The life of pai

Pai was up there with the best places we have been with Jake saying constantly he could live there. People go there for 5 days and end up staying for 5 years and it's easy to see why.

It's 130km from Chiang Mai which would normally take around 3 hours. But pai is in the mountains and the road from Chiang Mai has 742 corners! Three and a hour hours of what felt like being on a roller coaster we arrived with no where to stay.

We got off the minibus and looked at where a list of possible hostels where. There were 2 next to each other just up the rode. Jake left Anne Marie sitting in the restaurant with a beer whilst he went to find the accommodation. We found a hostel that had brilliant reviews because of the friendly owner. It didn't take long to understand why? We had a nice big room and we're given the family suite. Ton, the owner, quickly offered me to give him a game of pool and have a beer.

Pai itself is a small town with one main walking Street. It has little bars and lots of Street food available. The views surrounding pai are unbelievable. It's a very chilled out place and there are hippies in abundance.

The first day it was sunny. We asked ton for a good pool we could use for the day. He said he knew one that was big, clean and quiet and offered to take us there on his moped and sidecart he built himself. When we were there John and Ross turned up from chiang mai after Anne marie said we may as well ask them to share our suite! They turned up on the motorbikes they rented, gave us a key and said one of them was ours. Perfect!

The surrounding areas are what makes pai special. Everything is easy to get to and everything has such spectacular views when riding on a bike. It started to rain at the pool so we decided to go to a waterfall. Ross was in Pai in October so he claimed he knew where he was going. We rode for about an hour and there was no sign of a waterfall. We stopped to look at the map and figured we had turned left too early and we're now heading to a a hot spring. There is a saying that you're never lost unless you care where you are; In pai thats so true. There always something close by thats worth seeing! So we rode another 10 miles to find the hot spring. Now, in the wet season I'm sure this would be fantastic. But we got to the hot springs and it was a big stream and you could see the steam from a distance. Jake climbed down from the rocks to touch the water. It was like putting your hand into a cup of tea. Of course, no one believed him and all had a go themselves. It started to rain again so we decided to drive back and do a full day of sight seeing the next day.

We woke up early to again find rain! That didn't put us off being tourists though. After a big breakfast to start the day we went to the hot springs that Ton told us to go to. These were 20 baht each instead of the 300 baht the main touristy one charged. As John and Ross hired the bikes they were given ones powerful enough for one person. Obviously we both had two. The road to the hotsprings had a lot of hills. One of them we got stuck half way off, Jake got off and ran giving Anne Marie a push. Then it was all down hill. Big hills! When we got to the bottom we then thought.... s***, how on earth are we getting back up there! Our negative thoughts sure enough went when we saw the hot spring. It was a big pool of water with a couple of people in. We stripped off and lay in the bath like water - bliss!! Back on the bikes we went for the challenge of the hills. No matter how big a run up we had we were never getting up this hill in a month of Sundays. But we tried, failed and used our legs, still on the bikes, to push our way up. We got past the three quarter mark before Anne marie jumped off and ran the rest of the way, whilst John was at the top videoing!! All of us in fits of laughter!

Back on the road we found a water fall. Again there was no one in it and we had it to ourselves. It was a tad different to the hot springs. In fact it was the complete opposite and was baltic. It still didn't stop us going in and doing a Peter Andre impression in mysterious girl under the waterfall.

We were all touristed out for the day, had sore assess from riding for so long so it was down to the street for way too much Street food and far too many drinks to watch the football and play the cards. We have also learnt far too many card games too! Even Anne marie understands all of them and is actually pretty good, even though she asks how to play it, even though we played the same game the day before!

North Thailand has been remarkable. We've shared some unforgettable experiences here and we've been so lucky to be able to do them. Our only regret is that we only had 8 days to do it but what we've done in them 8 days I'm sure you'll agree has been unreal!

Next stop The Philippines!