Pai

We took a few days off from dental appointments last weekend and went to a small town high in the mountains called Pai. We didn't realize that it was another long weekend for Thais and it was flooded with Thai tourists from Bangkok, making it hard to get a place to stay in the town proper. Walking to the river at the edge of town where we had stayed before in a beautiful garden, we were shocked. The garden now had a huge resort towering over it, incorporating it into their space. We walked further along and ended up with a primitive bungalow for about $6 a night with shared showers and toilet but we couldn't figure out who we were sharing with as we never saw another soul using it. The other bungalows were quite swish with ensuites but were booked, our little shack was perfect for a short stay.
We couldn't believe the change in five years. The town had switched from catering to foreigners to Thais. The main walking steet at night had changed from selling tribal stuff to stuff we would call cutsey that the Thais love and tshirts tshirts tshirts. The funniest thing we saw was a young couple pushing a stroller with a fancy cover and inside were two little dogs and no child!
We had a great day hiking out of town and 350 steps up to a temple that offered panoramic views of the valley and surrounding mountains. I'm including some pictures of murals depicting the story of the Buddha to show you how different they can be.
Pai is where the hippies that csmr to Thailand in the 1960's and 70's ended up and it's in a bit of a time warp. There are more dreads, beads, yogis, alternate therapies and old hippies there than I've seen in one place in a long time. We had a great time meeting people and hanging out. Tonight we're back in Chaingmai and we're meeting a young couple from UK who are on a three year road trip in a Landrover and have so far driven to Thailand. We met while chatting with an 84 year old man named Willow who many people go to Pie ot connect with. Dropped out in the 1960's and went to Haite Ashbury in San Francisco and has been a sort of a drop out ever since. Like an Alan Watts or Ram Dass.
There was a full moon on Saturday night with a full lunar eclipse at about 9pm. We saw the whole thing. It was so gorgeous. We tried taking pictures but not many turned out. The camera didn't want to pick up the shadows just the moon.