Life is a grand festival and I'm living it right now

"Because I don't live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be happy."

That is one thing I have learned while travelling. I usually worry about things too much and I've been learning to let go and really concentrate on the present. I also have grown as a thinking person and understood lots of things that I didn't before.

Living and working in Pai has been both an amazing opportunity and an mind changing experience. When I bought my flight ticket from Singapore to Chiang Mai, I knew that I could have gone to some new place, but I still wanted to go back to this one precious place I felt like home. But what should people really know about Pai ? Always when travellers are asking what has been your favourite place or where should they go next, I tell them to go to Pai. It's not a huge place with loads of shops or nightclubs. But it's full of things to do, after chilling in a hammock next to musicians playing gypsy tunes. I loved every second I spend in Pai in November to December. Now I came back for another three weeks to meet old friends, work in a bar&restaurant and enjoy jamming with talented musicians. Days passed really fast even I ended up doing lots of things beside work and chilling.

 

One of the many attractions in Pai are hot springs, there are natural ones in jungle (20 bath/0,50€) and proper built ones in spas (80-200 bath). I enjoyed both but the feeling bathing in a jungle with locals and beautiful view excited me more. There's canyon, caves, view points at the top of the mountains, beautiful jewellery shops, walking street, chilling live music bars and cafes etc. There's many waterfalls I went with a motorbike to, but also this one with nice five hour hike. It was a cold sunday night when we sat on a bonfire as usually, jamming, while my friend got an idea to go camping over night at this one waterfall far away in the mountains. Me and people from our hostel were excited about the crazy idea and already started to make lists what to take with. I had no expectations, but as soon as I was hiking this jungle path with my backpack full of useful equipments I realised this night was going to be magical. After five hours wading through rivers and getting wet, letting the sun to dry us we continued that path mix of rocks, plants, river, insects and huge trees above us. Still three more hours of hiking till we would get there. 

Finally we came to this beautiful waterfall, not at the photos above, i was too amazed to even take my tablet out of my bag. We went for a swim and I got an stupid but at the time very clever idea to climb to the top. Well, I got there easily, but after looking down my friends were turned out to be little ants on the ground. It was the moment when I realised I am sometimes too crazy and forgetting to think before. So so slippery and long way down but I did it. I was happy again and had a great laugh. So the night came to our little camping area. I had a hammock like couple of others and around campfire there were 11 sleeping bags on the ground. Amazing and tripping night, I haven't had that much fun dancing in the shadows and staring at the full moon with all the colours of a rainbow. We sang together and played all night long with jungle drum and guitar. 

What I'm really going to miss is the atmosphere. In Pai it's magical. I had my little Pai family at the first time, but I got a new one this time as well. Everyone who I have met in Pai have liked it. I'm glad I get to know to so many new people among my old friends. I worked for awhile in a restaurant to save money and it was situated at a perfect place (photo above), couldn't ask for more. Someone might think I'm crazy when I say this, but I could totally live in Pai for longer time like an half year. I feel like home there and I'm going back after couple of weeks  anyway ;) It's so hard to stay away !

Take care guys, hope you are living in the present. Remember to sing, enjoy little things, laugh, try meditation, write, make art, do what you know the best, and respect nature and people around you. Stay openminded and happy. Hugs.

a story about a change

This is a story that happened in a small city called Pai in northwest Thailand, near the border of Burma. The exact place on the map is not really important, but the life changing journey what I went through there is. It can maybe be harmful for you if you are not planning to travel there any day soon. I'm not telling you at full lenght what I did, but I will tell you my spiritual, and mind changing part of this story.

"I woke up this one morning, hair messed up, yawned and saw sunlight coming out from a hole in the wall in my bamboo hut. The light found my knees and warmed them up with a gentle touch. I heard birds singing, someone playing guitar, an old lady with a calm voice. I had no idea what time it was, what day or how much time I had left before I had to pack my cameras, book and leave. I was going to have a new day, new paradise in a place I lived and loved, and with people I felt connected with; my Pai family.
I looked at "the Alchemist" on my bookshell and realised that I'm following my dream too, just at this specific moment. I'm in the present and I'm happy.
Just few seconds later I already sat on my meditation stump. River in front of me was quiet but pleasant, I felt few leaves falling of from a papaya tree next to me. Imagining the sun turning to different colours, blue to red and moving slowly towards me, I opened my eyes. It had been approximately 30 minutes since I sat on the stump. Meditation and yoga were my morning routine. I felt better sitting in lotus position clearing my mind and soul this amount of time than using it to anything else. I felt spiritual and pure.

Little decisions and new ways of thinking had really made me change a bit. I felt pure happines just from doing meditation. I didn't need anything else than this moment, and still don't need.
My days in Pai were individuals all of them, every day is a new start for your life. Having a chance to recognize the beauty of life again and again is amazing. But regretting something happened earlier harms your soul and mind.
I'm trying to remove the burden from my shoulders and find the balance in happiness. I am a worrying kind, and I don't like it. I want to free myself of thinking and just live. Here I've had hundreds of magical moments, conversations what had changed my life, and I start to realise what things make me complete, what to value, for what I live for and what things are not for me. Learning like this about myself is like a huge gift from everyone I have met.

As I later wandered up the hill in a kind of daze, two old ladies in colourful clothes and sharp bamboo hats walked past me, carrying big bags of something. I looked at them and smiled and I was smiled back with missing teeth mouths. I was high in the mountains, where green and blue captivate the scenery. We had drove motorbikes to the waterfalls and spent couple of days just lying and looking at changing clouds. I was amazed by the beauty of cornfields, stone forest, elephants, hot springs, birds, colours, lying in hammock, people, food, everything. I was surrounded by nature and "the green tits" as mountains. I couldn't feel happier or more alive.  This was that kind of place I could stay forever.

I ended up staying in Pai for almost 3 weeks. Time flied and it didn't feel like it because I was enjoying so much with my family and my guesthouse's thai hippies. We played instruments everyday, sang, laughed and talked about things what matter and those what really don't. I've now friends for life which I'm going to see soon on my travels. This place was something else, our home and it was so sad to leave. But now I have a memory, still very bright and lovely. And one part of me will always be a "Pai part". Saying goodbye doesn't mean nothing like I thought before. I'm changed for good and I'm going to hold on it tight. Now goodbye just means a new hello."