Departing to Pai

Wednesday, March 16, 12:00 PM

Both Molly and I felt very sad leaving Tak on Saturday morning. On Friday afternoon we went out to an early dinner with the foreign language department and said a lot of goodbyes. Then we went to “milkshake bar” and had some drinks with a few teachers for the last time. It was crazy to think that we were taking the bus from Tak to Chiang Mai for the last time. The first stop on our journey was Pai. In retrospect, we could not have picked somewhere that was more of a contrast to Tak.

The last look out from our apartment building

Everyone at HotPot

Our landlord said swaggy "will think of you" as we left. Hit right in the feelings.

The town of Pai itself, in my opinion, is not that great of a travel destination. This post sums up my thoughts perfectly. It is filled with backpackers from Europe on holiday. There is more western food there than Thai food: you have to look for a while around town if you want to eat Thai food. It almost felt like we weren’t even in Thailand anymore when we were in the town area. However, Pai is situated in a beautiful valley, surrounded by mountains. My favorite part of Pai was taking a motorbike around the countryside.

The first morning in Pai we rented a brand new 125cc Honda Click (above) to drive around the nearby mountains. It had a lot more power than our motorbike in Tak and we needed it to drive on those windy, mountain roads. That day we drove just over an hour away to Lod cave. The drive was wonderful, and I enjoyed many hairpin turns up and down the mountainside. It was easily the most beautiful motorbike experience I have had here or back home in the states. The cave we saw was equally as stunning. The cavern was massive and contained three separate areas that we got to explore. A river ran through the whole cave that we got to raft down. There were even tons of fish to feed in the river; it reminded me of the time we fed fish at the temple in Sukhothai. The roof of the cave was covered in bats. In the final part of the cave there were remnants of coffins from a few thousand years ago. The whole experience of travelling through the cave was amazing. It was more than worth the trip. 

The cave entrance

Rafting in the cave

 The next day we spent the afternoon lounging in our villa. I read in the hammock and took in the view from our little porch. It was nice to have a little downtime to just enjoy where we were. We paid 200 baht a night for a place just outside the main town. For anyone visiting Pai, I highly recommend Phu View Guesthouse (tel. 08-7983-8716). We made a short trip to Pai Canyon for sunset. We watched the beautiful sunset on 3/14, pi day, at Pai Canyon, isn’t that cool?! The one let down was that we were looking forward to a bit of a hike there, but there wasn’t much to hike around. This has been a pretty common theme here in Thailand. It seems you have to go a bit more of the beaten path if you want to fend a solid place to hike.

The next day we visited a giant Buddha statue just outside the town. It was beautiful, but is definitely a work in progress. I am sure in a few years the whole temple there will be much more ornate. The view was spectacular though and it was a good way to start off the day. After lunch we travelled back to Chiang Mai where we are now. Grace, a friend from OSU, will be joining us tonight and we head down south to island hop on Friday. The weather has really heated up in the past two weeks; Molly and I are looking forward to getting down to the beaches. I should have another post up about Koh Tao by the middle of next week. Also, I finally started an Instagram. You can follow me here if you want to see more pictures I take throughout my travels. Thanks so much for reading!

Leaving Tak

Friday, March 11, 11:00am

All of our bags are packed; tomorrow morning Molly and I will leave the life we created for ourselves here behind. I will be living out of a hiking backpack and a daypack while traversing through 12 countries over the next 10 weeks. The thought of embarking on this adventure together is exhilarating, but it is sad to leave behind a place we have enjoyed so much over the past five months.

There are things large and small that I will really miss about this place. It has been so much fun exploring the city and becoming regulars at our favorite local restaurants and bars. The food is outstanding here: I will never forget getting “pad Thai by the river”, eating with friends at “the steakhouse”, going for a night out at “milkshake bar” or going to “the purple place by Big C” after a workout. Each place got its own special English name from us American teachers. I have probably ran the loop at the local sport complex over a hundred times since I have been here. This is the first, and maybe only, experience I will ever have in assimilating into a completely foreign place. When I consider that first day here in Thailand, when I had anxiety over ordering food from a street stall in Bangkok, it is crazy how much more comfortable I am here in only half a year.

Hot Pot by the river: one of our last meals together in Tak

Graduation ceremony for MEP 3/3 class

Teaching at Takpittayakhom School is another experience that I am sure will be unmatched for the rest of my life. Learning to communicate mathematical concepts to students that don’t speak the same language was an exercise in patience and creativity. It was so satisfying when I could get my point across, but it definitely has made me a more patient person. It has been so fun getting to know the other teachers at the school; it is sad to leave them behind: there have been a lot of goodbyes over the past few weeks. I am so thankful I had the opportunity to meet and get to know so many great people in Tak and through OEG. Over the past semester we have even grown close with the dogs that live outside our apartment. One of them who was just a puppy when we got here is fully grown now. It has been such a joy to have them come running to say hello when we depart and arrive at home every day. I am happy to say that I feel like a part of the community here; but it does make it harder to leave. Molly and I have also grown a lot closer through building a life together here, and I am very happy about that.

With all of that said, I am glad that these feelings of nostalgia are mixed with feelings of excitement and anticipation of what is to come. After the next two and a half months Molly and I will have traveled a complete loop around the globe. The map below shows where we have traveled so far and where we will be headed. Corners represent stops along our trip, dashed lines lead to/from layovers while solid lines lead to/from places that we have stayed/will stay at.

First we will go to Pai, a town in the northern mountains of Thailand, before meeting up with our friend, Grace, in Chiang Mai and heading down south to island hop for a couple weeks. Then Molly and I will go on to explore many others countries in Southeastern Asia. After that we will visit my family in India and see the Taj Mahal. Lastly we will stop in a few European cities before heading home at the end of May. I have never lived as a nomad for such a long stretch and I am looking forward to adventuring all across the world. I will continue to update this blog with stories from our trip; I am sure I will have a lot to share. As always, thanks so much for reading!