Amazing how quickly a week can pass when you’re doing pretty much nothing at all!
Since I last posted we’ve moved from Pai to Chiang Mai where I’m currently sitting in our “apartment” that will be our home base for five nights. We lucked out when we found this place! It really is like a small apartment. We have a kitchen, living room, bedroom with a large closet and a bathroom. What more could we want?! Oh ya....and we have a massive pool with gorgeous loungers and a library and a full gym with more equipment than I can begin to describe. We are near the airport but nowhere near any flight paths as we haven’t heard a single plane since our arrival here last night and today I sat out by the pool where I thought for sure I’d hear them but nope....quiet as can be. :-)
But I should go back to Pai for a bit before I get too caught up in talking about Chiang Mai. Our stay there was just what the doctor ordered. It was so peaceful at the Pai Vieng Fah Resort and the six nights we ended up staying (yes, we extended for one additional night from the original booking) gave us a chance to really catch up on the craziness of being on the go for so long. We didn’t realize just how much we needed that until we were immersed in it but we did! Our little “cottage” in the resort was surrounded by trees that had orchids hanging from their trunks and the pool twinkled in the sunlight calling us to come over to cool off throughout the heat of the day. Truth be told though....none of the hotels heat their pools here though and so going from the heat of the sun into an unheated pool is a bit of a shock to the system until your body temperature drops enough to make it just perfect. :-). Our resort had a restaurant on the property too so we were able to get food and drink any time we wanted and they’d magically just add it to our room. Buffet breakfast was included in our stay so really....we didn’t need a lot there but it was nice to be able to have a bite of something for lunch or dinner any time we wanted.
In the late afternoon we’d leave our poolside loungers and hit the showers before heading into town for dinner. Our resort offered a complimentary shuttle service at our convenience to and from town. All we had to do was connect to wifi and email them to pick us up whenever we were ready. Every night of the week Pai shuts down a couple of its main streets to traffic (well....sort of....) and they literally come alive with vendors selling their “stuff” and people buying that “stuff”. The “stuff” ranges from artwork and handicrafts to every type of food you can possibly imagine! There is a booth with nothing but different types of lasagne/pasta and another with falafel and another with everything Indian and another with Mexican style tacos both soft and hard shell. There is a lady selling the most delicious mango sticky rice that tastes even better than it sounds and there is someone else selling nothing but donuts. There is someone else with nuts of every type and another booth offers up bruschetta style pizzas. There is every kind of meat and seafood being bbq’d on a stick and sausages of every size on another grill. There are gyoza made fresh in front of you and another vendor with curry puffs that range from savoury to sweet. There’s the Pad Thai vendors and of course everything vegetarian as well. There are fresh fruit stands and juice bars and coffee kiosks and of course....there are all the shops, restaurants and bars right behind the temporary stalls as well. Yes, Pai is a prosperous little hippie haven that although it has been “discovered” still has enough of a feel of being off the beaten path that its allure is unique and memorable. Usually we’d find a spot to go for a drink (and a game of cards of course) and then we’d move out onto the street in search of our dinner. We’d wander up and down the streets with what at times could be described as throngs of other people and then at other times we were virtually on our own. We’d grab a bite here and a nibble there and then a donut and then some mango sticky rice and ....well.....you get the picture. We loved Pai for many things but perhaps most of all for the amazing and delicious street food we were able to get there.
I loved Pai for something else though too. I found a massage shop called Body Magic and the first time I went in met a therapist named Pa who was able to find the perfect balance between her obvious knowledge and her intuition. Pa is perhaps the oldest massage person I’ve ever had work on me....maybe that is why she was able to do what she did....her experience is so vast. I’ve been suffering with really bad pain in my right knee and definite problems in both. I’d been to see therapists and the doctor at home but no one had been able to affect any real change in the way I felt or figure out what was causing my pain. Pa went to work on me in a different way than anyone else had and I must admit her technique hurt a lot but in the end....I walked out of that place absolutely pain free! The pain did return but not nearly as bad as it had been and so after giving myself a day off from being “worked on” I returned to see her again. I didn’t know if I’d be able to see her again but the front desk staff remembered me and when I asked for Pa by name they actually called her to come in from home (just a couple minutes away). Pa has virtually no English and I have no Thai but somehow I was able to tell her how much she had helped me. I’m pretty sure she knew already that she had and so back down onto her mat I went and this time she worked even more aggressively than she had the time previous. It took all my focus to breathe through the pain and every once in a while she would ask....”okay?” and I would reply “okay” and she would chuckle and go back to her work. Once again, I walked out of Body Magic absolutely pain free and once again...it doesn’t last completely but I am again better than I was and so now my goal will be to find another Pa in every location that I am....including home!
So yes, Pai was a good stop...a really good stop for many reasons and now here we are settled into this apartment in Chiang Mai and feeling really “normal”. It is such a treat to be able to sit here at the table typing this post and knowing that I don’t have to pack my iPad and keyboard back to the room and put it all away somewhere so it doesn’t get stepped on or....well....it’s just so nice to feel “normal” here with this little 8th floor apartment. Being able to have coffee and cereal this morning still in pyjamas was such a treat and washing out a little laundry and hanging it out on our balcony to dry and being able to plug in the kettle whenever you want....yep those little things are feeling pretty big for both of us right at the moment.
This morning I spent an hour with my latest book down by our pool while Lynda just stayed in her p.j.’s lounging on the couch in our room reading her book. How nice it was/is and to know that we’ll get to do that again tomorrow....yep....a real treat!
There are a few things that we’re going to see while we’re here in Chiang Mai but we’ll save those for the afternoons and evening times. We’ll take a cab or tuk tuk to get into the old city for dinner, a little sightseeing, a night market I’m sure, and possibly a temple or two along the way. Our hotel room is actually in a large building that seems to be home to some permanent residents as well. We’re thinking some of the apartments are for full time occupancy and others of them are for people like us. The building is right across from a large shopping centre that is home to every kind of store you can think of, a food court, a movie theatre, a huge grocery store, a pharmacy (or two), and well....it’s just a big mall! And to make it even better for us we also have a 7-11 on the same side of the street as we are and just a couple of doors down so we’re able to pick up big bottles of water every day and any snacks we might need in between the stuff we got at the grocery store. Actually water continues to be a focus for us but that we take for granted at home. Here the only water we use is bottled....the tap water is only used for washing. Even the water we put into the kettle comes from a bottle vs the tap. There always has to be a bottle of water in the bathroom for brushing your teeth...there always has to be an extra bottle to get you through until you can get back to the store to get some more. All of our accommodations provide one bottle per person per day but until I have to buy it I don’t realize how much water I actually consume. That one bottle lasts only minutes when you’re sweating it out as fast as you can put it back in.
You may recall from a previous post that our trip to Pai was pretty challenging in terms of the winding road we had to traverse but our trip to Chiang Mai from Pai was EASY thanks to the fact that we opted for a plane versus a mini van! Yes, we purchased tickets from Wisdom Air for the 25 minute flight in their 12 seater plane and had a beautiful half hour flight instead of that hellish drive that the people on the road below were enduring! The flight coast us just under $80 CAD each and that was money well spent! Our accommodation in Pai gave us a free ride to the airport there. We were whisked through security in mere minutes as when there are only 6 people booked on your plane there are no line ups! We climbed aboard our pretty little plane right outside the airport door, located our seats (right behind the pilot and co-pilot) and buckled in for the short trip. Oh ya....and in case we got hungry during our short flight the staff gave each of us a little lunch bag for the trip! It contained a bottle of water, a napkin, and a muffin. Nice touch! The views were stunning and all the while we relished the fact that we’d avoided the road trip. Landing in Chiang Mai was also easy and our bags were in the airport and on the belt within seconds of our arrival inside the terminal. Wisdom Air gets our nod of approval and if ever I find myself headed to Pai again....I will definitely travel with them!
As I’ve been typing this post Lynda has brought me a cheese sandwich and an iced coffee for lunch. Yep, I’m loving having a kitchen to be able to use....I can already feel the “normal” ramping up as we get nearer and nearer to heading for home. But we’re not quite ready for that yet though. We still have a lot to see and do but for these last couple of weeks “normal” stuff will definitely be a part of the mix as we begin the transition back into our lives.
Till next time,
LorLyn
No comments:
Post a Comment