Pai

Pai is really a tiny town. When I was talking to someone in Chiang Mai about going there he said he didn't like it because you see everyone, even people you'd rather avoid, and you do (not that I'm avoiding anyone). On my short walk around the block yesterday I saw the owner of the shop where I did my laundry my first night, the barista from the cafe I went to, and a woman stopped me at an intersection to tell me I'd left my kindle at the restaurant where I'd had lunch. I hadn't even noticed!

It has fewer options than Chiang Mai but its actually quite nice, a lot less polluted and hectic. I had dinner on the walking street, it doesn't have everything under the sun like some of the markets in Chiang Mai but it was a lot less crazy too, and much less daunting.

For some reason though, even though the town is much smaller, I can't seem to figure out where anything is. It was easy in Chiang Mai because the old city was surrounded by moats and stone walls that formed a square and along the moats were gates and bridges. It was easy for me to orient myself. Here I just wander aimlessly until I happen upon wherever I want to go. It doesn't help either that the map I've been using isn't to scale and so my points of reference are off.