Pai Pai

About a week ago Nok and I went on a 4-day trip to the North of Thailand. Originally we were planning to visit the Long neck Karen in Mae Hong Son province. Only 2 ways to get there, the plane or siting for 6 hours in a bus. We decide for the bus, but with a stop-over halfway in Pai. We heard a lot of positive reactions about Pai so we gave it a shot. 3 hours in a minibus to Pai!

Pai in Thai means "go" so a funny saying is "Pai pai" "going to Pai". A lot of backpackers have made Pai their second home. Pai is said to have beautiful landscapes and countryside, cheap accommodations and the availability of illegal drugs.

After 3 hours in the minibus we arrived finally in Pai. We survived the more than 700 curves, but looked more like zombies than human. We didn't find the cheap guesthouses, but that was a bit our mistake. Not that we were too lazy to walk around and ask, oooh no we had to ask a lot for free rooms. A lot of tourist resided in Pai at that time. A lot of foreign backpackers and an even amount of Thai people. After the Birthday of the King, which is a national holiday, most Thai people get a week, know as the Thai golden week, holiday. So we really got a bad timing. Finally we found a little guesthouse just out of town for a reasonable price.

We were still amazed about the quite little town of Pai with its 2000 inhabitants. It wasn't quiet at all and there were about 4 times more tourists then inhabitants. But you could so that Pai lives from tourism, most of the town is collection of guesthouses, bars, shops and restaurants. I never saw such a wide collection of food (Mexican, Thai, Arabic, French, ,...) on such a small surface.

I can agree that Pai has cheap stuff and rooms, but it wouldn't be cheaper than any other part of Thailand. The town wasn't so calm, but still we had high hopes about the views. We rented a motorbike and off we were! A beautiful day, a sky dotted with clouds and a blazing sun. We had the best possible weather and saw nice landscapes, even though we were certainly not alone and had to watch out not to be pushed of the road. But still I couldn't understand why you had to go to Pai for the landscapes, I think you can find the same scenery in Chiang Mai and certainly in Mae Hong Son, which is for me richer in nature.

So maybe I should conclude to say that the backpacker tourists come to Pai for the illegal drugs. I am sure this is not true. We didn't even saw a sign of drugs, I wasn't looking for it of course. And now with the military government in Thailand it must be very hard to get even in the remote places, because we saw some control of the Thai military.

I can understand that Pai attracts people, especially the young backpackers. Because everything in Pai is developed for the backpacker's taste. You can get your rastas done, get a hennep tattoo, eat all you favourite global or local food, ... So if you like Khaosan road in Bangkok you will also love Pai. (Khaosan road the backpacker area of Bangkok. Cheap accommodations and a lot of special souvenirs to buy there. A special party atmosphere is haunting the place and people can't stop having fun, but it is a place where you will be surrounded by other backpackers. In the movie "The Beach" Khaosan is the place where Leonardo Di Caprio stays in a guesthouse in the beginning of the movie).

The beautiful nature of Pai can be found in most parts of the North of Thailand, like in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Phrae, Mae Hong Son. Phayao, ... Even the hill tribe populations in Pai are not very diversified. Mainly the colourful Lisu live around Pai.

More than half a year ago there was an American film crew in the North of Thailand and they used wild nature locations in Chiang Mai, Pai and Mae Hong Son for the new Rambo movie, starring Sylvester Stallone of course!

Pictures of Pai: