In a country with so many terrain changes and stark borderlands with its neighbors, Pai is the launching point for the Thai highlands. Here, temples, yoga enclaves and winding paths through rice paddies bring a serenity to your travels. Whitewater and spelunking add a bit of adrenaline. Foodie restaurants and a famous night market add in the cuisine. And a tubing party and late night bar street give you a chance to socialize. Many people find themselves adding extra time in Pai, and for good reason.
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Magic Tubing
One of the main activities in Pai for is tubing on the river that runs in and out through town. As far as I know, there are two main operations in town. Circus hostel takes their folks out later in the afternoon directly from the hostel and then brings you back after. Everyone else in town goes through “Magic Tubing.” Whether you book through your hotel, any agency, a bar, or a guy on the street, you will meet at the intersection of all three Chai Songkram’s, seriously, check the map, all three streets have the same name. Bring your floating beverages because next you will be taken to the river, given a tube, dropped in the water, and proceed to drift through the reeds to the halfway point. Here, you have a music break in the shade with a kid selling beer out of the back of a truck. Drop back into the water and drift for another hour to the takeout point.
Pai Night Market
Mae Yen Temple and the Big Buddha
The most significant temple in Pai is Mae Yen Temple just east of town. The area is full of temples hidden away in tiny villages or in caves up unpaved roads into the mountains, or on passes the road has cut between the ranges. Mae Yen is a short 15-20 minute walk from Pai’s main street. If you have any trouble finding the place, don’t call it Mae Yen as few tourists know the name and even the locals might not understand you. “Big Buddha” is what everyone calls the place you will see why when you get there. The highlight of the visit is the Big Buddha at the top of the white stairs leading further up past the temple. Buddha is perched just high enough on a small hill to provide views of the whole of Pai and much of the valley it stretches along.
Overnight Whitewater Trip with Thai Adventure Rafting
There are a few operations selling rafting trips starting out of Pai. At the time of my visit in Nov 2022 however, the only one capable of organizing overnight excursions was Thai Adventure Rafting managed out of Thai Adventure Cottages on the east side of town. Due to COVID, the other companies had let their overnight shelters in the jungle decline. So, ask around and see if they are back up and running. Single day trips sound fun, but the area of the river that you can access in a one-day trip is much calmer and a little more of a float down the river than any serious rafting. Going on a two-day itinerary lets you put in farther upriver on a different water source with some better rapids. Also, ask about the water level recently, because if it gets too low, again, you are going to be drifting more than rafting. Either way, the scenery is amazing.
Tham Lod Cave
Tham Nam Lod is one of the most spectacular caves in Thailand. It is a short motorbike ride, taxi trip, or cheap tour option from Pai. The cave is best visited by bamboo raft. The raft prices are for three people, so group up and get a guide with a lantern to take you on a return trip through the sunken tunnels. There are a few spots where the boat will pull over and you will be able to visit some of the dry caverns that are part of the system. If you are able to time your visit right, you can see the reverse of a cave bat exodus and watch a couple hundred thousand birds fly back into the cave at dusk.
Mae Hong Son Motorbike Loop
The Mae Hong Son motorbike route is an itinerary that usually begins and ends in Chiang Mai. But if you are already in Pai and just learning about it, AYA tours can do a one-way motorbike rental picking up in the middle of Pai and turning it back into their office in Chiang Mai. This is a route that takes a minimum of four days but could easily be a couple weeks if taking your time and seeing absolutely everything. It is not a route that should be taken lightly if you are new to two-wheeled motorized vehicles or driving in Asia. A large part of the loop is now paved and in good condition, but almost every attraction off the side of the road will be on gravel paths or worse. Wear a helmet and stick to your skill level. Check out some of the highlights to see if you want to do the full loop on your own. Take a look at: Nam Lod Cave, Soppong, Su Tong Pae Bridge, Wat Phra That Doi Kong Mu, Mae Sariang, the prehistoric settlements of Ob Luang, and Doi Inthanon(Thailand’s highest mountain).
Cheese Madness
This is an amazing little shop past the main stretch of the night market and restaurants. A few tables are setup inside and a couple more out on the street but the main part of the tiny building is a cheese and wine shop. They have some great things on sale here that you probably have not seen anywhere since leaving Europe. But the best part is the grilled cheese menu. Several suggested sandwich combinations are on offer. If you are up for the challenge though, the make your own grilled cheese section has nearly a page of options you can piece together into something fantastic. If you need a break from Thai food (hard to imagine I know, but people do get homesick) this is the place to be.
Air Restaurant
Even with blocks and blocks of night market food stalls filling in the spaces between several dozen restaurants, Air Restaurant was still my favorite place in Pai for real, no-frills, original recipe Thai food on the cheap. Khao soi and fried yellow noodles are two of the most popular dishes and with good reason. But they also have all your old favorites: pad thai, green curries, mango sticky rice. And almost all of them for under USD$2.
Thongyib.Cafe
No judgement, and this does not constitute legal advice. But, at least from appearances, the marijuana climate in Thailand has changed dramatically from my first visit years and years ago. I think in Pai, more than anywhere else I visited in the country, there were potentially more weed shops than bars. This extended into the street and the night market where stalls were selling hand rolled joints, space brownies, and just straight weed by the gram. My favorite example of this was waking up one morning, looking for a breakfast place and seeing a sign at a café advertising “100 baht= 1 blunt+ 1 coffee+ 1 muffin.” Once again, I have no idea of the official legal status, this is just an FYI that it is out there.
Aya Tour Office
There are quite a few places in town renting motorbikes, arranging group or private tours, and selling bus tickets back to Chiang Mai or onwards to other destinations. Aya Tour office on the main drag in Pai is the largest operation in town. If you have the opportunity to support one of the more local or family run enterprises, I always suggest that when possible. But if you have something a little more complicated in mind like one way motorcycle rentals, group trips, or luggage transfer, I will say that AYA Tour was a little more flexible and definitely reliable in my experience.
Top Tip: Book buses ahead
I saw this issue catch many many people when I was in town last year. However, like so many others, I visited Pai directly after the world-famous Yi Peng lantern festival in Chiang Mai in October. But after asking around, it seems that Pai has transport issues, accommodation overbooking, and general overcrowding quite often throughout the year. Any time a festival, major concert or holiday happens in Chiang Mai, Pai gets hit the next day. Sometimes in the high season, just a long weekend or good weather can swell the town to a bursting point. The biggest issue with this for the average backpacker is getting in or out of town. After struggling to get the bus from Chiang Mai to Pai to start with, I went ahead and booked my return journey out of Pai when I got there. Others ended up having to wait days for a ride out of town or resort to extortionate private taxi prices. If there is anything happening in Chiang Mai, or if Pai seems busy on your arrival, go ahead and make sure you have your onward plans sorted out. Although, if you don’t, Pai is not a bad place to get stuck for a few days with no plans.
“Pai: Thailand’s Mountain Escape” by Creed Evans was originally published on Wanderdash (follow Creed @creedevans)