Quiet Living ~ Loud Colours: A Weekend in Pai, Mae Hong Son, Thailand

Pai is one of those out-of-the-way and hard-to-get-to places that everyone seems to have been to. Situated in a lovely valley and surrounded by hills which are home to natural hot-springs, elephant camps and numerous ethnic groups (“Hill Tribes”), Pai has grown from a sleepy market town to a mecca for budget tourists, with plenty of cheap guesthouses, some newer resorts and spas, at least two yoga retreats, and numerous restaurants – all catering to vegetarians.

I had been wanting to visit for a long time. Six years ago at a travel expo we bought a weekend package at small local resort in Pai. Unfortunately, when we passed through on our way to Mae Hong Son just before we were due to stay, we discovered that our resort was one of the many casualties of the severe flooding and mudslides that year. The Pai river floods every year, but 2005 was especially bad, and a lot of housing and infrastructure was washed away.

Last month, we finally made it! Although it is only about 80 kilometres from Chiang Mai, it took our crowded mini-van three and a half hours to negotiate the 762 gut-wrenching switch-back curves along the way. Once again I had organised our accommodation, a new “boutique resort” in the centre of town, at a travel expo. Fortunately it was indeed in the centre of town, and fortunately there is a lot to do and see, because our room was essentially a concrete shoe-box with a prime view of the construction underway next door.

Once part of the old Shan State drug routes, Pai was originally populated by muslim and buddhist Shan (ethnic Tai) people who migrated from Burma, and Lanna (Tai Yuan) from Chiang Mai. Tourism used to comprise predominantly foreign back-packers and hill-trekkers, but the area was the location for several popular romantic Thai movies in the 2000’s, most recently “Pai in Love” (2009), so many Thai tourists now visit the area to relive their favourite films and to enjoy the “cool” climate.

The Pai area, like the rest of Mae Hong Son, is home to numerous ethnic minority groups (“Hill Tribes”), principally Lisaw (Lisu), Lahu and Karen. It is interesting to see people wearing their traditional clothes as they go about their daily lives – although these days, t-shirts, terry-towelling and flannel are often liberally mixed in with more traditional fabrics.

It was a full and varied day, but we were still back in our shoe-box, listening to the hammers next door long before dinner-time. So, we took a walk around town and booked an elephant ride along (and into!) the Pai river for the next morning, followed by a hot-spring bath.

Too soon we were squashed onto the afternoon mini-bus for our 762 bends back to Chiang Mai and our evening flight to Bangkok.

I’d rather be back on the elephant…

‘Till next time!