We woke up and packed our bags to head off to a new town- Pai. Pai is even further north, and located pretty close to the Myanmar border. We originally booked a group van to take us to Pai, but ended up having to hire a private driver to take us instead because the van company overbooked us (annoying, but we were learning to "Sabai Sabai" these things). In the end, it wasn't too bad that we were in a smaller car anyway since the road has a lot of (762!) turns through the mountain pass to Pai but we all popped some Dramamine and were just fine. We dropped our bags off at the Butterfly Hostel where we had booked two private bungalows. The hostel was a little outside of town and was very cute with flowers, trees, and hammocks all around (and a very cute hostel cat!). We had a late lunch at a small family-run restaurant next door where we had a tasty pork basil with rice. We walked to another restaurant near our hostel that evening that had a nice view of the surrounding countryside and watched the sunset with a few beers. For dinner, we went to the night market in the center of Pai. It was only about a 20 minute walk from the hostel, but it was on a somewhat busy street, and our hostel offered free rides into town on a motorbike with a sidecar, so we piled in and took advantage of that! Unlike Chiang Mai, the street with the night market was not closed for traffic so you had to look out for the occasional car or motorbike as you navigated the stalls. We tried black sesame pancake and some other snacks, and Mike found a wrap stand that was delicious and soon be a staple of our dinners.
We relaxed the next morning and spent time reading in the hammocks with our hostel cat friend. We decided to go back to our neighboring restaurant for a delicious and filling brunch, and then we made our way to to bottom of the stairs that lead up to the Big Buddha. We walked up the many stairs to the Big Buddha that we could see in the mountains from our hostel. At the top we admired the massive white Buddha statue and the surrounding mountains and relaxed and found shade to cool off and avoid the heat. We went back to the hostel to cool off and relax before heading to a bar called Two Huts to watch sunset. It was an hour walk from the hostel, but we didn't want to pay for a taxi both ways. The sunset was beautiful with a lot of fellow travelers taking in the same view. As we were leaving we had to negotiate with taxi drivers to try and get them to take us back to our hostel. One guy said he would take us but then continued to blow us off and wait 20+ minutes for the other people he had driven there and eventually tried to raise the price on us so we jumped into a different Songthaew (a pick-up truck with benches in the back that is a common type of Taxi around Thailand) that was near full of people and got dropped off at our hostel. We took the hostel motorbike ride into town again to stop at the Street Food Festival that was going on. We walked around and tried some food and saw some unique carnival games where you could potentially win an iPhone or bottle of whiskey. We were still hungry so we went to the night market again to grab some another wrap and head in for the night (but not before a game of pool at the hostel).
The next day we had the hostel help us hire a private driver to take us around Pai to sites we wanted to see instead of doing a day tour with a larger group; we thought this way we would be able to see everything we wanted at our own pace. The driver that showed up was the same driver that wouldn't take us from Two Huts the night before! We couldn't believe it, and it was a little awkward at first, but not a big deal and became a pretty funny inside joke. We quickly realized there was some miscommunication about our plan, though, because he showed us the "itinerary" for the day which were not the same sites we wanted to visit that included some sites farther outside of town. We went back to the hostel and leveraged the staff to help us translate and worked out a solution that would let us visit most of what we had in mind. We finally headed off to our first stop at the Sai Ngam Natural Hot Springs. We were the first ones to arrive and relaxed in the natural hot springs amid the peaceful forest before others people arrived 30 mins later. We stayed here for almost 2 hours then headed off to Nam Lod Cave. Here we got a local guide to take us into one of the three caves (the largest) since the other two were closed due to high water level. We entered the cave along a river after a short walk and hopped onto a small bamboo raft. The raft slowly drifted us down the river to the middle of the cave were we stepped off to walk in the dark cave. Our guide used her lamp to brighten up the cave where we saw different formations of stalagtites and stalagmites, and she pointed out the ones that looked like animals and other shapes. We walked around for about 45 mins and then hopped back onto the raft to exit the cave. It was a cool experience and ones of the largest caves we had even been in. We then grabbed a quick lunch nearby where Melissa tried laab salad and loved it. After lunch, we headed back closer to Pai and visited Pai Canyon. When we arrived it was during the heat of the day so we slowly hiked around through the unique slots and ridges and enjoyed the views over the green jungle mountains. We were then dropped off back at the hostel where we grabbed a quick nap before heading back into town where we got 2 for 1 drinks served in buckets at a bar and burgers next door.
The next morning we relaxed and got a taxi to see some rice terraces with another friend from the hostel, Mercy. The taxi that picked us up this time was the guy who actually drove us home from the Two Huts bar, so we now we were pretty convinced that there were only two drivers in the whole city. The rice terraces were at a place called Bamboo Bridge. After a 30 minute bumpy ride in the back of the Songthaew we arrived. The fields were in a valley with green mountains standing overhead. We observed locals harvesting the rice by hand which would take a long time! We walked on a bamboo walkway that went thru the fields and way back to a pagoda in the hillside. We had lunch nearby and then headed back to the hostel to cool off again. Mike got a mixed passionfruit and mango smoothie at the hostel and it was a game changer for future smoothie purchases; the flavors were amazing! That evening, Mike, Melissa, and Mercy signed up for a yoga class in town, thinking it would be a nice and relaxing way to end the day. The class was nice, but it turned out to be a 90 minute intense vinyasa class, and we were all sweating and exhausted by the end. Carson met up with us after the yoga class and we headed back to the night market for dinner where we got pad Thai and some northern Thai dumplings. After eating we headed back to our bungalow to watch some videos on the history of Thailand and Buddhism before heading to bed.
For our final day in Pai, we relaxed and read in the hammocks in the morning. We ventured into town and grabbed a western style brunch of eggs benedict and eggs and hash. Too full to do anything else, we chilled at the hostel and then decided to go on a hike. We hiked to a Wat complex that we thought would be good for sunset. The road was really steep and when we got to the top we were disappointed because we couldn't see past the trees and buildings for sunset. We made a quick plan B and sped-walked down the hill and headed to the White Buddha (Mel made a quick pit stop at the hostel for pants since shorts aren't allowed at the temple!). Trudging along the many steps we were able to make it, panting, to the top just in time to enjoy our final sunset in Pai' fortunately, it was a stunning one, and the climb was worth the effort. That evening, the hostel had a free dinner where we had curry and pork basil with rice and spring rolls. We still headed to the night market one last time for dessert of mango sticky rice (the best we would have in Thailand!) which was a perfect ending to our time in Pai.
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