Pai

We took a three hour bus (Prem Pracha) from Chiang Mai arcade to Pai. The hardest part of the trip was trying to find the bus terminal. Google maps brought me to one spot that was definitely not a bus terminal- so we had to back track and go to the main station and ask around for directions to the right area. 

The 3 hours bus ride is mostly bumpy and has more bends on the road than you could imagine possible. It’s a ~10 seater mini bus so you feel every bump and turn. We passed Dramamine around and slept through the journey up until 10km outside of Pai when the bus got a flat tire. Luckily this is a busy route and a different bus picked us up in fifteen minutes. 

We got to the Purple Monkey Hostel and checked into our A-Frame house. The houses were very cool but we were definitely in the jungle. There were lizards every where you looked and the bathrooms were in their own building that kind of felt like a scene out of A Bugs Life. But it’s all part of the experience, right? We went for street food and I had delicious pork noodle soup. 

Breakfast was including with our stay and was buffet style. This was our only full day on Pai and we decided to go to the Sai Ngam hot springs. The hostel arranged a taxi for us for the twenty minute journey- because of the location of the hot spring the taxi waited for us for two hours there. The hot spring itself only costs 20baht but because it is part of conservation lands you had to pay 200baht each into the main grounds. The springs were beautiful and relaxing and there is a little restaurant and shop on the grounds. 

Pai is a cool little town with a lot of yoga studios and health-conscious restaurants and cafes. 

We definitely could have (and should have) spent more than two nights here—but we had a schedule to stick too.