Life of Pai – Part 2

The thing about Pai Circus School is that once it has you it doesn’t let you go. I am not just saying that metaphorically because it is hard to leave, but rather that I attempted to check out and leave yesterday and was told by reception “No”. Normally when you say “I would like to check out please” it is more of a formal way of saying “I am leaving now. Goodbye”, however here they see it as an actual question that they can refused and I was denied the ability to make a break for it. Instead Tim gave me a free nights accommodation and Beth took my back back to my room as apparently they were not yet ready for me to leave. It is amazing to feel loved by so many people you have only known for a few days… at least I think it may be love… I may have been kidnapped!

I expected to be writing this update from somewhere on the road towards Bangkok but as it turns out I find myself waking up for another morning in Pai. This morning was a little more annoying than others as a mental bird decided to sing me the songs of its people at about 5am. It was crazy loud so I ended up getting up with the sun to get a head start on the day 🙂

Since so much has gone on in this last week I will bunch stuff together again into a few short stories that might make you understand why this is such a great place. Although I am sat in the sun right now looking at a beautiful view I must admit that it is the people that really make this place. They have done really well to get the staff members currently there which has also caused other guests to stay a lot longer (whether they like it or not!) and it wouldn’t be as fun without any of them.

The swimming pool Bath.
Being British it would not be that strange to refer to the pool as being at the swimming baths since that is an old English was of referring to the ones we have at home. The public baths take on whole new meaning though in Pai with its crazy dirty hippie vibe. The accommodation here is nothing special at all, although it might appear romantic with the right bit of spin and propaganda. For example I could say:

“I live in an authentic jungle chalet type building on top of a mountain with a nature view out my window, full ventillation and air conditioning. Its even practically an en-suite.”.

What I mean is:

“I live in a shed made from bamboo and leaves of top of a big hill. I can see a scrawny cow from my window. There are some holes in my roof but I have a fan. I am also near the toilet block. Oh and a Geko lives on my ceiling”

If you are wanting a super fancy glamorous sort of place then this isn’t the place to come at all. If you only want to spend a few pounds per night, don’t mind having dirty feet all the time but want to have a great time with amazing people then it certainly is the right place to be.
Anyway, getting back to the whole bath thing. The showers here leave a little to be desired. I will not bother taking a picture but its safe to say it certainly has a festival vibe to it in one of those “well technically I am clean…er than I started”. Safe to say that loads of people end up embracing the dirty hippie vibe and believe that you don’t need a shower if you have had a bath, hence why the Circus school has an Infinity Bath rather than Infinity Pool.

The thing is that even though it might sound a bit disgusting no one here really cares. As I said before the festival vibe is in full effect and the general rule is that if you stink someone will tell you so unless you’ve been told to go get a wash you are probably good to go. Clean clothes are also optional since anything you wear quickly ends up dirty. Minging I know but you know what, it is also quite liberating at the same time to not have to put in any effort at all each day or care about how you look for other people as no one here is bothered at all.

Drunk Times
Nearly every other night is someone’s last night out here so that has led to quite a few nights out. Since Pai is quite small those nights seem to involve going to the same place but because our little group from the Circus seems to be the biggest in Pai we do have a lot of control over the bars. It is great as often we have walked into places that are quite dead and asked them to change the music to what we want so we will stay and they will do it. A few times they have even let one of our group take over and DJ for the night which seems great at first but then they get bored and want to dance with everyone else.

I will not go any further into drunk stories as they have been quite crazy but lets just say that we all had a lot of fun and leave it at that 🙂

Pai Planning
Planning a day out in Pai is one of the most useless things in the world. Every single day we plan what we are going to go out and do the next day and it just never happens. What actually happens is some people wake up with a hangover and then everyone sits around the pool and chills out for a while talking about what they are going to do later. This “later” is a magical time period that never happens in Pai and after about 4 hours of sitting in a hammock chilling someone will say “come on guys, lets go do something” and people will reply “yeah totally, just give me 5 mins”. 4 hours later the sun will be setting and we will realise that nothing at all has happened but we have had a great day chatting and chilling so instead of going out in the day we head out again at night. Time to Party… Again!

Metro
There is one guy at Pai who seems to be the unofficial mascot of the whole place. Forest (gang name Metro) sums up everything that is great about Pai. Every day I watch this guy who is barely awake come from his hut and sit in a hammock for a few hours eating some sort of breakfast sandwich. Eventually from out of nowhere he randomly gets up, grabs some Poi and proceeds to do some sick Poi skills for about 40 mins none stop making it look like the easiest thing that ever existed. The only time he seems to stop is to show someone new how to get started and give then some instructions, then back to his Poi. After a while it is like he suddenly gets bored and heads back to the hammock for a nap. This cycle happens multiple times every day. No fucks seem to be given at all by him and he is just living life as it should be lived.

Circus Skills
As I mentioned before I am staying at a circus school which is great as they seem to have toys everywhere for people to play with and try out. Often there is no one doing anything with them, then suddenly people appear from nowhere spinning Poi or Staffs or getting their juggle on. Some people are super talented and you even spot them juggling on the slack line which is crazy. I even caught Timmy Tim T-Dogg playing the Ukulele while walking on the slack line which just should be possible. It is really fun to just try out the toys and have a play for a while each day and it is amazing to see how quickly people have picked up some of the skills without much time at all.

Red on staff
I have now managed to escape Pai. Red however is still there, insisting that he is going to leave soon. I think the only person that hasn’t accepted that he is staying forever is Red himself. He keeps insisting that he is going to leave but I think that everyone knows that he will still be there in a few months time. He keeps saying that he is being sabotaged at the moment since he has a dodgy belly so cant make the 4hr bus ride to Chiang Mai. He thinks that the staff are poisoning him a little bit to keep him there… he may be right to be honest!

The Canyon
The one thing that I did get to go and see one day while I was in Pai was one of the Canyons just outside of town. These beautiful canyons have some amazing views and apparently are even better in the evening for the sun set, although I didn’t make it out there for that point. We headed there one day and on our way back the weather took a turn for the worse and we ended up having to hide out in a store on the way back, grabbing a coffee and an ice cream as we waiting for the rains to pass. Not the worst place to have to hide for a while so I cant complain too much

Thunderstorms
It turns out that I have visited Pai during rainy season and when it does rain here you know about it. Most of the day can be super sunny but then all of a sudden it starts to turn dark. The black clouds come and you can even start to see the rains sweeping across the valley below us. It is quite cool to see as you can see the distinct lines of where the heavy rains are falling down and sometimes even coming in sideways.

One day we were sat in the pagoda enjoying the sun when the light rain started. Within a few mins it was throwing it down and we all ended up huddled up at one side grouped together to get out of the rain. The wind was so strong that it was blowing the rain sideways at us making us keep shuffling back to get out of the danger zone. The temperature also dropped quite a lot while the rain came making everyone wish that they had a jacket or something warm to wrap up in.

Although the rains some hard they don’t last that long and in about 10 mins it is gone and the sun is out again. You would never know it had rained if it wasn’t for the fact that the ground quickly turns into a muddy clay and makes it hard to walk down into town. One time when we walked back from town after all the rain it felt like we had platform flip flops with the amounts of mud we had stuck to us but again, this is all part of Pai’s charm.

 

Well that is about it for now as I cant think of much more and I have to go and catch yet another plane.

Next stop New Zealand!