Travel Talk

Good Weather and Times in Pai

October 29, 2010May 12, 2018 by SHABL

Greetings from Pai,

So far, Pai has been pretty awesome. Great weather, affordable hotels / guest houses, cheap motor bikes, friendly people and affordable tours such as trekking, rafting or anything else you’d like to do on your holidays, if one were so inclined. Let us discuss this magical place in further depth, shall we? We shall start where we last left off.

Last night was most amusing. While laying face down on our respective beds we decided it was time for “1 drink” to see what was going on. We ran into these English blokes over the worst long island iced tea of my life, they were great for a laugh. From there ran into these Canadian women, one was even from Ottawa. Later on we went our separate ways and ended back at Ting Tong bar which is this sick outdoor place. The night was dead but the party was alive, sorta. Suffice to say “Mr. Happy Hour” himself was in full force and it was a fun evening. I bet he’ll be out again tonight. High season is not here so this place is still pretty quiet.

Woke up and rented some motor bikes, 100 baht a day for a 110CC MONSTER. Ok it’s a pussy cat but whatever. For an extra 40 baht you get full insurance and for another you get theft insurance so for 180 baht a day you’re covered. My friend and I set out on a journey into nowhere with no map, plan or care in the world. Not far into our excursion we found this hill that was burly, ominous and unwelcoming, we decided to climb it. Got about 500M up until the tires just started spinning and the smell of whatever a burning motor smells like kicked in. Had a great view though despite almost dropping the bike on several occasions.

After that continued cruising and saw many elephant camps. Elephants are awesome and you’ve been here a while when you still are like “WOW an Elephant” but you’re not like “WOW A @#$@# ELEPHANT”. Took some photos which I’ll share if this connection isn’t being overly vanilla. After that we came across the hot springs… It’s 200 baht to get in and supposedly they are out of this world. Going there tomorrow. Met a gent at the Art Design Coffee shop I was recommend to visit who said there is a better one for 50 baht on the same road on the other side, noted. After that hit the highway and drove back, put on about 40km+ on the scooters today, good day.

Why do you go out at night? You meet the most interesting people. Sure enough when I woke up ran into the Brits driving by, a few hours later ran into the Brits and the Canadian women. We had some over priced Mexican food before returning to Nong Beer Restaurant, I love that place, seriously. The point of this interlude is that if you want to have a fun trip and have “friends” even for a few days anywhere in the world, you gotta get out there. Saw these other groups who every time I came home were just reading books at their hotel room. Everyone has different styles but trust me, go out and about even if you don’t drink, you always meet interesting and gregarious people.

We found a room last night for 300 baht in the center of town, it’s quite nice has a master bedroom sorta with a large bed and another room well hallway with a smaller bed, a private hot shower to boot. It’s also in the heart of town. The ladies got a pad for 180baht a night, a bungalow about 10 minutes outside of town. Supposedly prices ~doubled about 2 weeks ago as high season is approaching. Lot’s of couples here and the wilderness is out of this world. There are waterfalls, caves and all sorts of things to go visit. This place is basically a small town in a valley surrounded by mountains, it has 2 traffic lights. There are accommodations for all budgets, I recommend you visit if in the area.