Thais are very proud of their Kingdom, and rightly so in many respects. At the Arcade bus station, the national anthem is played daily at 8:00am and 6:00pm. All the Thais (and the respectful farang) stand for a moment of silence. No placing your right hand over your stomach or left clavicle, or wherever it was they taught us in school. I never quite understood this; I guess you're not supposed to know where your heart is actually located when you're a kid. Anyway.
Well, it seems that the dogs are patriotic too:
When the loudspeakers go off, the dogs howl the anthem. It's hilarious. Thai Dogs. Patriots. Who knew?
I rented a bicycle. Ain't it cute? Anyway, I asked about a lock. He said "No lock. Nobody steal". And he was right. Also no identification, no passport, no deposit. Actually they didn't even tell me when I had to bring it back. Welcome to Pai.
On the other hand a crank arm (that's what attaches the pedal to its axle) fell off, and the rear derailleur would slip on steep hills. Mai pen rai — stay off high hills. They repaired the crank arm no problem, but ended up transplanting half the bike parts to another bike to get one that wasn't beat up and had all working parts.
One of the bridges across the Pai River. It is more rickety than it looks, but people cross it on motorcycles anyway.
You can't call them "snowbirds". What, then?