The Dude Abides in Pai

If there is one expression that sums up this hippie-minded, New Age mecca in northern Thailand, it is "no worries." Pai, (pronounced "Bai"), is a small towm of about 3000 residents, mixed between native Thai and ex-pats, who settled here to live or raise families in a care-free, mountain village environment.

Though it is only accessible by an extremely bumpy and stomach-churning minibus ride, pai is still packed with backpackers and tourists.

We checked into our river-side hostel and went out around town. As one might imagine in a community filled with artists and musicians, there is a great nightlife and music scene. The bars are all very funky and creatively designed. The people here are also incredibly friendly and actually not looking to scam foreigners.

Pai is situated close to the hill tribe villages, and the next morning we embarked on a trek through the rainforest to see a few of them.

We returned to the town center and went out with a few people to a classic rock bar (they love all old rock/hippie music here).

The next morning we rented mopeds and rode them around the back mountain roads. This area proved to be a perfect place to learn how to ride, as there is no traffic, and the scenery is beautiful (after realizing how tough it was getting used to left-side of the road driving, we were thankful that we had decided not to try mopeds in Bangkok).

My beloved moped - Blue Steel

Mopeds

After riding around for a bit, we parked at an elephant camp outside Pai and had our first elephant rides. It was pretty awesome for the first 2-3 minutes, but then its gets kinda sore and uncomfortable. The trainers had the elephants do a crazy stunt where they basically fall into the river with us still on top of them (see pics).

On the elephant

Off the elephant

Back on the elephant

Afterwards, we returned to town, ate and chilled out with some people we had met over the last few days. It is crazy to think that a place like this exists in the middle of northern Thailand. Many people we met had lived elsewhere and then decided to settle down here. The care-free, friendly-neighbor, and fun-all-the-time attitude is infectious. Lying in a hammock with faint jazz music in the background, I could see why.

Chilllll hammock lounge

We decided to postpone our trip to frenetic Vietnam and instead first get our full dose of Thailand's southern islands. First stop: Phuket on the Andaman coast.

written by  bhkann on June 28, 2009 from Pai, Thailand
from the travel blog: Ben's SE Asia Voyage
tagged Pai
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