The day had finally come, I was going to Pai! (With a little bit of uncertainty when the van turned up 40 minutes late...). I had read and heard a lot about this bus journey and as a result, had packed 3 sick bags into my day bag. I had been advised the following 2 things by fellow travellers:

1. Don't sit in the front seat, if you crash, you'll be first to die.
2. Don't sit in the back seat, you will no doubt vomit.

So as you can imagine, I wasn't too impressed to find myself sat directly next to the driver with a full view of the mad Thai roads, although I soon came to terms with the fact that even if I did die, I had a lovely sight of the countryside meanwhile. Ten minutes into the journey, we pulled up at a bus station and were told to vacate the minivan and load into another, where, would you believe it, I was pushed by many a Thai bus driver, into the "seat" right at the back amongst the luggage with no daylight (let alone a view) to be seen...
We made a quick stop in a rural village to allow the driver to pick his packed lunch up from his mum's house and off we went. Despite my unfortunate seat assignment, I managed to rather enjoy my 762-curve journey and it was a miracle that none of my breakfast made it onto my lap!

We arrived in Pai in the midday heat and after getting lost and walking for about an hour to find my hostel, my t-shirt had enough moisture in it to keep a family of fish alive. That said, you can imagine the shock when the temperature dropped to 18 degrees after sunset and my rucksack was emptied as I wore every single item of clothing I could find. I found my friends from Bangkok in the evening, plus a few more, and we headed out to the Pai nightlife where I discovered something so much better than the bars; the largest bakery stall in the market...to be continued...