Dark and Dank to the Riverside

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We woke in our bungalow and decided to shop around for better quaters. We walked down the street, crossed a ricketty bamboo foot bridge over the river and found our new home. It's a collection of private bungalows on stilts facing the river. The ones that sit right in front of the river are a little more expensive than the ones further back. As me and Luc are sharing, we could afford the top notch ones. After checking in and checking out of the other one, we carried our backpacks over the bridge to our new home. As we passed by a new neighbour swinging in his hammock, he smiled at us and said 'Welcome to Pai'

Me & Luc's Bungalow
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We were all very happy to be here and set off to have our first breakfast. Unfortunately we made a bad choice as none of us enjoyed what we got, but we met a couple of French Canadian girls who seem really nice. After consulting our journal, we decided to go off in search of the natural hot springs and went to AYA service's to hire some mopeds. I'm not confident enough for my own bike, so we got just two. At some point in the day I planned to have a practice. It was Fred's first time on one too, but she's so much more brave than me. So I hopped on the back of Luc's and the three of us drove to the petrol station to fill up and then followed the road towards the springs. It was fun. Fred had a little retro looking helmit on and looked so cute. When we got to the Hot Springs in the book, we discovered it was a national park charging 400 baht entry (almost half a days budget for me) and that the water only came to your knees. Wondering what to do, we consulted our books again and read about private spa's channeling water from the springs into pools to bath in. Off we went to find them. We checked out about three, but none looked very appealing, so we went next in search of a waterfall. On the way back towards town, we passed a couple of elephant camps. At the map location of the waterfall, we found a dead end with a stream flowing through. Then we bumped into the French Canadian girls and they told us that it was a three hour walk there and a three hour walk back. It was too late in the day for that, so we splashed a little in the stream and headed for the swimming pool we'd seen signs for. Avoiding the one in the Lonely Planet, we settled for a nearby little pool that we had all to ourselves. It was in the middle of a field of cows and surrounded by views of the mountains. We loved it. We had a little sunbathe and a swim and just chilled out a while after the hectic day. The food was good there too.

Fred had a little retro looking helmit on and looked so cute

The collection of huts
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After this, we wanted to see the sunset from our huts sipping a glass of wine, so we headed back. On our way, we saw Kim walking in the street and we stopped to say hello. I said I'd ring her later to find our where she was eating so that we could catch up with her before she leaves for Laos. It was lovely to sit by the river with a cold glass of white wine and watch the sun slowly dissappear. Eventually, Fred and Luc took the mopeds back and I had one of my famously long showers. When we were all ready, we phoned Kim and walked to he restauurant she was eating at. It was too early for us to eat, so we sat with them and chatted. She and Bjorn had two two new friends they'd met on her recent trekk. Eleanor from Canada and Nick from the UK. When they were finished, we all went to the roti stand. They got their dessert and we bid them farewell. I'm prettty sure I'll see Kim again along the way. Soon after that, we found a lovely Thai restaurant on a corner and ordered a lovely meal. The daughter of the restaurant owner came over with her Winnie the Pooh to play with us and seemed to take a liking to the charming Luc. After dinner we headed to a bar and found one showing the football. After a while, me and Fred wanted some music, so we left Luc and found a little reggae bar with hammocks and guys jamming with guitars. It was really cool. Soon we made our way home to our huts where I found Luc fast asleep. He leaves tomorrow and i'm a little sad.

Our cute little mossy netted bed
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Elaine x x x