Viewpoint

Two more nights in Pai and a change of bike, out a little further, aiming for the Doi Kiew Lom viewpoint and beyond to lod cave. Not so far, but I remember the road as it rises upon a series of tight winding slopes, surrounding landscapes rising and falling and then the viewpoint. Stalls and parking upon the flat summit raised between waves of hills stretching away on both sides, ethereal as they spill into the shroud of distance. And beautiful.


Beyond, the road plunges back into steep hairpins and concrete barriers, red tarmac warning of the most extreme. Down through glimpsed beauty, rising hills higher now as the road flattens out towards the valley floor. Through the verdant green, the remnants of burnings black upon fallow fields, a scatter of workers between shelters. And the road continues, a ribbon of beauty and delight, no need for speed, go slow, accept the enchanted glade which surrounds you.


Then arrival, the turn off, upon the edge of a village, towards the rising hills through a scatter of shops and cafes, lodgings and an array of signs offering everything but direction. 


The cave is amazing, though swift under the auspices of our guide, a dim lit cavern sparkling above a fish heavy stream, I thought of Moria as torches spilled light around the stalagmites and stalagtites spilling and rising, forming their bewildering architecture in shy reflection.


And the road back, too early for sunset at the viewpoint but, arriving upon the edge of Pai, the afterglow burning the sky before fading into translucent candy floss, pink light caught suspended in the dust and smoke as the mountains solidified in the blue hour.