pai

Beautiful view across the river in Pai (you can't really see the mountains because of the smog from the burning of the rice fields)

Typical Pai art

Well, what to say about Pai? It’s a small town in the Mae Hong Son Province in northern Thailand near the Myanmar (Burma) border. It’s about 80km north of Chiang Mai and the road has more than 700 curves on it. The Lonely Planet calls it the Khao San Road of northern Thailand and in terms of the number of backpackers and hippies you can see how it got that name. Pai is a super chilled out place that is like a mini-paradise (if you are a backpacker or hippie or just want to chill out for a few days). You can rent a riverside bungalow for £3 a night, there are lots of bars and chilled out places to go at night, cheap and delicious food, and a night street market. There are also hardly any cars so everyone zips around on mopeds or bicycles, or you can walk around the town centre because it is really small.

We spent the weekend here doing a little bit of sightseeing and chilling out before our epic bus and boat journey to Laos. As there were four of us (me, Rebecca, Maria (from Peru) and Josephina (from Chile)) going sightseeing so it worked out cheaper to hire a taxi for half a day to visit the Chinese village, temple and waterfall that are all just outside of town. We thought our driver was quite funny until he asked us if we liked whisky and asked Maria if she wanted to go for a walk around Pai for 10-20 minutes that night. When he asked how old I was I said that I was an old woman and he replied ‘I know’ – thanks very much!

The Chinese village was a bit odd because it is sort of in the middle of nowhere and kind of looks like a deserted Disney land version of some Chinese style buildings. We played on the Chinese swing, walked around the castle/temple, ate some Chinese food before heading off to the waterfall.

As it’s the end of the dry season the waterfall was lovely but you could tell the water levels were low. There were lots of Thai kids and teenagers splashing about and sliding down the rocks into the small pools at the bottom. I’d read that Thai people are quite modest and go swimming in their clothes, and it’s true because everyone was swimming in shorts and t-shirts. It was so refreshing to swim in the waterfall as it was such a hot day. Of course I managed to slip on a slippery rock on the way out and fell flat on my bum and got my clothes all wet!

The castle/temple at the Chinese village

Crazy swing at the Chinese village

We ate lots of super yummy food including new types of curry, more fruit shakes, more roti (this time banana, cheese slice and nutella – yum!) and also tried traditional Thai iced coffee. We had to take a photograph of the ingredients because it’s super delicious despite the inclusion of margarine!

At the waterfall (me and Rebecca doing our best to look as super-white as possible next to the South American chicas)

We also did a lot of hanging out at our riverside bungalow and in the bamboo common area. Josephina was a newly trained yoga teacher so I took my first yoga class in Spanish on the riverbank – bliss! Our other yoga spot was on the grass under the papaya tree next to our bungalow.

The night market had a lot of hand-made products by local artists and designers, and there’s definitely a ‘Pai aesthetic’ to the products and souvenirs on sale. We met an artist/writer called Moon Tree who made the most beautiful hand illustrated postcards and sold them on a blanket at the side of the road.

On our last day we went to a swimming pool/bar to hang out (some more) and escape the heat for a bit before taking the evening bus to the border with Laos.