Pai wasn't originally on the Thailand agenda but I'd met Janine in Vietnam then in Bangkok and she insisted that I had to go. I'd read the couple of pages in the Lonely Planet and sort of expected a bit of a hippy commune.

When I arrived I actually wasn't too far from the mark. It's not exactly a hippy commune but it is really laid back. It's sort of hard to describe the place but 10 minutes after arriving I was looking for a place to stay that was a little bit out of the main town. So map in hand I'm lugging my rucksack on the road out of the centre when this girl called Lek pulls up on her scooter and gives me a lift. No money required just genuine lift. I've bumped into this girl 3 times and she just tells me to jump on the back gives me a lift where I'm going. There doesn't appear to be any taxis, people just give you lifts.

Whilst I was in Chiang Mai I decided to buy a little guitar to have something else to do in the evening rather than single handedly support the Chang Beer profits for the year. This was against the advice of Cathy and Laura who'd affectionately said that all people a carrying guitars whilst travelling look a bit of a d!ck. Cheers girls

Anyway whilst out for dinner with Laura and Sarah in Pai there was a guitarist playing in the restaurant, so I went up to him and asked whether he would give me a lesson the next day. 'No problem' he says 'just bring your guitar along to my bar tomorrow and we'll have a lesson' and he wouldn't take any payment. I have had a couple of lessons this week. And that's basically how Pai is, just extremely laid back with a few dreadlocks of all nationalities floating about, and there's no heaving selling of any sort.

I needed to find something to do though, as even I can only take so much of my bad guitar playing, so I went to check out some Thai Kick boxing training. Hahaha...I rocked up to check out the session whilst two Thai guys were going absolutley mental kicking lumps out of the trainers who were all padded up, and were giving it the full alpha male grunts with each fatal kick to the abdomen. The 4 guys and 1 girl outside the ring were all pumping iron and were all perfect physical specimens. After 15 minutes I sheepishly made for the exit!

In between guitar lessons I signed up for a two day village trek upto Larhu and Karen. It was a small group of me and two Austrian girls Petra and Daniella, with a guide and a porter. We trekked 30km over the two days, staying at the Larhu village who were really nice. It was good to be in a small group and I really got on with girls who I'll probably bump into Laos. You're always worried that you not going to get an authentic experience with the treks in Northern Thailand as they are so popular and the villages can be visted all the time. However I was happy with ours and the fact that they was only 3 of us made it better I think.

After the trek I had a few more days just to chill out as I've decided not to bother with Chiang Rai as I've now done my village trek. I'm also bound to do more trekking further on into the trip as well.

So It's now time to leave Thailand and sleepy Pai for the time being and head to Laos. I've booked the bus ride and 2 day slow boat to Luang Prabang and leave tonight.

I'm not sure how good the internet is in Laos so there might not be an update for a couple of weeks, but I'll see how it goes. I hope people are still reading this blog and I'm not talking to myself!

Cheers