Songkran, Pai, and My First Stitches Ever!!!!

I should probably start with a disclaimer about the title—while I did get my first stitches ever this weekend, I’M PERFECTLY OK and NOT BADLY HURT!!!! (ok, mom?).

Secondly, I have a new favorite holiday: Songkran. Although it goes on way longer than it should, the first day of it is so much fun. Everybody is in high spirits, has work off, most people are drinking, and it’s a huuuuge waterfight! You can’t go anywhere without getting drenched by buckets of water and sprayed by water guns. And in case you are wondering, motorbikers and cars are not exempt from the madness—which can sometimes lead to dangerous situations, which we quickly learned. 

     Wednesday (April 13^th) was the official beginning of the three-day holiday, although we had water thrown on us starting Monday (PS being white/obvious foreigners made us extra targets). Walking around the city center was so much fun, throwing water on everyone and getting it thrown in return, although it was one of the coldest days so far and people insisted on using buckets of ice water—brrrr! After eight hours of being soaking wet for Songkran in Chiang Mai, we were definitely ready for a less intense scene—Chiang Mai is basically the center of the holiday, so anywhere we could go from here would be less crazy.

            A group of 11 of us decided to rent motorbikes and take the 130 km, 762 curves to Pai—a small mountain town that in the last few decades has gained popularity among backpackers and other foreigners. The road to get there was a pretty daunting task for my second day on the motorbike, but I had heard how beautiful it was and was determined to do it. We got up at 6 am Thursday morning (partially to avoid the ice cold buckets of water along our ride). I had everyone give me their best “6 am” faces:

            The ride was beautiful, and for me very uneventful until the last 15 km outside of Pai. Somehow me and one other guy, named Griggs, got ahead of the group by maybe 10 km. Coming into one of the last hairpin curves out of a steep downhill, I was riding the front brake a little too hard because the brake for my back wheel hardly worked. There was gravel all over the road, and my hard front braking led the bike to skid outwards on the gravel and tip me over, with the bike stuck on top of me. Upon hitting the ground, my first thought was “is this what breaking a bone feels like?” I quickly decided no, but as the wind was knocked out of me I couldn’t yet tell Griggs that I was ok. My next thought was that getting the wind knocked out of you on pavement while stuck under a motorbike sucks a lot more than floating face up in the water, which is the only other place I’ve had it after hard jump crashes. Anyway, I got road rash on both elbows, one knee, and a couple deep cuts (from the gravel, I think) on my foot. I had intense shock for the first 5 or so minutes and felt faint, nauseas, hungry, thirsty, and tired—all at once. I sat and laid on the side of the road while Griggs got my bike of the road and a nice Thai family ran up to help me.

            I was so amazed at the concern and hospitality that this family had for me, a complete stranger. They cleaned my cuts up with water and toilet paper, gave me some over the counter meds for pain, and insisted on having the father drive the bike into town for me so that they could take me in their car to the hospital. I wasn’t sure that I needed to go but one deep cut on my foot was more painful and was bleeding more than all the others so I figured it couldn’t hurt to get it checked out. I was amazed how quickly I received attention at the ER—I was having my cuts cleaned and evaluated within 5 minutes of arrival. When the ER nurse told me I would need stitches, I 1. Didn’t know you could turn them down, which I would have, and 2. Freaked out a little because I’d never had them before! I waved Griggs in from the waiting room to hold my hand and distract me because I was scared, and he was such a great comfort. The part that hurt the most of the whole day (and the only thing that made me cry!) was the shot that they gave me to numb the area—I don’t know how people get tattoos on the top of their foot!

            Anyway, I have been taking care of my cut very closely and cleaning it multiple times a day—the first few days I went to the hospital to get it cleaned but after realizing they were just using rubbing alcohol and iodine I went out and bought the stuff myself. It sucked, though because one of the main attractions of Pai is that it’s a river town—and as a water baby, it was so painful watching everyone swim and play in the rivers and waterfalls nearby and not be able to join!

            Onto the positive stuff, Pai was such a cool town and I’m so happy I got to see it, even if I was limping. It was very much touched by foreigners—there was a strong hippie vibe to it, I saw more dreads and smelled more B.O. than I ever have in my life—but along with that there was a very laid-back, natural vibe to the place. I had chai tea with the herbs ground up freshly with a mortar and pestal right in front of me, stayed in a hut made almost solely of bamboo, and had a bonfire on the river at night. 

       The second night in Pai a few other girls and I decided it was time to upgrade from the rock-hard mattresses, manual flushing toilets, and mosquito nets of the bamboo huts and move to the 4 star resort across the river—where I shared a king bed with 2 other girls for a splurge of (combined) $50/night. The place had beautiful rooms and an even more beautiful bathroom—a much welcome sight after the bugs and bucket-flushing of the huts. As my foot was killing me I was happy to hear that my friends were content laying by the infinity pool that overlooked the river and mountains most of the day, and we had a fabulous time lounging in the water and talking girl talk (me with my feet up on the edge to keep the stitches dry). While constantly travelling in a group of 20 can be fun, it can also get really old and it was great to spend a day just talking to 3-6 of the people in our group instead of getting in a few words with each of the 20.

            Coming back from Pai, I asked one of the guys on the trip to ride my scooter home—not because I was scared, but because my foot was still killing me, and it’s the foot that I needed for the back wheel brake, which I learned the hard way is quite important. I took a van that zipped down the curves—not a great trip for me because I get intense motion sickness, but it worked out ok.

            The last few days we have been doing manual labor moving gravel, sand, and water with buckets, mixing cement with hoes and shovels, and clearing out large grasses with hoes. It has been tough for me as my foot has been super achey, but pretty satisfying nonetheless and its for a good cause—the building that we are laying the cement floor for will be an office for a non-profit organization that gives a home to elephants that have been mistreated. The land we are clearing is the future site of a bamboo nursery, and being here and seeing all that the Thai people can use the bamboo for (building, floor mats, food, rafts, and so much more) makes it a really worthwhile cause.