A little history on this magical village with it's very own river, Pai river...Pai is a teeny hippie town about 50 miles north of Chiangmai, on the northern route to Mae Hong Son province, and is located near the Myanmar border.. This area used to be notorious for drug smuggling along with corrupt police officials' haven... Population: about 2000 citizens with full sleeve tattoos, girls and guys alike. In fact, I wanted to get a bamboo tattoo and wanted it designed at Korn's tattoo shop, but he was booked up. There was an Australian chick getting an ornate tree design on her side, apparently her friend had gotten tattooed there and she flew across continents to get tattooed there on her friend's recommendation! I will be back!
When i asked one of the governing officials of the town what they were known for, in Pai, he replied, "hospitality" and "lasting impressions." This is very loosely translated, of course. There is always something lost in translation. The ride up there in the minibus was freaking crazy. The minibus driver played chicken the whole way and I thought we were all going to end up in the valley below, a few times. The teeny mountain road was extremely curvy and i did not hurl but felt a bit queasy. We arrived safely, nonetheless.
We met a few of Pai's government officials on the river, and knocked back a few cold ones with them and they all eventually went to bed, and we stayed there by the river. Someone went and got their guitar and we just hung out in the moonlight, and listened to some tunes. After a while, we all went back to our huts for the night.
There were many backpackers visiting during my week long stay in Pai. There was no shortage of things to see or do. There was a night market every night that displayed art, jewelry, clothing, you name it, it was there for the taking. i saw yoga studios, reiki healing, salons that offered dreadlocking, dayspas, a few tattoo parlors, basically, Pai is the modern day hippie's dream come true. Prices were a bit steep and not very hippie like but very modest when you convert to U.S. dollars. There were millions of food stands, and I even made friends with some of the locals and hung out with them one night. Praew, was vacationing from Bangkok with her boyfriend and decided to open a skewer stand for fun. They bought fresh produce and meat from the local farmer's market and made a little extra income..My other new friend Pued, looked like thai Bob Marley, he was from Bangkok, but has lived in Pai for a few years now. He ended up making me an anklet as a gift. That's what he does for a living, he hand makes bracelets and anklets. I watched him make my anklet on a solid piece of teak wood. He claimed that piece of teak wood has made him a lot of money so far!I would say, of all the things I've ever received, that anklet is high up on the list.
The restaurants and cafes within the village were a bit pricey, around $2/ dish. Still cheap by Western standards!
The best food though, was the street food. I will forever remember the best banana waffle i've ever had, was on the streets of Pai. Another notable was the burger shack. The owner used to live in Atlanta, Georgia but now lives in Pai with his girlfriend, and he opened up this burger shack. He said the cattle are raised similar to kobe, therefore the meat is marbled and juicy. The aforementioned delicious fatty meat had be ordered from another province in Thailand, I forget which one. I'm confirming that the meat was, indeed, amazing. I don't think there was ever a time when I was far from delicious food during my Pai trip!
Oh and I'll never ever forget this part... we rented a motorbike to get around on. It happened that they were sold out of motorbikes at the shop but someone rode in to return theirs in the nick of time. We thought we were so so lucky and set off to explore the mountains. A few hours pass by, and i'm still awestruck by the peaceful beauty of the countryside, almost falling off the bike a few times to snap pictures. I encourage the navigator of the motorbike to slow down on a few occasions...all of a sudden, we are both thrown in the air. There were a few potholes, the one that took us out looked to be about a foot and a half deep but wasn't visible at all from where we had been before we ate it. I looked down and my knee was white with blood starting to form around the edges. My palms looked like stigmata. I cried for approximately 15 seconds and proceeded to pick the gravel out of my knee, and hands. The bike navigator had even more gashes than i did and all I could remember saying was, "ride over to the hospital." hahahahahahahahahaha. The hospital was about 40 kilometers away. The sun had set by then, and the bugs were flying at us, thick as thieves. The wind would hit our wounds and we would cringe. Finally, we made it to the hospital. Apparently we were not the only casualties around these parts. A german man had to have stitches...my wounds didn't require stitches but the nurse cut off a few pieces of skin that were hanging. Antibiotics were prescribed, and the doctor said it was necessary to come back to the hospital and change my wounds because it was a very deep wound. I didn't listen and stopped at the local pharmacy and bought gauze, sterile saline, and betadine. Bad idea. I won't go into it, but I ended up back at the hospital the next day, just as the doctor ordered. My friend didn't have any of his wounds tended to and now has horrible scars. Mine have healed amazingly. Thanks modern medicine. As far as the bruised motorbike, the owner of the motorbike shop caused a scene and called the cops and demanded money for the damage done to the bike. The price she named at first was pretty much the value of the bike. I think i ended up giving her 1500 baht, about $50. Whatever, moving on... I limped around for the next few days. It hurt soooooo bad for the next 2 weeks! I don't think my wounds fully healed until i got back to the U.S. note to self: never rent an automatic motorbike and never let anyone else navigate ever again. There weren't very many things I could do, being handicapped, so I limped to the walking street and ate a lot and listened to live music ,visited the Don't Cry Lounge which was a reggae bar and had free wifi! Wifi is a commodity in southeast asia, i must say! I had activated international roaming with my AT&T iphone before i left Los Angeles, but tried to use it as sparingly as possible. My phone bill for the 3 weeks that i was in thailand ended up being about $450. Yikes! I have since purchased an international prepaid sim from telestial, in anticipation of my next journey. Telestial provides you with 2 numbers, one American, and one from the UK, which makes it more cost effective for my friends or my Dad to call me from the U.S.
There were many hotsprings in the area, and waterfalls. The best hotspring though, was the one we found by accident, that had no signs. It smelled like rotten eggs.
I even saw a Buffalo Exchange in Pai! I guess the town sees so much foot traffic that it makes sense to open up a vintage store?! It's the first vintage store I've ever seen in Thailand! There was one Italian place and we had pizza there, and while it was yummy, it didn't taste authentic. Duh. I kept thinking about how things got there, seeing as the town was in the sticks. Where did cheese come from? I don't remember seeing any cows. A few elephants that were shackled (sad) on the outskirts of town, but no cows. The locals capture wild elephants and train them to give rides to foreigners. I don't approve. Elephants belong in the wild. Where was I? Oh, right, how did things arrive in Pai? Driven there I guess. I didn't remember seeing an airport. I heard a rumor that "special" goods have long been sold by the Myanmar folk usually the females, by the waterfalls. I never bothered to follow up on that rumor.
it's rather chilly at such high altitudes, and i'm glad i had brought many layers and still woke up shivering cuz the fog rolls in in the mornings. In fact, on the whole drive up to Pai, it looked like we were so close to the sky we could touch the clouds and peek into the heavens if we so desired.
Aside from the fertile landscape, the true beauty of Pai, to me, was the comradery that all of it's visitors and residents shared. Everyone shared bonfires, booze, food, music, and laughter. I love Pai.
