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Published: September 25th 2006
Pai is located about four hours from Chiang Mai via a winding road up into the hills. It is an extremely popular stopover for the backpacker crowd... many basing their 'hill tribe treks' from here, and some just settling in for a few weeks or months. So as you might imagine all the western amenities are in abundance. It struck me that even way up here in the hills there is more in terms of amenities, reliable electricity and running water than there is in the capitol city of say Guinea-Bissau.
The scenery is amazing, becoming a really intense green in certain light. I am staying in my own little private river bungalow on cement stilts. It is brand new... maybe a little too new because it still smells a bit like wood finish. But it has a spacious covered porch with an unobstructed view of the river. The guesthouse provides nice Thai cushion mats and pillows to lay out on the porch....and I've spent a good deal of time lazing on the porch going through books more quickly than I can buy them. I've been sleeping with the sliding glass door open so I have a nice breeze
and can hear the river. The town itself is really laid back, with just a few roads and not too many cars... a few motorbikes and tourist minivans. It's then kind of place where at most times of day you could walk down the middle of the street if you wanted, and probably wouldn't have to move for a vehicle. There are plenty of cafes and places serving mixed fruit drinks with live music...a hookah bar, and a bar that looks like Brennon's room in Olympia (pillows on the floor, pictures of Bob Marley etc). I don't know how "Thai" of a city it is (ie the kid running the reception desk at the guesthouse is from Eugene)...but there is still plenty of good Thai food and it's a nice place to visit.
On Saturday I rented a mountain bike for the day and rode around the countryside. There are a lot of rolling hills and farms in the surrounding areas...a lot of elephant camps and a natural hot springs as well as a spa with water piped in from the hotspring. The admission to the natural hot springs, which has no amenities is about eight times the price
of the the spa...so I took a few pictures of the natural ones, but actually soaked at the spa. The spa has three well maintained pools, showers and a restaurant. I only was in the pools in the morning though because at ninety some odd degrees outside in the afternoon, I didn't really feel like submerging myself in hot water.
I did go to the one fancier restaurants in town for dinner...it was the kind of place where they bring you a hot towel before and after you meal, and the waitress stood about ten feet from my table and would come and delicately spoon rice and curry onto my plate for me. It was somewhere between fun and ridiculous...but an experience nonetheless.
This afternoon I am taking the minivan back to Chiang Mai for one more night, and then Tuesday I am actually flying to island of Ko Samui thanks to a cheap direct flight from Chiang Mai...I am going to attempt to go staight to the neighboring island of Ko Pha Ngan.
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Tiziana
non-member comment
damn
Its all so green.... like when you see a post card of hawaii, and its obviously been over pixilated to be super duper blue and green. But thats just how it looks there. Its so beautiful....