Pai

• Fluid swimming pool: a great place to chill out and meet fellow travelers
• Thom’s Pai Elephant Camp: ride on the back of an elephant on rugged trails that cut through dense remote jungle.
• Pai Canyon: trails lead along ridges with views into a small canyon
• Wat Phra That Mae Yen: walk uphill (or drive) to this Buddhist temple for the best panoramic views over the Pai valley.
• Nam Tok Mo Paeng: cool off in one of several pools beneath these falls.
• Ban Santichon: a little slice of China in the Pai Valley.
• Tha Pai Hot Springs: soak away aches and pains at these hot springs just outside town.

Pai experiences the same three seasons as the rest of North Thailand, which has important implications as everybody wants to be here in the high season (Nov-Feb) and nobody wants to be here for the rest of the year, when it’s hot (March-May) and wet (June-Oct).

The result is that you should be prepared to pay premium rates for a room in high season and forget about escaping the crowds, as they’ll all be following you. Alternatively, you could be very smart and arrive in Pai in the rainy season, when the surrounding hills are lush and green and huge discounts are available on room rates. This is a good time for white-water rafting, one of Pai’s most popular activities, but not for trekking in the hills.

To put it briefly, chill out—that’s the be-all and end-all of Pai. Find a cozy base, preferably beside the river, and become one with the landscape. When you get bored, take a stroll around the town’s central streets, where you’ll find a huge choice of bars and restaurants to satisfy hunger and thirst. Or cross the bridge to Fluid, Pai’s public swimming pool, which also has gym equipment and a pretty neat restaurant and bar too.

However, unless you get into cookery classes or massage courses, you’ll find there’s not much else to do in town itself, so that’s the time to rent a motorbike or join a tour and head for some of the outlying attractions. They’re all close to town and you could see everything in a few days.

Several of these attractions are located south of town, including Pai Canyon, Tha Pai Hot Springs and the elephant camps, though Baan Santichon and Mo Paeng Waterfall are both to the west of town, and Wat Mae Yen to the east of town. This temple, or a restaurant on the hillside, is a cool spot to watch the sun set across the valley.

Further afield, a challenging climb over a mountain on Highway 1095 leads to Soppong, where some of Asia’s biggest caves await exploration. These caves could be visited on a day trip with an early start.

White Water Rafting

White-water rafting is one of the most exciting activities you can do in North Thailand between June and December, and the Pai River lends itself particularly well to this activity, with some thrilling rapids along the way. The best way to go is on a 2-day tour, which begins by driving you some way from town to begin the aquatic journey on a tributary of the Pai River.

After some basic instruction in safety techniques, you’ll cast off and float downstream, following the leader’s directions on which way to paddle. After an exhausting day on the water, you’ll spend the night in a jungle camp before hitting the really big rapids on the second day. In quieter stretches, you can just hop in the river and let the current carry you downstream (but don’t lose sight of your rubber raft!). The trip ends near Mae Hong Son, from where a pick-up will take you back to Pai for a well-deserved shower.

Though there are now several companies offering one- or two-day outings, but the longest-standing and most reliable is Thai Adventure Rafting, operated by Frenchman Guy Gorias. Check out their website (www.thairafting.com) or drop by their office on Chaisongkhram Road (tel:053699111) for more information. Keep in mind that from January to May, water levels in the river are too low for rafting.

Trekking

The hills around Pai are peppered with villages inhabited by Lisu, Lahu, Karen and Hmong people, so it’s an ideal place to go trekking. Unlike in Chiang Mai, where most trekking companies will drive you 50km out of town before starting, you can start walking right in Pai, as it only takes a few minutes to get out of town into idyllic countryside.

Be prepared to put up with a few hardships while trekking; you won’t have much choice about what you eat or where you sleep, and it will all be pretty basic. Expect to sleep on a thin mattress on a swaying bamboo floor; if you’re lucky you might get a mosquito net too.

The best time to go trekking is from November-February when it’s cooler and generally dry. From March to May the heat makes walking a drag, and from June to October, trails are slippery and patrolled by leeches. Trekking tours will go at any time of year that there are enough people to form a group, and rates vary from 750B-1000B a day per person, which should include guide, accommodation and food.

Among the many tour and trekking agencies along Chaisongkhram, one of the most popular is Duang Tours, with an office in their guest house opposite the bus station on Chaisongkhram Road (tel:053699101).

Cooking Classes

There are plenty of cookery schools throughout Thailand, offering to introduce you to the subtle secrets of Thai cuisine. Everyone seems to be in on the game these days, from Bangkok’s top hotels like the Mandarin Oriental to back-street set-ups run by a single person.

One reason you might consider attending one of these schools in Pai is that you’ve probably been too busy sightseeing in Bangkok and Chiang Mai to even think about it, while Pai has no unmissable sights and offers a perfect opportunity for self-indulgence.

A typical one-day class will lead you round the local market to identify and buy ingredients, then you’ll stand at your cooking station and copy what the teacher does, and if you copy carefully, you’ll have a delicious lunch or dinner to devour for your homework, and some culinary skills to impress your friends when you get back home. Of all the cooking schools in Pai, we recommend Charlie and Lek’s, who also run a restaurant on Rangsiyanon Road (tel: 0819513422; 750B per person, or 1000B for a one-person class), but don’t take our word for it. Go and eat in the restaurant, which should convince you that they have some skills worth learning.

Most people get to Pai via a 3-hour minibus ride from Chiang Mai or driving a rented vehicle, which is a much better idea as this route is one of the most dramatic in all North Thailand, with spectacular views from virtually every bend along the way. The downside of this is that it’s no fun for people who get carsick easily. Fortunately, there is an alternative—a daily flight from Chiang Mai on Kan Airlines (www.kanairlines.com), which takes just half an hour.

Perhaps because the roads around Pai are so traffic-free, the great majority of visitors rent motorbikes for just 100B a day, or even cheaper for a longer rental. This is definitely a good idea, but if you’re wary of driving or riding yourself, you can arrange trips through your guesthouse or one of several tour operators along Chaisongkhram Road. If you do drive or ride in Pai, bear in mind that Chaisongkhram Road is one-way going east, Wiang Tai Road is one-way going south and Rangsiyanon Road is one-way going south for the first couple of blocks.

Along with Pai’s meteoric rise in popularity, especially during the cool season, has come a huge increase in the number of places to stay, both in town and around. Plenty of these places are of the budget variety, catering to backpackers looking for a cheap deal, but there are also lots of trendy boutique resorts aimed at the domestic market.

If you want things nice and easy, look for somewhere around the junctions of Chaisongkhram and Wiang Tai Roads, where there are lots of places to eat and drink to complement the glut of lodgings available. You’ll find that the longer-established resorts, such as Rim Pai Cottage, have well-spaced bungalows in ample grounds, while newer places, like Pai River Corner, tend to squeeze their luxury rooms into a more compact space.

If, like many others, you are heading to Pai to get away from it all, consider staying in one of the out-of-town resorts, of which there are plenty. To travel into and out of town, you could rent a motorbike for 100B a day, or use the shuttle bus system that most far-flung resorts operate. Wherever you stay, be prepared to pay up to double rates in the high season (Nov-Feb), and even more in peak season (approx 22 Dec-2 Jan)

Pai’s range of restaurants reflects the broad availability of different types of accommodation, and you’ll find everything here from simple bowls of the local lunchtime favorite khao soi for about 40B a bowl to blow-out pizzas and veggie-friendly tofu dishes too.

The restaurant scene tends to change rapidly in Pai, as visitors fall in love with the place, throw a lot of money into a new venture, and then find there are no customers for most of the year, so sell out again. Even among the restaurants recommended below, you may find that some close up for a month or two around June/July.

As with accommodation, the happiest hunting ground for eats (and drinks!) is along Chaisongkhram and Wiang Tai Roads, where every other house is a pizzeria, bar or cute cafe. You’ll also find several tempting snacks like chicken satay and grilled corn at stalls along the walking streets (Chaisongkhram and Rangsiyanon).

Since Pai attracts a young crowd, there’s plenty of nightlife here, though you might find in the low season (March-Sept) that there aren’t enough visitors in town for owners to keep bars open late. In the high season, though, unless there’s been a recent police crackdown on opening hours, plenty of the places below will stay open till 2am or later, several featuring live bands.

Most bars are concentrated along Wiangtai Road, though there are also a few on the east side of the bridge on Raddamrong Road, and a few more at the south end of town on Highway 1095.

Bars being what they are, the police make occasional raids, hoping to catch a few unsuspecting tourists with a bag of grass in their pocket. Don’t let it be you.

Though there are several shops around the town center selling colorful souvenirs such as purses made of hilltribe textiles, there’s nowhere with a really outstanding selection. Thus Pai is not really the best place to buy your mementoes of Thailand.

Every evening from November to February, both Chaisongkhram and Rangsiyanon Roads become walking streets, and are accessible only to essential traffic. They are lined with stalls selling all kinds of tacky souvenirs, mostly aimed at Thai tourists, though you may find something unusual and appealing if you hunt around.