Pai, Thailand

About four hours by bus from Chiang Mai is a backpacker-filled town called Pai. Pai was discovered by hippies in the '70s en route to another place when they realized they had already arrived at where they should be going. Pai still retains that hippy feel and is so laid back I spent several days there before I realized I had done so. The first night I was here I learned that the electricity in the entire town spontaneously goes out for 30-90 in the evenings. Some days. Other days it does not. Pai itself is pretty tiny about the surrounding area is stunning. The best thing you can do here is rent a motorbike and explore. Done and done.

On the bus I was seated next to a German, who was joining a friend of his in Pai. The friend had made friends with the girl next to her on her bus ride to Pai, so we had a group of four. The three of them stayed at a nice place (about US$8), which had a pool, AC, TV, private bathroom, and wifi while I did not and stayed in a treehouse with a matress on the floor and ants everywhere for 100 baht (US$3). (Yes, I totally mooched their pool and wifi.) The four of us rented motorbikes and went off. After only a few hours the girls headed back to go for a swim. The German and myself pressed on. When with the girls, they were directing as they had a plan and specific things to see and neither of us had much preference and were more interested in the ride than the destinations. The sights were fine but not great but the riding was the real draw. After they left we just rode with no idea what we were doing. We stumbled upon what is the main waterfall in the area. The water cascades down rocks that are smooth enough to slide down. Awesome. I nearly died a couple times (a joke, Mom) but it would have been worth it. Sliding down those rocks into the pool of water below was sweet.

During the evenings we would bar-hop only stopping at places that had good live music. Again, the hippy scene is in full swing here. We discovered some Thai-English guitarist who was great. The first night we saw him he closed his set with my all-time favorite song, All Along the Watchtower. Hendrix does it better (of course), but it was good still and a sound for sore ears having had my iPod stolen about four months prior.

Pai is cool place and I understand how people can get stuck here for a few months or years.