In Pai I was with a group of people I’d met at Julie’s in Chiang Mai, and we hired scooters to ride through the beautiful mountains, to two waterfalls in the area, and hot springs.
The second waterfall (Nam Tok Mo Paeng) was the best, it was clear water so we sat in it, and even slid down part of the waterfall! Nearly everyone did, including the thai children, so I thought I could too. Sitting at the top it was a lot scarier than it first looked, but I couldn’t go back at that stage!! Weeeee, splash! A german expat at the bottom took some photos and gave me his card so he could email them to me!
The hot springs were very hot. Even the ones further down that were cooled down a bit were still hot and I couldn’t go in for more than a few minutes at a time. Probably would have been better going in the evening.
Pai is a strange hippy town, with a lot of old western hippies that have settled down here. More restaurants and guesthouses than anything else, plus a few lively bars. I enjoyed it mostly because there was live music in the evenings in a lot of places, and we were in a nice guesthouse on the river with a beautiful garden and hammocks. At one stage there was a duck sitting on the verandah of my room, and a dog lying on the table of the verandah of my friends room! :D
I also enjoyed a Thai oil massage in Pai, bagels for breakfast and nice thai food for dinner.
What I didn’t enjoy was getting very sick, I think as a result of falafel/salad I ate for lunch. Ended up vomiting even. I’ve been on and off a bit sick in my stomach for weeks (since vietnam), but this is only the second time (first in indonesia) that I vomited. I kept changing my self diagnosis, and ended up taking two types of antibiotics within a few days, and I’ve been fine for a week or so now.
