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 north west 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.