The Life In Pai, Thailand

Having heard on the backpacker grapevine that Pai was a must visit, Hannah & I booked our minivan and headed for the home-made hippie village in search of good food, chilled vibes and some great views.

The journey to Pai from Chiang Mai is a 3 hour drive up and over a mountain where you can expect hundreds of sharp turns, sped around at wheel screeching speeds by your insane Thai driver. You may want to pop a few motion sickness pills if that's your thing.

During the drive I spotted this monk getting a dubby. We overtook them seconds later!

The view over Pai from Yun Lai viewpoint; you'll need a scooter to find this place but its certainly worth it and its only 20 baht for entry!

Pai Canyons aren't so as big as you would expect a canyon to be, but they are certainly a great sight to check out. I have to say I had more fun exploring and climbing the narrow walkways with drops either side than the actual views!

Exploring Lod caves is really interesting and I would really recommend it! It will take about 2 hours to get there by scooter and there are some crazy steep hills going up and down.. But its so much more fun than getting a tour bus there, plus you can arrive a little later in the day and get the cave to yourself pretty much!! (We were joined by 3 people, normally the cave is full with 50+ people!).

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Mo Paeng waterfall is a really refreshing place to visit just outside of Pai, but we had more fun petting the SUPER friendly cows that live there; they just kept licking us and this one above was going in for a kiss with Hannah!

If you like animals, be sure to visit a elephant sanctuary and help fund the people saving elephants from torture & riding parks.

The White Buddha statue sits at the top of a big ol' flight of stairs, but once you reach the top the views are pretty epic and its a great place to watch the sunset. If your into temples, check out Bangkok's many grand temples!

This old western looking house, known as the 'Yellow House' is found on the road towards Pai Canyons. Its pretty interesting to stop off at and take a look around as there really isn't anything like it!

The food in Pai is amazing. We were treated to some of the freshest, most healthy snacks we've had in Thailand! There is a big hippie vibe in town and in turn, a lot of vegan and vegetarian places to eat, all cheap as chips too.

I urge you to rent a scooter (if your able to drive one safely) and just explore the area, turn off on random roads and just keep following them. We found some jems that we didn't even know existed just through a little adventure!

Our little red underpowered scooter!

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions about Pai!

Thanks for reading!

Taran here, owner of Nomad'er How Far. I'm fond of psychedelic rock, photography & videography, anything to do with space and I'm also partial to the odd gaming session. Oh and I love to travel :P Get to know me here!

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