Pai

Pai is a very small town, sitting on the banks of the river Pai. Its nestled quietly at the foot of the surrounding hills, where there are still many hill tribes living. It seems that Pai has grown quickly over the last few years becomingvery popular with travellers from all around the world. It was sold in the lonely planet as "hippie pai", which isn't too far from the truth. There are plenty of people with excessive amounts of hair (I bring the towns average hair length down, quite considerably) and the occasional glitter faced, pixie eared wood sprite can be seen. Have found a great place to stay, on the banks of the river, with a hammock that doesn't seem to allow me to do very much, apart from reading.
I lost a flip flop on the first day and have been walking around bare footed ever since. Still meeting plenty of "crazy" people, including a French Sicillian, who is working with refugees from Burma on the border. I'm hoping to come back here, after going to Burma next week(for three and a half weeks), and see the refugees to try and get their story. I'm sure that I will be seeing two sides from inside and out, of Burma.
Also celebrated my 33rd birthday the other day. I was going to keep quiet, however, I felt that would be a definite sign of the grumpy old man, that I'm turning into. So we all went out and got drunk, on the magical buckets, surprise, surprise. We also found a bar called bebop, which was very reminiscent of the bar in "Dusk till Dawn". We walked in to find two guys playing pool, a spit and sawdust interior and a gritty little blues band keeping some sort of tempo. Within half an hour the place was full, and the band had acquired a singer and a much more upbeat tempo.
Went to an art exhibition last night in the woods, like a mini glastonbury, which had the same band, and the same playlist(it's a very small town).
Did an elephant trek today, which was the first, and will certainly be the last time I ride bareback on an elephant. What at first seemed a big cuddly, floppy eared creature, soon became a bum breaking, slighly unpredictable plant eating machine( that didn't appear to realise that it had two grown men sat on its back whining like a pair of children). With camera still in hand, of course, I politely declined the offer of taking a bath in the river, with said elephant, and jumped off at the first opportunity(to some mumbled excuse of " needing to do some photography").
To make my situation even more pathetic, the driver of the elephant can't have been any older than ten. A ten year old driving an elephant, with a sivelling 33 year old on the back....... pathetic! Kids are fearless, and I'm still pathetic.
However, not as pathetic as when the local spiders are mentioned. I, fortunatley, haven't seen any yet. Although, I fear this is down to selective vision. The great relief is that Brad, one of the group that I have met is more afraid of them than I am, which I has assumed was not possible.
I'll be leaving Pai on Monday for Chang Mai, and then flying onto Mandalay in Burma(Myanamar). I'll be there for three and a half weeks, apparently with little or no communication, so will try and get my next update in on Monday.