Jumped on board a truck to the bus station, the windows were open on the either side of it and as we went over the bridge where they had the sprinklers on spraying nothing, one was broke and was felt like a fire hose being sprayed on our backs as we drive passed it! That's the second time we have got wet now; in Chiang Rai the fire engine with the huge hose on the back of it was driving down the road just randomly squirting water into the air and we happened to drive right through it on a moped so we got absolutely drenched there aswell! What is wrong with these people, they seem to be in a drought and wasting water for no reason!
We had some noodle soup for breakfast at the family restaurant by the bus station, it cost £1.20 for two big bowls... Yummy! I think the price makes it more tasty!

There are only minibuses that go to Pai because of the windy roads so we were the super lucky ones to have two seats on the back row of four people. Grateful that it wasn't as cramped as Cambodia, but then again nothing could be as bad as that countries transportation rules and regulations, I'm sure Cambodia's moto for transport is 'see how many you can fit in a 10 seater before you can't go under 50mph' that record is standing at 18 people and a chicken with us.
The drive was bumpy and the roads were very very windy! This obviously doesn't slow the driver down, it's still a competition of how many minivans they can overtake on the way there! The drive was about 3 hours, the scenery was nice. The place definitely had more of a hippy laid back vibe about the place, still didn't stop those 7/11 stores from creeping their way in, we spotted three in the space of five minutes and the town is only tiny!
There are lots of hills and what could be greenery if the farmers hadn't started burning their land to fertilise it for next season. Therefore there were hardly any leafy trees or green bushes and grass about the place. It was hotter up here than in Chiang Mai! We reluctantly got a taxi up to the bungalows where we were staying, they were only about 1km out from the main town but it was very hot and we found out it was a steep hill up to them so we were glad that we opted for the taxi and not the hike with our backpacks on!

We checked in and asked reception where we could rent a scooter from, they don't speak great English but after a five minute game of charades and basic English language we figured out that the guy's brother was going into town and would take us on his bike so we had ten minutes to fart about and get ready to go; only to realise that the guy wanted Scott to drive, me to sit on the back and the lad sat in the front crouched down holding on to the middle of the handle bars, haha! I have never seen something so funny as two 'westerners' driving a bike with him crouched down at the front! I mean the looks we were getting were priceless! Especially when Scott was going down the hill, we heard a chugging noise and realised that the bike was manual and he couldn't work it so it was a joint effort of the the thai guy and Scott in driving the bike into town! I was in stitches but nervous at the same time haha! We stopped off at the rental shop, it gets cheaper every time to rent a bike; £3 per day in Pai! We got it for today and tomorrow. As everything is a fair way out of the main town. There are lots of quaint little coffee shops, cafés and restaurants about the place. A lot of hippies, those ones that have dreadlocks to their bum, tie die clothes on and no shoes because they want to feel 'closer to the earth' just feel like saying 'PUT SOME SHOES ON AND HAVE A WASH!' Urgh.
We went out to find some spectacular waterfall that we could slide down into the rock pool, only to find that the waterfall was basically a mini stream and the rock pool was up to our ankles, this no rain malarky is spoiling every tourists fun!
So we went back to the Chinese village we spotted and had a look around the authentic little shops selling tea, there wasn't much there so we are guessing it's new!
There was a massive thunderstorm brewing ahead of us so we got back to town pretty sharpies just incase we had to dive for cover! Luckily it didn't come to anything, even though the rolls of thunder carried on for about 2-3 hours!
We went up to the natural hot springs, on the way there we went passed a few elephant camps. The elephants were in such poor conditions, we have noticed more now since we have done the volunteering and the veterinary checks, you know what to look for when the animals are dehydrated and not happy or healthy. We just wanted to go over and slap the owners silly, it was disgusting! We stopped and looked at the elephants we were pointing out to each other what was wrong with the elephants and the owners started getting up and slightly taking a look at their elephants wondering what we were doing. Perhaps they thought we were animal rights people.. Yeah I'd like to be and take their animal off of them!
The hot springs cheered us up, they're in a 'well kept' park the lonely planet book says but I think this only applies in the rainy season because everything was dead and dusty when we got there.
We walked up to the springs, the restaurant was all boarded up and there was only one shop open and two girls in the hot springs. There were man made pools there which were empty but obviously fill up when they have had rain and the springs swell. It was one big river with dividers in it spectating the river into pools, the further you went up the river the hotter the pools became, it started at 32 degrees Celsius and the hottest pool you could get into was 37 degrees, there would probably be more pools but when there is more water. It so nice, the water made you feel squeaky clean because it was natural mineral water. After a little soak in the 33 degrees pool we went up to the hottest one we could find which was 80 degrees Celsius! Scott... Thinking he's mr.incredible, climbs over the wooden stumps and dips his foot in only to nearly burn himself, he wouldn't believe me that it's nearly boiling point and you could boil and egg in that temperature! So he walks around the outside of the little pools where the rocks are hot because water has overflowed out off the pool a little and it's running underneath the ground so he burns his feet. Honestly sometimes it's like having a baby with you! I mean there is steam coming off the water, isn't that enough to tell you that it's hot?
When the water is in full swing there are geyters about the place (those springs of water that shoot up into the air from underground) but unfortunately we weren't to be seeing them at this time of the year!
We went back down and chilled in the 37 degree pool for all of 1 minute or less because it was like getting in a boiling hot bath without any cold water in it. No no! I can't be dealing with that, it took me nearly 5 minutes to get in it!
Even though the air is hot when you get out of the pools you feel cold because of how much hotter the water is, it's crazy!

We retired back to the bungalow about 4.30pm, had a shower and watched some thai tv... Awesome! Scott understands it (he says)!
We forgot about going to the canyon for sunset, and by the time we had realised the sun had gone so that was out the window!
We went down to the walking street for some food, it was full of street stalls selling food and souvenirs, it was really nice about the place! Lots of tie die clothes being sold!

Big stop outs, we went to bed at about 8.30-9 and confirmed our flights home from... Tokyo!