Pai
Today we travelled by minibus to Pai, a Bohemian village in northern Thailand. The road to Pai from Chiang Mai has 762 curves and takes about 3-1/2 hours to drive it. Pai has a population of about 6,000 but the number of tourists here easily doubles the population. There are many small businesses to meet the needs of tourists and new residents from all over the world—hotels and hostels, restaurants and cafes, massage and marijuana shops, 7/11 stores and bars, taxis and tours, and many locations where you can rent scooters and motorcycles (they rent for $5 per day!)—so there are literally thousands of motorbikes in this small area with many inexperienced drivers. We had intended on renting a scooter for transportation but found it would be too dangerous to take the risk after seeing several tourists with freshly bandaged elbows and legs hobbling along on crutches!
We got settled into our “resort” at Pairadise just outside of Pai’s town center. About a dozen or so bungalows around a small body of water filled with koi. A quiet and comfortable place with breakfast on an open deck with gorgeous views of the mountains.
Instead of riding scooters, we decided to go hiking at Pai Canyon as it was on our “to do” list. A driver from our hotel took us to the trailhead and from there we hiked up to the top of the canyon to watch the sunset. It was spectacular!!!
Our hike at Pai Canyon this afternoon was a bit slippery not only because of the dry sand and small rocks but also because of the many dried leaves scattered all over the canyon. We were dropped off at the trailhead and hiked up to the top of the ridge looking down at the canyon. We came up to watch the sunset and to enjoy the beautiful vistas surrounding the mountains. There are several ledges that cover the canyon some of which are extremely narrow, maybe two feet wide, and a bit frightening to traverse when you look down to see how unlikely it would be to survive a fall. I read that there had been no deaths at the canyon but that there had been serious injuries. It was an exciting hiking experience but not for the faint of heart!
Cool pictures! What a fabulous journey.