When we left Laos after our stay at The Gibbons Experience, we had a commute via bus over the border that got us as far as Chiang Mai, Thailand. After a night there we set off for Pai, a smaller town a few hours away and our first real destination in Thailand. Unfortunately, to get there we had to conquer our most arduous commute since we visited Tianmen Mountain in China (that was the road with 99 curves in a roughly 20 minute drive). After Jess downed a Dramamine to stave off the inevitable motion sickness, we took a minivan for 3.5 hours and 762 curves up into the mountainous region of Thailand until we reached the town of Pai. [Editor’s note: We know it was exactly 762 curves because that number was emblazoned on every T-shirt, magnet, and tote bag in sight once we got to Pai. They are very proud of this road. And yes, the motion sickness pills worked and I was more or less fine in the end, though still excited to get out of that van.]
Our desire to visit Pai was guided, in part, by the rave reviews of other travelers that we met on our trip. They touted it as a “super chill” place “where you want to stay for weeks,” but we were also wary of the flipside we had heard from others – that Pai was super cute, but also incredibly western and inauthentic. Upon arriving in the town, we found that every characterization we heard of Pai – from both sides of the opinion spectrum – was accurate. Pai is a cute town that is very walkable, has a lot of adorable coffee shops/restaurants and is, indeed, very relaxing. Conversely, it is also very western and touristy, since you’re as likely to find avocado toast or eggs benedict to eat there as you are a simple dish of pad thai. It’s also a slightly amusing place in that it’s such a hippie town that it borders on being hyperbolic, with seemingly every tourist there trying to outdo each other with how eccentric and hippie they can dress. One of our friends described Pai as the type of town where a 19 year old white girl from the U.S. moves with no money in order to setup a new life, opens a vegan, mango-themed juice stand and changes her name to “Rain Journey Peace.” It’s ridiculous, but definitely provides stellar people-watching and lots of opportunities for snarky commentary (as you can tell). [Editor’s note: Need a tattoo? There are a dozen shops that can help. Realize you’ve always wanted dreadlocks? There are places to take care of that too. Don’t own enough tie-dye? No problem.]
Nothing touristy or western about this picture. Just a pretty sunset from a rooftop in Pai (where we were drinking ginger cinnamon kombucha, which I guess is pretty western/touristy after all…).
Anyway, while the non-ironic hippie environment and extremely western scene wasn’t really our cup of tea, we decided to “lean in” to the experience by embracing these traits (well, at least the touristic/western component) and using this as a vacation from our vacation (aka: an excuse for me to eat falafel and other western foods without feeling guilty). With a few days scheduled there, we decided to use it as an opportunity to unwind, catch up on this blog a bit and recover from our whirlwind travels of the previous few days. Fortunately, the abundance of cafes around town made it easy to just rest up for a while, particularly when we found a place that nearly caused Jess’s head/heart/soul to explode: a rabbit café. We were on a stroll to explore the town and stumbled upon this random little café where tiny bunnies were sitting on every table, as well as larger ones in the back. Jess completely lost her mind, her focus and, fortunately(?), her ability to form completely sentences when she saw these bunnies. Given that she wasn’t going to regain her ability to function until she played with bunnies, we spent an afternoon there sipping coffee and playing with the (admittedly adorable) bunnies while she cooed her little heart out. Well worth it. [Editors note: Don’t let Rorie fool you. He had more fun than he wants to admit petting the bunnies and feeding them the parsley garnish from his ice tea, and after we left he mentioned going back several times more during our time there. Can you blame him? Bunny. Cafe.]
This is not dissimilar from the face Jess made when she first saw the bunnies, only amplify it by ~1000x.
Okay, I got in on the bunny action as well. They really were quite cute….
Aside from just hanging out for several days in the city, we also ended up scheduling a day tour to take us around some of the main attractions surrounding Pai, which was a fairly hit-and-miss venture. Some of the sights were unspectacular or underwhelming, such as: a scenic viewpoint where we were taken (it was nice, but not “wow”), some hot springs where we were able to sit in the water for a while (this was nice, but the water was disappointingly lukewarm), a waterfall (actually, it was a mere trickle) and sunset at the Pai Canyon (the sunset was nice, but I didn’t think the canyon was very impressive).
View from the “viewpoint” where we briefly stopped.
The lukewarm hot spring where we spent a short while with our group. Surprise, I’m the bald guy on the left (I shaved my head on a whim, which Jess doesn’t exactly love…).
View from the Pai Canyon (pretty but not quite an Asian knockoff of the Grand Canyon).
Those attractions were nice, but hardly made it worth doing the tour again. However, it also included a visit to the Tham Lod Cave, which singlehandedly made our day and redeemed the whole activity! As mentioned before, our visit to Phong Nha, Vietnam has made us unabashed cave snobs. In light of that, we were pleasantly pleased when Tham Lod exceeded our modest expectations and actually proved to be a fun cave experience. A older Thai women led us through the cave only by the light of a lantern, taking us through the maze of trails/stairs to see all the stalactites and stalagmites therein. Then, as part of the tour, we were taken to bamboo rafts where we were taken, gondola style, through down a body of water in the cave while an absurd number of fish practically jumped in our raft and bats flew in the caverns over our heads. Between the formations, lanterns and raft, it was a fun, unique and completely worthwhile activity. Definitely cave snob approved! [Editor’s note: The number and size of fish was mind-boggling, at least until I saw that it was possible to buy fish food and feed them as we rafted by. I’m not sure if fishing is forbidden or what, but I honestly could have caught one in my hands, if it didn’t jump into my lap on its own. Pretty crazy considering we were in a pitch dark cave!]
Following the lanterns deep into the otherwise unlit cave.
A massive cavern in the cave, the scale of which is apparent from the stairs on the right side of the picture.
Another view of the inside of the cave, this time lit exclusively by various guides’ lanterns.
One of the bamboo rafts that we crossed paths with while floating in the cave (see the tons of fish around the boat?).
View from a bamboo raft inside the cave and out through the main opening.
On our final day in Pai, we decided to pursue a slightly offbeat activity by renting a motorbike and riding to a mini golf course outside of town. We had no idea what to expect, but it ended up being super awesome. The mini golf course was created by an elderly guy from Scotland who bought the land and made the course by converting old rice terraces into golf holes. However, he found that the grass wasn’t flat enough for actual golf balls to work well with the course, so he invented something he called “bamboo golf” using tennis balls and golf clubs made from pieces of bamboo. He enthusiastically showed us the proper form he had concocted for this new style of golf, then gave us Mexican sombreros to wear while we golfed so that we wouldn’t get scorched by the harsh Thai sun. The actual golf was as ridiculous as it sounds and we had an awesome time as we bashed tennis balls around this homemade course and tossed our bamboo clubs in disgust when we missed seemingly “easy” putts (in actuality, it was legitimately difficult!). We finished off this random day by hanging out at a swimming pool in Pai, where we enjoyed the sun for a bit and Jess was able to find satisfaction by floating on an inflatable unicorn. [Editor’s note: The best part about the golf was the seriousness with which the Scottish man took the form. He not only showed us what to do, but stayed with us on the first hole while he instructed us to take several practice shots, watched us carefully, and corrected our positioning. On the longest hole (an intimidating par 6), he even showed us a new “driver” technique to get more distance. It was pretty entertaining. Oh, and yes, Rorie won by a lot. Guess I’m not meant for the bamboo golf hall of fame.]
Bamboo golf is a deadly serious, world class sport. Look at that determination and impeccable form!
Does that look like the form of someone who’s fairly new to (bamboo) golf? I don’t think so either. She’s a natural!
This could’ve happened anywhere in the world, but here we are in Thailand. Weird, right?
All told, Pai was a nice little break for us to recharge our batteries a bit. The extreme tourism and western features of the city (and Thailand as a whole – I mean, there are literally 7-Elevens on seemingly every other corner in this country) means that this is a very different travel experience than other countries (e.g., China), but we’re trying to view it as a reprieve from the rigor that surely awaits us in some of our forthcoming travels (e.g., Myanmar and India). After enduring yet another 762 curve drive back to Chiang Mai, we look forward to exploring more of Thailand as we spend a few days there playing with elephants(!) and learning how to cook Thai food.
