Thailand: The Bohemian Getaway

When traveling through Southeast Asia there are a list of destinations that are continually recommended by backpackers as highlights of their trip. Pai, a hippie town with just over 2,000 people in Northern Thailand, is one of them.

While there was only a few sentences about it in my travel book and I hadn't heard of it before arriving in the country, I decided to check it out after hearing rave reviews.

It's three and a half hours from Chiang Mai in a van or by motorbike. The journey takes you up and down steep, windy roads so you better be comfortable on a scooter if you choose to take that route.

 

What I realized immediately upon arriving in Pai is that, like Chiang Mai, it's really a hub for a specific type of traveler; the creative, progressive, kinda kooky types of which there are many floating around Southeast Asia.

The center of town itself consists of two short roads with a few restaurants, cafes and souvenir shops. There's also oddly a location for the popular American used clothing store Buffalo Exchange.

Outside Pai there's a temple, waterfall, hot springs and a hill tribe. While none of these sites are particularly extraordinary on their own, following the map from one place to the next will send you in a nice little loop out of town and back. The surrounding mountains are serene and the tame roads outside of Pai are a good place to try riding a motorbike for the first time.

Beyond this day excursion, there's nothing to see in Pai. If you're looking to relax among a community of expatriate bohemians, I highly recommend it. Even if you're not a weed smoking Buddhist with dreadlocks that loves Bob Marley, its random location and unique identity make it a surreal place to spend a few days if you're traveling for an extended period of time in Thailand.

If you're planning an itinerary, I wouldn't make it a priority. There's plenty of more accessible and equally scenic day excursions right outside of Chiang Mai.