June 18,

Up and about, we packed and had our Javas in our room. We went down to the restaurant to have our breakfast. We had an order of French toast with banana, an order of Thai Pan Egg, and a plate of fresh fruit – banana, mangoes and oranges. I had water and Jeff had a Milo. When we finished, we explored the pond area seeing a beautiful open lotus flower and dragonflies. This Resort had been a nice place to stay. Jeff loaded up the car, paid, and we left around 1020.

As we were leaving the town of Mae Taeng, Jeff had noticed a big Wat complex, maybe? We detoured over to it, and sure enough, it was a very large complex of many different temples. They were in the process of being constructed: the tie-in was they all had shiny, blue tiled roofs. We could hear some hammering from workers, but it was not distracting. The temples seemed to go on and on, all lined up in a row – each having their own characteristics and differing Buddhas inside them. Some of the temples that were still under construction still had plastic on the various statues, inside and outside. They were all so elaborate and highly decorated. At some point Jeff and I questioned all the money being spent on all the Wats in Thailand. Jeff had read that even some Buddhists are questioning all of these expenses as well. Anyway, we could have spent the whole morning exploring, but we loaded up and moved on.

We traveled along the road from Mae Taeng, and came to the crossroads to go toward Pai. As soon as we turned on this road we were on the Mae Hong Son Loop, that a lot of motorcycles and scooters like to drive. We opted to do this in the car because it's the rainy season. We can definitely vouch that it is rainy season! We had a little bit of rain on the way but not as much as the day before. The road has definitely turned more curvy and hilly. We even saw a few landslides that blocked some of the road. Thankfully nothing was very new, as cones and barriers were up. The most disturbing areas were where sections of the road were actually gone!

We came up on a point of interest – the Mok Fa Waterfall. We pulled in, parked and paid the fees for Jeff & I with the car – total was 230 THB, which was $7.01. The weather was nice and it was a short little hike back to the waterfall, on a decent trail of 350 m (1,148 feet). We even had the view to ourselves for a bit. It was a fairly tall spill down into a pool of muddy water, but still great to see. The power of waterfalls still amazes me!

After we finished, we hit the road again. If I thought the road was windy before… ha ha ha! I actually kind of thought I'm not getting sick, as I can be prone to do. Then Jeff mentioned he saw a sign of a person kneeling over a toilet. We both kind of laughed at that but he said he had read that people do get nauseous at times. Then within 10 minutes I started getting nauseous. It was crazy! He pulled over and I got out – that fixed it. I was fine. Jeff said he had no problem, which was good because he was driving.

We arrived in Pai at our place around 1415. Jeff had found a cute little home for us. The place is in a Bohemian-Artsy area. Once inside the house, it is surprisingly big. We both think it was a commercial space that somebody has converted to a house. There is little furniture for the space, which makes it feel even bigger. He unloaded the car and we settled in. I had a piece of bread to help settle my stomach and Jeff had a PBJ sandwich. Then I laid down and Jeff went out and explored a bit.

For supper we went to the Free Bird Cafe. It claims to be vegan, Shan (which is Burmese),Thai and Western food. We ordered Pumpkin Ginger Curry with purple rice, Free Bird Hummus with veggies, and Burmese Green Tea Leaf Salad. While we were waiting I explored around the cafe. They have some products that, if bought, help fund Burmese refugees. I thought that was interesting. Anyway, we got our stuff and we went back to our place and ate our supper then we watched some YouTube videos. Then we crashed