Ni Dieu Ni Maitre

On the hill is the White Temple, featuring 750 steps… it’s on the list.

Well, upon arrival after the twisty road, I was so weak that I had to sit on a bench for over an hour just to be able to take a taxi to my hotel, 2km out of town. Got to rebuild my gut microbiome in a hurry to regain some energy. Pai, on first glance, seems harmless enough. Lots of 20 somethings wandering about, almost all of them on scooters. They live in cheap dormitories and supposedly are drunk, stoned and rowdy in the evenings.

The town in daytime. Not much happening, quite a few pot shops… had to dabble and got really rather stoned, but back at the hotel where I had a very enjoyable evening. Rented a way too small bicycle, which makes the 2km to town quite easy. Got caught in a large rainstorm attempting a night time walk into town and didn’t quite make it.

This being Thailand, there are temples everywhere.

Got to town in the evening after several days, located the Indian restaurant and had Channa Masala, beans in a good very spicy sauce, and garlic naan… this sort of meal is just what is needed to straighten out my digestion, back toward normal. Ate too much and couldn’t do much more than people watching. Yes, some obviously middle aged westerners with young Thai ‘girlfriends’. Otherwise, the twenty somethings being very well behaved.

Went home early, 8:30, so maybe I missed a riot but it did not seem so. No heavy boozing, no pot smells… nothing much but the night market food stalls.

One note: I was perplexed by the clean air here in Northern Thailand becoming quite polluted in the spring and now back to very fine air quality. They have what is called ‘Smoke Season’ when the farmers burn their fields, and this closes a lot of things down due to unhealthy air. And it goes on for quite a while.