Up North with the lovely Delaney

Since we were both heading up north on our lonesome, Delaney and I decided to do some exploring together. We caught a very unnecessarily highly air conditioned bus from Surin straight to Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai was what neither of us expected; Delanely expected a smaller town like city with not much going on, I on the other hand expected more skyscrapers and modern vibes - since Chiang Mai we were told means "new city" - both were wrong assumptions, the city somewhat meeting in the middle of what we thought. Most of the time, I sadly have to admit, we were looking for a ping pong show, out of genuine interest having heard stories of dart throwing and even bottle opening (yes, that is apparently possible). We failed since the city no longer "allows" ping pong shows for the obvious reason of it being a bit too vulgar; they do however have quite a few brothel-esque go-go bars, filled with seedy 50+ westerners. Thats ok though. (So I guess if you're up north looking for a ping pong show, it wont happen, best bets are Bangkok and Phuket. Just a little advice).
However we did have a very strange experience with a southern American man with a baseball cap and a 70s pornstar tash which told us the best place to go is StarXix where "the girls and boys do some crazy shit". We arrived at this bar which is a 10 minute walk away, to find the crazy southern american already there. With a plastic bag in his hand. He beckoned us forward, pointed to the bar and said in a hushed voice "aah you made it! It may look closed, its only to avoid the police from shutting them down, but you can just go in and see some crazy shit. I came here for a different reason. Have fun kids", then melted into the distance. We dont know how he got there before us. We dont know what was in the plastic bag. We just don't know. I don't think anyone knows. And I'm guaranteeing his potentially very real wife back home doesn't know. What we do know (or more accurately guess) is what he was going to do that night. Grim.
So Chaing Mai was a strange experience to say the least.
We then caught the bus to Pai, a drive which I could only describe as sublime; beautiful windy roads through the mountains, sheer drops of so many feet only really made dangerous by the crazy Thai style driving of "fuck it I'm getting there first".
Pai was pretty strange, a small village of no more than I'm going to guess 20,000 residents (thats a wild stab in the dark, don't take my word for it at all). And honestly not what I thought it would be like at all; filled with travellers for a start. Since its so small, I was expecting it to be simply a tiny Thai village with a few markets and wats, a relaxed vibe with a couple handfuls of travelers. However all sorts of travelers from far and wide had arrived for various reasons. A lot of people who had turned up because of the reputation of being a small "hippie" village - the same as me - a few who had turned up for a couple of days and just hadn't left, and of course a couple who were there just to party. Pai was actuallly the place I first got sexually harassed in Thailand, which surprised me since Pai's reputation is simply "chill". This neanderthals was a stereotype; white - either Bristish or American - vest top, tribal tattoos, whose body language consisted of a lot of chest puffing. He grabbed my face, forced me to kiss him then went a laughed with a group of friends, which surprisingly consisted of two girls. The point of this story is, yes Pai is chill, but you will come across someone who just doesnt understand the concept that "Pai is chill".
Other than that, my time there was great. I stayed at Pai Circus Hostel, met some wonderful like minded people, hulahoopers, slackliners and such, and spent my days hulahopping and my nights with the people I had spent playing. The bus journey back was less than ideal. After three mini bus journeys being squished on the back seat in 30 degree heat, I was extatic to be placed in the front seat with Delaney; it really is the little things when you're traveling on as little money as possible. We had leg room! We should have guessed things weren't going to be as perfect as we thought when Delaney was placed in a seat which was sodden with a questionable liquid. The day we left, the weather decided to go all British on us; cold, grey and raining. Which would not have been an issue however a very inconsiderate woman sat on the very front seat next to the driver decided to get travel sickness, so needed the windows open. What followed was three and a half hours winding through the mountains, windows rolled down getting rained on. And not just any rain either, that horrid, what us British call "wet rain". The rain which somehow manages to be fine yet dense and soak you through to the soul. I was sat by the window, getting most of the spit and Delaney was sat trying to control her queasy motion-sensitive stomach and burning feet in what could have easily been piss.
We arrived at about 7 in the evening, both giving up on our further travel plans and spent one more night together in Chiang Mai.
It's a shame we had to go our seperate ways but we had fun with what we did do; we even got tattoos together in Pai. Thanks for traveling with me, Delaney you dark challanger you, I'm sure our paths will cross again soon.