Pai

What Pai is

Pai is a market town in a mountain valley near the Myanmar border, surrounded by hot springs, waterfalls, canyons and hill villages. It has a large and long-standing community of long-stay visitors, which gives it a distinctly different feel from the rest of the north.

The centre is small enough to walk: a walking street that becomes a night market, guesthouses and cafés, and a river with a bamboo bridge. Within a few kilometres there are enough sights to fill several days on a scooter or bicycle.

It is also genuinely beautiful — mist in the valley in the cool season, green rice fields, and mountains on every side.

The road from Chiang Mai

Route 1095 from Chiang Mai to Pai is 762 curves over about 130 km, and it takes three to four hours by minivan. It is the thing everyone warns you about, and the warning is fair.

Motion sickness is the main issue, not danger. Take the front seat if you can, avoid reading, and consider that a private car gives you the option to stop — which is also the best reason to drive it yourself if you are a confident rider or driver.

The alternative is to fly to Mae Hong Son and come down from there, which skips the worst of the bends but adds a flight and a different road.

The Mae Hong Son loop

The classic route is a loop of about 600 km from Chiang Mai through Pai, Mae Hong Son and back — usually done over three to five days by motorbike or car.

• Chiang Mai to Pai — the 762 bends.
• Pai to Mae Hong Son — quieter roads, hill villages, and the town of Mae Hong Son itself, with its Burmese-style temples and lake.
• Mae Hong Son back to Chiang Mai — via Mae Sariang, the long way round, which most people find the most beautiful stretch of the whole loop.
• The loop is only worth doing with your own transport. Buses cover the towns but not the places between them, which is where the loop actually is.

Around Pai

The valley is small and the sights are close together, which makes it easy to see a lot in a day or two without rushing.

• Pai Canyon — a narrow ridge of red earth with steep drops on both sides, best at sunset. The paths are unprotected; people have fallen.
• The hot springs, and the Sai Ngam and Mo Paeng waterfalls.
• The bamboo bridge over the Pai river, and the Chinese village of Santichon, founded by Yunnanese settlers.
• Yun Lai viewpoint for the sunrise over the valley and the mist.

When to go, and the burning season

November to February is the cool season, with cold nights and morning mist in the valley — by far the most atmospheric time to be here.

The end of the dry season from roughly February to April is the burning season, and Pai sits in a valley, which traps the smoke. Air quality in March and April can be extremely poor. This is not a minor consideration; it is the main thing to plan around in the north.

The rainy season from May to October turns the valley green and the roads slippery, and keeps the crowds away.