MOTOGIRL IN THAI

it wasnt the easiest thing, but i was able to rent a moped today! I woke up early. The first place i went to the man just held up his hands in an "X". I dont know if that meant he was out of scooters for the day, or if i just didnt pass the vibe check, but every time i tried to go to him (yesterday also) he just did the same thing T-T i went to a different place that was also recommended on a travel blog and the man told me there was only one! scooter! left! It was a bit pricey (250baht when there exists 100baht rentals..) but i decided to go for it. To give perspective thats around 7$ for a 24hr rental. my accommodation here has varied between 4-7$ a night. however, I didnt have to leave a deposit, just my American drivers liscense as collateral which was a plus. The model is called Zoomer which is hilarious obviously. It was a very "state of the art" scooter and i was a little embarrassed looking for the kick start when its actually just a button you press i learned ^_^" he told me the headlight is also just automatic.. Funny thing about all these hyper new features is i drove away to my hostel, parked, grabbed my stuff since i was checking out, and i couldnt get it to start. Like, wasnt even sounding like it was trying to start. I had to get a german fellow to take a vid of me trying to start it and he was so kind to give me a ride back to scooter shop. I showed the man and he told me the scooter has a mechanism that wont let it start if the kickstand is down. I felt like such an idiottttt!!!! LOL. But it really worked fine after i knew that haha ^_^" i ended up checking in early to my new hostel and it is beautiful! Very big with huge outdoor areas, swings, straw huts, hammocks and its right by a river! Theres also a ton of natural vegetation on the property so its very serene and shaded. I hit up a Saturday market which was very small. It was about the size of only 1/4 of the arcata farmers market, but there was cool vegan hippy food and some interesting used and vintage stuff. I ate a papaya salad and some fried blossoms and enoki mushrooms. I got a hummus tofu salad wrap for later. Having the motorbike really encourages you to do as much as possible as its a bit of a waste to rent it and just sit at home. It was another hot day and i decided i wanted to check out Mo Pang waterfall for some swimming. The ride was wayyyyy way way more chill than i was expecting. I think i was fearing for the worst. It was actually very chill and scenic, not hardly anyone on the road.. no sand, gravel, no hairpin turns.. the hardest part was actually parking once i got there as the parking lot was not paved and was just loose rocks. It took a bit of strength to guide the bike where i needed to go. As i was leaving the attendant actually helped me guide the bike out. The waterfall spot was really cool, it was nice to be in nature. It wasnt extremely crowded but i looked awhile before deciding on the right spot. The water was very cold actually. I did swim for a bit. A group of four cute thai kids were taking turns sliding down the cliff into the pool of water. I left after a few hours to go home and take a nap. I met up with this korean girl i met on one of my first days here. I think her name is yuchae? I followed her friend as she rode on the back of his scooter. Ive not gone that fast on a scooter before ! I think i forgot for a bit that the numbers are in km/h though haha. I saw 68 per hour and i was like damn!! Then crunched the numbers at home and thats only like 40mph hahaha. The sunset was really beautiful but i think i liked viewing it at twohuts a bit better. Pai canyon is also a trail, a very narrow, steep, sandy trail and i wasnt interested in doing that in my offbrand-one-size-too-big crocs x0 so i didnt. We rode back, i went back to my hostel and met two travellers named Josh and David. Josh is british and David is from Barcelona. Josh was so friendly, he reminded me soo much of a male version of my friend Christina, down to his facial expressions. The three of us and three others decided to walk to the night market together and get drinks. I had some really good pad gra pao. The man working suddenly burst into tears and i asked him what was wrong. He made a motion that he got chili in his eye. Im not sure if that was really true or if that is the thai equivalent of saying "im not crying, its just raining" haha. But the food was really good. We went to a few bars, i ended up at the jazz bar and met up with my korean friend. She told me she actually lived in australia from when she was 13, then studied for 7 years in america and got her bachelor's in film or something? And now she just recently moved back to korea to live with her family before going on this trip, where shes just visiting thailand. What an international life right? Reconvened with the other group and then we split off and i ended up coming back with some others to the hostel to sleep. It was really refreshing getting to hang out with a bigger group after traveling alone.

cutest kid

i didnt do that much today. I tried to get a scooter but every shop had already rented out all the little ones. I didnt want to get a giant bike.. i had a smoothie.. had a cry . Felt lonely today and missing home and uncomfortable. I got a falafel plate at a vegetarian cafe, it was ok. It was amazing for $3.50. Then i went to the chai cafe again to work on my blog a little and relax. Its pretty cute here.. Someone offered to dread my hair here and i declined. Its funny how different european and american views on that are. Tonss of white people (and thai ppl ) with dreads lol. Pai is very hippie, but i forget that some parts of hippieness i dont really jive with. I went to the outdoor lobby area of the other hostel before i went to look for a scooter today to ask for advice on where to go and it was allllll beefcake guys. Someone in particular looked just like this person Victor i used to know and it was kind of triggering in a bad way. I just felt so uncomfortable there so i left right away, before i could really talk to anybody. They were deeply involved in their conversation about drum and bass or something and didnt really acknowledge my existence. I dont know.. arcata is a hippie town, and i like it there, but theres this whole side of hippy stuff that i find really unsettling. Dont really know how to explain more than that.. i was really sad today and realized i started my period T-T hoorah i guess. I was crying in the dorm bed when the cleaning lady and her little toddler came in. I played with him a little with my stuffed animal and it cheered me up a bit.

K.O.

woke up EXTREMELY hungover. Started gathering up my things as it was check out day at the Yor Song hostel. Tried to extend, they were booked. Came to find most places were actually. I saw one in town that looked pretty bad, maybe passable, $5 a night and decided to go for it and start walking. However, in the time it took me to walk there they had already filled up. Apparently the owner owns 3 hostels in pai though and told me i would be able to stay in one just down the way. I booked it, paid her, and went to go drop off my stuff. It was and is .. incredibly bad T-T like the worst !! Barely barely anything. It is my fault for not booking in advance i know but jeez. I see why this was the only one left. Theres no front desk, or front door.. like a small hole in a fence you go through.. no check in, no kitchen, no laundry, no lobby/ chilling area.. 8 bed mixed dorm, one bathroom included in the room, the bathroom wall doesnt go all the way to the ceiling so you can imagine the sounds and smells that results in. Not trying to get too graphic here but it has been a bit of a personal hell. Especially being soo hungover. I did spend a bunch of the day chilling at the outdoor hangout area of the other hostel. i also got a chai at a cafe nearby, "art in chai" and that was cute and cozy. I tried reaching out to some of the people i met to hangout and a couple replied but i just felt sooo tired and my morale was so low i just hung out in a hammock outside of my room for the bulk of the evening. Then went to sleep.

beautiful pai

i definitely woke up a little hungover, but not terribly.. i was walking around town eating a 7/11 sushi roll for breakfast when sean spotted me and asked me what i was up to. I said , "this?" Haha. He said, wanna come with me to meet my friends and then go to some natural place? Of course i said yea!! We went somewhere called paradise bar, it was a bit of a journey but fast on a bike. We took a wrong turn at some point and it was just beautiful scenery and cows grazing. When we got to the bar it was a bit of an odd vibe, just a lil quiet, he introduced me to his friends. One of them was from texas, im not sure the others. They were in a band together and were on tour. For the most part of my interaction with them seemed to range from them being totally disinterested in me to slightly "cooler-than-u" typa vibe but then they started jamming and that was ok. We all ordered kratom drinks from the bar. Think it was served in pineapple juice. Sean and i left but decided instead of going to a natural feature, like the hotsprings nearby, that he would give me a motorbike lesson at my request. Which was really cool and he was very patient. I learned about shifting gears on a bike and stuff and it was the biggest bike Ive ever ridden (honda wave 125cc). We practiced on an empty road and then also in traffic. Hopefully now i can feel a little more confident renting my own bike. Went home to take a little nap then decided to go to twohuts - a scenic vista to watch the sunset. And there are two huts there lol. And many many hammocks and swings. We get there and there were a lot of people, but in a chill way. It was abuzz , not like hectically crowded but a lot of people vibing and chilling, smoking weed, drinking beer etc. stopped and sat to enjoy the view and overheard some people talking about a "genderswap party" their hostel was throwing. I inserted myself into their conversation to ask for details. We did end up going to the genderswap party and it was silly and a lot of fun. I dont think sean was super comfortable with it, but he strikes me as a very shy person. I did do a highlight and some glitter eyeshadow on him as provided by the hostel muahaha. And i changed into pants and a muscle tee and drew on a mustache. The party moved to a bar after and we did some dancing. He told me after that he had never in his life experienced anything like that lol. I guess from what i learned from paul and sean is that at a thai party or something like that its less about talking and socializing and moreeee like dancing ? Or something? Still cant wrap my head around that one. Because i remember when i went out with Paul and Tide the first bar we tried in Nimman was really loud, and i mentioned it might be hard to talk over it, and they were down to move but also had a little laugh about it, like its so american or something ? I dont really get it lol. We decided to leave at some point, picked up some thai whiskey from the 7/11 so i could try. I think this is what did me in. When we got back to the hostel i got yelled at by the same girl twice for being so loud. Felt bad a little lol.

arriving in Pai

I checked out of my hostel and got a bite to eat from a food cart. Then took a scooter ride to the bus station. I was supposed to take the bus with Kim, but when i got there she wasnt there.. i got a message from her saying shed be late and asking me if i could try to get the bus driver to delay leaving LOL. i said ok but didnt really do anything. I realized when the busses, plural, pulled up that we werent gonna be on the same one anyway. I took some motionsickness medicine before getting on the minibus and let me tell you it knocked me outttttt. I could not stay awake, even though my body was being jostled back and forth due to the notoriously windy road. I was so groggy when we finally got here about 3.5 hours later, but i figured out the direction of my hostel and started walking. The hostel is really cool its a "traditional Lanna-style house built in 1978". Its huuge and spacious and quiet. There was no one to greet me when i got here, i had to call the number and wander around and wait. Eventually the manager, Jae came down. She was just upstairs cleaning. I think Jae seems like a very cool person. Its clear that shes an artist. She showed me some of her work , its kind of keith haring-like , a full page filled with interwoven doodles of things and characters. She has a drawing tablet as well as an ipad + apple pencil set. I also saw a sewing machine out and she told me she sews. I went to the room and it reminded me of a country cabin in Wisconsin. Everything was all wood, it was slightly hot but not terribly.. just very cozy. Another person came in and i struck a conversation with them, his name is Sean and he's thai and he works at a farm not too far from here, said hes visiting Pai just cause he can and has never been here. We decided to go to the night market together and were surprised by a a loy krathong parade happening! then came back to the hostel and formed a little group to go to muay thai. It was me, sean, a german girl named mika and the hostel lady jae. Ive never seen muay thai before! There was a big crowd. It was pretty fun. Talked to some people in the crowd, met someone from spain who reminded me so much of my friend nuna. Also met someone from Xi'an which was so exciting because i got to say i know liang pi (.. their famous noodle dish) and she was happy to hear. After muay thai i think mika split off and it was just jae sean and me. I said i was hungry and we went out for a meal together, it was so nice to eat family style. They ordered fried pork, sauteed morning glory and tomyum soup. It was really good in that moment. After that we walked home to the hostel and went to bed.

Loy Krathong

i stayed for quite awhile this morning chatting with people outside the hostel. Daisy, Kim, and others. I finally snapped and told off the swedish girls this morning for being extremely loud and inconsiderate, which was a popular topic haha. The thing is, i can give a pass to most noises, snoring for example, is unconscious, rummaging through bags, is necessary, but the thing that really bothered me was how every morning i would get awoken to talking. It was especially bad because i was bottom bunk to one of them and every morning the other girls would stand infront of my bed to talk to her. That basically meant they were talking like a foot away from my face as i was trying to sleep, and i gave them manyy warnings. I finally said something about it.. im not sure if it was the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do, or maybe neither and it wouldnt really matter if i said something or didnt. I told myself it was a good opportunity to stand up for myself since i will not see them again. I regretted it more later because Daisey was talking so much shit on them to anyone who would listen and i didnt want to be lumped in with that.. i saw them again later and they did apologize and had a casual chat with me about things to do in Pai. Its hard not to look at things through an american lens sometimes. I think people have different attitudes towards things and it can feel really hard to understand and not perceive as like mal - intent. Anyways it was checkout day at my Nimmon hostel so i eventually took a scooter to a new hostel inside of the old town. As soon as i got here, i was ushered upstairs and told to come down right away as they were having a krathong making class. I joined; it was fun. Ate some fried rice from a place off the side of the road later. Chilled for abit, talked to raven. The evening time started to get really stressful as the hostel was packed with people. Its a major holiday, Loy Krathong, so lots of people were coordinating rides and what to do. Seemed like the popular things was to go to a nearby place, Doi Saket to see the lanterns released. I tried signing up for a ride, but they were all full. I did end up getting on one after all but it was definitely confusing and intense. The one i ended up on was mostly solo female travellers though, which was really cool! I wouldnt have known, because a lot of them did know each other at least for a few days. The ride took awhile because of traffic due to the festival. On our way there we could see fireworks and floating lanterns in the distance. We got out and the cab driver told us to be back by 9, which gave us only an hour and a half. The group split into two pretty fast, as some of the people needed the restroom right away. Me and two girls didnt wait for them and kept walking towards the entrance. It was very very crowded, the entrance led us through a thick crowd and a bunch of food vendors. The two girls and i wanted to release our krathongs so we headed towards the water slowly. There was so many floating lanterns and fireworks , It was amazing. It took quite awhile for us to get to a place to release them due to the crowd. After that i split off from them because i wanted to get myself a beer and i knew it would be faster if i went alone. I meandered a bit, and got some various meats on skewers before it was time to start leaving. Then i tried to leave, but i realized i got so turned around i wasnt sure which was the correct exit to take.. i asked a random person who was a traveller walking also and they didnt know but they walked back with me back into the festival. It was seriously dumb luck i ran into the rest of the group i came with sitting right there. I felt so stupid at how lost i was in that moment! I took a picture of the taxi liscence plate even to help find it after but i didnt even think to drop a location pin. It felt so straightforward when we were entering. But none of the roads here are ever on a grid, so i learned my lesson and will be more careful in the future. I was really surprised, but everyone in our group of ten made it back to the taxi by nine. I thought surely someone would get lost or not make it back in time. We paid the man and got on our ride home. One extra person joined us, he explained he had no way to get back and begged for a ride and was charged 200baht, which we all said was not bad.

Swimming at Grand Canyon

This morning i woke up excruciatingly hungover, obviously. I was downstairs making my first cup of tea when this other person in the lobby asked me if i wanted to join her swimming at grand canyon. We introduced ourselves, her name is Kim and she lives in the Netherlands. I invited Daisey and we decided to all share a taxi there. Kim insisted that the red songthaew was the cheapest option, but im not really sure now that it was. Traveling with Kim and Daisey was interesting, because i felt like nothing happened if i didnt initiate it. I was trying to be polite and patient, but after a few hours of them just chit chatting in front of the hostel while i laid there, i finally said "are we ever going..?" And immediately after that we left. Kim told me a good price for the red taxi to grand canyon was 500 baht. Its about a 30min drive. We stopped one of them and the driver asked 600 for where we wanted to go. I held up five fingers and said 500. He said ok. Daisey and Kim were like, "wow!!! So good at haggling!!" And i was just like, Not really!!! Hahah. We got there and theres two parts to it, an extreme water park and a more natural side. Its called grand canyon but its really just a big quarry. We kind all were under the impression the natural side would be free, but it wasnt. 70 baht for sightseeing and 150 if you wanted to get in the water. Kayaks, paddle boards, jump off points and all that included. Daisey was driving me nuts because she was going back and forth with the receptionist if she could pay the 70 baht price and "just dip a toe in" it was soo annoying in the moment but maybe that was her trying to learn how to haggle? Thats not really how it works though.. haggling is more for markets and some rides.. You would not haggle at a supermarket or your hotel most likely for example.. but anyways the place was really beautiful when we got in. It was very serene and actually very quiet. We were basically the only ones there the whole time. I split off because they were chatting and taking foreverrrrr. I got to a nice spot and got in the water right away because it was very hot out. The water was amazing, the perfect temperature for swimming.. i swam for a bit then decided i wanted to take a paddleboard. I paddled around for a but and then came back to my stuff, drank a lime soda i bought and ate some leftover fried chicken, which was perfect. I always crave weird junk food like that after swimming. I got back on the paddle board because i finally saw them over by the kayak zone. I said , "are you going to get in?" They were soo slow lolol. But it was nice even to enjoy by myself. They eventually did get in a double kayak and we explored around. Kim told us it was a big goal of hers in her life to jump off a cliff into water. I convinced her to hold hands with me and jump, and she was so happy after. We did a much higher jump after that too. Maybe even 40 meters!? I had to be brave since she was so scared. It was a lot of fun. They ended up ordering some food from the restaurant there and i played with one of the worker girls dog. He was a tiny white french bulldog named robot. She told me her mom made krathongs and me and daisey bought one from her. Then she invited us to go with her to a small loy krathong celebration nearby, which was really cool! We set off fireworks, released our krathongs and took a bunch of pictures. I dont know how i would spell our thai friends name in english, nouueee i guess!! Haha. After we were ready to go from the small festival, she had offered to call us a ride back but none of them were accepting. I dont even think Daisey or Kim noticed at any point what was happening, but i was a little concerned for sure. I was able to book us one though, much to my and noueee's relief haha. Once we got back home i just crashed so hard. All the sun and swimming really took it out of me. I watched some Bobs Burgers (just very american) and ordered some stirfry delivered. $3. Imagine that in america T-T

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