After almost 24 hours on two bus from Phuket to Bangkok then
north, we arrived in Chiang Mai. The day we got there it was 104 so needless
to say we suffered in the heat. We met a
guy named Mike from Lakewood, CO, which was pretty amazing considering Ryan is
from there and it turned out he went to High School with Ryan’s younger brother
Sean. Chiang Mai is known for elephants,
temples, and the best place to celebrate Sangkran but since it had just ended
and was excruciatingly hot, we decided
to make the trek over to Pai where we could do all of the same things.
Pai, in my opinion, was every bit as good as advertised. A small hippie town with surrounding mountains and a river running through the middle, it truly is a place to experience some of the best art, food, and music that Thailand has to offer. We stayed at the DarlingView Point Bungalows which sit up on the hills overlooking the town and I highly recommend staying there. It may not be the most pristine place you will ever stay but with scooters only costing $3/day it is a great location and one of the few “community hostel” experiences that we’ve had thus far on our trip. Some of the highlights from Pai included riding elephants, sliding down a waterfall, hiking up to another through the jungle, and visiting a very large cave (which also included an amazing 3 hour scooter drive). We spent a good chunk of time in Pai and I was definitely bummed to leave but excited about my upcoming trip to Laos. After saying goodbye to Mike we boarded a minivan that will take us to the Thailand/Laos border.
More to come from Laos soon!
-BP
The three of us on the elephant
Fishing in the river
Fishing in the river
Cruising on the scooter
At the viewpoint
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