Motorbiking, Yoga, and a Night Market in the Hippie Town of Pai

After parting ways with our friend Nate, Matt and I continued our exciting Thailand adventure in the small town of Pai, located a three-hour drive from Chiang Mai in the country’s northern mountains. We hadn’t heard of Pai before our backpacking trip, but throughout our time in Sri Lanka, India, and Myanmar, many travelers we met chatted about their time spent in Thailand and raved about the town. Matt and I did a bit of online research and decided to add Pai to our itinerary! Pai is renowned as a “hippie backpacker’s paradise” because of the very hip tourist industry that has blossomed there in the last ten years. Trendy coffee shops, bars, street vendors, art installations, healthy food restaurants, yoga studios, scooter rentals, a buzzing night market, well-equipped hostels….you name it, Pai has it! The area surrounding Pai’s main streets is known for its natural scenic beauty and outdoor activities. Main points of interest include waterfalls, hiking trails, rivers for tubing and rafting, and valleys known to be stellar sunset viewpoints. Unfortunately we were visiting Pai during the region’s dry season, so many of these water-related activities were not as available to us. Regardless, we had fun in Pai—mainly because of all the relaxing we were able to fit in!

I should write a bit more about Pai’s noteworthy location. Nestled in the Mae Hong Soon Province, the town is most accessible via ground transportation from Chiang Mai, the closest big city. Shared vans packed with tourists shuttle between the two locations, and we booked one of these vans for our trip. The road to Pai is incredibly curvy, notorious for its 762 hairpin turns through the mountains. When you finally reach the destination, vendors sell magnets, t-shirts, and hats donning the phrase “I survived the road to Pai.” A British traveler we met in Chiang Mai referred to the trek to Pai as “mental,” so we were a bit weary of this part of the trip. Luckily, I slept through most of the ride there. Matt suffered a bit more uncomfortably. He tends to do better with motion sickness than I do—he’s lucky! On the way back from Pai, however, I was not so lucky. I threw up into a plastic bag with twelve fellow passengers sitting quietly around me. It was horrible; thankfully Matt was a gracious husband and held the bag for me, rubbing my back. Needless to say, I was ready for the ride to be over and was pretty embarrassed to have puked in front of eleven strangers. Yikes!

Despite my brief bout of illness, Pai was a solid four-night, three-day stop. We stayed at the low key, centrally-located Hummingbird Hostel which featured breakfast each morning, a comfortable lounge space, and helpful staff. Matt and I spent a lot of time in the hostel during our visit to Pai, mainly reading books, applying for jobs, binge-watching the Ken Burns Vietnam War documentary (in preparation for our next country), and planning our Vietnam itinerary (March 30 - April 20^th; check out the itinerary page on the blog for details!). I also squeezed in a couple of workouts in our hotel room, following along with free instructional videos on the website, Fitness Blender. As many former backpacking friends had advised us, sometimes you need to take a couple of days off from sight-seeing to just unwind and “veg”. Because of the air pollution and dry heat in Pai, it seemed like the perfect place to relax.

Aside from lounging at the hostel and working on our laptops, I attended a very hippie-dippie evening yoga class at a wooden studio near the river and Matt and I went for another round of hour-long deep-tissue Thai massages. Our dining experiences in Pai were also fantastic; my favorite spot in town was “Om Garden Café” which was decorated with beautiful flowers, colorful pillows, and dark wooden furniture. The food was fresh, healthy, and delicious! Matt and I ate there twice, and our meals included a cauliflower tempura burger; a BBQ tofu and potato salad; and a pesto, feta, and beet sandwich on a toasted roll. We also loved Om Garden’s coconut cheesecake with a chocolate cookie crust and raspberry glaze. Yum! I am getting hungry just remembering it. We also walked through the impressively large night-market in the center of Pai’s town, where street vendors selling food, crafts, and clothing gather after sunset to greet the hundreds of tourists milling through the area. Matt and I sampled dumplings, mangoes with sticky rice, and Pad Thai from various carts. We also indulged in happy hour margaritas and played two rounds of pool. I must admit that Matt beat me in both games!

Cauliflower tempura burger at Om Garden Cafe.

About to eat a bowl of tasty 'Khao Soi', a northern Thai specialty soup made of coconut milk, egg noodles, curry, and other spices.

The Pai night market is decorated with a pretty canopy of pink flowers.

Our big, touristy “Pai” day involved renting a motorbike and riding around the outskirts of town to visit numerous local attractions. Matt drove while I was seated behind him, and we had a blast breezing down the highways with the wind blowing in our faces. Matt has garnered an impressive amount of experience with these bikes from his time in China, and we both rode electric scooters most recently in Myanmar, so we were up for the adventure! Most backpackers rent motorbikes in Pai; it’s the easiest (albeit probably not the safest) way to get around. First stop: Wat Phra That Mae Yen, otherwise known as the Giant White Buddha. Located at the top of a big hill, this Buddha sits above Pai town and is accessible via about 200 steep steps. The buddha is impressively large when you approach it and made for a great photo opportunity! Next we rode through a somewhat touristy “Chinese village” complete with a model of the Great Wall of China, heading towards the Yun Lai Viewpoint. Best known for its impressive sunrise vistas, the viewpoint was a bit disappointing given that the air pollution obscured most of the valley and we couldn’t see much. It also was an extremely steep incline to reach the viewpoint on our bike, so I walked down the hill while Matt drove himself down, just to be safe. 

Matt posing on our motorbike, which had a cartoon monkey decal on the side.

Ascending the many steps to the Giant White Buddha.

We made it!

We also stopped at a couple of the famous waterfalls, which were mostly dried up because of the season. Last we visited the “Pai Land Split,” a somewhat kooky but very interesting tourist attraction that is literally a massive split in the ground caused by multiple earthquakes since 2008 that fractured the land. We walked through the land split itself, marked with signs to indicate what years the seismic activity impacted its shape. The land split is located on a farm, and the farm owners monetize the tourist site by offering samples and selling products from their agricultural endeavors. We drank fresh roselle juice and snacked on banana chips, all produced with fruit from their farm. While the waterfalls and viewpoints were underwhelming, our day exploring Pai was super fun and memorable. Matt and I tend to enjoy most things we do together when traveling, and this fairly unpredictable excursion was no different!

Walking through the land split, caused by intense seismic activity in 2008, 2009, and 2011.

Exploring the Pai Land Split. You can see how dry everything looks because of the season.