6 hours sleep, even when getting up at 10am!! But we didn't feel too bad actually.
We got ourselves up and went for breakfast, then got back to pack our bags and get out of our room for 12pm. Our room is a bomb site every time, which is why it always takes longer to pack. Therese has actually packed quicker than me a few times too!

Once we'd checked out, we had to sort out getting these paintings posted home. We'd already enquired at DHL yesterday, but they only posted "express" which took a couple of days and cost 4 times as much as we paid for the paintings!!!
So we went to the post office instead. The little old guy packaged them all up for us. He did a good job too. He found a box, but it wasn't big enough, so he whipped out his Stanley knife, made a few cuts here and there, added a few bits of cardboard, wrapped a load of packaging tape around it and then put some of that strong plastic cable stuff around it to secure it. Only charged us 60p! Would never get service like that in England! Anyway, it cost about 1,200 Baht (£25) to send it home which isn't bad at all really. We sent it by sea so it'll take 3 months. It was only a couple of quid more via air but it would have arrived right around Christmas which wouldn't be ideal. Hopefully it makes it one piece.
That's a job done!

Next, a 4 hour journey to Pai. We'd only heard about this place a couple of weeks ago by some guy in Laos, and then a couple more people after that. All we knew was that it's a small hippy type place in Northern Thailand that's in a lovely setting surrounded by hills/mountains. We'd then done some research and could see it looked nice and lots of people recommended it, so we booked it all yesterday. 180 baht (£3.60) each for the mini-van up there, then our accommodation is 850 baht (£17) per night. We found our accommodation, Quinlins through Tripadvisor - it had great reviews and looked lovely.

So, we were picked just after 1pm by a ?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!! Then picked a couple more people up and then taken to our mini van for Pai.
It's a nice scenic journey, up through the windy roads in the hills. There's a lot more trees in the way of the views through the valleys, but when you do get a gap between the trees, it's beautiful.

I managed to nod off towards the end, Therese had to wake me up. She'd seen more of the place when we were arriving in and even from just what I saw, I knew it looked so much more like what me and Therese were wanting. It's small and more like a big village. There's more bamboo and wood type buildings and it has real charm, rather than cities with lots of big concrete buildings.

As soon as we stepped off the mini-van I noticed two English people who looked like they were waiting for someone. Yep, it was John and Gaynor, an English couple who own and run Quinlins plus offer a free pick-up service. John grabbed our bags from us and threw them into his big-ass Mitsubishi pick-up truck. They asked us what we wanted to do, and we ended up eating out with them - it was about 5.15pm by the time we arrived so we were pretty hungry.

They took us to one of their local favourites, Alex's. Simple place. They don't sell alcohol, so John went round to the shop and bought a few large bottles of Ancha Beer at 60 baht (£1.20) each. I ordered the same dish as John and Gaynor, which is pronounced "cow soi" but I've no idea how it's spelt, and Therese got Pad Thai. The food was lovely. For 4 meals and two plates of rice, it cost 120 baht (£2.40)...I was gobsmacked and asked him if he'd got the bill right!! John and Gaynor just laughed at me! They were telling us how Pai is by far one of the cheapest tourist places I Thailand. I can see it's REAL cheap! Good, we'll start paying off these paintings.

We met another family in the restaurant who are staying at Quinlins. Dave and Bex with their kids at 5 and 18 months. We had a quick look around the place after eating - it's so chilled out, and has a few little bars about and the place really has character.
We all jumped in the back of the truck (it's got a proper seating area like one of the ?!?!?!??!?!? In Chiang mai) and headed up to our new home. It's 8km out of the centre which we knew and was looking forward to a bit of a relaxing countryside setting. Although, we just booked 3 nights in case we wanted to stay in the main centre for a night or two. It took less than 10 minutes to get up there, but they don't have tuk-tuks and the motorbike taxis stop at about 8pm.

It was really dark when we arrived so we couldn't see much. But what you could see was the stars!! Incredibly bright stars and so so many of them. As we're right out their in the countryside and there's very little light from street lights etc, you get a real clear view of the night sky.
John took our bags and Gaynor led us down to the main building. She turned the lights on over the pool...me and Therese just looked at each other with big grins and said we love this place already! The lights lit up the salt water infinity pool, and then we could see some of their land and a couple of buildings dotted around that were faintly lit up.

We followed John down to one of the buildings. Wow, this is our place for the next 3 nights. It's our own separate building away from the main house area! It's a mini bungalow with a big bedroom area and a really nice en suite, plus a big balcony. It's absolutely lovely - so glad we chose this place!

Gaynor came down after a couple of minutes just to say that John had forgot to mention that we're welcome to go up and join them at the sitting area near the pool. So we went up and joined them for a few beers! They have an honesty fridge - take what you want from the drinks fridge and just write down on the board what you took. And the prices are really cheap, the same as what you'd pay in the local shop here. They've got a nice little outdoor area near the pool that's got some seating and a TV with a DVD player, a DVD collection, some books and CDs. The other guest, Dave, had brought his iPod speakers with him so we just sat, listened to music, drank beer and chatted.

They gave us lots of information about all kinds in Pai plus other parts of Thailand. Theirs plenty of activities to do in Pai and they're really cheap. Also John and Gaynor know lots of places that are free and a little off the main tourist track, plus they can take you there pretty much for free other than a small charge for petrol!!

Gaynor and Dave have been coming to Thailand and Pai for many years, then decides to move out here about 4 years ago. They bought the land and built the small guesthouses for their daughters and mother. They hardly used them so they decided to start making a bit of money out of them. They spend 8 months every year out here and go back to England for the "summer" which is also when the tourist season pretty much closes in Pai.

One thing about this place is that it gets cold on a night. And I mean long pants, long sleeve top AND a hoody!! Couldn't believe how cold it was!

It was even a bit nippy back in our bungalow, and it was pitch black walking down to it. It's nice to be right out there in the countryside though. You can hear all the wildlife like the crickets and birds, and there's little geckos and lizards running around outside.

Last but not least, they have 3 dogs here. 2 of which are Labradors called Hess and Monty, and the other is....a Great Dane called Noy!!! Noy is massive as you'd expect. Big dopey dog and very loveable. Wants to cuddle up with you but nearly breaks a few bones in the process. And the tail leaves a few whip marks almost!