Intro: Pai is a small town of about 3000 people located north of Chaing Mai, close to the Burmese border, it takes about three hours to drive up there and is definitely worth a visit if you are in northern Thailand. It is nestled in between hills and along a river and has some very nice scenery, including several natural hot springs and a few nice water falls. This is a great place to go to get away from the noise and pollution of the city and chill out for two-four days.
Its often described as a hippy town and a backpackers paradise and for the most part, this is an accurate description, but in recent years, especially after it was featured in a couple of very popular Thai films, Pai has become very popular among Thai people who come up here for a weekend or a romantic getaway.
I ended up there after being in BKK and Chiang Mai for over a month, I was only supposed to go there for the weekend but I liked the place so much that I ended up training Muay Thai there for almost a month, so I got to know the place quite well and it ended up being one of my favorite places in Thailand.
The town of Pai is quite small and very easy to get around, there are basically two streets that make up most of the downtown area which is where all of the action is (restaurants, bars, clubs, guest houses, etc.). One is called Walking Street and this is where you'll get off the mini-van from Chiang Mai, if you continue farther down this street, there's another street at the end on the left that runs perpendicular, I forget the name but you can't miss it. There are several streets off of Walking Street that have something to see (lots of tattoo shops, massage parlours, internet cafes, etc), and another street that runs parallel to Walking Street, basically you can cover all of this in about twenty minutes on foot. Here's a map (scroll down): http://allaboutpai.com/maps/
How to get there: Best option would be to take a mini van there from Chiang Mai, its costs 150 Baht and take about three hours, but be warned, the road is extremely curvy, it has over 700 bends or switch backs on it going through the mountains, I wouldn't recommend doing it hung over. The last time I went up there we had to stop because some lady was puking, buy some of those yellow motion sickness pills for 5 Baht at the bus station.
Also, when leaving town, especially on a Sunday, buy your tickets the day before because the buses fill up on Sundays, if you want to get out of town before the afternoon.
What to do: Plenty of outdoor activities to do in Pai: trekking, rafting (best in July-September), tubing, waterfalls, etc, there's also a clown school and a couple of cooking schools in Pai. Lots of nice resorts with hot springs and pools to chill at for the day, I went to this one a couple of times where you can pay 100 baht to use all of their facilities: http://www.paihotspringssparesort.com/
There's also a Piranha fishing resort a little out of town, I spent a day there fishing and drinking beer, its run by an Englishman named Dave and its a nice spot to check out, killer lasagna there too: http://paipiranhafishingpark.blogspot.com/
Walking Street: The main street in Pai is shut down to traffic from 1800-Midnight and lots of street vendors are on it, buskers, street meat stands and tons of people, this place is PACKED at night, often shoulder-to-shoulder, especially on weekends, its crazy. Be warned, you are not allowed to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol on Walking Street, I don't know why Pai is so conservative, it may be the local Muslim influence, there is a mosque in town and you will see many Thai women in full burka here. Its actually nice because the town isn't full of the usual riff-raff like greasy sex tourists or hammered drunk back packers.
Muay Thai: I trained at a few gyms in Thailand and I liked this one the best, its called Sor Wisarut: http://www.wisarutmuaythai.com/ , its about two kilometers from downtown, in a farmers field with great views of the surrounding hills. I stayed at a resort within walking distance and was able to really focus on my training, which was great as I made a really good friend there, the trainer Emanuele, a highly accomplished Italian K-1/Muay Thai fighter. There's also two other Thai trainers who were excellent as well.
Hippy stuff: I didn't partake in any of this but there are plenty of options for yoga, meditation and detox related activites, lots of spas here and natural healing retreats.
Accommodations: Lots of options here for all price ranges, from 100 baht beds in hostels to high end resorts, I stayed most of my time at "The Country Side resort", couldn't find a website but its on Trip Advisor and Agoda, I paid 700 Baht per night because I stayed for three weeks. the cheapest I stayed in was "Pai In The Sky Hotel" right beside the main bus station, my room with two beds was only 250 Baht.
Pai had a hotel construction boom and has over 10,000 beds in the city but be warned, this place really fills up on the weekends, so if you're arriving on a Saturday, try to reserve something beforehand to avoid walking around town for four hours looking for a place like I did.
Getting around: If you stay downtown, you can get around on foot but its better to rent a bicycle or scooter. A bicycle will go for about fifty baht per day but I would say that a scooter is the best option, as many of the water falls and other nice attractions are a few kilometers out of town. Actually if you've never drove a scooter before, Pai is a great place to learn and a couple of the rental places give lessons, just stay off the highways and crowded Walking street until you're comfortable and you'll be fine.
Food: Plenty of options for both Thai and foreign food, there's a lot of Farang expats who run restos here like the gay Italian guy who runs the Witching Well and a French guy who makes crepes at a small shop near Buffalo bar. Very cheap food options as well and a lot of healty options too. Lots of street meat options along Walking Street in the evening.
Weed: Since its a hippy town, there's a lot of weed smoking going on here but the quality sucks and the prices are high for what you get. Take precautions because this is Thailand and if you get caught by the cops you could be in a sticky situation. They sell it at some bars along walking Street and if you ride a scooter up the hills to the waterfalls, local hill tribe women will wave you down on the road and offer "ganja, opium, heroin", the only three English words they know, again, be careful.
Night life: Pai isn't exactly a party town but you can have a good time there for sure, it certainly doesn't compete with the crazy parties you'll find down on the islands, which is a good thing in my opinion. Most of the action is located downtown along Walking Street and the last street on the left, here's some places to check out:
-Edible jazz: On walking street, a chill place with large outdoor bar, they have live entertainment and open mic nights. Good place to grab a few drinks from 2000-2300. Mixed crowd of Farang and thai
-Yellow Sun: Off Walking Street, this is a reggae bar that gets pretty full on the weekends, there's a pool table and small dance floor, good from around 22000midnight. Mixed crowd, mostly back packers.
-Ting Tong Bar: Beside walking street, decent sized dance floor but more of a lounge scene, they have a fire pit in the back, good place to chill and smoke doobies.
-Buffalo: Down the street from yellow Sun and Ting-Tong, its the last bar on the street, has good food, its a mostly Thai bar.
-Bamboo Bar: Across the bridge from down town, nice big bar and as the name suggests, made of bamboo. This is usually the last bar to close on the weekends and between Bamboo bar and the reggae one beside it (can't remember the name), this is where everyone will migrate after midnight when all of the other bars shut down.
Night life vibe: As I mentioned, its a hippy back backer town so they are out in full force but there's also a lot of regular travellers there too. The vibe is heavy on the reggae and dope smoking, I went to an outdoor concert there that attracted around 500 people and also a drum and bass party that was decent, but overall, the night life isn't great.
Now Pai is more conservative than other cities in Thailand, so the parties don't get too wild and the police will come around and shut the bars down, sometimes at midnight and sometimes one or two. Also, there's no sex tourism here, at all, which is refreshing but also means that there's no shoring to be done. Another thing, most of the Thais who come here seem to be couples on a romantic weekend getaway, so most of the gameable women are farang.
Gaming women in Pai: I would recommend a mixture of day and night game, this is where I had my most success in Pai, actually you can start from the moment you hop on the bus in CM, that's what I did, there were three girls on the bus and I chatted them up a bit during the drive. That same night I met up with them at a bar and we partied all night, we ended up renting scooters the next day and hit up some water falls.
During the day, chat up as many women as possible along walking street, in cafes, etc because you will most likely run into them during the night, either on walking street or in one of the bars listed above.
Although there are quite a few long term farang residents in pai, the majority of people there are travellers who are only there for a few days, usually a weekend trip and most of the younger crowd stays downtown. There were travellers from the usual places who go to Thailand (Scandinavians, Israelis, Russians, etc) but for whatever reason there was an abundance of French and Canadians travellers, I'd say that the Canucks were there because of the cool weather.
Speaking of weather, pack a sweater, trust me! One thing I liked about Pai was that it gets really hot during the day, 28-32 but at night it gets COLD, usually between 5-10 degrees, which is nice but I wasn't prepared so I had to buy a sweater there.
So there you go guys, some data on a really chill, nice little town in northern Thailand. Pai is definitely on the tourist trail and very easy to get to and stay in, the locals are the friendliest and most speak a bit of English. I'd recommend a few days here, more than that and you'll likely get bored, unless you're training Muay Thai up here, which I highly recommend.
Here's a decent video by some SWPL back packer dickhead who spent sometime in Pai:
Its often described as a hippy town and a backpackers paradise and for the most part, this is an accurate description, but in recent years, especially after it was featured in a couple of very popular Thai films, Pai has become very popular among Thai people who come up here for a weekend or a romantic getaway.
I ended up there after being in BKK and Chiang Mai for over a month, I was only supposed to go there for the weekend but I liked the place so much that I ended up training Muay Thai there for almost a month, so I got to know the place quite well and it ended up being one of my favorite places in Thailand.
The town of Pai is quite small and very easy to get around, there are basically two streets that make up most of the downtown area which is where all of the action is (restaurants, bars, clubs, guest houses, etc.). One is called Walking Street and this is where you'll get off the mini-van from Chiang Mai, if you continue farther down this street, there's another street at the end on the left that runs perpendicular, I forget the name but you can't miss it. There are several streets off of Walking Street that have something to see (lots of tattoo shops, massage parlours, internet cafes, etc), and another street that runs parallel to Walking Street, basically you can cover all of this in about twenty minutes on foot. Here's a map (scroll down): http://allaboutpai.com/maps/
How to get there: Best option would be to take a mini van there from Chiang Mai, its costs 150 Baht and take about three hours, but be warned, the road is extremely curvy, it has over 700 bends or switch backs on it going through the mountains, I wouldn't recommend doing it hung over. The last time I went up there we had to stop because some lady was puking, buy some of those yellow motion sickness pills for 5 Baht at the bus station.
Also, when leaving town, especially on a Sunday, buy your tickets the day before because the buses fill up on Sundays, if you want to get out of town before the afternoon.
What to do: Plenty of outdoor activities to do in Pai: trekking, rafting (best in July-September), tubing, waterfalls, etc, there's also a clown school and a couple of cooking schools in Pai. Lots of nice resorts with hot springs and pools to chill at for the day, I went to this one a couple of times where you can pay 100 baht to use all of their facilities: http://www.paihotspringssparesort.com/
There's also a Piranha fishing resort a little out of town, I spent a day there fishing and drinking beer, its run by an Englishman named Dave and its a nice spot to check out, killer lasagna there too: http://paipiranhafishingpark.blogspot.com/
Walking Street: The main street in Pai is shut down to traffic from 1800-Midnight and lots of street vendors are on it, buskers, street meat stands and tons of people, this place is PACKED at night, often shoulder-to-shoulder, especially on weekends, its crazy. Be warned, you are not allowed to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol on Walking Street, I don't know why Pai is so conservative, it may be the local Muslim influence, there is a mosque in town and you will see many Thai women in full burka here. Its actually nice because the town isn't full of the usual riff-raff like greasy sex tourists or hammered drunk back packers.
Muay Thai: I trained at a few gyms in Thailand and I liked this one the best, its called Sor Wisarut: http://www.wisarutmuaythai.com/ , its about two kilometers from downtown, in a farmers field with great views of the surrounding hills. I stayed at a resort within walking distance and was able to really focus on my training, which was great as I made a really good friend there, the trainer Emanuele, a highly accomplished Italian K-1/Muay Thai fighter. There's also two other Thai trainers who were excellent as well.
Hippy stuff: I didn't partake in any of this but there are plenty of options for yoga, meditation and detox related activites, lots of spas here and natural healing retreats.
Accommodations: Lots of options here for all price ranges, from 100 baht beds in hostels to high end resorts, I stayed most of my time at "The Country Side resort", couldn't find a website but its on Trip Advisor and Agoda, I paid 700 Baht per night because I stayed for three weeks. the cheapest I stayed in was "Pai In The Sky Hotel" right beside the main bus station, my room with two beds was only 250 Baht.
Pai had a hotel construction boom and has over 10,000 beds in the city but be warned, this place really fills up on the weekends, so if you're arriving on a Saturday, try to reserve something beforehand to avoid walking around town for four hours looking for a place like I did.
Getting around: If you stay downtown, you can get around on foot but its better to rent a bicycle or scooter. A bicycle will go for about fifty baht per day but I would say that a scooter is the best option, as many of the water falls and other nice attractions are a few kilometers out of town. Actually if you've never drove a scooter before, Pai is a great place to learn and a couple of the rental places give lessons, just stay off the highways and crowded Walking street until you're comfortable and you'll be fine.
Food: Plenty of options for both Thai and foreign food, there's a lot of Farang expats who run restos here like the gay Italian guy who runs the Witching Well and a French guy who makes crepes at a small shop near Buffalo bar. Very cheap food options as well and a lot of healty options too. Lots of street meat options along Walking Street in the evening.
Weed: Since its a hippy town, there's a lot of weed smoking going on here but the quality sucks and the prices are high for what you get. Take precautions because this is Thailand and if you get caught by the cops you could be in a sticky situation. They sell it at some bars along walking Street and if you ride a scooter up the hills to the waterfalls, local hill tribe women will wave you down on the road and offer "ganja, opium, heroin", the only three English words they know, again, be careful.
Night life: Pai isn't exactly a party town but you can have a good time there for sure, it certainly doesn't compete with the crazy parties you'll find down on the islands, which is a good thing in my opinion. Most of the action is located downtown along Walking Street and the last street on the left, here's some places to check out:
-Edible jazz: On walking street, a chill place with large outdoor bar, they have live entertainment and open mic nights. Good place to grab a few drinks from 2000-2300. Mixed crowd of Farang and thai
-Yellow Sun: Off Walking Street, this is a reggae bar that gets pretty full on the weekends, there's a pool table and small dance floor, good from around 22000midnight. Mixed crowd, mostly back packers.
-Ting Tong Bar: Beside walking street, decent sized dance floor but more of a lounge scene, they have a fire pit in the back, good place to chill and smoke doobies.
-Buffalo: Down the street from yellow Sun and Ting-Tong, its the last bar on the street, has good food, its a mostly Thai bar.
-Bamboo Bar: Across the bridge from down town, nice big bar and as the name suggests, made of bamboo. This is usually the last bar to close on the weekends and between Bamboo bar and the reggae one beside it (can't remember the name), this is where everyone will migrate after midnight when all of the other bars shut down.
Night life vibe: As I mentioned, its a hippy back backer town so they are out in full force but there's also a lot of regular travellers there too. The vibe is heavy on the reggae and dope smoking, I went to an outdoor concert there that attracted around 500 people and also a drum and bass party that was decent, but overall, the night life isn't great.
Now Pai is more conservative than other cities in Thailand, so the parties don't get too wild and the police will come around and shut the bars down, sometimes at midnight and sometimes one or two. Also, there's no sex tourism here, at all, which is refreshing but also means that there's no shoring to be done. Another thing, most of the Thais who come here seem to be couples on a romantic weekend getaway, so most of the gameable women are farang.
Gaming women in Pai: I would recommend a mixture of day and night game, this is where I had my most success in Pai, actually you can start from the moment you hop on the bus in CM, that's what I did, there were three girls on the bus and I chatted them up a bit during the drive. That same night I met up with them at a bar and we partied all night, we ended up renting scooters the next day and hit up some water falls.
During the day, chat up as many women as possible along walking street, in cafes, etc because you will most likely run into them during the night, either on walking street or in one of the bars listed above.
Although there are quite a few long term farang residents in pai, the majority of people there are travellers who are only there for a few days, usually a weekend trip and most of the younger crowd stays downtown. There were travellers from the usual places who go to Thailand (Scandinavians, Israelis, Russians, etc) but for whatever reason there was an abundance of French and Canadians travellers, I'd say that the Canucks were there because of the cool weather.
Speaking of weather, pack a sweater, trust me! One thing I liked about Pai was that it gets really hot during the day, 28-32 but at night it gets COLD, usually between 5-10 degrees, which is nice but I wasn't prepared so I had to buy a sweater there.
So there you go guys, some data on a really chill, nice little town in northern Thailand. Pai is definitely on the tourist trail and very easy to get to and stay in, the locals are the friendliest and most speak a bit of English. I'd recommend a few days here, more than that and you'll likely get bored, unless you're training Muay Thai up here, which I highly recommend.
Here's a decent video by some SWPL back packer dickhead who spent sometime in Pai:
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