Lod Cave

Day 37
The road to the cave was similar to the one that leads to Pai, Sharp curves with ups and downs everywhere. We drove for about one hour and fifteen minutes and finally arrived at ticket stand for the cave tours. After that we kindly declined the seven different shopkeepers who tried to sell us fish food and started to make our way to the cave.

Our guide was an older woman with a bamboo cane and a big lantern.
She told us that the cave contained many animal-like shapes, made from the forming of stalagmites. Some of them where very similar, for example, there was one pillar that looked like a crocodile. In one part of the cave, it looked like the stalagmites had formed into tiny dolls or children, and I thought to myself that if this had been in Scandinavia, back in the old days people may have thought of them as troll children.

When we got back into the city, Max went to a tattoo studio and I got a massage. The lady who tried to sort out my back just laughed when I asked her how many times I would need to get massage for my shoulders to be fixed. The time was about 14:30 and we decided to get lunch. Max went back to the tattoo studio and I spent the rest of the day relaxing at the hostel.

Day 38

Today Max and I got up at 07:30. It was the day after his first tattoo and he was a lot more excited than usual. We had breakfast and said goodbye for the last time, before he drove back to Chiang mai to cross into Myanmar. After this I had to find a new hostel, I went to a place called "Spicypai" and I'm going to stay here for two nights.

The time is about 20:00 and I'm just now back from the tattoo studio where I got some more new ink. This was the first time It hurt so bad that my body simply stopped registering pain after a while. I'm very happy it works like that because getting a tattoo around my armpit is best described as excruciating pain. Now that It is done though, I can't wait for a few relaxing days in the shade while it heals.

Day 39
The tattoo is healing well, the area I'm staying in is very relaxed and the temperature is okay in the shadow. I'm having a great time. I was initially going to stay in Pai for 5 days but now I don't feel like leaving. The area where I'm staying has everything, good food, nice scenery and a lot of social people. I'm going to extend my stay here and enjoy some relaxation before I start moving towards Bangkok again.

Day 40
I wake up earlier than everyone else at this hostel. This place is a true hippie retreat. It is like being around a bunch of children, talking about energies and shared memories of objects, how to connect with your evolutionary soul and so on. They are all hardcore vegans and shower once every 2 weeks or something like that. They are nice people but I am feeling a little bit out of place here. Today they showed me a new restaurant called Earth tone, this was a lovely place with "gluten free" typed out in the menus. The relief of seeing this in southeast asia can't be measured in words. I will probably have breakfast here every day for the next couple of mornings.