A beautiful piece of Pai
Pai was one of the places we had had on our definite list when we were planning our travels to Thailand. Whenever I had asked anyone for recommendations they had always mentioned Pai being one of their favourite parts of Thailand as it was such a quirky, hippy town. The vibe there is so chilled that it convinced me I could live there.
I should probably have noted when I first wrote this post that the journey to Pai is hell. But its HELLa cheap. lol. We had to get a bus from Chiang Mai to Pai which travels around to all different pick up points in Chiang Mai but we were lucky as one of the pick up points were directly outside of our hotel. The buses there are very frequent and for a 3 hour journey it costs you the equivalent of less than a fiver. The roads are shocking, they have so many winds and bends and you only have one stop off to take a breather. So many people were very sick during the journey so i would 100% advise taking travel sickness tablets, I don't get travel sickness at all but I was convinced a couple of times I was gonna throw up. Grim.
We had met a couple on a trip in Chiang Mai who had told us about a really cool thing you could do via booking.com which meant if you used each others referral codes it can get you up to £15 off each trip, which massively came in handy. We stayed at the Pai Yadodo resort which wasn't amazing but we had a beautiful room, a cute little pool and beautiful gardens. However, I would recommend staying closer to the centre of Pai as neither of us drive and most people get around there via motorbikes whereas we had to use taxis which weren't available past 9pm. If we were to walk from the centre back to our hotel it would have probably taken us just over twenty minutes.
Other than the hotel being a little further away from the centre than anticipated and the taxi situation, we LOVED Pai. To prove just how cool the vibe is there: We wanted a chilled night one night with a cocktail so we found a cute little bar and drank Mai Tais whilst playing Jenga which they had brought to the table with our drinks. Any bar that brings you Jenga to play while you sip your cocktails is a winner in my eyes!
We booked an excursion whilst in Pai called the Pai Lets go tour, this has shitty reviews on trip advisor but don't listen to them, it's a super cheap, fun day and we met some of the most amazing people on this trip... we met two American guys that were vlogging their trip, we met three people from Chile that had never met before their travels and yet ended up travelling together, we met other people too and all of them showed us how travelling really does bring people together from all different walks of life. The day started with us being picked up from our hotel in a big pick up truck, we went on to pick up the others from their hostels and then we were taken to a gorgeous viewpoint with this crazy swing that could lift up to four people in the air. Pai is bursting with beautiful scenery and this tour gave us all of the Instagram worthy pictures & more...
Hot springs, waterfalls & caves
We were supposed to go Bamboo rafting on this trip but the weather had been pretty bad so we the water level wasn't right for it or so we were told lol. We still got to explore some really cool caves with lanterns which were full of crystals and cool patterns engraved in the walls which the tour guides kept making random suggestions to what they were to make us all laugh. We also got to spend time bathing in hot springs and we visited a waterfall which most of us were using as a waterslide, it was so much fun! We went on to have lunch together which was pad thai or fried rice and we were given endless fruit platters of pineapple, watermelon & banana.
Pai Canyon
(Hey flip flops, lol)
On the tour we also got to visit this amazing Canyon at sunset, we had to climb up to get to the best view point and I got so nervous about crossing over some parts as the drops were crazy but the people we met on the tour were so literally so cute and supportive, one guy stood behind me and held my shoulders so tightly whilst I walked across so I knew that I was safe. It was so worth climbing for the most beautiful view and we all got to sit together on a rock and it is just crazy the sense of closeness you can receive from people you have just met.
The White Buddha
Whilst I don't regret the excursion we chose to do in Pai because of the people we met we realised after we booked this trip that there were other day tours on offer that took you to way more places. We ended up booking a taxi that could take us to the white buddha & Coffee in love, the taxis are incredibly cheap and the driver waits for you whilst you spend time at each spot which is insane.
To get to the White Buddha we had to climb a lot of stairs which is never a shock in Thailand, although I didn't workout at all whilst I was out there I was constantly kept active. Once we reached the top the views were again amazing but the White Buddha we had been so eager to see was unfortunately under construction. We still got to see it but if you search the white buddha on tagged on instagram one girl has the most amazing picture taken with it and literally if there was anything we wanted to recreate it was that.
We visited Coffee in love as obviously if anything has the word coffee in the name you know I will be hop, skip and leaping towards it. I know I keep talking about the views but for real.... the view whilst I sat with my coffee & cake was just out of this world. Coffee in love is actually a famous movie set from a Thai film, it is a coffee shop in the most beautiful setting and it was definitely worth it for all the gorgeous pictures we got to take and as a decent cup of coffee is pretty hard to come by in Thailand this place gave me just that.
Pai walking street
Thailand is full of 'walking streets' but Pai definitely had the best ones. Full of street food stalls, cool bars, etc. We were loving life. We found a stall serving up different kinds of bruschetta and we found a cool bar to drink Thai beer whilst listening to 50s music, our seats were right in the street so we could people watch whilst stuffing our faces. It is no secret to anyone that avocado is my one true love and here in Pai I found avocado spring rolls. What a freaking delight.
So there you have it, the beautiful Pai. We only spent three nights here and it was worth every single one. The rain can get crazy here as we experienced on our first night but the vibe is second to none.
Thanks for reading, H x
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