230. | Pai

When I arrived in Pai, I had two things to do, but immediately. I couldn’t decide which was more important.

So I started with eating. I arrived around 3:30 PM, and in preparation for the trip, I didn’t eat anything that day. This was just a precaution, so that if my stomach upset got the better of me, I wouldn’t shock the other passengers. Considering how many of us were in the car, everyone was better off me with an empty stomach that day.

My first meal in Pai was an excellent massaman curry. In vain, it’s my favorite. As this city will be, I felt it almost the moment I got off the bus.

After the restaurant, I immediately went to a hairdresser. I really needed this.

I started exploring the city on Pai’s walking street.

It’s a strange walking street. In addition to people, there are motorbikes, cars, and buses walking along it. I suspect it’s just called walking.

Darling Wiew Point Resort

This accommodation was recommended by two people at the church, so I didn’t look for anything else, I booked accommodation here for a few days.

Darling is 600 meters from the beginning of the pedestrian street, you have to go up a hill to reach it. It’s a fairy-tale wooden building on top of the hill. The host is German, a nice guy, I felt this from the first moment. We quickly took care of the paperwork, talked for a bit, then he showed me the floor where my room is.

The first thing I saw was the wonderful terrace. You can see the whole town from there. Regarding its size: There are tables with lots of chairs and benches. It has 8 double beds, and there are about 8-10 beds built into the railings next to the railings. Of course, each one has a mattress and pillow, if you want to relax, there’s plenty of space to lie down. So I didn’t even sleep in my room, but on this terrace.

The whole building is old. It’s not rustic, it’s old. It definitely wasn’t here originally. This house was dismantled somewhere and put back together here. Everything is made of wood. There are lots of teak wood columns everywhere, we walk on floorboards bought from a ship. It’s spliced and folded in many places.

It has a real camping feel.

There are shared toilets and bathrooms on each floor. There are a lot of old household items piled up in the yard. There’s a billiard table, a pool (I think the water in this was brought from the South Pole), a small stage with sound equipment, a fire pit. It’s such a little fairy tale world.

And the view from the terrace is beautiful. At night, the lights remind me of my winter hikes, with the beautiful city lights seen from above. The sunrise is beautiful from the terrace. Behind the city, in the distance, there’s a mountain range, often surrounded by clouds.

So all I can think about is that this place is a slice of paradise.

The guys

I met two friends on the terrace. We ended up spending a whole week together. We talked a lot, we had two adventure days together that week, we partyed together.

We are all solo travelers. Our journey brought us together here, and we have said countless times that we are all grateful for that.

And for some reason, the mutual respect and interest that could be the basis for a long friendship immediately appeared between us. We came from different places, with different backgrounds, but here we became brothers in a very short time.

I have felt for a long time that we are all brothers on this Earth. This is not always an easy thought. Here, on this terrace, it was simple.

I will write about our shared experiences in one of the next posts.

I have been in Pai for a week. One of them just left, the other is leaving this afternoon. But today my friend I met at the temple is arriving here. Not to mention that I already know a lot of people in the city, so if I go down, I’m sure I’ll run into someone I know.

Pai is not a city of silence and solitude. At least not for me.

Another interesting roommate

Even paradise has a shadow.

I’ve been living here for almost a week, when I noticed something strange yesterday when I entered my room.

Before I tell you who it was, I definitely want to clarify something. This place called Darling is a very cute place. It’s old, that’s all. It’s made of wood, so there are a lot of things that might bother someone.

For example, I can see down to the ground floor through the gaps in the floor. With the door closed, you can see into my room through a gap. The mosquito net is broken here and there, so I get a few bites from the insects feasting at night. And of course, I have a gecko.

Well, yesterday when I came into my room, I saw a shadow slip behind my bed. It was black, but for some reason I thought it was the gecko running away. Back to the ceiling, where it often chirps at me.

Then I noticed that one of my apples, which I keep on the second bed that functions as a closet, had been nibbled on by someone. It was true that there were teeth marks on it, and it was also surprising that I didn’t think the gecko would eat apples, but I left it at that. After all, I had four other apples, so I hope it lives well too.

When I went to take a bath in the afternoon, I couldn’t find my soap. It’s a small round bar the size of half a palm. I used it in Bali, I brought it from there.

It was strange that it wasn’t there. I looked everywhere, suspicious of the gecko, but it simply disappeared. The thought kept haunting me that if the gecko ate apples, maybe it didn’t even bother to take a shower. So I rummaged through my things until I found the soap.

It was under my backpack and someone was very elegantly nibbling on it. It was then that the picture came together that the culprit might have been the rat I saw sneaking out of the shower one day. Maybe it took my soap to clean itself and then ate some of it.

I did an experiment that evening. Before I left, I put the remaining four apples on my own bed so that I could see what the situation was when I got home. And so it was. The animal gnawed on another apple. So I threw them all out so that my room wouldn’t be tempting for it.

This doesn’t bother me that much. On the one hand, because I know that it’s not good to live with a rat, considering the many infectious things it carries. For example, mine goes to the shower like that.

On the other hand, I’m somehow sure that I’ll have to face even tougher things on the road ahead of me. My job now is to not keep any food here. The rat is a smart animal, I don’t think it will come back if it realizes that there is no reason.

Asia is different from Europe.

But – maybe I wrote it then – I saw rats in Paris, Marseilles, Milan and almost every big city. Here, living in the natural environment, it is not surprising that we meet differently.

I wrote in a previous post that “it is not for everyone.”

I still experience that this house, this city, this country and this continent are for me.

Release

This place taught me right from the first day, and I still owe you a description of it, as I had several promises in the previous ones.

In the “10 days barefoot 11: the last hours” post, I wrote about the necklace I got at Wat Pa Tam Wua temple.

The owner of Darling is the Thai wife of the German man, her name is Darling.

We also talked to her after my arrival. She introduced herself to us, expressed her joy that we were staying with them. We introduced ourselves, told each other where we were from.

So I told her about how I had been to a temple two days ago. From this, a conversation based on mutual interest developed. She even invited me to the temple she goes to.

As we talked, I suddenly knew what the fate of the necklace would be. I gave it to her right away, and she happily put it around her neck. I told him that as soon as I got it, I immediately thought of its new owner, never suspecting that I would find it so soon.

There is no lesson in this for me, I already know how to voluntarily give up things.

But what about the things that I do not voluntarily give up?

In 2024, my daughters and I were in London. I bought the metal bottle at the Natural History Museum that I have been using as a water bottle ever since. There was water in it then, and there has been since. And it was the one I kept in Bali when I gave away the second one I brought.

It only got a little worn out in two years. Someone asked me what it was in church, because it was so unique.

What made it unique to me was that during daily use (I used it to drink at work every day) it often reminded me of the wonderful experiences we had together in London.

While we were talking, Darling tidied up the tables a little. He picked up the trash there, beer caps, whatever.

Two hours later I realized that I had seen the questioning gesture with which he took the cap of my bottle – which did not look at all like a beer cap – and put it in his pocket with the other trash.

My first thought was to find Darling, then the trash can and dig the cap out of it.

But the thought immediately occurred to me that this bottle had been with me for so long. If it has to be let go, then it has to be let go. The bottle is still there today, but when I leave, it will also end up in the trash.

No one can throw away the experience I have with my daughters, so I accepted the new teaching with a grateful heart: I can let go of something even if it is not my own will.