My late breakfast is at The Curry Shack, a tiny open-air patio off Pai's main street. I order a Koi Soi Curry with tofu, a northern specialty similar to yellow curry but with noodles. There's plenty of chilis, tumeric, garlic, ginger, and coconut milk. After finishing the noodles and tofu, I drink the remaining magical elixir like soup.
Post-lunch, Wade, Will, Kristen and I leave town on motorbikes, which is the Thai name for a high-powered, strong cc, automatic scooter (as I can't ride a motorcycle). It's my first day ever riding and I'm going against the recommendation of my hostel concierge who said bluntly, "do not rent a motorbike!" After a short fifteen minute tutorial, I'm off on my own. Due to the large amount of motorbike rental competition, I'm able to secure one for 30 hours with insurance for a mere 140Baht (~$4.50).
We stop quickly at "Pai Treehouse Resort," known for its large multi-story treehouse hotel rooms, allowing adults to relive their childhood fantasies. The houses are equipped with silk-covered beds, TVs, mini fridges, hot showers.
Next stop is Pai Canyon, a small orange and red traverse that we hike for over an hour. We walk across small stone paths only a foot wide, yet 100 feet tall. One slip would mean a very early end to one's trip. A nearby climber forgot to strap his camera to his arm and is now spending the afternoon in the shadowed canyon floor searching for a needle in a haystack.
We have no luck finding the famed coffee plantation, so we continue motorbiking through the forest, where the streets are almost empty and we reach speeds of 60 MPH. Next stop is Mo Pehng Waterfall, located northwest of town. The actual falls are small, but surrounded by lush forest and large brown water buffalo. We sunbathe and use the falls a giant slide, tumbling down into the cold pool below. Nearby, people eat picnic lunches and drink beer. Too much in fact, as we find two of the imbibers later that day, bloodied, bruised, and dizzy alongside a crashed motorbike.
Wade, Will, and Kristen head back to town but I continue on to the nearby Chinese Village. It's not much of an interesting site, just a small depressed town, where stores are closed and many women have diseases in which there faces dip down to their lower necks, almost as if there skin has melted. Their pork dumplings and green tea, however, are worth the trip.
I fly back into town, wind flowing through my hair, and continue dinner at Charlie and Lek's, a Pai institution known for its health food. I enjoy a terrifically nouveau Pad Thai, made healthier and crunchier with raw green papaya instead of noodles. Main course is a light Chicken with Cashews with volcanically black rice. I drink probably the best fruit shake I've had yet -- fresh pineapple with Thai basil -- jade in color and at once sweet, sour, herbal, and extraordinarily refreshing.
I meet Wade, Kristen and Will for dessert of roti (Thai pancakes) with scrambled egg, chocolate syrup, and condensed milk that tastes like a eggy French toast. We also share small crisp waffles, one filled with Thai custard and another topped with toasted sesame seeds.
We settle at "Almost Famous", a nearby bar for caipirinhas. Will decides to hit on one of the girls he met at the waterfall earlier, despite the fact that she's sitting next to her brother and a half dozen large Thai men. He doesn't quite get their hints and their conversation quickly unfolds outside the bar into a large brawl. It's three-on-one as Kristen and I look on in terror. One kicks Will in the eye and another attempts to hit his head with a folded plastic chair, before the fight is broken up. It's straight out of the WWF. The girl was cute but not that much so. Note to self: No longer traveling with Will. He goes home with Wade, surprisingly unscathed despite bloodied knuckles and a swollen eye.
Kristen and I finish the night as pacifists, drinking and making friends riverside. One man has fallen off his motorbike earlier in the day and is covered in giant open wounds on both his arms and legs. "Tiger training" he claims at first. This gentleman tells me he didn't go to the hospital because "he doesn't believe in them." As his shirt sleeve fills with blood and pus, I'm reminded that I don't believe in stupidity.
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