom Lod cave, the cave mouth in this picture had thousands of birds and bats flying in circles devouring the insects.
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We walked for 15 minutes from the camp down towards the Pai river, which is apparently a decent sized river during the high season, with a few raft companies that operate on it.  But it is the low, dry season so it is just a light, tranqull flow now.  Still on the back of the elephant, we got down to the river side, emptied our pockets of anything of value that we didn't want wet, and the the elephant lumbered into a pool that was fairly deep... at least deep enough for her to submerge.

Me on my bike, lookin' good, I know.
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We were sitting about  water level, with the elephant still a bit out of the water.  First she sprayed us with her trunk, flicking water back over her shoulder at us.... and then we really got into the rodeo ride.  She would submerge all the way, then pop out of the water, buck back and forth, pitch her head to the side, whip her trunk around, and inevitabely send us sprawling into the water with massive smiles on our faces.  We did this for about half and hour, getting pitched off, climbing back on, trying to stay on as long as possible, getting tossed again.  It was awesome!  A unique experience to say the least...  After the elephants, we got back on our bikes a cruised around a bit more, grabbing some great veggie thai food, road up a steep dirt path to see a wat (Buddhist temple) on the hill side over looking the city.  That night was a low key one, another goood meal, a nice hour long thai massage, etc.  Pretty much a perfect day all around.

Brett, Jodi, and I on the elephant.
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The following day we headed out of Pai for the night to a place call Cave Lodge, which is just outside of Sappong (about 70km away from Pai).  The drive was great fun, the road being a steep, winding ride up through a beautiful mountain pass.   With Jodi on the back of Brett's bike and me solo, we had an absolute blast playing on the road as we went.  We eventually got to the Cave Lodge about mid-day and relaxed a bit in the massive open air bamboo bungaloo.  At 70 baht a night is was my cheapest lodging so far ($2.20) and a beautiful place to spend some time.  Located right on a little river, Brett and I went for a dip to cool down in the swimming hole and ended up playing on a little bamboo raft with a bunch of little village kids, 10 of us on a half submerged bamboo boat, poling ourselves up and down a little stretch of river, flipping the boat over, and generally laughing a lot.

Me on the crash day, bandaged and dirty, after riding the mountain pass back to Pai.
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Then later that day the three of us went to check out the massive cave close to the lodge called 'Tom Lod' which was massively impressive.  With the river running through it, we walked around in the cave for a while, and then paid a local guide to take us on a bamboo raft to reach the other mouth of the cave which was being swarmed with birds and bats devouring the insects there.  A very cool experience, the cave was filled with dramatic stalagtites/stalagmites, as well as pre-historic cave paintings, and ceremonial teak coffins from thousands of years ago.   Very much worth the trip from Pai.

Brett, Jodi and I in 'Tom Lod' cave.
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It was the following day that the proverbal shit hit the fan.  We woke up early and checked out of the Cave Lodge.  On our way out of town, looking for gas, we bumped into a guy from the Czech Republic who had been staying at the Cave Lodge as well.  He had been waiting for a bus into Sappong which had been canceled.  He need a ride the 7km into town.  He asked me to give him a lift of my bike...  I felt very bad saying no, knowing that any competent rider would have been able to get him there no problem... I said yes.  He had a big backpack too.  I told him that I hadn't ridden with anyone on the back before, just so he was aware of the situation.  He said "we'll be fine."

About 10 minutes into the ride, we were comming down a steep hill towards a little bridge, an old paved road with lots of pot holes and gravel.  Right before the bridge there was a big hole that we hit a little too hard.  Since he was on the back I had put my small backpack in the little basket in the front of the bike.  When we hit the bump, my bag in the front popped up and landed on the handlebars.  At the same time we were both pitched forward a bit, and the combination of the two forces sent us sprawling to the left side.  Luckily for my czech friend I broke his fall for the most part... He, with his big bag, fell pretty much right on me, adding some more preasure behind the cheese grater effect.  Sorry to be graffic, but it was a graffic situation.  Luckily I had on my protective flip flops, board shorts, and tee shirt; basically naked to the road.  We were both shaken up a bit.  Brett came running over the assess and help.  He's got his WFR (Wilderness First Responder) as do I, and I would trust him with my life.  My injuries were the worse of us two, having abbrassions on my ankle, leg, thigh, hip, shoulder, and the forearm (which was the worst).  All were relatively superficial except the forearm which was a bit deeper, and bleeding a bit more than the rest.

So before long I hitched a ride to the Soppong hostipal, where I was treated very kindly.  Lots of local folks (other patients) comming up and checking out up scrapes, giving me knowing looks.  In a place with so many motorbikes, these people know thier roadrash...  Anyway, I was seen by the doctor after a while, who spoke enough english to get by.  Got myself all patched up and the wounds cleaned.  They were professional and sanitary, but it was a surreal experience none the less as I'm getting worked on, look up at the ceiling and see little geckos (small lizards) running around up there.  They don't bother me at all anyway, they're everywhere here, I've had a few running around in my bungaloo everynight... atleast they cut down the the mosquitos...

After all was said and done, I walked out of the hospital, hoped onto the back of Brett's bike, who gave me a ride back to my bike, we got gassed up and on the road again... still had another 2 1/2 hrs of riding to get back to Pai, through the same steep winding mountain pass.  In hind sight it was a good thing b/c it got me right back on the bike again instead of being nervous.  I actually had a lot of fun on that ride back, and it geve me the confidence to ride around a lot more over the next week instead of being gun shy about the whole thing.

And that is where I'm going to leave off on Part One of Pai.  Back into town after the ride, we did some food, and then Brett and Jodi left on a minibus back to Chang Mai.  Jodi to fly home and Brett to fly to Nepal.  As for myself, I was ready for a peaceful convalescence.  Pai is a perfect place to lay low and get better.  A little help from some beautiful greek women added to the mix , but now I'm getting ahead of myself, I'll save the details for Part Two.  But I can't write anymore right now... this is the longest I've sat at a computer for a long time.