Explore the beauty of northern Thailand, PAI - My travel diary

Happy Tuesday everyone!!!

Yesterday I did my first post on steemit about my time in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and general activities to do there. I am very happy for all the positive feedback I got so far. Thank you so much for that.
Today I am going to tell you about my first trip to Pai.

On my first week in Chiang Mai, I met a lot of travelers and everyone was talking about Pai. I think I was the only one who did not know where Pai was. So I started to do some researches and I found out, that Pai is a very cute hippie village 3 hours away from Chiang Mai city.
People told me it´s very easy to go there. You just take the bus. A one-way-ticket to Pai is 150 Baht which is around 4$.
So the next day I went to Chiang Mai bus station and I bought a ticket to let the journey begin.

Bus to Pai

Chiang Mai train station

We were 4 girls who did this trip together and we all were very excited because the way to Pai is not the nicest way. Especially not in a minivan. The road from Chiang Mai to Pai has around 762 curves. If you don´t get sick easily you won´t have a problem, oherwise I would recommend you a seat in the front of the bus. Most of the time people drive to Pai by motorcycle because in that case you can stop wherever you want and you can enjoy the beautiful view. But be aware if you want to do that. A lot of accidents are happening on this road. The curves are very slidy and you really need to have a good motorbike. But it´s definitely worth to do it.

Road to Pai

Once we arrived in Pai we directly rented a scooter. I really recommend that because you are free and you can do everything what you want to do. Don´t take directly the first scooter shop. Just compare a little bit the prices and then you can decide which one has the best offer.

After we found our perfect scooter we drove to our hostel which we booked for one night. Pai has a lot of hostels which are very beautiful. If you are not a fan of hostels you can also rent little bungalows. But people most of the time take hostels because for the price you get a very nice accomodation. If you travel to Pai outside the season you don´t need to book a hotel in advance. But in the main season I would really recommend it.

Our hostel in Pai (Spicy Pai)

Bungalows to rent

Then our adventure directly started. We took our scooters and explored the beautiful nature of Pai. We made a few stops at some tourist hotspots like the memorial bridge. Luckily Pai is one of the most relaxed places you are ever likely to visit so you don´t need to stress yourself with sightseeing.

I am Pai

Memorial Bridge

Our next stop was the Pai Canyon which offers some brilliant views and fun hikes.
If you feel very active, you can scramble all the way down and spend hours climbing and getting lost in the nature.
But be aware. It´s very high there so if you are scared of heights you better don´t climb around. Our hike took us around 1 hour and it was very hot. So I would also recommend to do that in the morning or in the evening to watch the sunset.

After this hike, we just wanted to go swimming. We were hungry and it was terribly hot. To find food in Pai is also not difficult. You can find street kitchen everywhere. After we found a good place to eat we decided to drive to a waterfall called Mo Paeng Waterfall. There are tonnes of waterfalls in Pai, but the best are Pombok and Mo Paeng Falls.
At Mo Paeng Waterfall there are great little pools with long and slippery rocks where you can slide down. Also the water quality is very good. The scenery is gorgeous and its definitely a fun place to spend a few hours while you are checking off your list of things to do in Pai.

It was a very exhausting but super amazing day. We packed our stuff and drove back to our hostel and got ready for a fun night. Before we went to some bars, we had a quick few at the famous Pai walking street. It reminded me of the Saturday or Sunday market in Chiang Mai. So for us, it was nothing new and we decided to go to a bar. The parties in Pai are better than in Chiang Mai but still not my favorite. A lot of bars also close at midnight. Pai has a lot of color parties which we really liked. But I think it´s in general not a place to go crazy. As I already said, Pai is a super relaxing place to enjoy the nature and the beautiful landscape. If you want to make party you need to go to another part of Thailand.

The night in our hostel was very relaxing and we were ready for the next day. Our bus back to Chiang Mai was at 5 pm so we still had half a day to explore more of this beautiful village. Our hostel gave us the tip to drive to the famous caves which are around one hour away from Pai.
Once we arrived there we organized a guide which showed and explained us everything inside. Inside the cave, there is a little lake which is full of fishes. You will float through the cave on a bamboo raft which is super stunning. All I can say is that it was really AMAZING. The tour took us like one to one and a half hours.
Tipp: If you arrive, don´t pay at the ticket counter. You can walk a little bit down and organize a guide by yourself.

The caves were our last stop before driving back to Chiang Mai. Our time was ways to short because you can still do so much more there. Pai has a lot of very nice and unique cafes and restaurants. If you want to have it a little bit more romantic, you can visit the hot springs in the evening.
I would recommend to visit Pai for at least 3 days because then you can enjoy the relaxing atmosphere there a bit more.

We brought our scooters back, went to the bus and enjoyed our ride back.
I was very happy to have the chance to visit this beautiful, peaceful and super nice village and one day I´ll definitely come back.

I hope you guys enjoyed my story and I would be very happy about comments, likes or any feedback.

Tommorrow I am going to post about my trip to the elephant nature park in Chiang Mai so don´t miss that.
Have a lovely day :-)