Hi from Pai

Sa wa deet kah or kap (hello in Thai - you need 'kah' on end if addressing females and 'kap' on end if addressing males).
We're now in the sleepy town of Pai up in the hills and it gets rather nippy at night! A far contrast from Chiang Mai which is in a valley and much warmer. My coat has got used for the first time since New Zealand last night. We made it on the overnight bus to Chiang Mai in one piece (although with little sleep for me because we kept stopping so I was keeping my eye on the luggage door under my window to ensure no jiggery pokery) along with our bags at around 5.45am. We got in a taxi (strange yewt/truck-type vehicles that you climb into the back of) to our guesthouse but they only had one room available because the night we'd booked was the following night. So we had a bit of a snooze in an air-conditioned room (when we were waiting for fan rooms) and were told our rooms would be ready at 07.30 - interesting if you bear in mind that check-out was at noon.
We went down at 07.30 - not ready. Neither was they ready at 08.30 or 09.30. They were finally ready at 10.30 - although mine was more like 11.00. And what a shithole it was - despite the pool. The air-con rooms were lovely but my fan room was a hovel. Rather like here in Pai actually. So don't stay at SK House in Chiang Mai or Charlie's House in Pai (unless you like outside squat toilets - but then, my room was only 100 baht here - one pound 50! So what do you expect? I used Shaz and Andy's en-suite). I didn't shower in either accommodations...
SK House was rather out of the way of the main town of Chiang Mai so we immediately ventured out to find alternative dwellings and found a wonderful coffee shop for breakfast (which had some incredibly tempting homemade cakes on offer - we resisted begrudgingly) and the nice Home Place guesthouse where we stayed for the next 5 nights. I had a lovely en-suite twin room with TV!!! Yes, TV!!! Which is very distracting when you're watching a film and supposed to be packing.. :)
Chiang Mai was a lot nicer than Bangkok. Plus it has a fabulous market every Sunday afternoon and night (see second pic). Plus it has the usual night market every night, but the Sunday one is the largest I've ever seen. It went on for miles! You could buy anything you wanted, including strange rectangular blocks of ice cream of which I purchased coffee flavour. They have loud speakers stating the aims of the market in Thai and English which included: 1) to help the local economy; and 2) to boost tourism. They also played the Thai national anthem promptly at 18.00 - at which point the entire world and it's mother came to a grinding halt and was upstanding. It was a surreal moment. We just followed suit with everyone else so as not to appear rude... it was a catchy tune, you could hum along.
Chiang Mai has some lovely Wats. We visited Wat Bupphra at which this incredibly happy elderly monk blessed us and tied strands of white string around our wrists (there are 9 - I wonder why 9 - if anyone knows, please leave a comment). It was a touching moment. He couldn't speak English but conveniently had a plaque in that very language explaining why the temple was built, which he whipped out from God only knows where - probably his bright orange robe! He whipped another one out for a lady that followed us - probably in Thai - handy that! ;) He was a very happy chap and encouraged us to take photos - even of him - at which point he stopped smiling - why?! But as soon as the camera pointed elsewhere the cheesy grin was back. :)
I also made a new stone friend who was also a happy chap at that Wat - see fifth photo. Isn't he sweet? ;)
We mainly chilled this week. Shaz and I went to visit the elephants at the Elephant Nature Park. It is about an hour's drive from Chiang Mai. We stopped at the market beforehand and picked up sacks of food before driving an hour and a half to this secluded sanctuary in the middle of nowhere.
It is run by the tiniest Thai lady called Lek (which aptly means 'small' in Thai). She is a trooper. She is trying, among other things, to introduce a retirement age for elephants and also a maternity leave policy because at the moment they can work until their 80s and mothers that give birth go straight back to work - and if they're trekking or such like, the poor little baby tags along behind. So please boycott all elephant trekking trips in Thailand or elephant shows - thanks to things like that, the elephant population is declining across the country. Want to know how they train them for shows and things? They take males at the age of 2, and females at the age of 4, and place them in the 'crush' cage, which is barely bigger than the elephant. They then deprive them of sleep, food and also torture them until they lose their will to question authority and become obedient, broken animals. Some of them die during this treatment. The people who put them in these cages poke them repeatedly with sticks that have sharp nails on the end. It's disgraceful.
Lek filmed this footage along with a National Geographic reporter for a documentary (which we watched, and which is actually banned in Thailand). Sadly the footage she gave to journalists and told them to wait on releasing, was leaked and she had death threats and lots of other problems. People who didn't like her even got to one of her baby elephants and killed it. :( Bastards.
So anyway, we got to feed the heffalumps bananas and watermelons (I was a bit nervous at first but they're lovely creatures - see fourth pic), and also got to bathe them in the river too (see third pic)! The baby elephants are the most dangerous believe it or not, because they have a playful habit of charging you, which can do serious damage! ;)
It was a fab day and I'd like to go back there one day to volunteer for a week or so. Shaz would like to do that too. We're both considering doing TEFL courses in Chiang Mai too cos it's much cheaper there than back in the UK.
We also visited a big temple on a hill in CM called Doi Suthep. It was impressive - I got yet another good luck blessing (and string wristband) from a smirky monk and then we headed here to Pai. We also saw a rather amusing guardian that is possibly the biggest insult to mothers the world over (see first pic).
The only saving grace about where we're staying in Pai is that they have the cutest little white angora rabbit in a cage outside the guesthouse. It can't be all bad I guess if there are bunnies... ;)
Anyway, we're back to Chiang Mai tomorrow and then on to Chiang Rai and the Thailand/Laos border.
Lah gorn (bye in Thai). x