When we asked people in Chiang Mai what Pai was like everyone responded with the same "it's a hippy village" and that is exactly what we found (and what we needed after 4 hours of uphill bumpy and windy mountain roads!). The way of life in the town was incredibly laid back- the main street was lined with juice/coffee bars where you could easily while away an afternoon. We were lucky enough to find the nicest guesthouse right away (although pippa and Katie did go on a wander to check out the local competition). Nothing was as nice, especially for the price we were paying which works out to about 2pounds each! We had our own little cabin with perhaps the biggest, comfiest bed! Admitedly, Benaisha did get a tad obsessed with "our cabin in Pai" and seems unable to let it go!
We spent our first afternoon lazing by the local pool, fluid, which was great - big grassy lawn with big pool in the centre. The next day or two were spent relaxing, reading, browsing the little hippy shops and generally getting into the Pai way of life. In the evenings there was quite a bit of live music about- one night we went to a local reggae bar, Buffalo Exchange, where we were invited to sing! We also found the local band "Sticky Rice" who weren't half bad and serenaded our dinners!
On our last day in Pai we took a cooking course- was funny coincidence as the night before we went to a bar named 'Dilligaf' ('do i look like i give a f***') where there was a really friendly owner who sat down with us and in conversation it transpired that she was to be our instructor the next day! She made a list of all the things we wanted to learn and warned us not to be late or hungover the next day.....When we arrived for our course it turned out that she had lost the list from the night before and was still drunk herself! Regardless of her intoxicated state, we still managed to learn how to whip up a great Pad Thai before embarking on our tour of the local market. We sampled local produce at the market as well as seeing the more bizarre items that were on sale e.g. live cat fish, frogs and baskets of fried cockroaches. It was great! very colourful. After the market trip we made soup, stir-fries and curries which are surprisingly easy with the ingredients all assembled - naturally, we are all Thai cuisine genius's! Much looking forward to coming home and wowing everyone with our new skills. Rather suspectly, and obviously nothing to do with our newly acquired skills, Katie spent the next two days throwing up and feeling generally worse for wear. Of course, with less suspect English ingredients, we are sure our culinary delights will not poison anyone!
We left Pai, sad to be leaving not only the most relaxed place we had visited but also Pippa (who is waiting for Jess) behind on a night bus bound for Chiang Khong.