Peace of Pai (and Chiang Rai)

After the more relaxed vibes of Chang Mai we decided we were obviously not horizontal and chilled out enough and therefore headed for the hippy magnet that is Pai. We soon discovered however that the road to get to Pai was far from a mundane affair, as our mini bus driver hurtled around the 762 tight corners and hairpin bends up and down the hills of Northern Thailand. It all proved too much for one of the girls in our bus who threw up the contents of her stomach after 3 hours (luckily for us actually into a bag and not just in the van). This in turn made a Thai local go very very green, and we watched him go pale, sweaty and dry heave until he got off. Again luckily he managed to hold it down so there wasn’t too much of a scene. By the time we finally made it to the sleepy riverside town we were ready to embrace the endless Sunday morning vibes and spend our couple of days eating brunch, drinking coffee and just generally lazing around - so relaxed were we that we didn't even capture a single photo of our three days there. In the evenings we wandered down to the centre of town for the nightly walking street where the usual street food and tourist items were available – this time with a notable added selection of vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options. It seemed many of the people drawn to Pai were there less for the party and more for hippy commune feel, with many hotels and hostels offering river views and meditation courses. By the time we headed on to our next stop, Chiang Rai we had fully braced ourselves for a repeat of the journey up – this time however our bus mates seemed to have slightly stronger constitutions, greatly improved by our new driver who took the corners much more gently.

The bus to Chang Rai leaves out of the station in Chang Mai (keeping up with all the names?) so we headed to by tickets for a same day bus – little did we realise the bus was incredibly popular and we were VERY lucky to actually secure two same day tickets. We saw an American couple later on refused the same tickets because they were full, so it’s safe to say we avoided a problem that wouldn’t have been insignificant given our now quite tight schedule.

The main highlight of Chang Rai is the White Temple – a relatively new but no less impressive Buddhist temple located about 20 minutes outside the main strip.