Scooter trip to Pai

On 4 May we left our hostel in Chiang Mai nice and early (8.00am) and jumped on our scooter to start our intrepid trip.

The total ride to Pai covered 130 kms, and the views where unbelievable, with so many places to stop along the way including the Mok Fa Waterfall, dozens of cute coffee stops (including the Witches Cafe), lookouts and a few towns. The ride itself meant we had to navigate 762 turns! – these turns aren’t slight either, with a large number of tight hairpin bends. After just over 4.5 hours of riding we made it into Pai town, relieved, tired and realising what an experience we had just had.

The ride itself is definitely not for novices and most people take minivans, that are renowned for the number of people who suffer travel sickness.

We stayed at a great hostel called Sleep Pai Bed and Breakfast, which has a very ‘kiwi bach’ feel to the cafe where we had our breakfast – with an added bonus that you could buy alcohol, weed and LSD!! We had lovely hot weather again (35-38 degrees) but also as northern Thailand is heading towards the monsoon season we also experienced some spectacular lightning and thunderstorms, but fortunately minimal rain.

Whilst in Pai, we took the scooter out each day and visited a couple of Temples (Wat Pa Kham and Wat Phra That Mae Yen), White Buddha, Sai Ngam Hot Spring, Mo Paeng Waterfall, Pam Bok Waterfall, fed some elephants, went for a coffee at two huts, and on the way back called in to walk across the WW2 Memorial ‘steel and wood bridge’. We also visited Pai Canyon (twice – we gave up the first time as it was stifling), which is a ‘bit sketchy’ as its basically a rocky outcrop that you walk along ridge line paths that can be as narrow as 30 cms, with steep vertical cliffs either side!!

…… and after our 7 days in Pai we had the obvious joy to complete another 762 turns back to Chaing Mai for a rest and a Thai massage. In total, we have completed over 600 kms, 1,524 bends and spent almost 18 hours on the scooter – we’ve now handed back the keys and will be back visiting the remaining sights in Chiang Mai.