I can't remember my exact first impressions of the place but the streets of hippy shops and dreadlocked inhabitants were uninterupted by the sounds of persistant tuk tuk drivers or of pushy street vendors. It was eerily quiet for asia. Peaceful. The rickety bridges which crossed the river to villages of bamboo shack guest houses looked like they had seen better days, infact a couple were now uncroosably, hanging off one leg whilst the rest dangled in the water. A few of the farlang wondering the streets looked in a similar condition, obviously fairly well settled. Long flowing skirts, baggy trousers and head scarves were abundant and a sense of lazy contentment filled the town. Maybe I would spend 2 nights here rather than my original plan of 1. I later realised this is what they had all said originally.

On the bus I had met a lovely indian girl called Theresa and we spent the day exploring the 2 streets and few back alleys which on first impressions were all that made up Pai. We made our own separate plans for that evening and I found myself dargged along to a bar called Ting Tong with 2 english girls, and 2 guys. One - Phil covered from head to foot in tatoos. I had seen advertisments for Ting Tong all over town but had no idea what to expect, the black boards with a mirror in the centre all asked "are you ting tong?" was i? maybe! i had no idea what i meant! We walked along the street passing the jewellry and shoe vendors who had appeared at some point in the early evening and now consumed the street, several people handed out fliers for bars and live music drifted out of every other building giving the quiet town a new buzz. Pai came alive at night.

Crossing the bouncy bamboo bridge towards an orange wall i was a little sceptical about this infamous Ting Tong place, but rounding the wall the place took my breath away. Behind the wall was a huge candlelit courtyard. At the corner to the entrance was a watchtower with an old pool table, which looked out over the dozens of candles perched in bamboo holders next to each of the low tables surrounded by oriental cushions bordering a central clearing and the main bar with its hat like roof sat a few steps higher than the rest of the courtyard. Looking across at it was a huge mirror and the same words "Are you Ting Tong?" was painted white on a black wall and opposite the entrance was a covered cushioned area with a whole wall of suspended candles making incredible dripping patterns of wax down the wall. Music floated out of a small building next to the bar and filled the area. A man began to fire dance in the clearing a few moments after we entered, the place had the most amazing atmosphere.

The electricity in Pai was tempremantal and every so often all lights and music would suddenly cut out for 5 minutes or 2 hours but the swirls of the fire which the man effortlessly twisted and twirled in his hands, throwing it high in the air before catching it with the tips of his fingers gained hypnotic powers in the silence, interupted only by the buzzing of insects around the flickering candlelight.

The staff seemed more like customers at the bar and pulled us into the party, interested by my willingness to learn thai they wrote more "useful" phrases down for me to practise, not telling me their meaning until i had loudly recited them to the whole bar! Which each time was greeted by raucous laughter-I was happy to provide the entertainment.

The next day, retrospectively, resulted in the best decision I have made while travelling, unfortunately I can't say the same thing for Ryan. Having never ridden a motorbike before I accepted a lift from one of the english guys-Ryan that had been at Ting Tongs the night before, we had been shown the way to a waterfall and decided to check it out that afternoon. The ride up there went smoothly enough and passing a couple from last night - Amalia-an american girl and Sappo-a local who were living togethor, we stopped for a drink to shelter from the hot afternoon sun.
At the waterfall we spent an hour or so watching the children play in the water, sliding down the smooth rocks of the waterfall into the dirty brown water and chatting to a couple from the netherlands before heading back.

We had made it approximately three quarters of the way back and were going about 30km/h when the bike suddenly swerved, and as if in slow motion veered off the road. I still to this day don't know what happened to cause the accident but as the bike hit the mud bank at the edge it threw Ryan over the handle bars and me over them both.
Lying in the grass at the bottom of the slope I was rigid with shock. The motorbike was still running but above the growling oif the engine I heard Ryan: "Oh my god, I'm so sorry are you alright?"
I moved my limbs carefully, I could see blood slowly seeping out of my toe and my camara lay on the ground a few meters away but amazingly I was fine.
"Yeh",I said stunned, " Are you?"', there was a pause, then the dreaded response came
"No"
My shock suddenly turned to panic as I jumped up and moved the bike out of the way turning it off and dragging it back onto the road before jumping back down to look at Ryan. His lower leg stuck out at an odd angle and already his knee was swelling.
"I think its broken" he said.
It was at this moment that all first aid training left me - i had no idea what to do. I stared at him, I couldn't move him without making it worse and even if I did what would I do then? I shook my head trying to get some logical pattern of thought. I scrambled back onto the road and heard the rumble of a bike not far away. Moments later it whizzed around the corner. The 2 women stopped when they saw us but speaking no english and my limited thai vocabularly meaning that all i could say was about the situation was "bad bad" communication was less than easy.
It was while I was doing my best impression of an ambulance siren(which in other circumstances would have been quite comic to watch I'm sure) that a pickup truck appeared with 2 thai men in it to save us. We lifted him into the truck and spent an uncomfortable 15 minutes bouncing along the potholed road, Ryan in more pain with every bump we hit as his leg jolted painfully against the metal floor. At the hospital Ryan was wheeled off for an xray and i was left alone. It was then that the shock of the accident hit me, I had to sit down too avoid falling as my hands shook so uncontrollably I couldn't fill in the forms I had been given, the next few hours are a bit of a blur but during the time he was being treated I got a lift back to pick up his stuff and get some money out for him, then watched as the poor boy was lifted into the back of another van for the drive back to Chiang Mai hospital, he had fractured his knee and needed specialist treatment. I had been so lucky!

Having waved good bye, shakily I wandered back into town and saw Amalia and a group of Farlang outside the bakery drinking samsung-the local whisky. Her reaction to my story was: "Sit down and have a drink", just what the doctor ordered added the others. It worked. That evening we again ended up at Ting Tong where she and Sappo apparently lived with the other guys who worked there. That night the decision was made, I was staying in Pai, my plan of leaving the following day was abandonned.
Over the next few days I got to know the Ting Tong family as they adopted me into their lives and over the next couple of weeks I would begin to think of Pai as home and never want to leave...but that is for next time.