If  Hoi An with its lantern lit streets and colourful candles floating down river is the Shambala Festival of South East Asia, then Pai, in northern Thailand is what would happen if the people decided not to leave the festival, stayed put and set up shop.

This is a very special place. There is very little to do other than sit in relaxed cafes and bars, read books, be inspired, have a massage, do some Tai Chi  or maybe go for a trek in the hills. It is great. We’ve already stayed here twice the amount of time we planned to (lets hope the guy we left our big bags with in Bangkok hasn’t sold all our stuff!).

We’re staying over the river from the main part of town, it’s very peaceful. We have only the noise of the geckos,birds and the occasional downpour of early monsoon rain on the roof of our little bamboo hut to listen to.

Bridge to our hut

We’ve discovered a few things while we’ve been here, the first of these discoveries is that we both have an amazing ability to sit in a cafe for over 5 hours without really realising an hour has passed. Something strange has happened to time. Or perhaps it’s just that our cafe of choice has an atmosphere and menu that appears to lead to a meditative state that removes you from the usual worries of time and the urge to “do” things.

The cafe, aptly named “Good Life”, specialises in tea, the must have over 50 different types on their menu, many of which have been used as remedies for various ailments in traditional medicine. Today we sampled the ‘Jiaogulan’- tea of immortality!

From their leaflet,

“Jiagulan has grown wild for millenia in the Guizho province of Southern China. Here the people were mot much unlike any others. They woke up with the sun fed the animals and tended the fields… In 1972 after completing the first ever nationwide census … the Chinese government found that the Guizho province had a remarkable number of people who lived to be well over one hundred years old “

“Researchers were sent from Beijing university to investigate. They considered diet, lifestyle, genetics and nearly every possible factor, their conclusion? Jiaogulan”

Personally I’m not quite sure how to feel about these kind of  “healing” teas, I’m definitely interested though and along with sampling more teas I shall be doing a bit of research . Either way for now at least I know it tastes good and I reckon with this tea and my trip up Tai Shan I’m set up. Ooo,I’ll get a letter from the Queen, or rather Prince Charles, or whoever. How very exciting!

Two other very interesting things have been tried in this place, Kombucha and Wheatgrass. Now these two I am convinced of.

Kombuca

Kombucha is a tea that has been fermented by a kind of mushroom which is a culture of yeast and acetobacter. What this really means is it turns the tea into a very slightly alcoholic drink which tastes, in my opinion, a bit like cider.

Good Life sells loads of this stuff,  and I’m not surprised, I’m completely hooked – it’s amazing. It’s subtle, but it produces a kind of mild euphoria and keeps you alert in a happy kind of a way. We’ve been having it just after breakfast. What a way to start the day!

Here’s a few photos of the culture they have. They have loads! Jars and jars all growing in the back of the restaurant. Amazing stuff.

bottling the kombucha

Again, there’s all kind of health claims, from Seeds of Health,

“There is a lot of experiential evidence from people who have been using kombucha over many years. Many of the benefits reported include improvements in energy levels, metabolic disorders, allergies, cancer, digestive problems, candidiasis, hypertension, HIV, chronic fatigue and arthritis. It ‘s also used externally for skin problems and as a hair wash among other things.”

As with a lot of these kind of natural health products, the kind of  “proper” scientific research seems to be somewhat lacking, but from the experience  of it  I’ve had I’m definitely willing to give it a go and look forward to starting my own culture as soon as possible. I like it too that it’s one of these things you kind of pass on, like a gift. Once you have some of the culture, it keeps growing, you can have enough for yourself and pass it on to other people. I would love to hear from anyone in the UK who makes it!

Wheatgrass

Wheatgrass shot

This is another new one on me courtesy of Good Life. Wheatgrass. This too seems to have an incredible energising effect. Down in one, a shot sized glass in the morning is enough for me, but some people are hooked on this stuff, I’ve heard people saying they’d have up to 8 a day!

The health claims, mostly based on the high chlorophyll and vitamin content  include a wide range of benefits including increasing hemoglobin production, detoxifying, helping skin problems such as eczema and psoriasis, keeping hair from greying (!), prevention and cure of colon and other cancers and boosting energy. Bodykind has a good “is it all just hype” article which details some scientific evidence supporting the benefits of drinking wheatgrass.

Again, it’s hard to know, all I can tell you is that after a tour of Pai’s bars finishing at four followed by only 3 hours sleep I had a shot of this with my breakfast and was certainly more perky than I was before and have made it through the day with much more energy than I usually would after such a night. I do not however know if my hemoglobin production has increased!

Wheatgrass can be grown easily at home in trays, there’s lots of information and instructions here. If/when I start my own I’ll let you know how it goes! Would be great to hear from any other fans or growers too!

Finally, here’s a few photos from the lovely trek we did while we weren’t getting high on grass. We had an amazing time and were very lucky to have the company of two lovely Dutch girls Juul and Eliza. Lots of good chats plus perhaps more than a few beers to celebrate their last night in Pai, sob:-( Celebrate is not quite the right word, sad to see them go, we had a good time together. Keep in touch you two!