The view of Pai that left us breathless, a hearty breakfast of curried frog mash, and the bamboo camp.

The next morning we dragged ourselves out of bed despite the cool air, and after a little Nescafe, put our stiff legs to work once again. The trail cut through a series of hilly cornfields, then headed into the jungle where it followed a little creek punctuated by little waterfalls. Since we were relatively shaded, the midday heat wasn't quite as intense, though our legs didn't have quite the same co-ordination as the day before. Lunch at another Lahu village, over and across several more ridges, and then a 45 minute descent into a steep valley that had several of our party sliding onto their asses or wishing they hadn't worn the Teva's after all. We finally heard the barks of a dog, and soon found ourselves at the Bamboo Camp in the base of the valley, where Tisu had a fire stoked and was whipping up dinner (he'd taken a different route).

The Bamboo Camp is located in a thick bamboo grove, conveniently enough. Everything to do with the camp, from the cookware, plates, cups, fuel, and furniture to the roof, walls, and frame of the hut itself are made from bamboo processed in different ways. Here, we learned how to boil water and make sticky rice using these means, and then washed it down with home-made rice whisky flavoured with herbs Lert had found along our way.

The morning of day 3 found us reluctant to touch the shirts we'd been hiking in the last couple of days, and I noticed that everyone was simply wearing their "night" clothes for the final push. I'd woken up to sounds of "Omigod, where did those come from?" and "They're alive!". Lert had crept out during the night, and snagged us several ripe frogs and a few freshwater crabs to dine on for breakfast. The crabs and a couple of frogs were BBQed on a bamboo stick, and actually, the latter were quite tasty, though had a few little bones you had to be careful off. The rest of the froggetry were placed in metal pot (I guess not everything was bamboo) where I hypnotically watched them being boiled alive, then mashed into a paste with a mortar and pistle (sic?). After this, they were mixed with homemade curry paste and spread on rice. Gulp. I had a couple of shots of rice whiskey to calm me (9:30 is late enough, right?), then chowed down. It was quite hot, even Took was sweating. Not to bad, though I had to go to my "happy place" a couple of times when thinking about the texture.

The hike and truck ride back to Pai were fairly uneventful. Upon arrival, the Swiss and myself checked into the Pai Riverside Lodge, another set of bamboo bungalows on the river, then made a B-line for laundry. I'd had enough of exotica for the time being, so decided to go for some pizza. On the way back from the pizzeria, I ran into Jules once again. It turns out that she had stuck around because Russ was now well enough to do the Permchai trek, and had left in the morning. Interesting to see how his stomach lasts through Day 3.

That night, it was once again off to the Reggae Place, finishing Pai as I started it. I played bass on one tune, and it went fairly well, making up for a "crash and burn" that had occurred a few days previous which I'll just gloss over. Afterwards, I got talking to a couple of the musicians who were Western transplants, one from LA and one from Britain. There were lots of opportunities to get paid for playing here, even though it works out to about CAN$10 a gig. Still, it is enough to live on here, and an option for those who want to drop out, live in paradise, and play music for a living.

Upon my return, I found out that Cousin Norm had finished his term of Thai language class, and was itching to check out the Sukhothai region. It was just as well, as I had been having trouble deciding where to go next, and though Pai is quite chilled out, it was also too easy, I was getting too comfortable wandering around, eating, drinking, window-shopping, and watching music, so it was time to move on.