Pai Out of Town or Pai In Town?

Today was a day of travel. We left Bangkok to head to the north of Thailand. Our day started early, as we woke up at 4:30am. We had packed the night before, but still needed to get ready and head to the airport. We left our hostel and asked the concierge of the hotel at the bottom floor to call us a cab. We explicitly said we only wanted to pay by meter. Both Jessica and I had heard about cabs to the airport trying to scam you by "agreeing" to a price beforehand, not running the meter, then asking for a higher price once you arrive.

The guy called a cab who, when he told him we wanted to use the meter, shook his head and said 400TBH. We said no, we would wait. He left, and another arrived. This guy, too, refused to use the meter. We had gotten out of our room earlier than we expected, so we again refused and waited. Finally, the third cab to arrive agreed to use the meter.

We packed our stuff in and got into the cab. It seems to me that Thai drivers are all pretty crazy, but I think we had the fastest cabbie on the road Sunday morning. I pulled up the route on my phone to make sure we were heading the right direction, and he took every turn exactly as Google expected him to.

We got to the airport in blazing time, and because there was no traffic, we didn't have to use the tollway. Yay! That saved us 75TBH. When we finally got the curb at DMK, the fare on the meter was 189TBH. Less than HALF what the first cab wanted to charge us. We agreed to each throw in a 100TBH bill for a small tip. Tipping is not necessary but we felt like something small was deserved.

Once we got into the airport, the line at AirAsia for check-in was HUGE. However, we had already checked-in, and only needed to drop off our bags. The line for that was much better! We dropped them off, took advantage of the restrooms, then headed for security. The security line was super quick; the girl who checked my passport and boarding pass looked at me, then at my passport, pointed to my photo, and said "Beautiful!" Awwww :)

After we got through security (quick and easy), it was time for breakfast. We went to (gasp!) McDonalds. To be fair, though, our options were McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, KFC, and Krispy Kreme. And really, I thought what I got for breakfast was delicious! We got to our gate with a little over an hour to spare and I wrote Saturday's blog. When it was time to board the flight, we had to take a bus to the jetway. I had done something similar on another flight, although I can't remember where. We got to our seats on the plane, and I really appreciated Korean Air's ample leg room. I don't have super long legs by any means, and it was still quite cramped for me!

The flight to Chiang Mai was super short, and I read my book the entire way. When we landed, we grabbed our bags and headed into arrivals. The first thing I saw was a sign that said "bus to Pai" and thought, oh good, we need that. Then I realized underneath that on the sign was my name! I told Jessica that I'm starting to feel like a celebrity with all of these signs greeting me at airports recently!

When we got to the guy holding the sign and confirmed that we were who he was waiting for, he took off heading out of the airport. We caught up to him and asked him if we can go to the bathroom quickly, and he held up two fingers and told us strictly "Two minutes!" We nodded and rushed to find a bathroom.

Now outside the airport, we got into a mini-bus and took off. I vaguely wondered if this was our bus to Pai, but the guy told Jessica he was taking us to the bus station. Hey, nice! We were getting this transfer service because when I booked the flight, I added the bus transfer onto our tickets. We were dropped off at the bus station and boarded another mini-bus. Over the next 30 minutes before we left, the bus filled up. When we left to Pai, every seat was filled.

At first, I was reading my book. I'd gotten enthralled in it on my flight and was excited to read more. I was able to do that for a little bit, but eventually we turned onto the main highway to go to Pai, and the road started to weave.  Slowly we started climbing into the mountains and the road became more and more curved, and I got more and more nauseated. I was sitting on the "aisle" and couldn't see out of the windows well. I was seriously feeling ill when we finally pulled into a rest stop, about an hour and a half into the drive.

As we climbed out, I struck up a conversation with the girl riding in the solo seat near the front. I told her I felt sick and then asked if she wanted to switch seats so she and her boyfriend, who was in the seat behind her, could be together. Not only did she agree, she gave me some motion sickness medication! Wow, so sweet!

When we boarded back into the bus, Jessica took the seat her boyfriend had been in (also a solo seat, but behind my new seat), and she and her boyfriend took our two seats next to each other. Between the medicine and my new seating arrangement, I was starting to feel a lot better. The road was still incredibly windy with hairpin turns and the bus had to go into first gear plenty of times to chug up the steep road, but I did not throw up!

About 30 km outside Pai, we were stopped at a military checkpoint. As a soldier walked towards our bus, I wondered if we would need to show our passports, but no one said anything. The soldier opened the door and looked around. When he saw the girl who switched seats with me's boyfriend, we'll call him Bob, he said something and Bob produced his ID. The man looked it over then said something to Bob which I interpreted as "You're going to have to come with me." Bob got out of his seat and they headed towards the guard shack. I tried to see what was going on but it was on the other side of the bus, so I couldn't see too much.

After a few minutes, I saw Bob come from around the back with a small cup in his hand. I could only assume this was a urine sample, as he and the soldier sat down at a small table and waited with the cup on the table. They were talking, but I couldn't tell if it was amicable or not. The girl in the van didn't seem concerned, so I wondered if this was a common occurrence, perhaps they expected it. I thought it was maybe to do with him being Thai, but they didn't ask for her ID, or the other two older Thais in the bus. My only conclusion was that perhaps Bob was "randomly" selected for drug testing (he was tattooed and scruffy looking), OR because he was a young male, that they suspected him to dodging military service. However, I looked it up and Thailand does not conscript their soldiers, so that couldn't be it.

Ten minutes later, the girl got out of the bus and went to talk to the crowd around Bob. She came back and got her things. I expected her to take them and go wait with Bob, but she just talked to the bus driver and got into the front seat. We finally took off, leaving Bob behind with the soldiers. Since I'd spoken with the girl, I'd hoped to ask her about it when we got to the bus station. However, about 10km outside Pai, the bus pulled over and she got out and the bus left her.

Jessica and I are both absolutely dying of curiosity about this whole thing, but I suppose we'll never know the real reason, or the outcome for poor ol' Bob.

Once we arrived into Pai, we got a motorbike taxi to our guesthouse. This meant each of us on the back of a motorbike, with our luggage in tow. Jessica had her hardcase rolling suitcase in front of the driver, and I had my backpack on and smaller backpack in the basket at the front of the bike. We took off, and I definitely had a surreal moment of "Oh my gosh I am on a motorbike taxi in a tiny village in the Thai highlands!" I looked in the rear-view mirror of the taxi and all I could see is Jessica with a HUGE smile on her face.

Our guesthouse was about 2.5km from the city centre, and I hadn't realized that it would feel so "out of town". When we arrived, we asked out taxi drivers to wait and return us to the town so we could rent a motorbike. They were so kind, both older and spoke almost no English. We checked in (there was some confusion over how many rooms I booked) and headed back with them. They dropped us off at a motorbike rental store, and we inquired the price - 140TBH per day. We decided to shop around and headed towards the restaurant where our Thai cooking class was to take place.

Along the way, we asked at several motorbike rental places, and they were all most expensive. Looks like our taxi drivers knew what they were about! We got to BeBe Spice, the restaurant, and walked to the back to meet BeBe. I had made our reservation back in October or November, and was instructed to contact her the day before. However, I've since deleted my facebook and had no way to contact her other than in person. I explained to her that we had a reservation for tomorrow, and she looked confused and said she was not doing a class tomorrow.... Uh-oh! She was actually very kind and good-natured about it, which made me not fret. She offered to do it the next day, Tuesday, and since we'd planned that to be our free day, we agreed to it. SHe invited us back for dinner that night at 9pm, but we weren't sure if it was free or paid, as the cooking school pupils were making it.

After we put our deposit down, we continued to walk, as we now needed to go to the bus station and buy our ticket for returning to Chiang Mai on Wednesday. While I'd planned to leave in the morning, our cooking school offered free practice the day after your lesson, so we changed our plans to leave Wednesday afternoon in order to take advantage of the practice offered. We got two of the last three seats on the 2pm bus for Wednesday. Glad we booked it out early!!

Finally, we headed back to the original motorbike rental shop and got a bike for three days. When they showed me how to use it, I felt okay with it. However, Jessica and I had planned to ride together (she did not want to drive one) and when she got on the back, I definitely felt less confident. In fact, I felt honestly very nervous!! We took off - shakily - towards our guest house. Somehow, I managed to drive it all the way there without incident, although turning was HARD and scary!!! Jessica was very good natured and trusting!!

Once we got to the guesthouse and got off the bike, I realized how much I was shaking, both with effort of controlling the bike and with nerves. I realized that I did not want to do it again, and the thought of doing it for three days was terrifying! I felt awful doing so, but I realized I wanted to return the bike. The biggest problem with that plan was that since our guesthouse was so far out of town, it would be difficult to be spontaneous with our plans. After a bit of waffling, I decided to ask our guesthouse person to help me return the bike.

I headed down to the front desk area and the guy was super helpful and agreed to help me take it back. He even got his buddy to go along and bring us back to the guesthouse afterwards. I ran up to tell Jessica, and with this decision made, we then agreed to look into another accommodation closer to town. I found one with availability AND A/C, and booked it. Our guesthouse was only $10 per night, and the new one $27, so we agreed that being centralized and with more comfort was worth losing the $30. I then went back to tell the worker who was going to help me return the bike that we were going to check out early.

His response to my explanation that we were not going to stay there was "Hold on, let me check my schedule." Errr...? I was super confused so I followed him to the desk and asked if he understood me. He said yes, but wanted to check his schedule. I tried again to explain that we would be leaving, changing guesthouse. He again said okay, no problem. Long, broken-English story short, he wanted to give us our money back for not staying in the guesthouse. I told him it was okay, he did not have to do that. But he kept saying "I want to give back to you!" I mean, I won't turn down a refund! He explained that he would have to wait a little bit to give me the refund, which I said okay no problem. He seemed relieved.

We then got our luggage together and hopped on two motorbikes - mine and one of theirs. They dropped us at the new hotel and then went to return the bike. He returned only 10 minutes later with our refunded money - we were only out the cost of 1 day's rental plus insurance - a total of 180TBH or about $5. Phew!

All checked into our new hotel, aptly named Pai in Town, we took showers and cooled off under the A/C (I'd been roasting all day). Finally we headed into Pai to just see the town and find some food. I was now able to actually relax and enjoy this CUTE little town! I'd read wonderful things about it online, and I can definitely see the appeal. It's a slow-pace, hippy town. The weather is somewhat more pleasant than in the city, and the evenings are downright cool. We wandered the Walking Street market and I found some souvenirs to take home as well as some delicious street food. Sunday night in Pai was the first time it REALLY felt like a vacation - nothing to do, nothing to worry about, just focused on relaxing and enjoying ourselves. And, part of enjoying myself is sleeping. We called it a night at 9pm once again and, with nothing planned for the morning, enjoyed sleeping as late as we wanted.

We've got two full days plus half of Wednesday to enjoy this town and I plan to do just that: ENJOY it!

Xx,
Chelsea

Abby in Seoul Part III: What to Expect When Visiting Seoul

(Blog posted by Abby) I've been in Seoul for 6 days and I will be leaving tomorrow to fly back home to the States. Since I've now experienced it, I thought I'd give some information to those of you who plan on coming to visit Chelsea, or even those who may have stumbled on this blog and would like information about visiting your child or your friend who is Teaching English in Korea. I capitalized that because it deserves it.

Abby in Seoul Part II: So Many Steps

I'm writing this post without seeing Chelsea's blog because she wanted to write her blog and then have me write mine and kind of compare our viewpoints. I am positive I won't be able to remember everything and in the right order, but it will be fun to see her post after I write this one.  I actually won't even TRY to list everything, I think that could be kind of boring!

No. 2233 to Dongdaemun Night Market

Thursday (that'd be yesterday) was an unexpectedly awesome day. Wednesday was just plain crummy; the effects of cold weather and living so far from my family and friends wearing me down emotionally. I woke up feeling much better in general on Thursday. Tuesdays and Thursdays are just automatically better, thanks to a free period and generally much more awesome kids.

Saturday Adventure

Saturday, August 25 4:30pm Seoul

Well, my first free day in Seoul has been interesting... My body woke up at 8:45am, but I thought it was earlier since I forgot my window doesn’t let in any light, no matter the time of the day. I laid in bed and watched TV for a few minutes, watched the end of a Criminal Minds on the English channel. I got a quick shower and debated to use the crappy hair dryer in my room. I think it is damaging my hair, and I’ve only used it 2x. Is that possible? Maybe its a combination of the water quality, new shampoo, and a crappy dryer. I decided that today I should get a nice hair dryer. Being the princess that I am, I think that is one thing I could spend a little more on. I mean, I’m trying to grow my hair out, and if it’s all broken and damaged by the end of my year here and I have to cut it all off again, I’ll be quite unhappy. 

Before I did anything, my goal was to get online. Jamie stopped by my room as I was packing up my computer. We walked to the coffee shop around the corner, but she decided to leave. We discussed shopping and agreed to meet up in an hour to go. I got to post a few blogs and check my emails. Surprisingly, despite being around 8-9pm back home, I didn’t get to talk to many people. 

I sat in the same coffee shop as the other day, but got some breakfast from Paris Baguette across the street. I found a delicious pastry with blueberry and cream cheese. It also had a glaze on the top that reminded me of the Colombian pastries Michael and I had in Miami. Anyway, it was delicious! I will be back for more... I also got a sugar donut twist, which was pretty good. 

After my hour was up, I headed back to meet Jamie. She wasn’t back yet, and Sean was still out running, so I sat down to watch a Big Bang Theory episode (thanks, Moon!). Jamie came by and watched with me when she got in. We had a knock on the door and I opened it to find 2 white girls I hadn’t seen before. It ended up being Chantal, a coworker who is also in the Kindergarten area (Jamie had met her before) and her Canadian friend visiting for the week. She invited us to accompany them for some sightseeing. Jamie and Sean decided to go, but I declined. I’m not good in groups anyway, and with the addition of 2 more new people, I knew I would be uncomfortable. Besides, it had started raining last night and continued through the night which prompted me to go searching for rain boots and a light rain jacket. I had heard of a place called COEX Mall, so I decided to try there. 

So I set out on my quest. Maggie, the teacher I am replacing, gave me one of her T-Money cards (subway money cards). It is like a charm that can go on your cell phone, but had broken off. It still works, just doesn’t have the string to attach it to anything. Anyway, it saved me the $5 buying a new card. I left the motel and started heading in the general direction I thought the subway was in. As I rounded the first corner, I saw an American-looking guy. He fell in behind me, but I was too nervous to say anything to him. I passed the bus stop, and kept walking. It was pouring by this point and my shoes were soaked. I had an umbrella inherited from Maggie as well, so I wasn’t too wet, but I also didn’t know where I was going exactly. I decided to turn around and ask at the 7-Eleven. I suspected you could load money on the T-Money charm at the 7-Eleven, and I was right. I put 10,000 KW (~$10) on it, and asked where the station was. She kind of explained where to get the bus. I set off again, still unsure of where I was going. And suddenly, I see the American guy again! He was a few feet in front of me, so I ran and caught him. I tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around and said Hello! I was so happy he actually spoke English, my first question was “Are you an American?” HA! He said yes, and I could have cried of happiness. I was at the point where I was pretty frustrated with not knowing where I was going, and being quite wet. I found out he is also from Texas, Austin specifically. He works at a public school, but lives in the apartments right next to mine! I told him I didn’t have a phone number, but I wanted to get connected to him, so he found me on Facebook on his phone. Finally, he explained, IN ENGLISH, exactly how to get to the subway. I was so happy! I felt like God was really looking out for me at that point. He is the first American that I had met who did not work with me, and he came along at the exact moment I was in need. God is really watching out for me; I know I’ve got some amazing people praying for me back home, and I can promise you all that I feel the love and I know He is on my side! 

I walked across the street to the bus stop which would take me to the closest subway station. I could walk there, but with the rain I would just take the bus. Unfortunately, I had just missed a bus, and had to wait for about 20 minutes. When I finally caught one, it was about 4 stops til the subway; everyone on the bus got off there, and I just followed the masses of people to the entrance (thankfully I was in a crowd, otherwise I don’t know if I’d have found it as easily). 

One cool thing about Seoul’s public transportation system is that, besides being cheap, if you take a bus, then transfer to the subway (within a certain amount of time) you will not get charged for both. So, I scanned the T-Money card when I got on the bus (charged a flat fee, something around $1.50), again when I left (no charge), when I entered the subway (charged $0) and when I left the subway at my final destination (charged an extra $.10 because I went kind of far). So I just think that is pretty cool!

Well, my first experience on the Seoul subway was not the worst, but not the best either. My feet were squishy with water and if you know me, you know that wet feet/shoes/bottoms of pants/etc annoy me to no end. So I was walking all over creation in wet shoes, soaked feet. I had to change lines twice on my journey, and it was not the easiest trying to figure out which direction on the line you should go. At one station, I think I walked like half a mile in one direction before realizing that it was the wrong way. 

On one of the subway trains, I was sitting and I noticed that these 4 old Korean women were staring at me and talking to each other. I gave a small smile, and one of the women said something in direction. I smiled more, but had no idea what she said. They are all giggling at this point. She motions to her face and smiles so big; I think this meant that she thought I was beautiful (or, I look weird as hell. I’ll tell myself it was former) It was so darn cute. They were so giddy over me. I felt like the Joy Luck Club was across from me, Korean style. Haha!

Well, when I finally made it to the final station, I exited where I had read to go. I came out in this nearly empty plaza in the middle of huge skyscrapers. I walked around for a while, getting more and more frustrated, having no idea where to go. Usually, in America, if you’re looking for a huge mall, you look for the big building with lots of signs. Well, in Korea, that doesn’t work. Everywhere is a big building, everywhere has lots of signs, and I can’t read them to boot. I kept wandering, debating if I should ask someone (I am almost scared to try!), when I saw a security shack. I headed in that direction. It was empty, but the security officer was leaning on the edge of a short wall that looked like it was overlooking something below. He was looking down, so before talking to him, I looked down too. There it was! The mall was underground. I headed to the stairs at the far end, and made my way down. I saw Bennigans, Baskin Robbins, Cold Stone Creamery, and some other American brand food. I found an entrance to the actual mall behind all the food, and there were the stores! Finally! 

I found the shop I was looking for that I read online had “Wellies” aka rain boots. It is end of the rainy season here, so they were all on sale. However, they were not my size. Bummer. I went down a few stores and saw some more wellies in the window. I tried those on, and they fit great. They were too cute too! They were khaki color with dark brown trim and a ribbon bow in the back. The ONLY thing that stopped me from buying them was that they had a slight heel. When I tried them on, the slight incline put me off. I don’t mind heels, but rain boots just seem wrong with a heel. They were on sale for ~$45, so I decided to look some more and come back if I wanted them. 

I wandered down the hall and saw a sign for “Hyundai Departmental Store”  - that sounded interesting, so I went that way. When I walked through the doors to the store, the first thing I saw was about 50 food stalls. If you’ve ever been to Harrods, their food court is what this reminded me of. I walked along one of the asiles and looked at all the food and people eating. Everything was Asian, of course. Winding my way through everything, I spied a juicer. 

Now, at this point, I’ve been traveling for about two hours (from leaving my motel room) and I was getting “hangry” (my word for being angry as a result of hunger). I decided to get a juice, since that was healthy and safe. The sweet lady behind the counter was sooo nice. She helped me decide on which fruits. It ended up being more of a smoothie than juice, but oh well. It was something in my belly and tasted great. It was a little expensive, ~$8, but at that point I needed something. 

With juice/smoothie in hand, I headed to the escalators. I went up about 7-8 floors of high end cosmetics, handbags, shoes, designer clothes, and even a grocery store. There was a Mac store there, too! I noticed they do NOT have my specific type of foundation, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I knew I would not find my wellies there, so I headed back downstairs to the mall entrance. I thought I would try another hallway, but it lead back to the one I’d already gone down. Apparently this mall is quite small; the Hyundai Dep’t Store is the main attraction. I made a beeline for the subway and retraced my complicated route home. 

When I finally got to my neighborhood, I decided to look in BauHouse (the department store near my motel). I’d been in before, but only on the ground floor. They had a rain jacket on sale for ~$35, but I held off in favor of looking at a market for something cheaper. It is the end of rainy season anyway, so I won’t need it for too long. I explored the ~12 floors of wares. I found a blowdryer, but they were all similar to what I’ve already got. I need something a salon would use. Hmmm I might have to get creative in where I look for this. I discovered that the very top floor of BauHouse was a movie theater!!! Crazy! I’d never have known. 

By then, I was absolutely exhaused, so I headed back to the motel. That brings us to now; I’m eating dried veggie chips from Target (one of my plane snacks that didn’t get eaten). They are particularly good; I think I am just extremely hungry. One of the teachers mentioned going to a buffet tonight; Korean BBQ but you pick the meat from a display and you get as much as you could possibly want. It is a little more than I want to pay for a meal, ~$20, but I guess that’s a good price, since the only place similar in America is quite a bit more than $20 per person. We’ll see. Hopefully that happens because I’ve not eaten much today. 

Right now, I think I will watch a movie. In a little bit, I am going to talk to the front desk guy at the motel and see about switching rooms to the front room because it gets an internet connection. Woohoo! I feel like there is so much I haven’t talked about, but at the same time, I feel like I write extremely long blogs every time! Yikes! Well, for now, my hands hurt from typing....