hippie girls find slice of heaven

We have found the hippiest little hippie town way up here in northern Thailand, practically in Burma. (Where I am dying to go but know is too dangerous right now.) It's called Pai but you pronounce it Bye and there are dreads and rasta posters and tattoo shops and bars lit all with candles. Tomorrow we are taking a yoga class, today we rented one speed bikes with baskets on the front and huffed our way up to some hotsprings in a national park which sounded like a good idea but really was silly because it's a trillion degrees outside so scalding your skin is not appealing. Especially not after a hot bike ride. But the ride itself was incredible, peddling on the left side (as they do here) through the misty hill-sized mountains and farmers tilling red dirt and trainers walking their elephants, you know, a typical day in the Thai country. After we decided the hotsprings were a bust we went to The Pool, which turned out to be a slice of heaven. After a long swim, quick bike ride through the predictable afternoon downpour and showers in our Chacos, we went and ate hot hot curry with an English girl we met this morning. Now we are scarfing down little fried crepe things with bananas and chocolate- divine!- and in couple minutes heading to our mosquito netted beds.

Big day tomorrow! We're going south! The Arizona girls we met in Chiang Mai invited us to their plush hotel in Phuket. We weren't planning on going to that tourist haven but plans can change...

Lots of thai iced tea love,
Kai