We wanted to go to Pai, we wanted to go to Mae Hong Son. We'd read about an overnight rafting trip between the two that involved a night in the jungle and jumped at it, excited to meet a heap of new people.
Unfortunately the only people that were on board were a captain that didn't want to be part of a selfie and that other bird that I don't seem to be able to shake.
Poor company aside, what followed were two super peaceful days, floating down the magnificent Pai River broken up by the occasional set of rapids and our captain Mike doing his best to flick Nix out of the boat, lunch and snack stops fit for a king, stopping by a small waterfall for a dip and an old school Thai massage, and a heap of animal and insect sightings.
This was also quite fun.
In the two days we saw innumerable butterflies and dragonflies, a troop of macaques, a python, lots of kingfishers and other water birds and Nix's and my respective highlights, water buffalo hanging out in the water feasting on horse flies and fireflies at night at the jungle camp. Real life, flaming butt fireflies.
In the two days we saw innumerable butterflies and dragonflies, a troop of macaques, a python, lots of kingfishers and other water birds and Nix's and my respective highlights, water buffalo hanging out in the water feasting on horse flies and fireflies at night at the jungle camp. Real life, flaming butt fireflies.
About the jungle camp. Maybe not Nix's favourite place in the world.
Remote is an understatement. It's a three hour uphill trek to the next village and there's no running water or other such amenities out there. Your shower is a bucket of cold water syphoned off from a nearby stream, dinner is cooked over the fire and these are the digs. Sorry, what's the WiFi password?
As it got darker and darker the jungle's chorus grew louder and louder and the threat of something slithering under the mosquito net was enough to keep Nix awake for the majority of the night. At least that allowed her to recount to me in the morning who and what had come flying through and scampering by our heads during the night. She survived though and given I was the man power pushing our raft down the river, we were thankful that I'd slept like a baby. That's pretty much a direct quote from our captain by the way.
Nix's other least favourite place in the world is the raft after brushing past spider filled branches. Any requirement to paddle or guide the raft went out the window as Nix gave her undivided attention to ridding the raft of the five or so spiders that would join us each time. "Haha, oh, you don't like shpeeder, Nicholas??"
One friend that we did welcome to the party was this guy.
One of the two extremely eccentric guys that man the jungle camp for seven to eight months of the year had been fishing the night before and left a line in overnight. He'd got lucky and pulled in a four kilo catfish that was strung behind our raft and dragged for six hours down the river. He made it semi-alive and would provide new shoes and more rice wine for our eccentric friend.
Lunch on our second day was by a hotspring where Nix applied some beauty treatments
and we found one little frog that forgot to dip his toe before jumping in.
Our captain was, in fact, a great guy. He's from the Lahu tribe that migrated from Tibet many moons ago and now calls Northern Thailand home. His knowledge on the jungle and its animals was second to none and he was an extremely Zen force to have guiding our ship for the couple of days.
It was by far the most enjoyable method of transport we've experienced and a definite highlight of Thailand. If anyone's interested the only company worth considering is Guy and his team at Thai Adventure Rafting - www.thairafting.com
The couple of nights prior to the rafting were spent in Pai, a village that whilst it's become quite heavily touristed still has its charms. The locals don't have that worn out feel that you normally pick up on in places like this, there's decent food to be had you just need to know where to look, a beer down by the Pai River is absolutely priceless and the packs of friendly(ish) dogs patrolling the streets bring the place to life.
The other thing Pai is good for is a massive night on the turps with new found drinking buddies that ends at the only bar in town that's open 'til the early hours. Thankfully, there's always a coconut shake close by for the following day's long, slow recovery.
