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| Beautiful scenery |
We set off for a bike
ride on a very hot and sunny morning with John from Ireland and it
was a scorcher. Jemma and I hired cheapo bikes with only 3 gears
(they cost us £1 for the whole day, can't complain), except I was
complaining, half way up the first hill, when my lowest gear was 3
and my legs couldn't turn the pedals. Still it was amazing fun, and
for every hill we had to push the bikes up, there was another long
hill to free wheel down, with the wind in our hair, cooling down our
dripping wet bodies and the amazing green mountains all around us. We
stopped half way at a view point, with psychedelic swings and chairs
and amazing views over the hills. The ride was 8km in total (to get
to the waterfalls) and when we got to 6km, I was so exhausted,
thirsty (having drank my whole 2 litres of water) and weak, I
couldn't pedal any more. What a pleasant surprise it was then, to
stumble upon a little farm, in the middle of nowhere, with a sign
saying 'stop here for fresh juice and fruit'.
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| Boiling hot and served fresh iced juice! |
A man waved us over and
we stopped, unable to cycle any more. We sat down at a little table
in front of a quaint little farm, where we were served as much iced
red sorrel juice as we could drink (reminded me of Ribena ice lollies
I used to have as a child). He also served us passion fruits,
tamarind and potatoes with jam and peanuts. It was so refreshing! I
was literally dripping in sweat, on the verge of collapsing, and this
lovely local Thai man and his wife were waiting on us, topping up my
glass with fresh iced juice every time I finished a cup. At the end
they even produced a bottle of red sherry and insisted we all have a
taste! And all they asked for was a tip, the amount being at our
discretion. We gave him a £2 tip and he was over the moon, telling
us to come back after we had visited the waterfalls, which he
encouragingly told us were only 1km further away. Revitalised and
pumped full of fruit juice, we cycled on along the mountain path
until we finally heard the sounds of running water. Jemma and John
had gone on ahead (because I don't like going down hills fast) and as
I was coming down the last hill to the waterfall, a friendly Dutch
girl came past me on a moped and asked if I wanted a lift. She was
looking for the waterfalls too and I told her they were just down the
hill. Once at the bottom, I saw Jemma and John already in the water,
having dumped their bikes and run straight for the river. We chained
all of our bikes up and climbed the steps to the top tier, where we
saw a massive waterfall coming down from a canyon, with not many
people around.
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| Jemma and John cooling themselves |
We all rushed in and cooled ourselves underneath it,
and then I got out and sat on the rocks and got chatting to the Dutch
girl (Nicole) and a Brazilian girl (Danielle). Jemma came out and
then slipped on the rocks and fell back in, which everyone found
amusing (apart from me because I didn't see it). When we had all
dried off, Nicole let me and Jemma have a little go on her scooter
and told us that we must hire one because they were so much fun.
Jemma and I have avoided mopeds like the plague this trip, after
meeting far too many people who have had accidents – I just don't
feel it is worth the risk. However Nicole insisted that they were
quite easy to ride and as long as you went slow and weren't drunk,
they were fine. I must admit, it was nice to ride on (for the 6
metres I went on it), but I was still too scared to hire one, even
though Jemma really wanted to hire them (they cost £2 to hire for
24hours! That's £1 more than the pedal bikes cost us!). Nicole told
us that she was meeting with another Dutch girl that night for
dinner, along with Dani, the Brazilian girl and an Aussie boy. I
asked if we could join them and we agreed to meet at 7pm outside the
bike shop. By this time it was about 3pm, so we'd have to get our
move on to get back to Pai in time to shower and make it out for tea.
Thankfully the 8km ride home was a lot easier than the ride there and
we stopped at our little farm on the way back, where we didn't even
have to get off our bikes: they brought the iced drinks to us until
we had quenched our thirst! The ride home was mainly downhill, and we
got home In time to have a shower, before heading out to meet our
group. We all met outside the bike shop. First there was me, Jemma
and Nicole from Holland, and then there was Inge, a Dutch girl Nicole
had met earlier that day, accompanied by Andre, an Aussie guy Inge
had met the previous day, Dani, a Brazilian girl, Nicole had met at
the falls and finally John, the Irish boy we had picked up on the bus
to Pai., who completed team China, our first proper unenforced team
of friends on our rtw trip.
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| Team China (left to right): Nicole, John, Inge, Andre, Dani |
For more photos of the first 2 days in Pai:
Pai
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