Getting to Pai was not the most pleasant experience. As recommended by our kind hotel manager, we booked a minibus from the main bus station where the drivers are controlled by the government to make sure they don’t drive for more than 8 hours a day. The first part of the journey was ok, but when we reached the mountain curves, that is when the fun started. The driver was very aggressive, following other vehicles far too close, overtaking anything in his way and even trying to take two vehicles at the same time on some blind corners where it was darn right dangerous!
We spoke to him many times about his driving style, noting that he is not the only person in the vehicle, but responsible for transporting our baby Audrey, another toddler and 6 other passengers. His excuses were “I’m on a tight schedule” and “I know this road very well”, but he eventually got our message and drove with more caution after really getting angry with him, mentioning the tourist police and taking pictures of his bus license. We stopped shortly before arriving in Pai for a toilet break and the two poor British girls sitting in the back were vomiting in the bathrooms :s
We got there in record time and in one piece, thank Buddha! We were very happy to get out of that bus and after a few days I handed in a letter of complaint to the tourist police and the bus company. I hope the bus company takes it seriously and addresses the root cause of his driving, being either the tight timetables set and/or the quality of the driver.
Arriving on the main walking street at the main bus station in Pai, we were quite surprised by the number of people and vehicles on the street. Our impression was that of a quiet hippy town with a bunch of baggy trousered backpackers roaming around, but it was much more than that. A mixture of Chinese, Thai and Travellers from all over the world seems to make it nearly crowded at first glance. We quickly jumped in a taxi and fled to our guest house 3 km outside of town. As we arrived, we were pleasantly greeted by the staff Peach, Bow, Mae and a lush, green garden with multi-coloured lanterns hanging from the trees. Most spectacular at night!
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Later that day, Peach the manager took us to see her auntie Janna who has her second house located next to the nearby resort Puripai Villa. Janna and her sister was very kind in inviting us into her house. She has a fantastic property overlooking the valley with pool, garden and a great terrace to admire the surroundings. After a nice chat, tour of the property and some refreshing drinks we quickly got acquainted and she invited us back for dinner the next day. We had my favourite chicken coconut soup “Tom Kha Gai” and chicken cashew nuts “Gai Phad Med Mamuang”. Super tasty :)
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We spent two weeks in Pai, mostly lounging and cruising around on the 125 cc moped we hired. There is no better way to get around Pai than with a motorcycle. With a pleasant temperature through the dryer months of November through January and the breeze flowing across your skin, I got excited every time I sat on that thing. With a decent acceleration it was very fun to drive, although I wish it were an electric equivalent powered by renewable energy. I think it is time to move out of this stupid era of burning materials to power our engines. It is not necessary any more.
One of our big highlights in Pai was the excellent choice of cuisine available. Given the growing number of tourists passing through, this town has an excellent array of restaurants, cafeterias and bars to choose from. Our favourite locations included in order of preference: Om’s Garden for her chicken burger, Fat Cat‘s veggie burger, Na’s kitchen and บ้านเบญจรงค์ (I don’t know how to say that!) for Thai and Earth Tone for vegan food, smoothies and kefir milk.
Our good friend Stuart Jones told us once that his wife Colette had a younger sister called Kerrie-Ann who lived in Pai, so we got in touch with her and we headed down to the boxing gym where her husband trains the arts of Thai boxing. We met her lovely son Louis who was a few months older than Audrey and walking already and decided to meet for lunch one day. We had a great time at Fat Cat’s and also had a great place for the kids to play.
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As you may have noticed in some of our pictures, we are wearing jumpers and long trousers. After our first night in Pai we realised that Audrey needed something too for the mornings, so we went to the so called “Walking Street” evening market to find something appropriate. The only item we found that was small enough was a 2-piece, green and red father Christmas suit! Victoria was reluctant to buy it as she was afraid it would look ridiculous, but I managed to convince her that it’s about warmth and survival in such bitter mornings ;)
While we were there, Pai recorded the lowest temperatures for 40 years someone told us. Temperatures ranged from 32 during the day to 5 degrees at night. We were happy we took our jumpers and boots with us. Thanks Anna Rösinger for the recommendation :)
One evening we came across a very nice place while taking a walk called the Glücks-Camp Pai. As Audrey was hungry, we quickly found somewhere to sit down to breastfeed her inside the Glücks-Camp and we got talking to a few of the residents. There we met Tabea and her really nice son called Yuri who we coincidently met on many occasions in Pai. There were two other women that we met there, one of them was a bit of a typical, middle-aged grumpy German, who I was surprised to see at the Glücks-Camp (happy camp), although I suppose she needed it the most.
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On our way back one day we ran over from what seemed a pretty long snake. I think it was about a meter and a half long, 5 cm in diameter and it flinched at the moped as we approached it. I didn’t see it until the last moment as we were approaching the brow of the hill, but there was definitely no time to slow down and would have been more dangerous to stop. I thought it was going to bite my leg, so I lifted my feet up… thank Buddha, nothing happened!
After acquiring food poisoning from eating too much unregulated street food (a condition we named PAP or Persistent Arse Problem or diarrhoea), one evening in Pai we were on the search for a good Italian restaurant for some pizza and pasta. We remembered that our new friend Janna had mentioned that a great Thai restaurant that she took us to one night, belonged to a guy called Bejilong, who had a son that owns the best Italian in town. We called Janna and tried to find out more, however all she knew was the rough location and that the restaurant belonged to the son of Benjilong. She said “just ask people”. So we found a place called Baan Pizza in the vicinity and I confidently went up to the staff and asked if this restaurant belongs to the son of Benjilong… They looked at me very strangely, said “no” and continued their work.
Given the confidence of Janna and her instructions, I thought it was quite a plausible proposal to ask, however the more I though about it and the more Victoria laughed about it, I came to realise that it was quite improbable that the staff would know the name of the bosses father. So we sat down anyway and had a great pizza :) After we left the restaurant and got back to the moped, I realised that the keys were still in the ignition. Whoops! Thank Buddha the moped was still there!
As the food was so great in Chiang Mai and Pai, we quickly developed what we coined a BAP (Big Arse Problem), which we will try to eliminate during the rest of our travels in South East Asia. Lots of swimming is on the agenda in Koh Chang!
Apart from birdwatching in our back garden, going on short walks, cruising around on the moped, eating delicious and dangerous food, watching sunsets at Puripai Villa and walking around town we catered to and played with our beautiful little daughter Audrey. She was by far the star of the show on many outings. Everyone in Thailand has been so friendly to her and she really enjoys seeing and interacting with people. She will be a sociable one I’m sure.
After our pleasant 2 weeks in Pai we were left feeling at home there. It became our home and family at Baan Salee Pai. We will miss this place.
To get back to Chiang Mai we flew in a small plane directly from Pai airport. It took 30 mins in contrast to 3 hours by minibus. For Victoria it was a bit nerve racking as it was her first flight is such a tiny plane that was almost claustrophobic and consisting of 12 seats. After a short panic, she got used to it and we really enjoyed the flight. After a couple of days in Chiang Mai again, we will fly back to Bangkok for a couple of days and then it’s off to Myanmar (Burma).
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