Pai, Thailand

October 27 – 30, 2025

Brian, Nourie, and I took a van from Chiang Mai up to Pai on a famously winding road – over 762 turns. Pai is more of a town than a city offering a much more relaxed vibe. After arriving, we checked into our hostel on the river and enjoyed the local restaurants.

Went for a sunset walk by local farms:

One of the many stray dogs found his way into our hostel room:

During our first day in Pai, we did a full day tour. The first stop was a national park with hot springs:

The next stop was the white Buddha. The Buddha was under construction, but the view was wonderful and interesting to see their scaffolding all made of bamboo.

We stopped at a little China town with a wooden and human powered ferris wheel.

Up in the mountains, there was a series of bamboo bridges walking over and between rice fields:

We then hiked to a canyon for sunset with very narrow and steep trails.

We ran into Erin and Sophie! Two friends we met at an elephant sanctuary in Chiang Mai.

Of course, there are dogs in the 7-Eleven.

We had a relaxed next day and enjoyed the sunset at Two Huts. (Left to right: Ana, Nourie, Brian, Eli, Erin, Sophie)

Pai has a great night market on the main walking street. Mango sticky rice is a common desert – just sticky rice with mango and a sweet coconut sauce.

I ordered papaya salad (surprisingly spicy):

The next day we drove back to Chiang Mai to hop on our small plane to Laos! Brian and I traveled with Erin and Sophie to Laos as they had the same travel route.