Pai, what a place!

The small town of Pai has a population of less than 2500 people with a lot of refugees from Myanmar. The town itself is very tourist orientated however it is a very chilled out spot with some very cool people. My days here were used to relax in my hammock and do very little with myself, it was pure bliss. We rented scooters so were able to nip around town to pick up anything we needed. The street food here was the best I'd come across,  my favourite had to be the Japanese Pancakes, the woman seving them up was funny too, she wants to learn how to say thank you in every language of the customers she meets and learnt the dutch one from my friend Ralph. We even got a few spring rolls free for being loyal customers.

We went to a lot of the many bars on offer but the best we came accross had to be the Sunset Bar, owned by a rasta named Pat, and his Australian girlfriend Liane. November the 5th was his birthday and we had a mental party there with people fire eating. We bought Pat some chinese laterns as a present and he sorted us out in return some good glugs of Jager. Half way though the night he summoned me to get on the mic and bust some freestyle which was sick. The party went on until sunrise, a policeman showed up but interestly sat down and had a drink. They were certainty operating past the legal hours but there seemed to be no problem here. At the party I met a kid named Dream from Hawaii who goes to Pai frequently with his mum, he seems to know literally everyone in this town, its his 17th on January 12th and he told me to head back up to Pai for his birthday. If im in the north again around that time I may just do that.

"Dont Cry" was another bar which was pretty sweet too, we went there on the 4th and the owner said if I came back on the 5th to help him light a fire he would give me two buckets for free, unfortunately though I couldn't show because of Pats birthday. I meet some cool Thai people in this bar, one of which gave me the pendant from his necklace offered for good luck. It was a really nice gesture and was gratefully received.

I took an overnight bus last night to get to Bangkok, the whole journey lasted around 17 hours and it was pretty dire, not a lot of sleep was had. I am currently now sitting on a train in Bangkok going to Ayuthaya 1.5hours north, however due to large mass demonstration the train hasn't moved in the last hour. The train track has had a steady stream of people crossing with no sign of it ending. I had seen on the news 10,000 people took to the streets of Bangkok on Monday due to an amnesty bill being passed relating to the political turmoil in 2006. There was a huge riot police presence with road blocks as we entered Bangkok on the bus, I kinda just want to get out of here,  find a guesthouse and go to sleep.

Tommorow I head to LS Thailands office to go over some finer details about my job I, starting next week.