It was early evening when I arrived in Pai, the journey into the centre took us through mountainous landscape and across a memorial bridge, with a man fishing in the river while the sun set behind him. It was a beautiful welcome into the town which was already buzzing with life. Market stalls lined the central streets, which were pedestrianised every night. Once I had found a reasonably priced hostel I headed back out to explore. To my delight a fair amount of the street food was vegetarian, so I was actually met with the unusual luxury of choices. My evening ended in a bar enjoying some live music played by a Thai reggae band.
I took the chance to relax the following day, and wandering through the town, found quite a change from the night time atmosphere. It seemed to resemble more of a sleepy country town during the day, with many people out doing activities or on motorbikes. The market stalls weren’t there either, meaning the few people around were more likely to be sat inside a cafe or restaurant.
My final day in Pai was spent on a motorbike, trying to ensure I saw some of the main sights it had to offer. The first stop was to a canyon, providing views of the mountainous ranges in the distance. To get the best view, you had to walk along a thinned path, with a sharp drop on either side. The landscape was beautiful, though was not quite as impressive as I had hoped. Maybe I had something more like the Grand Canyon in mind…
Next stop was on the way back to town, one of several waterfalls in the area. On route to this we passed something known as ‘The Split’. This was a large crevasse in the ground, which was slowly extending in time, and was not from any usual cause such as an earthquake. In fact I’m not sure they knew the cause at all.
Finally, in the evening I drove up to a large white Buddha statue overlooking the city. This provided a great view of the city, and the sunset, and provided a wonderfully peaceful ending to my time in Pai.
