The last time we were in Thailand, we only ventured as far North as Chiang Mai before moving on to Laos. We recalled enjoying Chiang Mai so decided to go back but, this time I really wanted to venture farther. We considered Chiang Rai, another popular destination, but then I read about Cave lodge near Soppong and decided that is where we were meant to go. It’s quite a long way from Chiang Mai and we had heard from our neighbour Holly, that Pai was a great destination and is on the way to Soppong so we booked that as a 2 night stay as well.
What I hadn’t factored into my planning was the fact that the road to Pai is renowned for its switchbacks. Pair that with the newer development of Paul being very susceptible to motion sickness, and we were at a crossroads. Was it worth the likely nausea?
I was trying very hard to be a supportive partner and not put pressure on Paul to just suck it up and go. I too get motion sick at times,… but his is different. I had seen the effects of motion sickness on him and knew it could really mess with his system, sometimes lasting into the following day.
In the end, I left it up to him, and he decided we would go for it. We went to the pharmacy that afternoon and loaded up with whatever we could get our hands on that might help with nausea.
But, by the time we arrived, we didn’t feel as badly as we had anticipated (we think the drugs helped), and we soon discovered why people put up with that road.
Pai is a quaint, busy little town full of all ages and stages of traveller. But, once you’ve walked up and down the main street a few times, you’re ready to explore the area around the town a little bit.
Our guest house recommended a tour that takes you around to a bunch of different sites for an afternoon (as had Ida, a Vancouverite we had met in Chiang Mai), so we booked it!
It was on this tour that we really started questioning our decision NOT to rent a scooter and drive ourselves! The tour was “interesting.” First sign of trouble was our transportation- we were sitting sideways on benches in the back of a truck travelling at high speeds through the ever winding hillsides around Pai. 🤢. Secondly, there was no explanation about what we were seeing – “20 minutes!” Or “30 minutes!” was all the direction we would get as the 8 of us piled out of the back of the truck to explore and try and piece together interesting facts about where we were. We did take a few pictures..
Stop 4 was a coffee shop where we got a coffee but realized later we shouldn’t have 🤢. Stop 5 we skipped because none of us were drinking and we are pretty sure it was a beer stop.
By the time we got here I was feeling really gross. I walked to a little platform in the middle, popped some advil and lay my head on my hands and had a little nap. It was unfortunate because this was a cool little stop. The bridges were built so that the monks could more easily make their daily trek to the village over the rice paddies.
Stop 7 was a waterfall but there was hardly any water running down and they said we had to pay 100baht each. No one was impressed, as we had paid for the tour and there was no mention of this. We rebelled and hung out at the bottom and a few of us shared pictures of some spectacular waterfalls we’d seen recently. 😝
Stop 8 was supposed to be Land Split, a fissure that had been created by an earthquake years ago but we don’t know what happened to that.
Stop 8 – Canyon Sunset – the final stop. The setting of the sun was the time limit. A ton of people were also there enjoying the sunset and it was pretty gorgeous!
Even though we were both feeling nauseous at different points of our 2 days in Pai, we really did enjoy our time there and would recommend a visit. In retrospect, we probably should have figured out a scooter rental and do a self-drive to the various stops around the town but all the other bits were great!
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