Two months, most of it spent in Pai. The hotel was ‘basic’ but quite cheap so that I could eat quite well and stay on budget, and the daily cycling trips to town and back provided good exercise (plus a nagging cramp in one thigh). The weather? Treacherously rainy enough to carry a raincoat everywhere at all times. As I have mentioned, the Thais are very polite and businesslike, but not friendly or cheerful, and the backpackers… they are doing their own thing, which I am not.
My only friend, Papa, and a nice fellow. When I first arrived in his shop he was with another customer, but he looked at me and put up 6 and then 5 fingers and pointed to himself. I put up 8 and then 1, and we became friends. Pai is in a very nice countryside location nestled in the hills and it’s certainly a relief after the bustle of the cities. Sunny days came along once or twice a week in ‘green season’ and made for some sweaty cycling.
Packing it in we made the descent down the windy roads, this time without a reckless driver accelerating into the hairpins… and on to Chiang Rai, a smaller city and more relaxed than Chiang Mai, further north toward Laos. Stayed a day there, and might return someday. Met a fellow American in a coffee shop and had a long chat. He is a permanent resident. And of course has a much younger girlfriend… I do find this disgraceful, but it is what it is and is pretty prevalent among the older western males here.
Sidewalks of Thailand… not as treacherous as in India, but equally useless. My first time here in the ’90’s, it seemed to me that Thais never walked anywhere, but rode their motorbikes constantly, thus the ‘decorative’ sidewalks everywhere. It’s clean, prosperous, easy to navigate and with lots to see, mainly temples. Speaking of which…
Chaing Rai clock tower.
Decorative Chariot at the Chaing Rai bus station, waiting for the bus to Laos.
Ni Dieu Ni Maitre 
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