Leaving Chiang Mai was less pleasant. I’d hit up the young woman at the front desk the day before to look into a ticket for me to Pai and she said something about reserving me one. This is partially on me, I didn’t realize they’d cut down on the number of minibuses going there and basically only one company was doing it. Unfortunately I didn’t find this out til the morning, when I returned from the cooking class the person on the desk told me there was no note from them. Come morning I asked and ‘no it’s full, maybe you go to station and ask’ (Yes well I would have done that yesterday or started researching alternatives if you’d left a note for me.)
To compound matters she sent me to the wrong station which was (just) within walking range with a suitcase so off I went just to find out that was only for full size buses and the route to Pai had been discontinued at some point. Hop in a grab to the other station, get there to find out all trips are full for the next couple days… ugh… ended up getting hopped on by a ‘private’ cab that charges 3x the price and doesn’t leave til they’re full but thankfully that only took an hour. Since it was basically that or abandon my reservation there and stay in Chiang Mai longer I went for it. To be honest I considered staying in Chiang Mai… or if I hadn’t booked a flight out of Chiang Mai to the islands maybe even just going somewhere else but since everything involved coming back to CM it seemed foolish (The CM-koh samui flight being the priciest in country flight I’d be doing.)
The road to Pai is known for featuring 172 nausea inducing curves as it travels up into the mountains and along a ridge line pass. To put the windy level into perspective it’s roughly a 3 hour trip to cross only 129km of highway distance. When you reach the pee/snack stop there are signs everywhere for motion sickness cures. Thankfully no one in our very packed minivan seemed to be feeling green though I noticed a few people had taken gravol in advance. There were definitely a few who looked very relieved that the journey was over
The road and the surroundings of Pai were stunning with sharp rising hills covered in an absolute carpet of greenery. It made me wonder how much greener it could get since I knew it was the dry season. One of these days I’ll have to come to Thailand in the rainy season and see some of these rivers and waterfalls at full force. The town of Pai… was less impressive. It’s basically become a backpacker mecca in the north and is the most reachable outpost on the Mae Hong Loop in the NW of the country. Even before Thailand legalized (sort of) weed it had a hippie commune rep. To be honest that was part of the reason I’d skipped it on my previous visit. My first impression of the town is that it seemed like Khao San Road in Miniature (KS Road being the backpacker strip in Bangkok that’s a combo cheap backpacker mecca/mini spring break atmosphere.) The poster child for the vibe here might have been the first guy I walked down the street behind. A tall bearded dude that could have been Indian Jesus smoking an enormous joint and wearing mirrored sunglasses and a velvet bathrobe that said ‘Maid of Honour.’
I had been mildly worried about this party central vibe and had booked a small guesthouse a bit off the main drag so I got my bearings and quickly set off. It was pretty clear that the main hive of activity was along this one street and in fact later in the evening it’s a nightly walking street for a few hours. I passed a few tshirt stalls, more motorbike rental signs that I can count and a few restaurants that looked like possibilities. In true thai fashion the sidewalk was barely a suggestion and as I hit the edge of the main district it disappeared… conveniently enough I was walking past the area hospital at least. Down a side street I found Ban Aew Pai, a small garden guest house with 6 or 7 bungalows. It was a picturesque place that seemed like it would be far enough from the noise.
I’d reached the point in the trip where I was kind of aching for some non-thai food so once I’d settled in I took a walk back into the hustle and bustle to try to find food/make some plans. Armed with a hopefully still valid recommendation from my old Thailand lonely planet I set out past bar after bar and eventually reached Maya burger which served a really solid little quarter pound burg with good toppings and crispy fries paired with a delicious garlic mayo. It was definitely a product of the moment but also pretty delicious in its own right. I blame that feeling of contentment for the foolishness that occurred next.
I was honestly trying to do some rafting… unfortunately the only one day trip was done as a one day ‘back to chiang mai’ trip and basically would have been doing the same trip I’d done a few days previous but with my bags being taken along in a van. Honestly had I been aware of it I would have considered it. The only trip the other adventuring company had going out the following day was a trek into the jungle. Don’t get me wrong, I’d been thinking I’d do some hiking in Pai… and in my defence their listing for this trip was a bald faced lie… but still I was mental. I blame my brain for focusing on the ‘finishes at a waterfall’ part. I stayed out for a while people watching but after a couple of drinks I was ready to just retreat for the night given the impending early start.
The day started with a pickup in a Songthaew (pickup truck with two parallel benches in the back) and we immediately headed north further along the Mae Hong Son loop. I’m not a person given to motion sickness but if I’d thought the minibus ride the day before was bad sitting perpendicular to the driving direction in a vehicle with only the barest suggestion of shock absorbers was a new level. It turns out were were travelling a solid couple hours out to the start of the hike (something else I’d missed on the brochure.) Along for the ride were a young British couple and a Spanish woman a few years older than myself. We introduced ourselves and chatted a bit but as the drive progressed and the road got worse conversation became more difficult. The British contingent was definitely feeling the motion sickness by the time we finished and I was honestly keeping an eye on him getting ready to dodge if he lunged for the tailgate.
Arriving in a small village our guide welcomed us and we met the other two hikers with us: two Slovenian girls who were doing a two day hike and who’d overnight-ed in the village. They were very nice but set off the first warning bells when they mentioned they’d definitely hiked way longer than the brochure said the day before. I didn’t really get much time to process that before we were on our way, touring the village and seeing the old style homes where the livestock was penned under the stilted cottages/huts and dogs wagged their tales at us but mostly just stayed in the shade. It was an interesting glimpse of a very different way of life to ours but I laughed pretty hard at the one guy who shouted out to our guide in greeting and he responded with ‘I go trekking, you come?’ and the guy said something that was pretty clearly ‘hell no’ in Thai. With that settled we started heading up into the hills.
Most of the people reading this blog are also prairie people and have probably also experienced the harsh realization that, no matter how good of shape you’re in, your legs are gonna complain when you’re suddenly expecting your legs to do this ‘uphill crap.’ I actually held up pretty well for the first half of the hike and was having to slow down to wait for the Slovenian girls a few times. The first stage of the path was clearly a livestock path and we used ladders to get over fencing a few times and frequently had to dodge cow pats, then a bit later the cows themselves. The views backwards as we climbed up the valley were phenomenal, unfortunately the rest of the hike mostly avoided any great view points.
When we eventually reached the top of the first mountain ridge and took a rest and water break. We all marveled at our guide Jon doing this hike in what looked like dollar store foam flip flops but to be honest he probably could have done it barefoot. Once moving again Jon pointed into a valley a few km away and pointed out his village. A few minutes later he also pointed out Myanmar literally just between the next two mountains, at our closest point we were only a few kilometers away. As much as I’d love to add another country to my scoreboard I don’t think that’s a border I particular want to mess with for funzies.
The brochure for the hike had said 12km of ‘medium’ difficulty as we did the next section I felt very lied to. I don’t consider a half hour climb up giant loose boulders to be ‘medium’ myself we were all dying at the top even Maria the Spanish gazelle. Thankfully the giant cave at the end of this was well worth ascent view wise but I was still puffing hard. When he started moving us onward and I realized we were climbing the rest of the way to the top of that particular mountain I began to get worried, not just that we were still going up but that everyone but Maria was showing signs of serious leg fatigue in the brief moments we were heading downhill, stumbling or wobbling a fair bit. Thankfully it was around this time that Jon called a halt and we had lunch which turned out to be various bags of noodles and rice for the vegan, veg and carnivore among us. Mine was a really nice spicy curry chicken and rice, the 2-days girls who’d had that the day before got noodles instead.
The second half of the day was a bit less rough in terms of elevation up… but definitely stretched the definition of medium difficulty even more as after an initial section which Jon said was on old time road through the area (as well as some caves that he described as being hidey holes during wars with Burma) we headed on another path that was NOT a path for a solid 90minutes. Very narrow footholds, most of us grabbing at bamboo for support that may or may not still be solid, steep downhills that tested tired ankles and knees, it was rough. I’d done pretty well heat stroke wise this trip but was definitely feeling it a bit over the last 1/3. The outwardly fitter of the Slovenian girls had it worse however whenever we went downhill and she was probably nursing a sore hamstring.
For the most part our guide was great but over the last third of the hike he definitely pushed the pace a bit too fast. He seemed to be going by the pace Maria could set which was great… except Maria is a hiking nut that goes trekking in the Pyrenees every weekend all summer. The other five of us were struggling to keep up especially when the trail disappeared for the most part. At one point he called out ok next part flat then down (spoiler: it wasn’t flat, but it was open and sunny) and we were on the last stretch. The Slovenian girl groaned audibly at the start of another downhill section and I kept having to wait on her as she stopped as the trail was too slippery to pass by anyone safely. She eventually coaxed a promise from Jon that it was only another ten minutes… lies. The actual ten minute mark was where the serious pain began for all of us as it was a steep switchback where at times you were basically shuffle running from one tree to another… but in the end we all made it.
At some point Jon had explained to us that we’d actually take the truck to the waterfall as it was nearby but not right here, then end of our hike had us wading across a river at a washed out bridge location. Again it was dry season so I wondered what this river looked like a few months from now but Jon took our bags across for us and the rest of us just enjoyed cooling off and tried not to let the current sweep our tired legs out from under us. I’d stupidly forgotten to bring my water socks with me but eventually managed to struggle across the gravel to the truck once on dry land.
Don’t get me wrong, the hike was beautiful and I’m proud that I accomplished it (mostly) in one piece. I definitely question the person who wrote that brochure as I think it was probably the easiest it was all year right now and the brochure definitely doesn’t change for rainy season (basically all she did on my printout was cross off ‘raincoat’ on the list of items to bring.) I think with even a little bit of mud on that trail it would be fully hard for the full length and even as I would have called 1/2 of it ‘difficult’ terrain. It was also rather disappointing on the viewpoint front. The front half had a few good views, the cave was neat but the last half was mostly close in jungle/bamboo forest
The road from the trail end to the waterfall was godawful (it would be worse on the way out) but we were all still savouring the ride… given the waterfall apparently didn’t involve hiking I was a little worried it would be overrun with tour groups but I’d forgotten just how far we were from anywhere. We had it to ourselves and pretty happily dove in and fought the current over to get a solid massage by waterfall. I laughed pretty hard as the Slovenian girls pretty quickly got out shivering. I wouldn’t call the water warm but it was certainly not cold… I even said when they came back over ‘at least I can trust the brits not to think this is cold water’ and they laughed.
Back on the truck we drove out on one of the worst roads of my life, forded a number of rivers and coughed up so much fine dust into the semi open bed that any cleaning factor we’d felt from the falls was gone instantly we all felt caked with dirt. Given how bad the shower had turned out to be at my guesthouse I was steeling myself for an unpleasant wash. Just before we arrived at the main road we passed through one of the ‘Chinese villages’ a cluster of ancestral Chinese people that have elements of Chinese architecture in their dwellings and who often speak only mandarin apparently.
Back along the road Jon pointed out some of the ridges we’d crossed that seemed now impossibly high up but we quickly settled into a stupor until our pee break. I unfortunately was feeling a bit heatstruck so was concentrating on avoiding motion sickness and basically pounding water, even Maria eventually wedged her tiny frame into the bench seat by some magic and tried to sleep. I made it feeling better, but when the twists and turns ended and we pulled up to my place I said quick goodbyes and hobbled over to my room… making it to the toilet just in time to lose my lunch. Luckily I could just roll over into the shower stall and start hosing off the grime of the trail after that and thankfully was feeling more human after that and an hour or so laying in bed.
This was still Khao Soi country and I’d spotted a street stall the night before making up delicious looking bowls of it the night before so once my appetite returned I found the stall, pulled up a baby stool at the tiny picnic table ordered a gorgeous bowl of it for the equivalent of $4. Sadly that’s actually expensive much like the burger the day before at around $10, Pai prices were definitely of the ‘captive audience’ variety compared to Chiang Mai but I also knew things would be worse in the islands next. I’d love to pretend I stayed up doing something fun but nope, I browsed the walking street for a bit and bought a tee shirt but it didn’t take long before I grabbed some water and a bag of chips at 7-Eleven and headed back to bed. I think I made a token attempt at watching a QI episode and passed out partway through.
The next morning I wasn’t feeling as bad as I’d feared. There was stiffness (and some blisters) but I was mobile. I’d wanted to sleep in but despite the night noise not being bad this hotel’s soundproofing was truly abysmal and before 8am rolled around I could hear a chainsaw running somewhere, roosters crowing and martial music playing as well as some sort of rhythmic drum. I’d made no firm plans but unfortunately if you want to get anywhere around Pai you kind of need a scooter so I broke a personal rule and rented one. The roads were relatively less mental around here Thailand wise and it was also the day of the ‘all day float dj tubing party’ so most of the drunk and stoned teeny boppers were on the river and not on the roads.
I headed up to one of the other places I’d wanted to see here: Pai Canyon. It’s less a canyon and more an eroded formation on a ridgeline but the maze of pathways and steep drop offs is quite pretty. I didn’t do the full hike as it was full sun and I didn’t want to push it after the day before but had a good poke around. Hilariously the Thai tourist authority uses the phrase ‘the area is vast, similar to the grand canyon’ which takes some chutzpah.
The other place I travelled up to was the white buddha lookout which ‘you can drive right to it’ turned out to be quite the lie. It turned out you could drive right up to the base of the 500 or so steps up to the buddha. I guess they meant you could bypass the windy bit of road up to the gate which wasn’t a great walking road. I’d been told the view was worth it but I was not sure I had it in me and sat talking to the temple dogs for a bit before I mustered up the effort required. I grumbled but the view from the top was worth the climb, the Buddha statue definitely needs some TLC though. From the top of the stairs you got a panoramic view of the valley seeing just how tiny Pai was as well as the windy roads leaving in both directions.
Once down from the temple I had to make sure I returned my scooter. Technically I had it 24 hours but my bus out was leaving at 7 the following morning and I had a relatively early flight to catch from CM so I needed to be on it. The rest of the night was mostly people watching as I grabbed a curry and kind of marveled. I was definitely very in between ages on the audience here. As mentioned most of the crowd was gap year teens and early 20s types, a few slightly older hippie yoga instructor types… then there was a small but solid hunk of retirement age people visiting and staying in the nicer places and wandering the town for a bit before bed. I’m guessing they were more doing the short waterfall hikes/visiting the hot springs. Unfortunately while I made it through my own travels without injury I got run into a scooter when a combo of an inexperienced (drunk? rider) coincided with someone stumbling against me on the sidewalk and I’ve now got a fairly nasty gash and a couple of scrapes in my otherwise sore leg… Despite doing a very good job cleaning it I’m (now over a week later) still nursing it and have since had to go see a doctor and make sure it’s not infected/get an x-ray. Blue Cross is going to stop insuring me for Thailand as it’s the only place I ever make a claim on my travel insurance.
I tried to make it an early night but I now had a new neighbour next door and they were simultaneously very heavy footed and when they came back at two am I could distinctly hear them running to use and slamming the toilet seat multiple times though thankfully couldn’t hear any actual bodily fluid noises. Something about the construction of these cottages transmits sound through the beams I think. Unfortunately between that, other noises and the stress of having to be up early to make the transfer to that flight I think I only got about two hours sleep which probably compounded the ‘second day after’ pain from the hike. But, the transfer to the islands is a tail for next time.
Honestly Pai was interesting but I don’t think I’d ever go back. I feel like you could get equivalent hikes elsewhere with better vibes and less of a hippie spring break vibe. Sort of the same vibe I have with Khao San in Bangkok… I don’t mind being near the area but unlike Bangkok there really isn’t much else in Pai to get around the core of that. Going further out that road loop more independently would be fun, I don’t think I’m young and dumb enough to do the whole thing on a motorbike anymore though. If I can ever get someone to come with me it’s probably worth splitting a private driver for a multi day trip given such things don’t break the bank here.
Still I don’t regret it as I wanted some new experiences this trip which is where the back half of this program comes in. It’s now time for the ocean adjacent portion of proceedings in our next post.
