We took the bus from Chiang Mai to Pai, which took around three hours. There were 527 curves so travel sickness tablets were a must. The girl behind me was sick. After the little boy spilled his drink on me on the plane my bag and flip flip flops were firmly on my lap, just in case! I wanted no repeat of last time!

We booked Spicy Pai Backpackers Hostel, which cost us £4 each per night. I knew it was going to be basic but I didn't quite realise how basic. The dorm rooms were made of wood and bamboo so completely open to the elements, which I expected but I didn't expect to have to make our own beds! We booked bunk beds but they decided to put us into a double bed which I thought would be nice. The dorm had three bunkbeds, then in the middle of the floor was a steep wooden ladder. This ladder took us up to the double bed. There was room to sleep and put your bags down but you could not stand up or get dressed up there. It was actually quite difficult as the space was so small it was really just for sleeping.

The mattress looked like a mat from a PE class in school or similar to what I would expect as a prisoner. We had to put a thin sheet on it, a sheet on the lumpy pillow and then we had childrens bedding with cartoon characters on it. I stole Joeys pillow when he wasn't around as it was the less lumpy one and I need a solid 8 hours sleep (preferrably 10) so I felt no guilt in swapping. I say that but I have probably been functioning from around 6 hours sleep each night. There was a mosquito net to protect you from the bugs which I made sure stayed constantly down. I also made sure I was lathered in bug spray constantly and managed to avoid any bites until my last night. Annoyingly we had no power sockets and only four plugs for the whole dorm on the ground floor. After attempting to unpack a bit, I was dripping in sweat as there was also no air con and being in the roof made the heat unbearable during the day. I also ripped my trousers as there were nails sticking out everywhere. I cooled off with a shower which was freezing cold as it didn't seem to work properly.

We did enquire about bunkbeds and got shown to a dorm of 20 people. The dorm had no door so we stuck with our double bed...at least our room had a door!

After a drive to Yun Lai viewpoint we climbed up the ladder to the common area which had hammocks overlooking the fields. It was a stunning setting and all completely open to the elements. There were already some people up there so we got chatting to them and when enough of us were there we played drinking games and chatted. It was really nice and friendships were formed. The common area and other backpackers made this hostel for me.

The next day we set off on our moped and went to the waterfall called Pam Bok. The waterfall was pretty but so busy we decided to climb further up to a more secluded bit.

We went onto the bamboo walk which was my favourite! It was so peaceful, quiet with beautiful surroundings. Next a coffee stop to enjoy more stunning scenery, then a drive to the Pai Canyon. The canyon was impressive. You needed to be a bit brave and climb across a narrow bit to enjoy yet more incredible views. The canyon was meant to be great for sunset but it really started to get overly busy. We decided to leave before sunset and headed back. We had also agreed to meet people for dinner so wanted to get back in time for that.

Dinner was interesting that evening. Six of us went out from the hostel. Two of the girls we met from Oxford, Laura and Addy, Nadja from Switzerland and Tyson from Auatralia! We sat down and ordered. After some time a waitress came out and piled some dishes down not telling us what they were. Trying to work out each dish was proving difficult. We were trying bits of each dish, then Joey decided one was his. He ordered a red curry and this dish was a noodle dish. He took a few bites, and ate some of the chicken. More dishes came out, still not ours. We called over the male waiter who put his head in his hands and walked away. They took the dishes away and served them to another table. So basically the table had food that had been touched and eaten by us...woops!

Finally some dishes we ordered arrived but still no red curry! The male waiter told Joey they had no red curry paste left so tried to give him a green curry instead. Joey cancelled his order in favour of getting street food. A few minutes later the same green curry came to our table and again a few minutes after that. Another waitress tried to argue with us that the green curry was in fact a red curry. This waitress was the Thai version of Vicky Pollard, her hair chucked up in a side ponytail and serious attitude. She was furious we cancelled the order even though it did not come! To make it worse Joey then went to the toilet and someone was munching away on a red curry...so much for being out of red curry paste! We left and went on a night out in Pai. It was smaller than Chiang Mai but so much fun.

The next day we went to the hot water springs. There were two hot water springs with one being significantly more expensive than the other. We picked the cheap ones. It was busy but you had enough space and the atmosphere was very chilled. Next stop - Lod caves. The caves took over an hour to get to along some questionable roads.

We paid 450 baht (around £10.50) to see all three caves and go on a bamboo raft. A guide (ours spoke no english) took us around. The first cave was my favourite. Unfortunately due to the language barrier we could not ask questions. The tour felt very rushed with barely any time to take pictures. Seeing other guides taking people around, they just appeared to take them to random places within the cave and point. I am not sure they knew much about it but winged it. Our guide pointed towards a puddle, a rock, a coffin on three seperate occassions wanting us to take photos. I took them to be polite and later deleted them. The bamboo raft was fun but it was sold as going through the third cave when really it was thirty seconds in the water then we had to get off and walk again. The tour was an hour and a half long but after the third cave we had to walk around twenty minutes back which wws part of our hour and a half. She failed to mention we could have taken the raft back.

We stayed at the caves longer as during sunset the bats flew out. I started taking pictures of the bats, there were hundreds of them. After about ten minutes I asked Joey if he was ready to leave. He said he wanted to wait and see the bats fly out. He thought the hundreds of bats were birds and that the bats wouldn't fly out until later on. After explaining that he was looking at them he then agreed it was time to leave.

It was pretty cool to see but in hindsight we didn't plan it very well as we had an hour and a half drive back to Pai in the dark. A lot of the roads don't have lighting so the first bit of the journey was horrible. We trailed along at a slugs pace, as we could barely see in front of us. Three teenagers stopped us and we managed to convey that we wanted to get back to Pai. They motioned for us to follow them on our moped and they kindly got us back to the main road.

From there it was still such a long way to go and we started to see lightening. The roads were dark and painfully quiet. The very few vehichles that did overtake us (thats how slow we were) were pick up trucks. My mind went into overdrive like it was the beginning of a horror film where its always a creepy man in a truck who then lures people in and kills them. I rated my chances of survival slim to zero as I was never going to outrun Joey. The fact we were in the middle of nowhere also didn't help.

Thankfully I didn't have to try and outrun Joey and we made it back safe! We spent the rest of the evening in the night market, which so far has been my favourite market. It had so much choice for vegetarians, even vegan meals were on offer.

I really enjoyed Pai and could have stayed longer. If we had more time we definitely would have. A lot of travellers we met who had a good few months travelling ended up there for 8/9 days as it was such a chilled place. I can't decide if I prefer Pai to Chiang Mai, both have very good aspects to them. I preferred the food in Pai, but I think I will always have a soft spot for Chiang Mai.