PAI. PAI. PAI.

I love Pai (which is not pronounced "pie", but "BYE"). Out of all the places I've been in southeast Asia, this town is hands down my favorite. I havent really loved Thailand. Bangkok was pretty awful and Chiang Mai was an improvement- but Pai is heaven. Raw, vegan, vegetarian food everywhere. And cheap. The street food is so so SO much better than any I've had elsewhere in Asia. The mango with sticky rice doesn't even taste like the same dish that I had in Bangkok....heaps more delicious, fresh...and simply amazing.

The ride here was only 3 hours, but with nearly 700 turns in the curvy mountain road, there wasn't one passenger who WASN'T nauseous. We pulled into town and from that moment on I have been unable to shake this smile from my face. We booked a room at Golden Huts on the river. It was nice, but I figured that we could do better. We cruised town, loaded up on lots of street food, and ran into some familiar faces from Chiang Mai. We met up with them and some other random wanderers for some whiskeys. Good times, good conversations- but we were both exhausted from my birthday party the night before. So, called it an early night and went to sleep. It was a pretty uneventful birthday- the night before was great, but the actual day was quite mellow. Wake up (bit hungover), amazing yoga class @ Wild Rose with Mick and Andy, delicious curry lunch with Mick, then bus to Pai.

We woke up this morning and moved into a hut across the river. For 150 baht ($5usd, so 2.50each) we have a super cute hut with our own bathroom and shower!!! Yeeew! The common area is ON the river and it's adorable. So lovely. When I stop having so much fun, I will upload some photos and write some longer blogs. Anywho- love our new spot. Had an AMAZING breakfast. Fresh tomato salad and curry potatoes and mushrooms tucked into a thin egg Omlette. Holy Christ. A bit expensive- $3, but so outstanding- it was worth $10! Lined up some morning vinyasa yoga classes, and evening yin yoga classes. I'm in heaven. We rented a motobike and then met up with some friends around noon. I'm pretty adventurous- and this past year I have become rather fearless- but I have no desire at all to drive a moto. It's terrifying to me. Mick has lots of moto experience in Asia, and he didn't mind driving me around- which was awesome. It was $3usd to rent a moto for 24hrs, $3 for the biggest insurance package, and $3 for petrol. Not bad. Ryan, Katie, Fabian, Mick and I hopped on our motos and made a 90minute journey up and down twisty twurvy mountain roads to a huge cave. We were a bit skeptical at first because it looked abandoned, but I was great- no one was there! it was like a natural playground for adventurous adults. We climbed and and crawled our way through- sweating and completely covered in dirt and bat shit. It was the most interactive cave that I've ever been in- and I have visited many caves in multiple countries. We took a ton of badass photos then hopped back on our motos towards town. A few kilometers outside of Pai is a beautiful and refreshing waterfall, so we stopped to clean some of the dirt off of our filthy bodies.

Back home in Pai now- full of street food, and still full of gratitude to be in such a cool place.