Day 39 – Chiang Mai to Pai

Today we left Chiang Mai to go further north to the town of Pai. Our hostel X Kingdom had arranged the journey. After breakfast an empty Songthaew (shared taxi) picked us up and proceeded to pick up several other tourists. With the Songthaew full (like super full, due to ~10 people and everyone’s bags) we were dropped off at a bus terminal (it was full off vans so might be called a van terminal). The van was packed but everyone had a seat and the bags were stored in the back.

The van ride to Pai was long and the roads were winding up along the mountain ranges. There was one stop at a small store along the way. We bought some bananas which we threw away right away after we opened them as they looked rotten on the inside. I do not recommend the bananas.

Once in Pai, the van dropped us all of on the main street. It was full of tourists and souvenir shops. Our hotel was 2 kilometres away in the mountains. We decided to have lunch in town before making the hike into the mountains with our luggage. Despite being drenched in sweat due to the weight of our bags and the humidity, we stopped to admire the scenery. We could see fields (of what we were unsure) and mountains all around.

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We were relieved to make it to our accommodation, Pril Pai Guesthouse, where we had booked a room. The rooms were stand alone huts, with a bed on the floor and an private bathroom which was outside, and a hammock in the front. The bathroom was walled on each side, but it was only half covered with a roof. It was pretty cool, but I would think it would suck during a storm.

Since there wasn’t too much else to do, or eat, we walked back into town, and grabbed dinner from the many street stalls around. By the time we were full it was dark. We weighed up the options and the only form of transport we could find was the motobike taxis, so we decided to walk back home in the dark. The walk wasn’t too bad, but we were also on the look out for dogs.