Pai, Thailand

Day 42: Hello Pai
Just paid 150 baht for the most enjoyable 3.5 hour roller coaster or maybe it was more comparable to the turtle migration on Finding Nemo. Either way, WOW. Our shuttle van was zooming through the most curvy mountain roads all the way to Pai. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous as we headed deeper into the mountains. It began to rain and finally the sun set, but the curvy roads were just getting started! Getting to Pai was the most exciting and enjoyable drive ever!
We were dropped in a dark parking lot in town with no tuk tuks in sight to help us reach our hostel. Of course it began to rain, so we ran to a little cafe to watch for tuk tuks and look at a map of our surroundings. The cafe owner happened to be an angel. He said at this time of night and in the rain it’d be hard to find a tuk tuk. We would have been left with no other option but to walk a mile in the dark rain to our hostel if it weren’t for his kindness. He called a cab driver friend of his that took us to our hostel which was only about a 5 minute drive away.

Hello Spicy Pai! A top recommended hostel in Pai I believe this place is something comparable to glamping or maybe living on a hippie commune. We were shown to our beds in an open air room that resembled a Lost Boy’s treehouse from Peter Pan or the treehouse from Swiss Family Robinson. Our beds had mosquito nets and all. There was a cafe/bar and an upper deck area with hammocks where people were hanging out conversing and sipping on Chang beers. We went up to meet our new hostel crowd before heading to bed. Played some King’s Cup and met some awesome girls from Colorado who invited us to join them on their motorbike adventures the next day!

Day 43: Scooter Gang
After some free toast and coffee in the hammock dawning upstairs loft at Spicy Pai I left for town on the back of a new friends scooter for a legit breakfast of avocado and eggs on toast. Afterwards I joined forces with Abby and our 2 new friends from Colorado to complete our biker girl gang for the day. We left on the most fantastical adventure that had me falling in love with Pai by evening.

Upon rental of scooters we all realized we had negative zero gas (how kind) so we asked for the nearest gas station direction and were given some odd pointing hand signals. About 3 minutes later Abby ran out of gas. GREAT START hahaha. We all four parked our bikes on the side of the street and began walking in the direction we believed we would find a gas station. About 15 minutes later of sunshiney sweat later we arrived at a 7 eleven that gave us a bottle of gas to take back. We filled Abby up and all drove back to the station to fill our tanks as well. Alrighty then… off to the Pai Canyon!
About 15 minutes later down the highway we arrived at the Pai Canyon. It was a lovely ride and an easy place to find. We walked up to the viewpoint and were wowed by the cool landscape and beautiful surrounding mountains. After exploring and meeting some Australian girls we headed down just as a monsoon of rain hit. Luckily there were a few little covered food stands in the parking lot for us to wait out the rain and enjoy a snack. I finally tried a mango smoothie and was pleasantly surprised by it.

(Mangoes are very popular here but I don’t typically like them!)
Finally the rain let up and our biker gang reassembled for the next stop on our way back to town… The Land Split. Alright guys, this place is the coolest!! Basically an active fault line resulting from a 2008 earthquake resides on the friendliest farmers land just outside of town. He decided to welcome this opportunity as a way to invite tourists onto his land and offer them a variety of fresh garden fruits and his wonderful hospitality. Backpackers flock here to not only see the land split but to experience this man’s kindness and delicious offerings in return for donations! (Pretty sure this guy is actually making bank from how many people donate to him for his awesome service! He literally serves you a platter of fruits, fresh roselle juice, and homemade wine.)

Next we continued down this road to Pambok Waterfall. It was a nice little sight on our way up to a viewpoint a few kilometers past it. This area was a bamboo walkway over a beautiful grassy landscape that led to a Buddhist temple at the back of the property. It was such a peaceful walk with only a few other tourists around and very epic foggy mountain scenery.
We ended up back the Land Split on our way back to town. The farmer would not let up on “more wine?” (Given, these bottles were tiny and enough for the four of us to sip on about 1 oz each time.) About 5 bottles later it was sunset and we knew we needed to head back. Biker gang assembled and we approached the hostel just as the rain started to strike again.

Hot showers (jk they were ice cold) later we walked to the hostel cafe, The Oasis, so I could finally try out their Pad Thai. It was amazing with crushed peanuts and chili pepper on top! Later we reconvened with everyone in the loft and decided to head to town for everyone else to get dinner. Seems that the crowd of mostly Americans were all craving Mexican food so we found a place on the main “walking street” to sit and dine on burritos. Being incredibly full from the oversized portion of pad thai I was still so excited about a burrito that I indulged in a small bean and cheese one. Delicious!
Some stayed out to party in town while the 4 biker chicks headed back up the road to our hostel. We sat in the loft and talked about our day before Abby and I called an early night at “lights out” while the Colorado gals headed to the one bar opened until 2am, “Don’t Cry” reggae bar.
Day 44: Sai Ngam Hot Springs
Free coffee and toast in a loft hammock soaking up 360 degree mountain views led to our decent into town about 12pm. We renowned our bikes for another 24 hours for about $3 and had some food at the next door restaurant, Why Not Bar. EVERYONE… this place was playing Christian music and it made my soul so so happy! Despite the logo confusingly having a devilish character on it, this place must be owned by Christians. It was a real breathe of fresh air to eat and listen to familiar music that reminded me of my awesome God and church family back home.
One of our Colorado girls joined back up with us here to renew her scooter as well and we all 3 road off to the “not so touristy” hot spring called Sai Ngam. There is a main hot spring in Pai advertised to most tourists and possibly easier to access for the price of 300 baht. However, another one is a more scenic 25 minute ride away to a quieter one for 40 baht a person if on a motorbike.
The drive was amazingly gorgeous and I stared at the mountains in awe of God’s creations and the joy he gives to his people with worldly items such as scooters and windy mountain roads! We finally pull off at the Sai Ngam Hot Springs sign and pay a guard 40 baht each. We see a sign that says Hot Springs 4km and we push on. Whoa… this road got crazy vertical and then the rain hit. Seriously?! We were almost there safely. The hills were killing our gas and the rain was giving terrible traction and visibility. The longest 4km ever we finally reached the hot spring and ran to jump in the steaming water! It was amazing. Turns out the cold rain made it that much more enjoyable to jump into.

We zyned out for awhile in the peaceful warm waters before hopping out for some tea at a stand and some bottles of gas for our bikes (thank you Jesus). We headed back to town for some hot cups of coffee at a great place called Sabai Sabai on walking street. Lattes and espresso, an experimental minced pork omelet over steamed rice, and some red wine later we were the happiest of campers. Our friend left back for her new hostel and we excitedly went to walk the street in search of the coolest jewelry store EVER that we had passed earlier that day on our scooters.

About an hour and 3,000 baht later we walked away more than satisfied with our new rings and souvenir/Christmas jewelry for our families. Such a successful day! The rain began to trickle down as we started our bikes for a quick 5 minute ride up the hill to our hostel. We made it just in time for the monsoon and took some chilly showers before an early bed. Tomorrow we planned on an early morning to head to the local tourist attraction, The Chinese Village, however, 5am came way to early and it was still raining. Our open air treehouse was filled with cold wind and we refused to leave our warm mosquito-netted beds…
Day 45: Falling in Love with Pai
A few hours after our horrifying 5am alarms we awoke to a beautiful morning. We showered and packed our bags to move to a different hostel for our last 2 nights in Pai. We loved Spicy Pai and it’s rustic accommodations in the mountain but wanted to give up our scooters for life “in town” for a couple of days. We dropped our bags off in town at our new home, Huan Saran Guesthouse, and we left on a quick trip to an iconic cafe just outside of town before returning our bikes. This umbrella-roofed, strawberry-obsessed place was quite funny. Strawberry brownies, cake, wine, purses, statues, photo cutouts, keychains, jams, etc… OMG they had strawberry everything. It was quite a sight and had very nice mountain views!

Oh and Abby’s bike was almost on empty which led to our semi-lesbian situation for the last stretch of our ride. (Because we refused to fill her bike up with anymore gas after they gave it to us on empty.) Abby and I enjoyed a nice final ride before returning the scooters hahahaha.
Back in town we walked around and found some cheap books at a bookstore and lunch just across the street. The daily rain hit just as we finished up and luckily our hostel was a quick walk away since we were now in town. We grabbed some gas station wine, our new books, and our laptops to sit out the storm on the hostel porch.

The rain subsided a bit and we walked back out on the street to head to our new favorite jewelry shop to continue our addiction. Wouldn’t you know it we didn’t make it there before running into some hostel friends at Why Not Bar! We joined them for awhile and I indulged in the most delicious Nacho Supreme order takeaway from Primo’s which was just across the street.
I left the crew for a bit to reach the jewelry shop to make my final purchases. This place is seriously amazing. I ended up purchasing quite a bit again which resulted in the owner taking my picture to add to her facebook. Embarrassing. I walked back and found everyone finishing up at Why Not. It was decidedly time to try every type of street food available. (I think food poisoning is like pregnancy. It’s the worst, but then you quickly forget how horrible it was & do it again. I can’t resist food. So much of it absolutely everywhere on this street.) So without further adieu we feasted.
Basically banana/nutella flavored pancakes, crepes, spring rolls, roti, waffles, etc… all of it is amazing. New fave combo. Sugar cane on sticks, empanadas, black sticky rice, etc… So many delicious things to try!

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Day 46: Sunny Adventures
A gorgeous morning greeted us here in Pai! I woke up before Abby and went to Why Not to read and eat breakfast. Afterwards Abby and I headed back to our scooter rental place, because we can’t resist the joy of these things for 100 baht a day. First stop, the Village Farm. I originally wanted to visit this place to see the advertised alpacas only to find a sign saying that they alpacas were gone on a 1 month holiday. Total crap. However, the garden cafe was absolutely adorable still. We enjoyed a refreshing italian sofa while listening to elegant music and watching bunnies frolic beside us.
We hopped back on the bikes and headed to the other side of town where we had been a couple days before. Only about 15 minutes away we arrived back at the Land Split to dine on some free fresh garden items once again. After this we scooted back towards town to an iconic cafe known for it’s “egg chairs” overlooking the picturesque mountains. The Container cafe did not disappoint. These chairs were super relaxing!

Hungry for dinner we arrived back into town around sunset and found a place to chow down on some stir fried mushrooms and noodles! We walked around and enjoyed some of the pop-up evening shops before finding ourselves back at THE jewelry shop. Abby finished up her shopping and we ended up next door at a hair wrapping place. Yep, we finally committed to the hippie hair wrap that everyone seems to have here. Cheers to permanent rat tails!

Day 47: Chasing Waterfalls

Our last full day in Pai was spent gloriously. It’s hard to have a bad day in Pai even if it consists of returning your beloved scooter and planning out frustrating travel plans for the coming weeks. We kicked off the morning with a quick trip up the hill to the White Buddha. We hiked the stairs and stared at it’s beauty (even with it’s construction back brace).

Next we headed to an extra slippery waterfall known for it’s “waterslide” cascades. This rock was so slippery just on the dry parts trying to reach the top where people jump onto the waterslide. It was a pretty day and I enjoyed some suntanning before the local kiddos came by storm splashing the frigid water on me and showing Abby how to slide the waterfall. They were super cute little ninja kids that could just run up the rock unlike us. We had a nice local lunch on our way back to the highway from the waterfall. Some cheap and delicious pad thai and Chang.

Our scooters were soon to be returned but we somehow had almost full tanks still from filling up yesterday. We couldn’t give the scooters back full after receiving them with so little gas that we ran out on our way to the gas station. So we decided to take a speedy adventure down another road we hadn’t explored. We headed out passed Spicy Pai (our last hostel) and had a perfect final ride. It was a gorgeous road lined with shady trees in full yellow blossom AND elephants. We came across 3 elephant camps on the road. Very surreal just nonchalantly passing these ginormous creatures on the roadside.

After returning our scooters on a 90% full tank of gas (smeh) we ended up at an adorable hotel cafe across the street from our guesthouse that had good wifi for us to plan out our coming weeks. A couple hours later and we were both wishing we could just pay a travel agent to plan everything. Vietnam visas are ridiculous expensive… for Americans. Oh and this comes to me after I’ve booked a flight there. Please take all my money… cool. Abby was having trouble even getting a flight booked, which turned out to be a blessing. Anyways, all this led to a much needed Thai massage.

 

I had been avoiding these massages for quite some time after hearing painful stories from others about pressure and insane stretching. I’ve only ever had oil massages, so this seemed quite foreign and not relaxing to me. However, I refused to leave Thailand without experiencing a real Thai massage and it was actually pretty great! Weird getting massages with all your clothes still on and definitely not as relaxing as an oil massage, but the pressure was great. It was kind of like a mixture of a chiropractor and a masseuse. She folded me into some strange positions which produced an uncomfortable amount of pops from my body.

To top off the day in true Pai fashion we raided the streets for delicious foods. I indulged in my new favorite dessert, Banana nutella roti, among other things before heading off to bed.

Day 48: Roller coaster back to Chiang Mai!
Woohoo! Sad to leave Pai, but so excited for this 3.5 hour twisty, scenic, mountain drive back to Chiang Mai. (We actually had a guy throwing up on our way back because of car sickness… it’s serious business.) See ya in Chiang Mai for our last few days in Thailand!

 

Wander On,

Sammi Kaye