My First Day in Pai
Pai is small town nestled in the mountains, a winding threeish hour drive up from Chiang Mai. My impression from hearsay and the internet was that Pai is notorious for being a hippie paradise filled with natural healing, drugs, and rasta bars alongside the natural beauty of waterfalls, the Pai Canyon, and other sites only accessible by motorbike. In the end, I got sucked into Pai’s charms and wish I could’ve stayed just one day more – but I do think Pai fell a bit short of expectations.
Truth is, I was really disappointed in Pai when I first hopped off my mini bus. I spent the nauseating (but not nearly so bad as the “I Survived 267 Curves to Pai” t-shirts insinuate) ride chatting with an American expat who knows Pai very well, and two girls who met while volunteering at an Elephant Camp. He gave us heaps of things to do and see in Pai and I was excited to start exploring this magical place. When I started walking around Pai that first day though, it was pretty dead. Sure it was a Tuesday, but it’s high season many guest houses were at capacity. I found some lovely cafes and restaurants but they were mostly empty. My first stop was a gigantic cafe covered in flowers and serving the most amazng array of cheesecake and other desserts. I sat for a blissful few minutes with a Bananoffee Pie and relaxed.
Next I shopped around the tourist shops and tried to get a feel for Pai, but it was pretty much a dusty ghost town compared with Chiang Mai and weaving on foot around motorbikes was (and is!) extra annoying in Pai. The people at my guest house were friendly, but after the bus ride and filled with exhaustion, they all seemed more worldly than me and like a family that I wasn’t ready to break into yet. My guesthouse, Common Grounds, has beautiful new dorms and rooms amidst trees and hammocks with a big outdoor lounge area where guests lay around all day and night, chatting, playing games, napping, drinking, you name it. It’s a great place for an extended stay if you’re looking to be adopted by a great group of people who can really introduce you to Pai – or if you just want to sleep snuggled under a comforter that feels like a cloud from heaven and have YOUR OWN outlet right next to your bed. On that first afternoon though, I was too desperate for a shower and a good, proper meal to sit and socialize for long with a huge group of people. I felt a little bit homesick. As the day got later though, the market stalls started popping up on walking street and Pai started to come to life. I did peruse the street food stalls for a bit with a french girl from the guest house but parted ways as I sought out the PERFECT restaurant to unwind, eat and people watch. I finally found Pai Siam, a bright cafe adorned with colorful handmade lampshades.
I overheard that the pasta was incredible there, so I ordered one of my only Western meals since I’ve been in Thailand – fettucine with mushrooms in cream sauce. It came with orgasmic garlic bread and the whole meal was spectacular, at least as far as Italian food in Thailand goes. I also had a glass of wine, which has been very hard to find at a reasonable price in Chiang Mai. The ambiance was spot on and I had a wonderful view of the people passing by as my warm fuzzies for Pai started to appear. After dinner, I booked a van tour for the next morning, shopped around a bit more, and then stumbled on a beautiful bar with a live acoustic musician crooning Blackbird by The Beatles. Obviously I went in, seeing as I am like a moth to flame when it comes to live guitar. I sat on a cushion on a raised platform and sipped my Mai Tai. I can’t express how much I loved this bar at that moment, it was perfection. Eventually a woman from Portland who’s friend left the bar early came over to talk to me, thinking I looked familiar. It turns out that we had eaten dinner at the same restaurant earlier and had remembered eachother. This is when I started to realize how small and homey Pai could feel. You really do keep seeing the same people and striking up brief friendships isn’t hard. The woman and I talked for awhile and walked around after the live music stopped. She pointed out some good bars to me and I went home feeling that Pai wasn’t so bad afterall, tucked in by 11.