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Published: December 20th 2009
Nestled in the mountains of North West Thailand is an adorable little town called Pai. The first thing to day about our favourite place yet is that it is definately best to get the local bus from the Arcade bus station. We decided to do this to save money and sweated our arses off walking half an hour in the midday sun, with our backpacks, to the bus station. It was the most gorgeous bus journey! The bus had fans and it was cool enough in the mountains that they weren't needed anyway so an air conditioned minibus really isn't necessary. Plus they have all the windows and the doors open anyway! The views are just spectacular! Lots of winding mountain roads and stunning blue sky, all of which you'd miss out on were you to take the nauseating minibus ride we'd heard about. Beside all that, we were the only backpackers on a bus of local people so it felt good to be off the tracks a bit.
As the bus pulled onto the main street of Pai we knew immediately that we were going to love it. The streets are lined with bars, restuarants, massage palours, coffee shops, all of which are lit with fairy lights and lanterns and at night the market fills the streets with handicrafts and t-shirts bearing various clever and not so clever slogans along the lines of Í love Pai'and 'Do nothing in Pai'. Which is exactly what you do. Nothing! Now, I'm not usually very good at doing nothing but I found myself adapting quite quickly to the pace of life there. Get up mid morning, go for breakfast, wander around, have a massage, go out until the small hours to the various bars...Poppies, Jikkos, Ting Tong and Bennies being consistent favourites with the backpacker crowd. Unfortunately for me, most of these bars are made of bamboo and one night my leg went through the bamboo decking at Poppies. Cue has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed bruising all down both sides of my right calf! Like I said I seem to be having an uncharacteristically clumsy streak (more to come).
The final day there was the only day I really did anything. Pai is said to be on spiritual lines, much like Glastonbury and therefore there's a lot of Reiki and spiritual healing places there. V decided to sign up to a Reiki course for a couple of days so I rented a moped and drove around looking at endless fields and mountains and had a walk around Pai canyon. I did have a dodgy moment when I'd clambered down a steep bit of pathway only to discover it ended and it looked a much longer way up than it did going down! Luckily a friendly German guy was there to lend a hand so I didn't have to spend the night there!
So...Pai...we intended to sta 2 nights, we stayed 7, as seems to be in keeping with the general flow here. V's reiki teacher came for 1 night a year ago, bought a coffee shop and stayed! It's chilled, it's magical and feels like a load of hippies just landed here and thought they'd build a town.
Who ate all the Pai...we did and my God we'd love another slice!
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Sophie
non-member comment
How to get to Pai
Hi, I'd really appreciate your advice on this matter, as I am going to th Chiang Mai province later this year. How does one travel to Pai from Chiang Mai. I've been to Chiang Mai before and did that 2 day trek. That blog brought back some fond memories, except my tour guide was called Mr Ton.