Pai

Pai is truly one of the best towns in all of Thailand. It is a total hippie town set in beautiful countryside. A trip to Thailand is not complete without a visit here.

Christy and I had a long weekend during midterms so we headed up to the far northwestern part of Thailand. To reach Pai, it's an overnight bus from BKK to Chiang Mai and then another 3 or 4 hours on a winding road before you hit town. It was long, but totally worth it. We were fortunate enough to sneak in a horizontal nap under the stairs at the bus station between buses.

Everything is about love in Pai and the surrounding areas. There is a large section of town that has been taken over by tourists. Each night there is a market and live music all over the place. There are a lot of locals making jewelry and crafts that are sold right there in cute shops or in the evening market. Coffee is becoming a popular crop grown in the area, now that there are restrictions on growing poppies. There are also strawberry farms (yum) plus the usual rice and other crop fields. It's a new area to tourism, but I think that they are doing it right.

When we arrived in Pai, we found a sweet bungalow right along the river and stayed there for the night. (They only had one night available so we ended up moving). It was one of the nicest bungalows I have ever stayed in and also had a kickass view of the river.

Christy had never ridden an elephant so we did an afternoon elephant ride and bathing trip. I am beginning to lose track of how many times I have been on elephants, but this ride was different from the others. (The mahout was more aggressive with the elephant than I would have liked and have seen in the past. I am no elephant trainer so maybe it was okay….not sure. Other than that it was fun!) This was the first time I had been tossed off an elephant! We rode down to the river and swam a lot as the elephant shook is head and threw us into the water. It was a good time.

The next morning we were signed up to do a tour up around the Mae Hong Son area. They picked us up at 4:00 am so we could get out to a lake by sunrise. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to the sunrise, but it was a nice, peaceful way to start the day. It ended up being a beautiful day.

We stopped off at a small lake for breakfast. I'm not sure what it was called but it was beautiful. 

The tour was okay. I would have much rather gotten a motorbike and cruised around at a more leisurely pace. The countryside was amazing, but we drove by it all too fast to really take it all in. Tours can be great because you don't have to think and come in handy when time is limited, but I almost always prefer to cruise at my own slow pace. We stopped off at a waterfall and fed the fish. I wandered downstream and enjoyed the peacefulness of the woods and the great outdoors. I really miss it here in Bangkok and only get away like that occasionally. Then we stopped at a hot spring and mud bath area. I definitely went for the hot spring. It was in a fancy pool and I had the whole place to myself since everyone else wanted massages and mud treatments.

One of our last stops was at the Long Neck Karen Village. I didn't go! I refused to support it. I happily sat at a picnic table in the sun drinking a Chang while the group paid money to enter the village so they could to look at the people and take pictures of them like they were animals at a zoo. No thanks.

I have seen pictures of them and that's enough. The women with the rings on their necks don't leave their village. They are afraid if they leave and people see them in public then tourists won't pay to come in to their village. That is no way to live. I cannot support that. I understand the tradition, but don't condone what tourism has done to it. The girl I was traveling with did go in and I am going to use her picture. (This one is not my photo)

The next day Christy took a zero and I got a motorbike to explore the Pai countryside. In the morning while having a delicious breakfast I talked with Ben and within a couple minutes I had officially decided I was going to go back to Montana for the 2012 season. I had been debating my options for a long time and it felt great to finally make the decision. With a full belly and a smile on my face I headed off on my motorbike.

There is a lot to see around Pai. The first stop was the Chinese Village and the lookout point. There was a man up on the hill charging admission to stand on the top and look out. Ha. I actually laughed out loud at him when he asked for money. Of course I didn't pay. I just took my bike to another hill with a view that was about the same...for free. Next stop was the busy Mae Paeng waterfall to the west of town. It was a nice series of waterfalls full of sunbathers and anybody wanting to escape the heat of the day.

I stopped at a few of the cute shops, sunflower fields, strawberry farms, and simply enjoyed the countryside as I cruised down random roads. One of the highlights was the Pai Canyon with its awesome views and hiking.

Pai Canyon

On most mornings I would try to go out for a run. I found a quiet road outside town that took me right by a manual ferris wheel and had to try it! Posted below are random pictures from the area and our couple hours walking around Chiang Mai.