Pai and the Migration East to Khorat (Asia Trek pt 11)

After a very windy four hour road trip into the mountains north of Chang Mai where the leg room in the bus is definitely built to Asian scale, I descending into the picturesque valley of Pai. Now let me say straight up that this is definitely a place worth going to if you are in Thailand. Able o do most of the courses and activities that people generally do in Chang Mai, Pai is a small farming village that that gathered the inspiration of the more bohemian types and became a tourist destination for those seeking an inner peace. Able to rent a bike and travel in five minutes to picturesque country roads, walks in the mountains or just wander around the street market. Pai is a wonderful place to unwind. It was with much disappointment that I realised I only had the time to stay two days in Pai before leaving.

In that time I only managed one walk/run and an elephant ride. Initially skeptical about the whole elephant rides, after a glowing report card from Kristian who had undertaken it the day before. After paying double the price as I was by myself and had to pay for two people and got a lift out the riding centre were I was lucky enough to get the largest and oldest of the elephants all to myself. After riding on it back for a while I was encouraged to move forward on to the neck. This was in fact more comfortable but also more precarious. As the route they take you on takes you up and down a hill and then through a river for some water fun. Particularly when walking dpown the hill with nothing but short hairs to hold onto, I was quickly reminded of a time when I was almost pulled of the front of a horse. This made the trip all the more exhilarating as each step became a question of will I fall or not. In fact there was probabaly very little chance I would fall off as elephants are very steady creatures, but sometime those reassurances don't seem to work.

After meandering to the river (Elephants are not known for their pace!) we got to play with them. First the elephants casually squirted us with water on the pretense that they wanted to cool down. Then there was the more rodeo style of whole can you stay on the elephant while it sits down stands up and tried (and did!!) to shake you off. Good fun and a definite realization that elephant are on a different scale of animal power. Luckily noone was hurt as some of the falls looked like they could have done some real damage. All in the name of fun. By the end I had became quite attached to my elephant and was sad to depart but the call of a bath, with water from a hot spring nearby was too tempting. All in all and expensive but good day.

Kristian was still in Pai at this stage, so we spent more time together talking about random things. But by the morning of day three realised that I had to go, and after a six kilometer morning run in the forest, (really nice, but I didn't make it to the waterfall!) I squeezed into the local bus for the return four hour journey to Chang Mai. Now at this stage there was only one thing on my mind, needing to get to Vietnam to meet my mother on the fifteenth of march with still over 500km to travel to get there. So there was little time for rest. After arriving in Chang Mai I went and did a some quick shopping and the sunday night market before heading back to the bus station for an over night bus to Loei. This was the start of a couple of very cold days.

The bus was generally in good order except for one thing. The plastic fall that allowed to the change the direction of the air conditioning and as a result it was pelting me directly with its icy winds for the full 8 hour bus journey and only sticking a plastic bag in the hole helped to alleviate the issue. Wearing and jumper and a blanket was not sufficient in keeping warm. But I survived and arrive in Loei and 515 in the morning, almost missing my stop after falling in and out of sleep a few times.

Generally what I like to do when I get to a new town is to take a few moments to rest and gather my senses. Unfortunatly the ubiquitous Tuk-Tuk drivers will never allow this. So immediately after getting of the bus the questions where fired at me, but now being somewhat of the tourist trail, what little english the Thai's knew dissapeared into practically nothing. Time for lot of aimless chit chat though eventually I was pointed to a sign showing that the bus to my next destination left in ten minutes. I payed the ticket price and hopped on the bus to got to Phu Kradung.

Now Phu Kradung is little more than a village that sits 5km from the Phu Kradung National Park. The national park is a single mountain that is like a heart shaped plateau which it was my plan to scale. However upon getting of the bus at around 6:45am I wandered around for a bit waiting for a restaurant to open when about 10 minutes later I had realised that I had left my guitar (again, I am thinking about doing it once in every country as a test. On the bus. Not really knowing what to do I did some shopping and sat down and ate breakfast. But that time I had come to the realisation that the bus was on a loop and thus would return later with my guitar but I had no idea how long it would take to return. So I walked to the bus stop which was a hut on the side of the road to ask the locals, none of which could underdstand english enough to answer me. Luckily a young girl would could speak english translated for me. Suddendly it was the talk of the wtown and the local police officer was set on the case, calling the office Kohn Kaen. After much discussion and waiting I received the information that tyhe guitar would arrive on a return bu as 11:45. So I waited at the bus station, with every new person coming to the station inquiring why I was there and the story of the missing guitar being relayed; all in Thai though. But I got my guitar back and then took the 7km moto trip to the national park.

I knew I was climbing up a mountain but I wasn't expecting this. When inquiring at the front desk as to what the options were in ragards to storing baggage I found out tht there was a porter service that allows you to have someone else walk your luggage to the top; which is what the locals do. But I walked up with my whole pack. A 9km walk to the visitors center of which 6km is uphill. Some part of which are very steep. It was a very hot and sweaty walk to the top (though it was worse going down) however the advised time is 4hrs and I managed to do it in 3, which I impressed myself with. The walk it self is very nice as you walked through different bushland type as you ascend and when you are on the top opf the plateau it doesn't really feel like you are in Thailand. I thought Thailand = thick green jungle and rice fields, however at this time of year most of Thailand is dry and brown and it only really has jungle in the south, in the northern area where you can do 'Jungle trekking' is to me just bushland, with deciduous trees that drop there leaves in winter; i.e. now. The svannah type landscape on the top of the hill makes for pleasant walking and the cliffs of the plateau make for some great sunset and sunrise views.

Accomodation there has to be the least value for money considering it takes 4hour walking to get there. I decided that a tent was the only option for me a 200baht, at the time I was offered a sleeping bag but decided not to take it as I hadn't needed a sleeping bag anywhere yet. This decision turned out to be costly and I didn't realise it until all the offices were closed. Being on the top of a hill it gets very cold and after trying to sleep for three hours in my thermals and still being cold I opened up my backpack and put on as many clothes as I could find, which was not many as I had left most at the bootom of the hill. But rugged up in three to four layers including my goretext jacket I managed to get some rest, but it was still a cold cold night.

In the morning I went to view the various small waterfalls they have but being the dry season there was nothing of them. Then I started the descent which ws more exhausting and painful then the way up and took me 3 and half hours. At the bottom I had a shower and changed before hitching a lift with some local student to the bus station who were also travelling to Kohn Kaen like me.

Kohn Kaen is a student town with a large university, beyond that there is little that is remarkable about the town (This is a phot of a square in Kohn Kaen; sorry no other photo!). However it does have a lively night market and I think (though it was tuesday , so I am not sure.) that it is one of the few places outside of Bangkok where there is a lively nightclub scene that doesn't involve 'karaoke' and 'massage'. After walking around the street for I while I came to a small park where they were giving a public film display. It was some thai comedy that I could vaguely follow becuase it was skit based. At least it killed and hours of my time before I got slightly lost trying to find my way back to the hotel. I got there in the end!

The next morning I hopped on the bus to Khorat - the second largest city in Thailand. though it is clearly well behind bangkok. Not much exciting there except the usual night markets, though one of them was like a carnival with one game requiring you to through darts to pop baloons. Those guys must go through hundreds of them in one night. Amusing to watch but didn't partake and there were only large teddy bears to be one which are somewhat cumborsome to carry around. There was also large public exhibition on the King were I found out that he is also a keen saxophone player!

Khorat also provides access to some old ruins called, Prasat Phnom Rung which date from the
Khmer empire and similar to those of Angkor Wat. Built on the top of an inactive volcano, in part due to the significance of the lakes that occupy the craters, this temple has been partially restored after suffering from theft. The restoration works have done a good job, and there is a good visitors centre with information and hisotry about the themple and the restoration works. Though typical to these kinds of things, I can't really remember much of what it said.

Getting to the temple is quite fun and almost as interesting as the temple itself.
After catching a bus to an intersection about 2hrs from Khorat, you then have to haggle with the moto drivers take you to the top of the hill and back which is about 11km (don't qoute me on that!). Fun on the way up, but on the way down there were some poor kids that had to walk the 3 or 4km up the hill and walk down at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, which was hot. I waved and smiled as I raced passed on a motorbike. Ah, the joys on having money! After returning to the intersection I was quickly herded onto the awaiting bus for the bus trip back, almost forgetting to pay the moto driver.

From there it was time to head to the borber to cambodia. Luckily for me as i found out that morning there was a direct bus, but I missed it by 10min. So I ahd to wait another three hours for the next one. Time to read the newspaper!