Pai – The adventures of Laura and Lewis

Day 1

After a 3 hour drive to Pai in a minivan, we have arrived! Asha, my friend from home was with us too, which was fun! We were warned about the bad roads in Pai beforehand and my gosh were they bad! As you get closer to Pai, every road is steep, winding and pretty terrible. I had some travel sickness tablets beforehand and was determined to not be sick so I made sure I spent the whole journey staring out of the window. And result, no sickness!

We stayed at Pai Puh Fah guesthouse that were full of wooden hut sorta things surrounded by nature. We had a private hut with A/C yay and an ensuite. Our first ensuite! It was in such a beautiful location and very close to the centre. It was only £9 a night between us.

After checking in, we walked to the centre and got a scooter moped. It was 100 baht for 24 hours so about 3 pound so cheap! I didn’t dare drive at first so Lewis drove and I sat on the back. The rest of the afternoon we spent driving around Pai and wow the views are amazing and the roads were so quiet! We instantly fell in love. We ordered food and drove to the Pai Canyon to watch the sunset or should I say attempt to watch the sunset! It didn’t really show much. After we drove back down to the centre, parked up and strolled round the stalls. The food stalls seemed a lot nicer than Bangkok and much cleaner. They had so much vegan food! We had an early night so we could get up early to visit the hot springs.

Day 2
Even though we both slept well, there were so many loud noises in the night on the roof of our hut! We found out later we had massive geckos surrounding the outside of the hut at night ha ha they were so big!

Our first stop today was breakfast. To my excitement, we found a rabbit cafe that had actual rabbits roaming around to pet eeeek! We ordered eggs on toast with a coffee which was 70 baht again about £2, so cheap. One of the rabbits was on the table in front of me and all of a sudden, had its bottom half over the ledge of the table and weed all over my lap ugh! I found the funny side. Although, don’t think I would have done if I was at home!

We then drove to a hot spring. Not the biggest most popular one but another and it was so quiet. We’d never been to a hot spring before so wasn’t sure what to expect but it was beautiful! And some of the pools were actually boiling so we couldn’t go in some! Luckily, we found a warm ish one and went in for a dip. Ahhh!!! Then, we found our first tarantula climbing on the shower walls. On the way back, it rained so much and we got absolutely soaked it was quite funny! For some of it we sheltered under a tree until like usual, we realised it wasn’t going to stop so braved it and drove back. We popped back and changed out of our wet clothes and went back out.

It was so peaceful just driving around and there were no way as many tourists as usual. Also, it was nice to have our own mode of transport and go to wherever we felt like.

After eating some food, we trekked up to the white Buddha temple. Wow so many stairs, we were both sweaty messes! The fun of South East Asia humidity! The white Buddha was beautiful and because it was so high up, the views of Pai were incredible. We spent a while sitting up there, admiring the views and taking photos. After, we drove back to the town and walked around the food festival market.

Day 3
Today we were up early again visit a waterfall. We seem to prefer waking up a little earlier and heading out to explore before it gets busy. On the scooter we go! We went to Pam Bok waterfall. It was nice and again very quiet. Even though the waterfall was eye opening, the water was quite brown and muddy. We ventured down to the bottom to check it out. The stones were quite slippery so had to be careful but luckily there was rope to hang on to! I think we spent about an hour there as we weren’t too fond of the water and couldn’t see what was in it haha. After, we drove to a bridge called Bamboo bridge. It was in a cute little village with a swing. I’m definitely the typical tourist that takes a picture on the swing! By this time it was 11am and we’d been our a while and hadn’t had breakfast. All the nearby cafes only sold curry so curry it was! It was served on a leaf which was a nice touch.

The rest of the day was spent buying smoothie shakes – you can have pretty much any fruit for about 80p! There are smoothie stalls everywhere, so good! We were supposed to be leaving tomorrow but we loved Pai and its chilled out atmosphere lots so we decided to stay an extra night. That is why we like not having too much of a plan and instead, going with the flow.

That night, we checked out the vegan stalls and I had a a falafel pitta stuffed with humus and salad. It was delicious! Lewis had a variety of bits from different stalls.

Day 4
Today we didn’t set an alarm for once. The ‘on the go’ tiredness definitely hit us and we had an 11 hour sleep and it felt good! We did a hand wash in the sink, did a bit of research into where to stay next and had a nice slow morning. I think it was about 2pm when we finally made it out! We spent our last day on the scooter biking around the beautiful scenery. The main reason we love Pai. We decided to bike up to Pai Canyon again beore we had to give the scooter back. It was even more beautiful the second time around and much quieter!

In the evening, we had street food again and 2 weeks in, we still love it.

Day 5
6.30am pick up to go to Laos for the slow boat journey! Asha met us on the minibus and off we went to Laos. The first part of the journey (today) was travelling in a minibus to the border. I always worry about long journeys and needing a wee but this one stopped every two hours. Along the way, we also stopped at Chiang Rai at the White Temple. The bus driver shouted ’15 mins stop!’ so we had to quickly buy a ticket and rush round to get photos. It was so beautiful and all white and shiny!

After 7 ish hours, we arrived at the border at a guest house that was included in the price. We had a three bed room with Asha, cute! The room was ok… three beds and a fan. Also in the price, we had dinner included which was a thai green curry – so yummy! Once we’d ate, we ventured out to find snacks for tomorrow. We were basically in the middle of no where and the only tourists that stay there are the ones who get the slow boat. We found a shop and bought lots of snacks yay! Then, had an early nigh!

Day 6

Breakfast was included in the price. It was an omelette and coffee yum! I really miss coffee at home but the ones in Thailand aren’t too bad. We left at 7.30 am and had a mini bus to the visa place. The visa for Laos cost about £35 and had to have passport photos but thankfully we had some that we brought from home. The rest of the day was 7 ish hours on the slow boat. I really enjoyed it as the views were amazing along the Mekong River! Even though it was long with no entertainment, it was so enjoyable. We played cards, I read a whole book (tomorrow as well), had little naps, chatted and listened to music. During the journey, we also saw locals at the river fishing and swimming.

That night we arrived in Pagbeng – half way into Laos. We had to find our own hostel. We went with the one the worker on the boat suggested as it looked good on the photos but once we arrived, oh gosh it really was not the best ha ha. Again, it was us and Asha in a room and it was SO cramped. We walked in and there were mosquitoes EVERYWHERE and it smelt bad. The hostel owners gave us spray and we sprayed the room then went out for dinner with the other tourists that were from the slow boat. This was the first night we didn’t have typical Thai food and had a curry! Pretty much everyone ordered a chicken tikka masala. It wasn’t like the creamy ones at home but still good. We had a couple of drinks including free shots then headed back.