I made quite a few friends in Chiang Mai. One in particular stood out, Joshua from New Zealand. We met in Chiang Mai and spent a few days together. I was getting restless though and wanted to move on. But, I was unsure where I would be going. Joshua convinced me to go to Pai.
This was the next logical step in the banana pancake trail but I heard horror stories about the bus ride. I had been told that there was likely to be a protein spill during the trip1. The only problem was, I had heard of only two other ways to get there; firstly – hitchhike, secondly – hire a scooter.
Unfortunately, at this stage i was not too confident in my hitch hiking skills – scratch that I had never hitch hiked before2. The other way was to hire a scooter and drive from Chiang Mai3. I was not confident in my abilities, my experience had only been going to a lackluster waterfall and driving down a mountain without brakes. This was pertinent because I could probably make it there but could I make it back? The drive from Chiang Mai to Pai was generally considered the first leg in a famous motorcycle loop, the Mae Hong Son loop, that I was interested in4.
So we got two overpriced tickets for the tourist bus to Pai5.
I woke up the day of the ride and headed to the meeting spot with Joshua6. We were staying in the same hostel. Both of us headed to the pickup spot and then jumped onto the minibus. The ride was somewhat uneventful. I did try to chat up some more baddies but was unsuccessful7. Two girls did end up spilling protein so we had to stop for them. I was pretty much fine, just chatting to everyone and having a good time. I don’t really remember meeting up with anyone else from the bus ride in Pai though.
We got to Pai and… I fell in love with it. This was a true backpacker paradise. I spent almost two weeks here. I met my Pai family and honestly, it will always have a special place in my heart. Stay tuned for the next few stories about my adventures in Pai : )
- Spoiler alert: there was ↩︎
- This would almost spell certain death in South Africa, or at least a stabbing : ( ↩︎
- Surprisingly, I had also been told that the ride was worse in a bus than on a scooter and the Thai drive like lunatics there… ↩︎
- Again I did not have the confidence to do it at this stage. ↩︎
- Man to be a naive backpacker with money… ↩︎
- He did influence the way I travelled quite fundamentally and to this day I can point out some advice he had given me ↩︎
- I think because now everyone could see my face in the light… ↩︎
