Back in Thailand

After traveling for two day by boat we got to the border town about 6:30 p.m. I was dead tired. We spent the night at the border in Laos in a city call Ban Huai Sai in a simple hotel, but with an outstanding view with coconut trees, mangoes, and some other kind of fruits. The view was spectacular with the Mekong River and on the other side was Thailand and I could see a big temple. In the morning I wanted to sleep late, but we had to cross the border into Thailand. Luckily there weren’t that many people crossing just us, but it was raining. I couldn’t sleep because we needed to get to Chiang Rai since our goal was to spend the night to continue the next day to Pai. All the way along the highway we could see the beautiful forest and green mountains everywhere. We also saw some people working in the hills and some small villages. The next morning we had some yogurt and coffee in the hotel room since most restaurants open late and we like to save some money. After three hours and half we got to Chiang Dao where we spent the night; it was really hot and humid. In the afternoon we hiked to a temple which was a half a mile from our cabin. Chiang Dao is surrounded by beautiful green mountains and in particular there is one that looks similar to the half dome in Yosemite. I love the colorful flowers everywhere especially the orchids, buckenvillas and some other kinds of wild flowers. This is the perfect place to relax, walk and meditate, of course there are many in Thailand, but this is my favorite one. It rained at night and there were so many bugs and to make matters worse the electricity went off, but it was o.k. The problem is that it was unbearable hot and humid, but that is the way it goes when we travel. We never know what to expect, so we have to be ready for anything that comes.
Now we are in Pai, a small, pleasant town in a mountain valley quite crowded with foreigners, especially for this time of the year. The food is really great in the local restaurants; there are four kinds of curry: white, green, yellow, and red. These curries are excellent and we can order them with vegetables, tofu, chicken, seafood, beef, pork, frogs, and some lizards if you like. Anyways, we are enjoying our stay here, but I think I am ready to move on and continue discovering more about the culture in