Pai: Deconstructing a piece of "pai" (pie)

Deconstruction (culinary term) - Take the ingredients or components in the dish, change their forms and then plate them together in a different way. It's not just about taking the dish apart but putting back its elements back together.
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Pai, Thailand heralded in numerous blogs as a secret mecca of backpackers in Northern Thailand. The ultimate definition of CHILL. It might not come across any guidebook of Thailand but try to search for travel blogpost and you will be bombarded with endless praise of this quirky small town just about 3 hrs ride away from Chiang Mai.

If Pai is a dish these are the elements that defines it that I will aim to deconstruct based on my own experience. 

Roadkill!

INGREDIENT (1) : From Chiang Mai to Pai and the infamous 762 turns
Search any blog entry about Pai and you will not miss out how the 3 hours travel from Chiang Mai to Pai is the Worst Ride ever with a very slim 10% puking survival rate.
How the ride was described instilled fear in me which prompted me to chew on 2 tablets of Bonamine while a barf bag is tucked inside my bag.
My mantra is "Better to be prepared than to puke inside the van".

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Phuket: Sunkissed at Patong Beach

The plane tickets have been booked 5 months ago during a promo fare. We were all given 5 months to prepare but just coming from the festive season of December in Manila – the extra rice , the rich sauce of the kare-kare and additional lechon skin are still very much evident in our shapes as we don our suits. Nevertheless we are out to have fun in the sun, sand and sea in Phuket,Thailand.

Phuket International Airport was a sea of multi colored board shorts, cotton shirts and tank tops, dark sunglasses and flip flops which sets you right in the mood of a tropical vacation. All thoughts of work-related emails, deadlines to meet and reports to finish are replaced by images of lounging in the shore, fresh coconut juice and the smell of sunblock on the skin. It was a one hour ride from the airport to the infamous Patong Beach and as the minibus made its way in the city streets of Phuket, the scenes that unfolds from the bus window is very similar to the Philippines – cars and public transports plying the streets, billboards that dotted the skyline and gated houses and commercial spaces.

t was only11:30 am when we reached the hotel, so we registered first and left our bags as we head on our way in search of our first authentic Thai food for lunch. Navigating through the streets of Patong beach is very similar to Manila – the pedestrian lanes doesn’t mean anything, the cars won’t stop no matter how long you stand there, you have to find that opening in the sea of moving machineries and cross the street. There seems to be this relaxed busyness as we meet hordes of tourist walking along, riding the motorbikes, haggling with vendors, chatting in a restaurant or coffeeshop.People are in constant motion but not in a harried way, it’s like they wanted to get the most out of their vacation.

After our delightful lunch (details will be on a another blog entry), we scouted around for a reasonably priced island hopping tour for tomorrow. In almost every street, you will notice this small cubicle like stalls that offer tours and adventure packages. Since we are in Thailand – haggle..haggle..haggle.In the end, we are able to get the PhiPhi Is, Maya Beach and another island (that I forgot the name) tour via speedboat (Incl. of Lunch, fruits and refreshments) for 1,100 Baht for each person which was originally priced at 2,800 Baht.

After taking an hour of a rest after we checked in at 3pm, we headed out into the cluster of beach loungers and bronzed bodies in the beach just in time for us to also snap some sunset photos. At around this time it was already a crowded in the beach as the sun seekers have come out in full force to catch the final rays of the sun. Since we are waiting for the sunset to take pictures – we occupied ourselves by people watching while sipping our ice cold fruit shakes. Indeed, life’s a beach!

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