The journey to Pai was where we'd regret the night before. The journey took about 4 hours and around 2 hours in the mountain roads began and soon after there were quite a few people feeling a bit queasy. After 762 bends (don't worry I wasn't counting, this is what my T-shirt says) and a couple of stops to let people get some fresh air we arrived in Pai.

We stayed in a place called the Golden Hut and it was cheap and cheerful. Not so much of a communal area but nice enough. We had a fairly quiet first night, places seem to close up a bit earlier around here.

The next day 8 of us went to the motorbike rental shop and we ended up renting out 7 bikes as it was about £3 for 30 hours including insurance. We all went for a tour of the area. Went to some hot springs in which you could boil eggs in a plastic bag if you wanted. There was a canyon nearby that had really stunning views and a waterfall that wasn't so impressive. After over half an hour of walking up the side of and in the river we gave up trying. There was one other waterfall to check out and thankfully this one was worth the effort, a bit more water and it would have been amazing.

Pai wasn't originally on my list of places to see but I would recommend it to anyone heading to this part of the world. There are more markets if that's your bag and if not it's just a great place to chill out in preparation for your border crossing to Laos.