Dec 10, 2004 - Pai

arrived in Pairadise, enjoying my countryside bungalow with roof top terrace in the middle of rice fields surrounded by mountains for the next days. After a 1,5 hour thai/herbal massage (for only 4 euros) the life seems easier than ever! Trekking through the jungle, lots of butterflies and flowers, banana trees, and water... Driving around on my motorbike, hanging out at Cafe del doi (especially for sunset) with lounge music, great view over the rice fields and the valley, spending a lazy afternoon at a Pai river cafe .... that s life in...

Dec 4, 2004 - Trekking (Mae Taeng region)

We left the relative comfort of Chiang Mai via a pick up truck to start our journey to the Mae Taeng area for the start of our trek. We stopped off at a local market on the way to buy any last minute supplies before carrying on to the start point of our trek. On arrival we all sat down and had lunch and got to know the rest of the group a little. We had an assortment of people this time with 8 other people all from different countries. We set off up hill and soon found out that this was to be the trend for the rest of the day! We walked...

Nov 20, 2004 - Pai

Pai is the most beautiful little place nestled among the mountains emanating a peaceful, alternative atmosphere (hence the place is full of strange hippy types like the guy from Loveland! He refused to specify his place of birth claiming that he has ripped the labels from himself, "They no longer apply to me, man!") We had specifically come here with Elizabeth and Greg, an American couple we had met in Bangkok in October, for a concert at which friends of ours were headlining. Tum Rasta and the Raw Riddim had become favourites of ours when...

Oct 13, 2004 - Life of Pai

Following on from our last entry, the plan was to head to Chang Rai for a night then cross the border into Laos. This all seemed well and good until we went out for a quiet night on the Tuesday and ended up getting back to our hostel at 3am. As you have probably guessed, Beer Chang featured heavily in the nights preceedings(again) and yes, you already know..... we woke Wednesday with monumental hangovers. It was at this point we decided to freestyle a little and radically change our plans. We had spoken to someone the night before who told...

Aug 21, 2004 - Pai in the sky

Travelled up to Pai on the bus from Chiang Mai. It's a sleepy little town, very relaxed and chilled out with an abundance of Guest Houses and trekking companies. Going along with the recommendation in our Lonely Planet Bible, we opted for a little place on the river. We stayed in a wooden bungalow in a picturesque little jungle garden, we had to share our shower with the odd frog, but at less than 3 quid per night we didn't grumble (just screamed the first time it jumped) We hired a couple of motorbikes and went off into the hills for a...

Aug 9, 2004 - Pai

Pai, a really small mountain town 4 hours away from Chiang Mai. To touristy for my kind of travels, but just wonderful souroundings. Emagine a small town and everywhere you look up in the sky away of the town there are massive mountains with rain forest. Its pretty cold here, because of the rainy season and the fact that this town is in the mountains. What Dan (english guy I met on the way to Chiang Mai) and myself wanna do here in Pai is clear. A really difficult one day trek and rent some motorbikes and risk our lifes on wet, slipery,...

Jul 14, 2004 - Chiang Mai - Pai

After all the trekking we decided that we needed to have a break and headed for a small place north west of Chiang Mai called Pai. After a late start we headed off for the bus station, and found it remarkably easy to get a local bus there. It was only a small bus, and while we were sitting waiting to go a rat ran through the window, down the inside of the bus and to somewhere near the back which was a bit bizarre. The bus took 4 hours and it was a really windy road through the mountains, and at some point we all felt sick. but we got there...