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Published: July 21st 2006
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8/7/06 - 12/7/06 More amazing scenery and winding roads led us to the small town of Pai, nestled amongst rolling green forest covered hills. The journey had one notable event whereby the main road suddenly stopped in front of us. When I say main road, I mean a two lane stretch of road, very new and very straight. Obviously the 2 sides didn’t yet meet in the middle, as with a handful of sudden warning signs. It suddenly became a dead end. A small length of mud track of to the side then led round a mound of earth a few hundred meters long and back onto the main road the other side! Finally we found the turn off to Pai - merely another 98 Km. The road climbed and climbed with stunning views of a sea of cloud all around. As we arrived in town I saw some more Thaiglish or Englai - take your pick, a sign in the Thai form of English that provide so much entertainment. This one was either trying to remind someone of where they lived - maybe Pai has a resident amnesiac, or else reminding all road users of where they should position themselves
on the tarmac…
Please remember your drive on the left. I’ve seen Pai described as a town run by backpackers for backpackers and it’s hard to disagree. Read other blog entries on here for Pai. We did and found it hilarious how people spend their time doing not much!! There are white water rafting and adventure trekking companies, a host of cheap and cheerful guesthouses and lots of bars and restaurants. Everyone seems to head down to Bebop for live music in the evenings, where two live bands play on a nightly basis.
We investigated Pai Canyon - Pai’s very own version of the Grand Canyon on a much, much smaller scale! Red orange soil and beautiful pine trees. I had fun scrabbling up the crumbling sides (ok so I nearly fell over the edge - but it wasn’t very steep or far to fall)
The other famous Pai attractions is the Tha Pai Hot Springs, which are found just inside the boundary of a National Park - hence the 200 Bht Farang entry fee. You’ve guessed it - Thai’s pay 20. The usual two tier system applies. Walking up to the hot spring, we
passed a small ‘café’ that also sells baskets of 4 eggs with a mini sachet of soy sauce for boiling in the hot spring. We found the hot spring marked at 80° C and sourced a suitable stick for hooking our basket of eggs into the water. 6 mins….12 mins….30 mins….and after opening 3 very soft looking eggs we finally gave up. The egg had cooked (a bit) but was definitely soft boiled and still too runny to eat. The whole area around the hot spring had an eggy smell and I’m not sure if it was sulphurous from the spring or just all the other broken attempts at boiling which could be seen all around.
A day’s adventure trekking with a local promised a ‘non-tourist route following old hill tribe paths into hill tribe villages and a refund of 50% if you see another trekker (apart from our group of course - maybe that’s been tried before) or don’t have an interesting and fun time.
It certainly was an interesting day, over rickety wooden bridges and fording streams which flooded our walking boots so that most of the day was spent squelching through the jungle. There were
hardly any people in the villages as they were out working in the fields at this time of year, and those we encountered were barely interested in our presence. The morning was spent descending very steep slopes and my worst fears were realized when our afternoon route, proved to be what can only be described as an uphill struggle!
I’m guessing there is iron pirate (fools gold) abundant in the area, as there were many gold flecks in the ground and at the end of the day our boots were covered in mini gold flecks. The mountains paths are paved with gold !!!
‘All about Coffee’ on Chaisongkram road is well worth a visit for breakfast and virtually opposite the Mitthai art shop sells a fantastic range of T-shirts and photography based art. We were patrons of both.
After a few days in Pai, we wound through the hills again and headed back to Chiang Mai…
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The Road Less Travelled
Hey, young dude, take on the roads where the tarmac suddenly comes to an end. I seem to recall you encountered one in the New Forest, in England, some years ago - only then you were driving a Porsche! Pip pip - tally ho! ..fish..