Barely.
They really aren’t kidding about those 762 turns.
Every time we take a bus trip somewhere, I swear it will be my last; for some inexplicable reason, I have grown into carsickness, and it only seems to be getting worse. Dramamine take the edge off for a little while, but even after taking 3 of them this afternoon I came really close to yakking out of the side of a moving minibus. Four hours later, I’m still feeling unsteady.
Thankfully, the miserable journey there and back was worth it. Pai is incredibly beautiful, and while small, we got exactly what we wanted out of our vacation: to do almost nothing, for hours on end. We went for a few nice (and relatively short) hikes, saw a couple of waterfalls, and spent most of our days laying in hammocks looking out at the Pai valley. It was heaven.
Lately, we’ve both been feeling a little run down on Thailand. There are quirks to Thai work culture that leave us at the end of some days wanting to repeatedly bang our heads into our desks, screaming, “WHYYYYYYYYY are we having this meeting, again?!?”. Every day seems to involve some kind of near miss traffic accident, usually involving a dude driving an enormous, expensive pick-up truck that’s never hauled anything in its life, who thinks the rules (as lax as they are) don’t apply to him. We haven’t seen the “manager” of our apartment building for weeks (although someone has been hanging these awkward framed drawings of cake and children in the lobby).
But this trip really reminded me of all the things I do love about living here, and why we came here in the first place. Delicious (and cheap) food. People who are generally happy to help you when you need it, and very rarely try to screw you over. The ability to take weekend getaways and explore new things. Our hotel even had THE CUTEST dog named Ta Tao, who would run up to us every time we pulled our scooter in the driveway for some love. As we start to think about our next steps, it was a good reminder that we aren’t just stalling our lives and wasting time being here.
I didn’t take too many pictures this trip, partly because I wanted to just step back and enjoy the scenery, and partly because I spent the majority of my time reading in a hammock in my comfy clothes. But here’s a few of the view I couldn’t stop staring at, and some of the things we visited when we weren’t too lazy to leave our hammocks.
The Uprooted Path 
I can swear I read about that ride in “Eat, Pray, Love,” or the much lazier sequel. You are having such an adventure!!! Can’t wait to see you again though. Taylor misses Kyle. *wink, wink*
LikeLike