Pai is a place where people go to be lost. It feels a bit like a fairy tale, the kind where people find this amazing utopia where they intend to spend a week but get sucked in, with no sense of time or place, forgetting who they are and where they come from before being stuck there forever.
Such is the case with everyone I met in Pai. I came for a few days, that was 4 months ago, or I was supposed to leave 3 weeks ago. On and on it goes.
It’s easy to see why Pai is a popular tourist destination. The area is full of vegan restaurants, yoga studios, dive bars, tattoo shops, and foreigners who haven’t showered in days or shaved in months.
Needless to say, I loved it.
The first thing I noticed about Pai is the sheer number of…injuries. It’s a small town, so there isn’t much in the way of cabs or public transportation. If you want to get around you walk or you motorbike.
Just about anyone can get a motorbike. I’m sure there are some laws in Thailand about who can ride a bike or get an international license or something, but none of the rental shops seem to pay that any mind. As a result, many people come to Pai and ride a motorbike for the first time, and the result was lots of fallen motorcyclists. Thankfully, motorbikes don’t go very fast, so the extent of the injuries is cuts and bruises.
The White Buddha Temple
I had big plans for Pai. I was going to climb to the Big White Buddha temple or maybe hike Pai Canyon. Tham Lod Cave was pretty high on my list, as was swimming in one of the hot springs, or maybe just attending a yoga class.
I did none of these things in Pai.
And I’m not upset about it, not one bit. It’s easy to see why people get stuck here, but a large part of my laziness in Pai was due to the hostel I stayed at. My hostel was fairly small and intimate. There were around ten of us staying there. Some people had been there days, some weeks, and been there for months.
The owner, Ron, has a lot to do with that. Ron is a Thai man who refers to everyone as ‘honey’. He loves to joke around, and he really built the place from the ground up. He lives with his wife and daughter on the second floor of the hostel, so they’re always around.
Ron’s wife cooks all the food at the hostel. If you want to order something – green curry, french fries, mango milkshakes, etc – you use the walkie-talkie at the front desk to put in your order, and shortly after, she sends down your food from the second floor in a small, wicker basket. I had a lot of amazing food in Thailand, but nothing came close to a home-cooked meal from this hostel.
The hostel itself gave you no reason to leave. Two stray dogs – who Ron named Daisy and Hutube – spent most days wandering around the grounds looking for snacks and pets. During the day, residents would sunbathe in the sand or lay around in hammocks drinking, reading, and listening to music. A few would make day treks to nearby attractions, but at night, everyone was together, sitting by the bonfire, drinking whatever beer Ron stocked that day, and playing cards. It felt like adult camp. I rented a private room with my own bathroom, and it cost me around eight dollars a night. Another reason why it’s so easy to get lost here – many can afford to.
That’s not to say I did nothing while I was there. I didn’t rent a motorbike, but I’d walk the two miles into town to wander around. A favorite activity was watching tourists try to go tubing around the Pai river. It’s a popular activity, grabbing a few drinks and floating down the river. Because of the dry season, there were several spots along the river where it was too shallow to float, and an inevitable backup would form of tubers trying to scoot themselves along the dry patch to continue their leisurely float.
In the early evening, I would join my hostel mates to wander about the town, eating peanut butter and banana shakes at the night market and snacking at all the food stands. We stopped at a bar or two, such as the popular ‘Sunrise Bar’, but nothing really beats the ambiance we received at the hostel.
The one ‘attraction’ I did take part in was attending the famed circus show. Pai Circus Hostel is a lodging that also teaches those who are interested in the art of fire dancing. A local Thai fire dancer/fire breather owns it, and many of the people he trained who perform in the show are travelers who got sucked into Pai and stayed to pick up this new trade. The show was quite impressive.
I only spent a week in Pai, but I could have stayed there for weeks, maybe even months, but it feels like limbo. It’s easy to see how people lose themselves here, and I loved my stay and would love even more to go back. However, I had other countries to visit, so I had Ron book me a ticket to Laos, and I prepared to make the only way one should – by a three-day slow boat.