Pai — first Impressions

Up the mountains from Chiang Mai, hidden behind seven hundred something curves of windy road, lies Pai. A charming small town surrounded by beautiful nature.

There's one main street — the walking street—bursting with shops, stalls and movement. After sunset it gets taken over by one of the nicest night markets I've been to.

It's also very touristy. In between the typical curry and pad thai restaurants I saw plenty of trendy looking cafes and fancy looking burger joints.

The town's streets end up at a small river's bank. On the other side small roads run through rice fields and the sparse bungalows and houses of touristic resorts.

My hostel was a 10 min walk uphill on this side. The chill guest house had an open common area with a baboo structure for shade, a campfire, plenty of hammocks and a bar. The name fit the hostel like a glove.

There I met Eliot and Brian, both British and solo traveling. Brian showed me a nice and cheap local restaurant in the walking street and the had a pleasant dinner together. He worked for the public sector, more specifically in forest and wildlife maintenance. He gave me an glimpse of how the public domain works behind the scenes, and how some private companies manage to take advantage of public money.

After enjoying the night market, and doing grocery shopping for Angela (a girl I met online that was staying at the temple and and asked nicely if I could bring her some supplies), I called it a night.

The next day I went to the bus station hoping to get a bus to Wat Pa Tam Wua, but everything was fully booked. I could only get a car for the next day. I ended up chilling in a hotel called love of Pai and going to the temple one day later.Read more