Pai, Mae Hong Son Province, Thailand

12th – 14th July

After leaving Kanchanaburi at 6pm, we knew we had a long journey ahead of us. We chatted for a little bit, I caught up on some writing and we tried to get some sleep. At one point we were woken up to be told that we had to lift our seats up so people could sit behind us, even though there were tonnes of empty seats on the rest of the bus. It was really difficult to get comfortable and get any sleep at all.

Once I felt like I had eventually drifted off, it was almost 1am and Joe woke me to tell me the football was on. I felt like I wasn’t interested and just wanted sleep, but it was England’s semi-final, so I put the earphones in and watched it. It was a nervy match, and to make things worse, the laptop ran out of battery half way through extra time! We managed to find some awful links on the ipad, where we had to watch it on someone else’s TV, but it did the job, just about.

After the match was over, we finally managed to get some sleep. There wasn’t too much time left though and at 5.30am, we pulled into Chiang Mai bus station.

Feeling like zombies, we got off the bus, collected our things and started walking. Our plan was to get a bus straight up to Pai, but we needed to find a bus station for this. We asked a man who told us to go to bus station one, but we walked around and couldn’t find it. Eventually, we ended up at bus station two, where we had to wait until 6, for the office to open.

Once the office opened, there was a huge queue outside. This made me worry that we wouldn’t get a ticket for the 6.30 bus and would have to wait until 7.30, but we were fine, luckily! We bought the tickets and waited until we were allowed to board.

Just before 6.30, we put our bags into the back of the van and got into our seats. We tried to sleep for the three hour journey we had to Pai, and while Joe was successful, I struggled. It then didn’t help that we went up through the mountains and round bend after bend on steep, windy roads. Apparently there are 762 curves between Chiang Mai and Pai, and I felt every single one of them!

When we eventually arrived, just after 9.30, we took our bags and booked our return trip straight away. We then began our walk to our guest house. It was about fifteen minutes away and it was a hot day, but we managed it.

Once we arrived, we checked in and were luckily allowed to our room, even though it was early. We dropped our bags off, before going across the road to the café, where we were allowed to have a free breakfast. I ordered scrambled eggs on toast, which came with gorgeous bread and Joe ordered fruit and yogurt – very healthy.

After breakfast, we went back to the room, where we tried to figure out what to do with the rest of our day. It was very difficult to muster up any kind of energy, but we didn’t want to waste our time there. We researched some things to do, but as everything seemed far out of the town, we knew we either needed to hire a scooter again or book a tour.

Eventually, we managed to get ourselves ready to go out. We walked up into the centre, as we had decided to have an afternoon exploring the centre and not use too much of the little energy we had. This didn’t quite go to plan, as we got a little lost on the way back up, so ended up walking along nearly every street in Pai to find the main street.

When we reached the main street, we had a look in some tourist shops to see what tours were available. Ideally we wanted to book a tour, as there was a cave that we wanted to see which was 35 kilometres away and we didn’t want to ride a scooter on the long windy roads, for that far. Fortunately, we found a shop that offered a tour which visited many sights around Pai, which included lunch and all entrance fees, for 500 baht. This seemed better than others that we had seen which excluded lunch and entrance fees, but were still 300 baht, so we went for that one.

Once the tour was booked, we wandered up and down the streets. We had a look in some shops for a patch, and eyed up some places to get a fruit smoothie. On our walk, we found Pai Bridge, which was a rickety old bamboo bridge crossing the river. Stood on it, we got beautiful views of the mountains that surrounded Pai. Apparently Pai has been referred to as an island in the mountains and I was starting to see why.

From the bridge, we wandered some more, until we eventually found a café down the back streets that did reasonable priced smoothies. It was such a good treat, as the weather was so hot, and we were so tired, we needed a cool down and a sit down.

Just as we paid the bill, the sky went black and the rain started to pour. So that we didn’t get wet, we sat in the restaurant for a while and waited for it to pass.

Once the rain eased, we walked back to our room. It was still only mid-afternoon, but we were both tired and had seen the centre of Pai, so thought it was the best decision. Although we dodged most of the rain, it started pouring again as we got near the guest house, so we made a run for it.

When we finally got back, we were dripping. We went straight for showers, before chilling out for a while. We did some researched for tea and I had a little nap, while Joe sorted through some photos.

Just after 6, we got ready and went back out for dinner. Luckily the rain had just about passed, so we didn’t need to worry about getting wet again – I was tempted to just order take away and stay in, if it didn’t.

For dinner, we had planned on checking out a couple of the local restaurants, but before we ate, we wanted to see the night markets. Wandering around the stalls, one of them caught our eye, as it was offering cheap Thai food. We carried on walking a bit, before deciding to check it out.

When we got back to the stall, the queue was huge, but others were saying how good it was, so we decided to wait. It was just one Thai man who was cooking and running the stall by himself, so we knew it would be a while as he cooked in order of receiving orders, but he seemed like a really nice guy, so it seemed worth waiting for.

When we finally got our food, it was definitely worth waiting for and we were glad we did. I ordered the pad thai and Joe ordered the green curry and we could tell that they were both freshly made.

Once we had finished eating, we paid up and started to make our way back to the guest house. We stopped for a banana shake on the way, which I took back with me for the walk.

When we got back to the room, we got ourselves straight into bed, as we were so tired from the lack of sleep the night before.

Fortunately, the next morning, we didn’t need to be up too early. We were going on the tour of Pai, but we weren’t being picked up until 9.40. We got up at around 8.30, and got ready, before going over the road for breakfast.

Once we were ready, we sat in the reception area at 9.40. However, 9.40 soon came and went and no one had come to collect us. We rang the man who said it would be five to ten minutes more. We waited for twenty more minutes (half an hour altogether) and still no one had come for us. We rang again and within five minutes, a tuk tuk arrived. He then took us to another bigger tuk tuk, where we had to change to, and we were taken to the White Buddha.

When we got to the White Buddha, we still weren’t really sure what was happening, as it looked like we had a private tour. We were told we had twenty five minutes to have a look, so we set off on a mammoth walk up the steps to the top, where the big Buddha was.

At the top, we had a quick look around and took some photos, before heading back down. Back at the bottom, we thought that our tuk tuk had gone, as we couldn’t see it. It then became clear that there was a full tour group, and we had just been forgotten about. The back of the tuk tuk was full, so we were told to get into the front, as we head towards our next stop.

After a long and windy drive, we arrived at a viewpoint of the mountains. This would have been great, if it was a clear day, but unfortunately, the clouds were hanging low over the mountains and it was raining, so we couldn’t really see anything.

Once we had stood there for about fifteen minutes and tried to get some photos, it was time to carry on. We were only about half way to the cave, so we had more long and windy roads, until we arrived.

When we got to Tham Lod Cave, the rain had almost passed which was lucky. We were split into groups of three, which was really awkward as everyone was travelling in twos, so some people got split up.

Once the groups were sorted, we set off walking to the cave entrance. In the cave, we walked up and around, looking at different stalagmites and stalactites which had formed to create different images. It was so dark in the cave though, so we had to stay close to the guide as she had an oil lamp with her to light the way for us.

After looking around the first section of the cave, we had to get into little bamboo rafts, to be taken over the river in the cave, to the next section. It made me laugh, as it was only a couple of metres wide, we literally sat down, were dragged across and then got off again, but at least we didn’t get wet.

In the next cave, we saw more stalagmites and stalactites shaped like different things, before getting back onto the bamboo raft. This time, we went a little further, down the river to a section at the other end of the cave. It was an open cave at both ends, so it was a little lighter at the bottom, before we climbed up. This section was also smelly as the bats were out in their masses.

This was the last section that we were looking at, so after here, we got back onto the bamboo raft and went back to the entrance. Once we were dropped off, we walked back up to the car park where everyone else was waiting for us, as we were the last group.

After getting back into the tuk tuk, we drove back down the road a little, where we then stopped for lunch. I had ordered pad thai and Joe ordered fried rice and neither of them were any good. Luckily though, there was lots of fruit around for us to eat instead, so I filled up on that.

Once we had finished lunch, we set back off again, on the long, windy roads to Pai. Our next stop was to see Mo Paeng Waterfall. Apparently it is a waterfall that you are allowed to swim in, but when we arrived, it was raining again and the driver said that it was too dangerous to swim in. We walked down to have a quick look at it, but didn’t stay too long, as we were getting wet. It did look like it would have been fun to swim in though!

From the waterfall, we went to the hot springs. Hot springs are apparently all over Pai but we weren’t particularly bothered about them until we saw that they were included in the tour price. When we got there, we went to sit in the pool. It was a man made pool but the water source was natural. We didn’t stay in for very long, as it wasn’t overly hot, and it looked a bit dirty.

Once we got out, we got dressed again and went back to the tuk tuk. Once everyone was back, we set off towards our final stop of the trip: Pai Canyon. When I had read about Pai Canyon, some people had said it was comparable to the Grand Canyon, while others had said that this was a little far-fetched, so we didn’t really know what to expect.

When we got there, we had to climb up a little hill before we could see it. Once we were at the top, I was very impressed. I wouldn’t say it was like the Grand Canyon but I thought it was beautiful in its own way! To see the different parts, we had to climb up and down and walk down narrow paths, but it was fun and the views were stunning. We were only allowed half an hour at the top, which was not long enough at all, as the place was huge!

We went back down to the tuk tuk, as did most people and sat and waited for everyone else. One girl clearly didn’t hear the half an hour time limit, as she stayed up there for ages after everyone else, while we waited at the bottom for her. It was a bit silly really, as no one went to get her, even the friends that she was with.

She eventually joined us again and we set off towards Pai centre. We were the first to be dropped off and although we kind of wanted to be dropped in the centre so that we didn’t have to walk up, it was handy to drop off our wet clothes in the room.

After doing that, we walked up to the food stall where we ate the night before. It didn’t take us too long to get there and luckily we ordered just in time, as a big group arrived just after us. We sat at the food truck this time, instead of the table by the side and could see him cooking everyone’s dishes, making sure he washed the pan out in between each one, which was good to see. We both ordered different things and they were both still very good.

Once we had finished, we walked around the market stalls for a while. On the way, we grabbed an ice cream from 7/11 as dessert. On the market stalls, I found a patch, eventually, before we started to head back to the room.

Back at the room, we packed our bags and got ourselves ready to leave for the next morning. We chilled out and got some rest, as we had to be up early.

The 5.45 alarm was not a welcomed one. We got up and ready and set off for the bus just before 6.30. The morning before, at breakfast, we asked if we could grab some bread as we knew we were leaving. We were told that they would prepare us a packed breakfast and leave it at reception, but they must have forgotten as nothing was there when we checked the night before and it was all locked up when we left in the morning. We thought we were chancing our luck a little anyway, so didn’t mind too much.

We walked up to the centre, to the bus station, where I left Joe and the bags before nipping to the shop for some brekkie. Once I was back, we got onto the bus, ready to leave a 7, for our three hour, windy trip back to Chiang Mai.

Pai is a cute little town up in the north, which we both really enjoyed. The fact that people refer to it as an island in the mountains is really nice and I can see why they do it. Although there are some touristy bits, it isn’t overtaken with tourists, so has a nice mix with lots of cute cafes and beautiful sights so close by. It’s another place we would like to return to (although there aren’t many places that we don’t want to return to!).

To travel is to live, Katie x