A couple of days back I took a trip out to the town of Pai, in the far north of Thailand situated in a deep valley along the river Pai, about 155 kilometres from Chiang Mai where I’ve been mooching around at Spicythai Backpackers hostel that serves as my home away from home these days.

Getting to Pai was as easy as turning up at the bus station with my travel companion – a friend from Spicythai – and making a choice between the bus for 22 baht (50 pence) for a four hour journey or minibus for 150 baht (£3) for a 3 hour journey. We opted to take the minibus, which was still well with in the price I was hoping to pay and had a better chance of decent air-conditioning,  something that is always a bit of a gamble when choosing cheaper travel options.
This turned out to be the right choice once we got off the main highways outside Chiang Mai and started down the roads that wind across the mountain ranges of North Thailand about half an hour after setting off. I enjoyed the journey immensely and the steep turns and climb passes by a number of small villages and relatively isolated temples that dot the mountainside and offers constantly amazing views of dense green jungle with the occasional flash of colour from blossoming trees. From the peaks you get glimpses of the huge reach of the mountains as they vanish into misty clouds miles away, like my trips down the valleys of Laos you get a true feeling of been deep in the jungle out here.
We arrived in Pai about 15 minutes earlier then expected,  the first time I’ve ever arrived somewhere early in Thailand I think, and on route we passed a couple of what appear to be the cheaper option buses, and while technically we were paying 8 times what we could, I’m not convinved of their suitibility for such a hard route, the minibus struggled with the incline frequently, and so I’m happy to pay for a more relaxing journey where I can actually enjoy the ride.
Finding accommodation in Pai was just as easy, we simply took a walk down the road and asked in a few places, settling on The Blue Lagoon which was a little more then we hoped to pay at 600 baht per night, but the room was reasonable, there is a pool and power points in the room.
Location isn’t really an issue in Pai as there are only really 4 roads, two main, two a bit smaller and then a network of smaller streets and Sois (Side roads) that make getting around easy, and you can do a circuit of the town in half an hour if you wanted to. There isn’t much here, hotels and guest houses, small shops offering the more hippie side of Thai toursit merchendie, and bars and cafes that again play  on the hippie vibe and plug reggae and rock music and such from early evening.
It was a nice distraction away from the constant flow of people in Spicythai, and of course it’s great to see some more of Thailand though mostly I just caught up on some reading and enjoyed some walks in the cooler afternoons, while in the evenings there is a fantastic selection of live music and chilled out bars to relax in.
Pai it’s self seems to be strugling with it’s identity a little bit, most people I talked to about the place previously described the lively music scene and hippie vibe catering to backpackers who wonder a little of the beaten track to here, and while that atmosphere is certainly present, but there is a larger then expected tourist population here as well, and among all the bars, cafes and restaurants I get the impression that the town has grown to meet previous demand, but the down turn in tourism in general has meant less travellers coming this far, and the ones that do arrive find them selves spread thinly around the place.
But then I wasn’t really been looking to party, so perhaps I just missed the places that are the main hotspots, and even the quiet bars here each has it’s own little bubble of activity each night, but with such small gatherings I feel I’d be intruding on what are clearly groups travelling together, where as with a bigger gathering it’s always easier to introduce yourself and mingle but that seems to be missing here.
So among all the shops selling tie-dyed shirts and raster hats, reggae and rock music that plays from nearly every venue, and the flyers promising free buckets and the usual promotions I think I’d be happy to go back here with a group of friends looking to party, and as a change of pace I have not been disappointed, but at the same time I get the impression that the ture character of the place may have been lost and the sleepy little hippie town that existed of the map has been discovered and is now trying too hard to cater to everyone who finds their way here.

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