pai in the sky

we've been savoring a humble slice of pai for the past 4 or 5 days, launching from our modest, riverside bamboongalow into the surrounding mountains and villages, creating and discovering adventure. "pai is what chiang mai was ten years ago," is the refrain repeatedly sung by the growing chorus of tourists we meet. it feels pretty local here. we know a few of the neighborhood shopkeepers by name, and continue to accidentally make friends with others afoot. it's hard not to start feeling like old friends when we keep turning up in the same places as these other travellers, and keep sharing the same experiences with them. it only takes a few days in a place like this to start experiencing community. some friendships are destined, however brief.
unlike chiang mai, we can walk the streets of the whole city before breakfast, if we want to. we don't want to, though. we prefer motorbikes - for only $2.50 a day! we've buzzed giddily around to sink our heads into all of the local wonders: great, foggy waterfalls with slick, smooth rock slides that drain into deep pools; a sprawling canyon with trails winding in every direction, and with a dazzling sunset view; expansive, terraced, water-filled rice paddies with bright green strands beginning to emerge; deep, cathedral-like caves with dark rivers bubbling through them, thousands of swallows swirling at their mouths, and centuries-old coffins tucked eerily into dark corners. we could almost hear the distant sounds of dwarves singing and of their hammers ringing in the deep - "we must awake ere break of day to reach the pale, enchanted gold..." i'm pretty certain gollum tried to pinch my wallet, my precious wallet, while we were floating on our bamboo raft through the darkness. it was otherworldly. it was middle-earthly.

we're now preparing to pull up the shallow roots we have sunk down into pai, and travel through the night, like refugees, to the border of laos, where computing the exchange rate will require greater math skills than we've had to employ for some time. we are still growing.