No Boat to China

This is my first post-via-email (thanks, Stu, for setting it up for me) since I can't access the blog from China.  Yes, we're here in China - not the way we planned it, as we learned that the boat up the Mekong River wasn't running (at least that's what we were told.)  So, we took the alternative route by taking the bus and ferry to Laos and the bus to China.  I'll write more about that in the next post.  Right now, I just want to make sure that the email-to-blog thing works.  For now, we are in Jinghong, China, heading to Kunming (where it is supposed to be much cooler - yay!) tomorrow.  I'll write more from our next Internet-equipped accommodation. 

Shoo-Fly Pai

It's our last day in Pai before heading farther north toward China. We spent a week in this little "backpacker village", which has somewhat of a dual reputation. Many people say (or write on the internet) that Pai is just too touristy, full of backpackers, and not genuinely Thai anymore. Others say that it's their favorite place on earth. And I can understand both perspectives.

View from the top of Pai Canyon

Fortunately, it's not the high tourist season. That's not to say that there aren't a lot of tourists (yes, mostly young backpackers) here. There are tons of hotels and restaurants, along with travel agents touting local tours, elephant rides, and motorbike rentals. There are also lots of places offering cooking courses, which is how Matthias found someone to provide additional food and soap carving lessons. So, after one day of exploring the area on bikes together, Matthias started another round of carving lessons.

Matthias learning to carve soap

While Matthias was hard at work learning the art of soap carving, I rented a bike and explored this laid-back, beautiful area. One day, I tried to ride out to a waterfall, but the continuous (though gentle) incline and the old-fashioned one-gear bike, along with the blazing sun and humidity forced me to quit before I made it all the way up there. A couple of days later I rode out past the elephant camps, which was a nicer ride.

Elephant hanging out outside of Pai

The time Matthias spent taking lessons, or practicing on pumpkins in our hotel room, also gave me plenty of time to try to come up with a good "Pai pun" for the blog. All the good ones were already taken, of course - the I-Pod music download store here is called "Apple Pai", there are guesthouses called "Pai in the Sky" and "Pai-radise", and someone already named their blog "a slice of Pai..." So, after days of mulling it over, I thought I'd name the blog after the people in the market who wave plastic bags to keep the flies off of the food they are trying to sell. I'm sure I'll come up with something better after I post this.

Vendors "shooing" the flies away from the food

Now Matthias is practicing his art and I'm going to pack up as we're leaving early tomorrow morning. The journey takes us over the mountains back to Chiang Mai (about 3 hours) before we catch another bus up to Chiang Rai in the north. That's where we'll celebrate MATTHIAS' 40TH BIRTHDAY on Sunday.

I added more pictures of Pai to our Picasa gallery (link on the top left of this page) or here.

Spicy and Sweet

Greetings from Thailand. I can't believe we've been here almost two weeks already. On 28 June, we embarked from Berlin, stopped over for 8 hours in Helsinki - where we caught closing time at the fish harbor market and scored a plateful of delicious fish - and then got the overnight flight to Bangkok. We stayed two nights in Bangkok to relax and recuperate from the flight, and then took an overnight train north to Chiang Mai.

Part of our reason for coming to Thailand before showing up for work in China (other than great eats, of course) was so that Matthias could try out fruit and vegetable carving. He had seen ads for lessons last time we were in Chiang Mai (about two years ago) so we thought we'd check it out. We went to one of the many cooking schools here and were able to book private lessons. The teacher, Aor, was great. Not only is she a skilled carver, she is an English teacher at the University here, so her English and her teaching skills were excellent.

They started by making a lotus flower out of a small tomato, then moved on to pumpkin butterflies. Not too difficult (for Matthias) so far. Next was a pumpkin rose...a bit more difficult. But Matthias did well, and really enjoyed the class. That is, until he came home and tried to do it again!

Matthias completed four two-hour sessions, during which he made various flowers out of pumpkin and two pretty amazing watermelon carvings. The next challenge (should he choose to accept it) is to practice without teacher's guidance. They both made it look easy, but it most certainly is not!

In between lessons and practicing (I was the official photographer) we did a lot of walking around Chiang Mai, visiting temples (Wats) shopping malls (to escape the heat and humidity) and markets. The weather is indeed hot and humid, with rain showers almost every afternoon. Fortunately, markets and food stalls are prepared with canopies and umbrellas, so the rain hasn't 'dampened' our enjoyment of local food - noodle soups, curries, and spicy salads. My new favorite is a local dish called Kao Soi - chicken curry with egg noodles - YUM!

Tomorrow we're off to our next destination - the mountain village of Pai. We're ready to leave Chiang Mai, but not so keen to vacate our comfy hotel room, complete with A/C, cable TV and unlimited internet access. Not sure what we'll find in Pai, which is supposed to be a more laid-back backpacker/nature-lover's retreat (I sure hope there are some A/C and cable TV lovers there as well!)

Link to trip photos on left and here.