Ellen Lin : vagabond

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Travellen Chronicles: Pai, Thailand

My time in Pai wasn't nearly long enough as it is a common place where people find difficult leaving. Away from the loud tuk tuks and thick pollution Chiang Mai had, this place immediately grabbed me with its laid back vibe and peaceful atmosphere.

The bus ride from Chiang Mai from Pai has been notorious to induce a lot of chundering because of the windy roads up the mountain and crazy Thai bus drivers. So I equipped myself with some anti-nausea pills and was passed out the entire ride whereas the other girls on my bus had to throw up at a rest stop. Ben, my friend from Berlin I met in Chiang Mai and trekked with came with me because he has never heard of Pai and wanted to check it out. AREN'T YOU GLAD YOU DID, BEN? We checked into Darling's Viewpoint, the best place to stay in Pai with a great view of the sunset as well with a great social environment.

View from Darling. Sorry for the shit quality.

The next few days we met up with Cesar from the Chiang Mai trek and explored the nightlife. Seems like everyone who bums around Pai is doing some fire poi or hula hooping, or doing tricks with some shiny ball. They practice during the day and we see them performing at night.

Cesar and I wanted to check out Lod Cave that is about 50km north of Pai, close to the Myanmar border so we left early in the morning on a scooter but ran into a problem when the police stopped us because Cesar wasn't wearing a helmet. No international license? Fine. No helmet? 600 bht fine and you are on your way. The ride was incredible, I got to see the beautiful scenery as we were winding up and down the mountain road. After about an hour we got to the cave. It was around 500 bht to hire a tour guide that would take us to the three caves via kerosene lamp. We entered the cave by bamboo raft where I bought a bag of fish food to feed to the fish that swam along with us. All our tour guide did was point to certain things and say, "look like crocodile/bear/buddha/corn/flower" so we would look and go "ah, yes." And so on but the cave was massive and I was just drooling over all of the different rock formations. After the cave we stopped by a little town on the way back to Pai to have lunch, there was absolutely no tourists so it was nice.

Cesar

Our guide

As much as I wanted to stay in Pai, it was time to move on to a new country, Laos! So I booked a 2 day slow boat ticket into Laos. Even as I was leaving Darling Viewpoint, I was so tempted to just turn back and stay. It is always hard leaving a place, especially Pai.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Travellen Chronicles: The Beginning

What I will be living out of for the next 4.5 months.

I am finally here in Thailand at the start of my 4.5 month backpacking trip through South East Asia with no definite plan. A few days ago I was boarding my plane at LAX watching the Los Angeles city lights slowly disappear as the plane took off. I had middle seat on two of my flights and had layovers in Japan and Singapore before getting to Bangkok but I made it!

After getting off the plane, I took the City Line train into the city where I switched to the BTS Skytrain three times to get to my hostel where I would meet my brother. I really like the metro system in Bangkok, it reminds me of Taipei, very efficient and clean. My brother has been travelling for 2 months and we are going to spend about a week together before he flies off to India and Nepal and I move on to the north. We spent the day eating delicious street food and walking around seeing the city, I saw some protest sites but I never felt unsafe as the US media wanted me to.

My first coconut! I forsee at least 100 more.

We went to MPK which is a huggeeee department mall that has everything where my brother got a mount for his GoPro and I got a SIM for my iphone. Then literally minutes after I got my iphone working, I dropped it and cracked the screen, WELCOME TO THAILAND, ELLEN. Oh well, I also don't forsee myself topping up my sim because wifi is everywhere. For the rest of the evening we took a ferry down to check out a night market, to our dismay it was a posh touristy one but it was still fun. We had curry for dinner and some shaved ice for dessert, afterwards we got massages. 9 Dollars for a 1 hour thai massage? Fuck yes.

The next day we made our way to The National Palace. It was blazing hot and here in Thailand, a strict dress code is enforced for temples. So that means sleeves and legs need to be covered at least to mid calf. I was sweating balls but the Palace was HUGE and absolutely gorgeous, we also had a hilarious tour guide that was all jokes as well as informed us about Thailand's history, royal family, and customs.

The longest painting in the world. Depicting the history of Thailand.

We were near Khao San Road, a road known for its nightlife, so we taxi'd over there and met up with our friend. We set up base at Silk Bar for a few hours on the balcony seat where we ate, ordered a beer tower, and people watched as the sun went down as the road became party town. This street is ridiculous, its filled with travelers and everyone is fucked up. Nitrus Oxide (laughing gas) was being sold on the streets as well as scorpions on skewers. We went to a club at night and it was just filled with fist pumping and bro-tanks that got old fast (aka was too sober). If I wanted to spend money on alcohol, I would rather do it in a location where I wouldn't feel like I'd be ear-raped. It was still a good time but I was knackered from the day so we called it a night and went back around 1am.