On Christmas Eve we got up early, packed our bags and had some breakfast before beginning our journey to Pai. We had heard the roads were in bad condition and the other drivers drive like nutters so scrapped our origional idea of riding motorbikes to Pai. Turns out we heard right. It's a long and windy road up the mountain to Pai, and our driver didn't slow down for a single bend. In fact, he overtook people on the bends, sometimes he was on the wrong side of the road for up to four completely blind turns, but it's ok because he beeped his horn all the way so people knew he was coming. Seems safe enough. Surprisingly, only one person threw up on the bus as our driver rocketed round 762 bends - it was enough to make even the sturdiest stomachs feel a bit queasy. We arrived in Pai after about four hours and set about finding a hostel. The cheapest we could find on our short wander was 400 baht a night for a private twin room, so we settled with that and decided we would try to find somewhere cheaper the next day, when we weren't lugging our bags around. Shortly after checking in the Main Street transformed into a night market. We soon found out this happens every night, and this market has the best street food I've had yet on this trip. We dropped into a 7/11, grabbed a few Changs and began to explore. Pai is absolutely full of hippies, which led us to develop the hippy drinking game, which runs on a few basic rules;

- if you see a man bun, drink.

- if someone had dreadlocks, drink.

- if someone has hippy trousers on, drink.

- if you overhear someone talking about how "they found themselves" or how "the man is keeping you down" finish your beverage.

This game works exceedingly well, and after one or two trips up walking street, you'll be well on your way. After a few Changs we met this Welsh guy who worked as a teacher in the outskirts of Bangkok, but had 3 weeks holiday. We got chatting and went to grab some more Changs in a 7/11, where we met a Moroccan guy who told us people were headed to some campfire gathering that night, so we decided to tag along. There was a very social atmosphere, so we had a good chat with a few people, but sadly there was no bar, so once our beers were finished we decided to move on. 

On our way back towards the town we met a French family who were setting off some Chinese lanterns by the river and invited us to join. This is the first time I have ever successfully set a lantern off, and in Pai I managed to perfect this skill, as it is quite a regular occurrence. 

After this we headed on into town to find a good party, and we found one, at Don't Cry Bar. Here I bumped into the guys we had met in Chiang Mai and met a number of other people I could barely remember having met the next day. I woke up on Christmas Day, possibly still drunk, and decided to head to the hot springs for a little Christmas relaxation. 

The hot springs were nice, though sadly didn't sell beer, and Christmas isn't Christmas without alcohol. We spent a few hours chilling before heading back to Pai for some traditional Christmas dinner - Pad Thai. After lunch we parted to shop for our secret Santas, then met up later at the hostel to begin the evening of drinking. 

It was me, Dave, the American girl and the welsh guy we met the previous night. We exchanged secret Santas - all terrible gifts (what do you expect for 100 baht?) which we had to wear for the night then set off down walking street to find the party. We met the guys from Chiang Mai and soon found that everyone in town seemed to be heading to this "spirit trance party" about 5km out of down. We found a taxi heading there and jumped in. After getting there I remember I got face painted, and that's about it. 

So it was probably a pretty good night. At 4.30 am we returned to our hostel, realising we had left our key with our friend, for god knows what reason, and had to wake up our hosts who weren't best pleased.

Boxing Day way hangover day - nuff said. Boxing night however, we were on it again. We trekked out to the sunset lounge, had a few beers on the way, one in the bar and a couple on the way back too. Back in Pai we went to the Yellow Sun bar, started drinking tequila and ended up at Don't Cry bar. Although I don't remember much from the night, the photos look like we had a great time.

The next day we decided to finally move hostels as Charlie's was a wee bit pricey and our hosts had stopped greeting us with smiles since we woke them up at 4.30am... We moved to Duang Guest house, this place was half the price of Charlie's at 200 baht per night for a private double room, and the manager was much friendlier and had a good sense of humour. 

We had seen flyers around town for a reggae party some way out of town that was on "all afternoon" and since it was our American friends last day before heading home, we decided to head out to that. We found a taxi that was willing to take us (with some difficulty as no one seemed to know where it was). It was about a 15 minute ride and when we arrived we could hear the music, so we paid the taxi driver and headed in. When we got in we found that music was all there was, apart from half a bottle of Sangsom behind the bar. 

It was about 1.30pm so we decided to wait a bit as we were probably early. After an hour we decided to head off, just as two Thai people arrived, who turned out to be the owners. They told us that "all afternoon" meant 8pm onwards... So we began our walk back to town in the boiling heat. It wasn't all bad though, on the way back we found the House of Pai and took our touristy photos. 

Back in Pai we grabbed a few Changs and some dinner before meeting up with the American girl and the Finnish guy to head back out to the reggae party. Sadly, at 10pm there were no taxis available, and I still don't understand why. So instead we headed off to Sabai garden as Don't Cry was pretty dead. At about 12pm Dave started to be violently sick so we headed home where I got a good nights kip and Dave spent half the night shitting and the other half hugging the toilet - rather him than me.

The next day we found the guys from Chiang Mai and the French girls  and headed off to try our hand at Piraña fishing. When getting on my friends bike, I managed to rip my shorts all the way up to the crotch, but there wasn't time to change, so we carried on. Then on the way I got my second injury of the trip - a giant burn on the inside of my calf - and also learnt a valuable lesson, always get off a motorbike to the left, because exhaust gets damn hot. 

The next morning all my illnesses and injuries an hangovers finally caught up with me, and I felt like utter shit. I headed to the hospital where the well-spoken doctor put me on a concoction of pills for my various ailments, and for a decent price too. That evening Dave and I headed up to Pai canyon to watch the sunset. 

The path of the canyon is very narrow in some places, and requires a few small steep climbs to get around the whole thing. Sadly my right leg was a bit painful, with an infected foot and fresh burn, so Dave and I split up, with me taking an easier, albeit less comprehensive route. 

On the night we had some street food on walking street and chilled by the the for a bit, but then decided we should go to bed, and not go out for once. The next day we got up relatively early, probably due to the lack of drinking and found ourselves with little to do. Dave and I decided to take a trip to see the elephants. We bought some bananas and fed the elephants, who were quite intimidating creatures to be so close to. 

They are huge, and maybe not best pleased at the fact they are kept chained up with little room to move. We had asked to see elephants and not ride them, but we still felt a little guilty for supporting the camp where the elephants were. I guess you can't see elephants unblighted by their mistreatment except for in the wild. After getting a few pictures we headed back into town and killed the evening on walking street before heading to bed, once again sober.

The next day however, was New Years Eve. So we started on the Sangsom at about 11.30am - no half measures on NYE. At about 5 or 6pm we headed to the street for some dinner. We met the French girls and ended up heading to their hostel where the boys were staying too, just out of town where there was a NYE party going on with decent music, a swimming pool and fire dancers. We saw out the New Years as we got steadily pissed and our friends dropped like flies around us. The view from the hostel over all of Pai was fantastic, and you see all the fireworks and Chinese lanterns in the area, and also all the guys who'd made a pact that night to jump into the pool bollock naked bang on midnight. 

As our friends were petering out  and we had an early bus, Dave and I said our goodbyes and headed off to our hostel to get some sleep before our 7am bus the next day.