At the recommendation of pretty much everyone, I decided to take a short trip from Chiang Mai to Pai last weekend. Pai has a reputation for being a laid-back hippie village with lots of nature, and I was excited to explore.
My slice of Pai was only three days long, which felt like the perfect amount. A tiny village in the mountains, a couple days is more than enough to see everything and absorb the overall vibe. It is, indeed, a unique and charming place.
Here’s my 3-day itinerary for Pai, in case you’re thinking of visiting. Be sure to check out the Photo Gallery too.
Getting To Pai
To get to Pai from Chiang Mai, you have essentially two options:
- Rent a car or scooter and drive.
- Take the 15-seater van operated by Prempracha Transports.
The journey is about 150 km through the mountains and takes around 3 hours. Having heard about the winding (with no fewer than 762 curves!) and steep road, I opted for the van.
I’m an intermediate rider, and in retrospect, I could have comfortably made the drive myself, even with all the twists and turns. Plus, the journey is not particularly pleasant by van. If you get car sickness, make sure you bring a bag for this one.
Currently, Prempracha is running a more limited schedule due to COVID-19 with three vans each day. I took the first van in the morning, arriving in Pai around noon.
Day 1 in Pai
I stepped out of the van with my backpack and guitar into the middle of town, which is just a few blocks in size. I walked to my hotel, dropped off my stuff, then walked back into town to rent a scooter.
You should absolutely rent a scooter when you’re in Pai. Most attractions are outside of town in the nearby mountains and valley, and having your own bike means you can explore them all on your own terms. Even if you’ve never ridden before, this would be an easy place to learn, with fewer people and obstacles around than the city.
(Don’t pay more than 100 baht per day for a scooter rental. Just walk another block and you’ll be sure to find one for that price or less.)
I rented a decent bike from aYa Service near the bus stop. Pro: they didn’t request a passport deposit. Con: the bike had clearly seen better days and the speedometer didn’t work, but everything else did. The scooter model was actually the most comfortable ride I’ve been on here.
I grabbed some breakfast and began my adventures, riding south of town towards Pai Canyon. As the town’s three traffic lights receded behind me, I was immediately struck with breathtaking vistas and 360 views of beautiful mountains. These sights combined with that unique silence of towns in the middle of nowhere created a peaceful feeling that would only grow throughout the weekend.
While there was certainly no shortage of tourists in town, the pandemic’s travel break meant that I was alone, or nearly alone, at most of the places outside town, like Pai Canyon. This made for an even more intimate connection with the natural wonders here.
Usually when you think of a canyon you envision a large, narrow depression in the ground. Pai Canyon is the opposite: it’s a winding, narrow catwalk-like path that rises from the ground. I cautiously walked the razor’s edge, with a 30 foot drop on either side, to another outcrop and relaxed there, with more fantastic views surrounding me. I didn’t hike much further before turning back because of the hot sun overhead and the precarious trail.
Afterwards, I stopped by a strawberry farm and got a smoothie right near the canyon. It was delicious, incredibly fresh, and a cool treat to enjoy while kicking back in front of yet another beautiful view.
I headed north on a backroad bypassing town. The road cut through rice paddies and farms the whole way, with farmers busy at work across the rolling plains against the jagged skyline. Off in the distance, you could spot the white Big Buddha staring down from his mountainside.
I stopped in at Wat Si Don Chai, yet another beautiful temple (I still haven’t been to one that I didn’t love in Thailand) and a peaceful respite on my way to Romance Cafe. (Solo travelers like me are welcome to go there too, and the view is worth it.) I enjoyed a cappuccino from the charming farmhouse, lazing back on the porch in the hot sun.
I went home to my hotel for my evening meditation. I had hoped to make it to the Big Buddha in time for sunset; sadly, I got there just as the sun dipped below the horizon. I still climbed the hundreds of stairs and enjoyed the valley view from the top.
I drove back into town for dinner, excited to see what I could find at Pai’s evening walking street market. For such a small town, I was impressed by the size of the night market, winding along each of the town’s few roads for about a kilometer. I enjoyed a delicious chicken curry roti (pancake), some spring rolls, samosas, and a mango shake. I bought a few postcards with nice views of the mountains before turning in and driving the few minutes back to my hotel.
Along the walking street in town — as often is the case at walking street markets — it was chaotic and busy. But not even five minutes away across the river and up a hill, the Ing Doi Guesthouse & Yawning Fields was delightfully peaceful. I sat on the porch of my bungalow and softly played some guitar to a murmuring audience of chirping crickets and croaking frogs. I turned in sometime around 10 pm after spending a few minutes trying to figure out how to put the mosquito netting around my bed. (I’m not sure if it was necessary this time of year, but I didn’t want to find out the hard way.)
The night was surprisingly cold, dropping to around 55 degrees Fahrenheit. My bungalow wasn’t fully enclosed — there was a space between the walls and the roof on all sides — so I felt each one of those 55 degrees as I sunk deeper into the bed. With the thick and comfy blankets, I wasn’t too chilly, and I slept quite well.
Day 2 in Pai
Waking up surrounded by farms is an experience that I would gladly repeat. I was surprised to find a dense curtain of fog in all directions surrounding my bungalow. As the morning drew on and the cool turned to heat, it receded to reveal more green pastures.
After my morning meditation and a somewhat cold shower (the water was hot, but the air was still cold), I headed out to the northwest side of the valley. I made my way past the Santichon Chinese Village up to the Yun Lai Viewpoint, where I enjoyed a morning coffee with great views in every direction, overlooking the whole valley.
I went to the nearby Mo Paeng Waterfall (“namtok” in Thai). Once more the road there was gorgeous, straight out into the mountains with tiny villages along the way. During normal times, the waterfall is probably pretty neat, but with the lack of upkeep due to the pandemic, the bamboo bridges leading up to the water had become precariously dilapidated. If you’re strapped for time, I’d recommend skipping it.
I took a 30-minute journey south to Pam Bok, a small village in the mountains southwest of Pai. The ride there, while beautiful, was a bit dicey at times. The road was very steep and a little run down, with many potholes and rocks to dodge. After passing Pam Bok Waterfall, the road becomes much steeper, too — but it’s worth it.
Arriving in the village of Pam Bok, I came to a clearing tucked away in a tiny valley up in the mountains. I ate at the village restaurant sitting on a bamboo ledge overlooking the fields and town. After some tasty pad Thai, I walked across the Kho Kuu So Bamboo Bridge, which was my highlight for the whole weekend, and one of the coolest places I’ve been to in all of Thailand. Visiting is a must if you go to Pai.
In this tiny valley in the middle of nowhere, the bamboo bridge extends across a field from the village. Those views alone were spectacular. But approaching the other side of the field, I noticed the bridge kept going. I went through some trees, then a little further. Suddenly I was in another field, completely isolated from all signs of civilization save the farms below and the bridge beneath my feet. Each step took me further into a dreamlike trance, alone in the heart of nature in a silence interrupted only by the water buffalo (and their little bells).
After around a kilometer and three sleepy fields from where I’d set out, the bridge finally ended at a small stone bridge over a ravine. Across the bridge was a castle-like structure — a Buddhist temple on a hillside in the middle of the forest. I felt like I was crossing the rainbow bridge and entering Valhalla.
It makes me happy to think that in such an isolated, tucked-away place, people are devoting their lives to the simple, wholesome act of self-purification through meditation and spirituality. For many people and places, what’s behind-the-scenes is a lot less appealing than the personality that is presented. But it gives me hope to be in a place where the unseen is full of purity, goodwill, and compassion. I aspire to be the same way.
Wandering among the trees, pagodas, and Buddha statues for a little while, I enjoyed more stillness away from all the stresses of civilized, socialized life. After an hour and a half, I strolled back across the bridge through the fields. Glancing back one last time to reminisce in what had been a mindblowing journey that exceeded all expectations, I got on my bike and started downhill.
Halfway down the mountain, I stopped at Namtok Pem Bok. If you get annoyed at places where prices are higher for foreigners than locals, don’t even bother stopping here. But if you’re okay with paying 200 baht (that’s only $6, but still) for a five minute walk through a narrow ravine to a graceful waterfall, then I’d say it’s worth it.
“Pai is a hippie town,” I’d been told by numerous people, and besides the occasional unkempt backpacker wearing funny pants in town, this was my only experience rubbing up against somewhat unusual, hippie-like activities. I’ve been to enough Phish shows and music festivals that these things don’t really affect me, but it was still quite amusing to find a naked girl doing an esoteric interpretive spinning dance beneath the waterfall while another girl filmed the whole thing. We all just laughed together and somehow enjoyed the freezing cold water.
I made my way down the mountain further, now passing the Pai Landsplit. Though I had planned on stopping there, it was closed due to the pandemic. If you’re planning on going, make sure to check if they’ve reopened. (I was there around December 3rd, 2021, for reference.)
I went back to my hotel for evening meditation, timing it so I wouldn’t miss the sunset this time. I drove down a gorgeous scenic road on the eastern side of town to Two Huts, where I enjoyed a refreshing soda while overlooking the entire valley and the sun setting across it. If you want to meet other travelers, Two Huts would be a great place to find them.
I drove back into town for another night of streetfood, this time satisfying a craving for a burger and fries followed by a smoothie and some tea while I wandered around and did some shopping.
I’m pretty sure there are a lot of bars and nightlife along Pai’s walking street, especially later into the night. I heard some people talking about getting home to their hotel around 2 am the previous night, for example. If that’s something that interests you, it seems there’s a cool scene for it here. The cafes and bars around town are very aesthetically pleasing in their hippie way, kind of like Boulder, Colorado or Berkeley, California.
Personally, I’m not much of a clubber, so I went home for an encore appearance to the crickets and frogs. After my performance, I reminded them to check out and pre-save my new album, coming out on December 28th. I went to bed at the wonderful hour of 9 pm and got a fantastic night of sleep through the chilly fog.
Day 3 in Pai
I had seen pretty much everything around Pai by now. Still, with the town’s laid-back reputation, sticking around for a chill third day was a great way to wrap up the weekend before I hopped on the last van back to Chiang Mai, departing Pai at 4:00 pm.
I went into town and stopped into Anong Thai Massage. Even more than the rest of Thailand, Pai has a reputation for its relaxation and hospitality, so I figured this would be a great place to kick back and get a massage. It was wonderful, complete with a cup of tea afterwards.
I dropped my bike off and left my guitar at the shop — great customer service at aYa, folks — while I wandered around town for a few hours. I explored the temples in town, which were quite nice and definitely worth checking out, and then did some work at a calm little cafe. As I returned to aYa to pick up my guitar, I laughed — renting a bike at that moment was the girl who had been dancing naked in the waterfall. It’s a small enough village that you’re bound to run into the same people many times, after all.
The van ride back to Chiang Mai was rougher and more nauseating than the one I had remembered, perhaps because it was now downhill. Three hours of getting jerked around was enough to give me a sizable headache in the backseat. Next time I’ll definitely just take a scooter.
The Taste Of Pai
I was happy with my three-day slice of Pai. It seemed sufficient to see everything, and I left feeling satisfied.
Your itinerary will depend on what you’re looking for. Personally, I’m into the nature stuff, which is pretty much all outside town. If you’re looking to party on a budget, you can do plenty of that here too, but if you’re looking to experience authentic Thai culture, I would recommend nearby Mae Hong Son, Chiang Rai, or even Chiang Mai, which all have far less tourist density than Pai. Still, whether you’re into partying, nature, both, or something else, there’s something to love for everyone here.
What do you love about Pai? Did I miss anything that you’d recommend? Leave a comment below!
With peace & love,
Andrew
P.S. Here’s the link to the photo gallery again in case you missed it!
