My most beautiful memory of Thailand - Serenity in Pai (pictures to follow as I can't get on the net properly)

The journey to Pai is both beautiful and terrifying.  You won’t see beautiful countryside like this in many places – rolling hills and mountains covered is lush green trees of all varieties.  Terrifying because the roads are so bendy, and so high – at one point we were driving through the clouds.  Sufficed to say not having a head for heights I played angry birds on my friends i-Pad throughout most of the journey.

Arriving in Pai was like arriving in another world – a small cosy and yet stunning place which although a mecca for real travellers is as yet unravaged by Thailand’s booming tourism industry.

Instantly, you chill out.  Instantly the words “this place is beautiful” come out of your mouth.  I could see why so many people raved about Pai.

Our guesthouse was also a real place of tranquillity.  A spacious room with shower, fan and two beds for 250 baht per night is hard to beat in Thailand.  A few nights later we would drink in the hammocks by the riverside in the resorts where we stayed – a really chilled atmosphere.

Pai is a small place.  Probably no bigger than Soho in London.  Its main attractions lie within the square of restaurants, yoga retreats and bars probably within one square mile and surrounded by countryside and hills and mountains.

The “spirit of Pai” was everywhere you went.  It’s a hard thing to describe, but essentially it’s like going somewhere you instantly feel at home at and are taken aback by at the same time. 


(Some pictures from Pai below)

The food there, whilst not strictly traditionally Thai, is fantastic.  Our favourite haunt become the “Witching Well” – which had a knack for doing simple dishes with a panache of flair.  Also good were the pizza place next to it (name I can’t remember) and some raw food place which served a delicious carrot and ginger gazpacho (I know, really earth mother of me).  Also a must try is the curry shack – which is, yes, a shack, run by one man.  It’s popular, and he cooks the dishes after taking the orders himself, in the order he took the orders in.  Order. (Too many orders in that sentence).

I decided that Pai was a place to try some new things – things to cleanse the body and spirit (more the latter than the former, it turned out).  To kick things off, that night we headed to the Edible Jazz café next to our resort, which had a really chilled atmosphere and live Jazz music (never been to a proper Jazz place before).

The next day we signed up to do 2 hours of Yoga with Mama Mam.  Mama Mam was an enigma.  She was 65, yet looked 40, could pull both her legs over her head, and was such an engaging woman.  After our session she brought some food for us all to eat and each one of us was enthralled for 45 minutes straight with her stories.  She had grown up a model and actress.  Went to an Indian ashram in her early 20s to learn yoga.  Came back to Thailand and was one of the first pioneers of the art form in the area.  She had been married with two children, was Pai’s only Hindu and had only been ill only once. 

The yoga itself was pretty intense.  I am neither flexible, nor patient, so it was quite difficult for me.  Although Mama Mam did teach us to do a Yogic headstand and afterwards I really felt awake and like a new man.

But that wasn’t enough for me.  Eastern culture is all about balance – the ying and the yang.  So to balance the spiritual ying of yoga, Seema and I decided to enrol in a hard core Muay Thai boxing class.  It was there we met Ger – an Irish dude travelling for a year, and then later his friend Richard, Londoner and plumber with whom we’d spend many nights drinking, chatting and generally having a laugh.

Muay Thai is steeped in Thailand’s culture.  As a sport it represents the Thai people very well – resilient and tenacious.  My reckoning of Muay Thai is that it’s a pretty brutal but exceptionally skilful sport.  So I thought I’d give it a try. 

So, a beginner’s Thai lesson looks something like this.  10 minutes of skipping.  10 of cycling.  15 of arm, abs and pec exercises.  Jumping alternately on a tyre.   Then comes technique.  Left and right punches and hooks.  Defensive stance.  Body kicks.  Flying kicks.  Front kicks.  Head kicks. Front elbow.  Overhead elbow and reverse elbow.  Let me tell you a little about this.  The reverse elbow is lethal – essentially you spin round and aim your elbow for the temple of your opponents head.  I’ve seen it done once successfully in a Muay Thai fight and the guy was out cold straight away.  Then onto the bags to practice punches and kicks – the Thais kick very hard so the bags were very tough.  Then back into the ring for “pad” exercises – where you do these in combination for half an hour.   Then sparring (I was initially crap at this).  Then “warm down” exercises, which essentially consisted of more exercises for the abs.  Two hours later I could barely walk, but felt amazing.  So I went back the next day for some more physical punishment.  I loved it – may take this up longer term.

That night we went to a party at the “Yellow Sun” bar in Pai with the whole gang.  With its psychedelic colours, Thai rasta manager and Thai style dub step music it was a pretty cool place to hang out.   Then onto a club (I say club – it was a bar within a huge hut) with an equally cool vibe and a dance floor made of bamboo which made everyone bounce lots.

As you can imagine – the next day was very much a chill out day – and Pai is a great place to chill out at.  Two fruit shakes and a cup of wheatgrass juice later I felt human again (enough to go back to Muay Thai).

Pai was seriously amazing – I could write about it for a lot longer, but this post has been long enough.

(p.s. The journey back from Chiang Mai to Bangkok was ******* horrible – twelve hours on an over air conditioned 3 carriage train sat on seats overnight was not fun.  One last day of shopping in Bangkok with some cool purchases.  Bye bye Thailand – I’ll miss you for a few months until I come back…..)