Fighting Motion Sickness on the Pai Trail

According to T-shirts sold on Pai's two block long Walking Street, there are 762 curves between Chiang Mai and Pai and only a few options on how to get there. Airplane was out of the question. Fifty dollars for a thirty minute flight? I think not. The funnest option would have been to rent a motorbike and drive the three hour route but I was traveling in a company of three and not all of us were two wheel competent. So that leaves us with bus or minivan. Minivan is the less nausea inducing option of the two and at only 150 Bhat[5USD] very reasonable.



The three of us, my girlfriend, Daphne, and my friend, Rob, crammed into the twelve-seat minivan after only a light breakfast. We were all well warned about the journey and had prepared ourselves to fight nausea anyway we saw fit. People on the bus started swallowing various small pills and we followed suit. Rob handed us a couple Valiums to help us sleep through the three hour trip. We plugged in our earphones, closed our eyes and tried our best. After three hours we get off the van in Pai with a sigh and only mild nausea. The last hour of the trip is by far the curviest and the most difficult.

One week later, it was time to face the journey back only this time I wasn't as prepared. I had a big bowl of Green Curry for breakfast, making the server laugh and Rob cringe. On top of that, Daphne had left on an earlier bus so that she could go to a yoga workshop in Chiang Mai, accidentally taking my earphones with me. And Rob only had one Valium left for himself. In other words, full stomach, no music and no medication. How did I feel when I got off the bus in Chiang Mai? Excellent.

I'll let you in on my secret, which isn't really much of a secret because there is always at least one other person in any car practicing this trick. The driver. What the driver and I were both doing was watching the road the entire time. Not just the road in front but the road that we were driving towards. In other words, if you turn your head in the direction of a curve once that curve is taken your head stays in the same place. Nausea happens in the head, not the body, so by being in control of where your head is turning you avoid getting sick. Cheetahs do this also. When they are running their heads stay level with the ground as their bodies move. As do many birds who can sit on a branch and keep their heads steady despite the swaying of the branch.

While my technique seem like a lot of work, it allowed me to do something on the way out of Pai that I couldn't do on the way in. Enjoy the beautiful mountain scenery! So next time you're riding passenger on a long and winding road, try this out. Pretend that you're the driver.

[Maggie Knows What I'm Talking About]

More about my trip coming soon...