Pai and Chiang Rai - Thailand
/We had heard about some cool places in Northern Thailand to check out from some people we met along our way. We knew for sure we wanted to go to Pai, about 3 hours northwest of Chiang Mai, and also Chiang Rai, about 3 hours north east. After doing some checking, it seemed like the best way to visit both would be to rent a car, which we did on our last day in Chiang Mai. We had been warned by literally everyone we spoke to that had been that the road to Pai is a little bit crazy, which was one of the main reasons we decided not to rent mopeds and opted for the car. It was a good thing we did. While only about 150 km, the road bends over 700 times! It was really fun to drive going up, and a lot less fun coming back down.
Samantha and I had mixed feelings about Pai. We had an awesome little hotel about a five minute walk from the central market area, which was amazing. Pai is a small town nestled in the mountains, and has a lot of natural beauty. However, it's also become a backpacker's mecca of sorts, and the town is flooded with backpackers from all over the world. This meant that the town is very welcoming to tourists, which is always nice, but also that a lot of entitled young people treated the town like their own personal Disneyland, which wasn't very nice.
We saw some really beautiful things in the countryside, toured some waterfalls and rice fields. There's also a very impressive white buddha statue on top of one of a nearby mountain, which overlooks the valley Pai rests in. We also visited a cave that is about an hours drive north. We both felt like this was the highlight of the visit to Pai. You could smell the cave from about 300 meters away, due to all the 'guano' from both the bats and the swifts. Despite this, it was still an amazing hike through. You are required to go through with a guide, as changing water levels mean that parts of the cave are sometimes not safe. She carried with her a little gas lantern, and combined with our goPro light, was the only light source inside the cave. We were able to get some good photos of the stalactites and stalagmites with the flash, but the real amazing thing about the cave was how huge it is inside, which was impossible to capture with a picture.
After our time in Pai, we had to drive back down the mountain road almost all the way Chiang Mai, and then back north towards Chiang Rai. There isn't all that much to do there, many people describe it as a smaller version of its southern cousin Chiang Mai. We did see the main attraction here, the White Temple, or Wat Rong Khun. This is a much newer temple than many of the others we have seen so far, built in the 90's, and is really crazy looking. The aesthetics are unlike any of the other temples, its completely white and covered with mirrored mosaics, making it sparkle in the sun. Its also surrounded by some really insane sculptures, as seen in some of the pictures.
We had our flight from Chiang Mai to Yangon, Myanmar this morning, and upon arriving at the airport learned that we had overstayed our visa by four days. Fortunately, it was only a small fine and not a big deal, but was definitely a bit scary while we were escorted to the immigration desk. Stay tuned for updates from Myanmar!
