After I achieved Nirvana1, I thought to myself what else is there left to achieve in life. I needed to become depraved again2, so I headed back to Pai. Thankfully, this trip was calmer – no less interesting though. My monastery mates were awesome, we chatted and laughed and really got to know one another3.
We got back to Pai and everyone headed their separate ways. I immediately headed back to the hostel4. Ryan welcomed me back. Most of the Pai Family had left though. It didn’t matter though because there was still a core group of us and we just added more friends.
I spent next few days exploring with everyone, we went on hikes, ate and drank at night markets5, drank Butterfly Pea Tea6 and watched the sunset from Pai canyon almost every day7. It was a nice routine.
Overall, it had been fun going back to Pai but it felt as if I had outgrown it. I was there just there passing the time.One time I decided to climb a water tower that I just happened upon while exploring. I hopped the fence and proceeded to climb up the water tower. Watching the sunset over the hills from the top of the water tower was beautiful. Afterwards, I drove back to town.
Once I reached town, I ate dinner and then went to a bar with live music8. It was an open mic night and a few of the Pai family were performing – Tom, Tal and a few others 9 . It surprised me that they were that good. I have always been jealous of musicians.
The live music was great but I was sad because I felt stagnant. Little did I know, that would soon change. In the distance, I spotted a familiar face. It was my American friend (also named Josh). We started chatting and he mentioned that he was heading out on the Mae Hong Son loop. And that I should join him. I was tempted but I felt as if I didn’t have enough time at this point. It was less than a week till my visa expired.
Somehow, he convinced me10. We stumbled to the 7/11 and I bought supplies11 to join him the following morning. We met at the Big Buddha the next morning and we were off. I bid Pai adieu and we headed on our way. Finally I was on the move again : )
- Super easy, barely an inconvenience. Don’t know what all the hubbub is about ↩︎
- And then subsequently head back to another monastery ↩︎
- I did hang out of the songthaew for a bit on the drive back ↩︎
- No shopping around this time ↩︎
- No running into celebrities this time either : ( ↩︎
- It tastes alright but is pretty cool because it changes colour when you add lemon ↩︎
- Funny story: One time I was climbing up but my sandals had no grip and I struggled to gain traction. I kept on slipping and falling down. There were quite a few people there that began laughing but everyone cheered once I made it to the top : ) ↩︎
- Another funny story, just before reaching the bar I ran into some other friends. We played dirty jenga – basically jenga but as you pull out a block it has lewd (or you have to drink something, you get the idea) thing written on which you have to do. I pulled out a block that said “act out your favourite sexual position with someone”… Uhhhhhh… I had only had sex once before (and it lasted all of two seconds – still does actually). I had no idea which position to act out so yeah… that was super awkward. Eventually, a pretty girl came up to me and we acted out doggy style. Maybe she was trying to tell me something… ↩︎
- I can’t remember who else played : ( ↩︎
- I had also been scared to do it on my own – I was not very experienced and felt like I needed backup if things went awry. Thankfully he did though because this was one of my most favourite things during the entire trip ↩︎
- Bungee cord was the most important thing, crazy to thing I went to a 7/11 and managed to organise everything I needed for a 4 day epic bike journey in northern Thailand… 7/11 pls sponsor me ↩︎
