|
Pai - the epicentre of 'chill'Dec 23, 2008
|
|
Aah, bliss - a decent bed!
Action man in Pai
Birds and banana tree
Had a great few days in Pai before returning to Chiang Mai.
Having an Xmas meal in Chiang Mai with our good friends Chris and Oh and son Safe and tomorrow morning 25th off on a road trip to a national park, north of Bangkok.
Sprouts are on the menu..yip yip.
UPDATE ENTRY: We did, indeed spend a few relaxing days at Pai where, thankfully, little has changed since our previous visit a couple of years ago - although we did notice a considerable increase in the number of young Thai tourists. Apparently, a romantic film had been made, featuring Pai and subsequently resulting in a massive increase in popularity of this destination amongst 'the locals' ie Bangkok youth.
Although it isn't terribly far from Chiang Mai (|about 140km), getting there is quite onerous because you have to traverse a mountain up and down to reach the valley that Pai nestles in. We hadn't booked anywhere so we looked around at various possibilities on our arrival. The first place we came to was out of Pai itself, a newly opened (soft launch) hotel called the Paicome Hideaway. The owner spoke very good English and was extremely welcoming, offering us a significant discount on the usual rates as we were the 'first foreigners' to stay there (we effectively got three nights for one).
The Pai scene was good - although we did keep mis-judging how early everyone eats. It was great fun exploring some of the off-road backwaters inspite of not having much in the way of maps so Alan's boy scout skills came in handy ("Follow the electricity pylons/rivers/etc")
