We just came home from four amazing days in Pai. As I mentioned to you guys earlier, Tom turned 32 years on the 9th of February, so I wanted to surprise him and take him somewhere special. Pai is so beautiful, surrounded by stunning waterfalls, hot springs and beautiful green scenery as far as the eye can see. Moreover, there is so many nice places to stay up there.
I spent hours deciding on hotels and ended up choosing three different ones for our period of stay, and it was the best decision ever. All our rooms and sceneries were perfect, and all of them with a different vibe. I ended up choosing Yoma Hotel for our first night, Puripai Villa for the second and finished up with a private pool villa at The Quarter.
I’ve been reading a lot of negative stuff about Pai having changed so much during the past decade, and that the tourist visiting the city are mainly hippies or people seeking drugs and parties. I can definitely see where people are coming from, but the only irritating thing I noticed was the amount of Chinese tourists cutting in line and not really understanding English. The town certainly has hipster/hippy vibe, and I can understand that people are reacting to the fact that at least 50% of the food they sell along the walking street and coffee shops are foreign food, but hey at least the people selling it are Thai people.
In my opinion Pai was pretty quiet and chill, everything closes at 10 pm, except a couple of bars out of walking street, but nothing loud. I think it is all about where you stay, as we had pretty much no noise at all at any of the places we stayed. I could imagine staying at the hostels along and outside walking street could be a bit noisy though. Because you do want to go to bed early so you can catch that beautiful sunrise! I wish I got to see the untouched pai 10 years ago, but I would definitely urge everyone to make a visit and judge for themselves.
Our days in Pai was perfect from sunrise to sunset. I’m so happy that Tom liked his surprises! Though I think we both have to go on a major diet as we pretty much ate all the time. Cake, wine, beers, burgers, pasta, sandwiches, NOODLES, Pai is all about the delicious food! Who am I kidding… Wonderfruit is right around the corner!
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