Pai

Pai is a small town (2000 residents) in the mountains of norther Thailand. Being on the road about half way between Chaing Mai and Mae Hong Son it soon became a favorite waystation for backpackers, and now has grown so that the number of tourists there at any one time generally equal the population.
This lead to an aesthetic that I wasnt quite a fan off. Getting off the bus we saw mostly other tourist wandering the streets. Along the sides some thai people were setting up oil drums to be filled with water for the upcoming festivities while some little kids ran around with their waterguns. Many of the buildings were obviously constructed to appeal to tourists who want things to seem 'thai' but still have the needed comforts.
Luckily we found a guesthouse for a reasonable amount that was down a quiet soi off of the main road. It put us in walking distance from anything we might want, but still allowed retreat.

The town as a whole reminded me alot of the backpacker district of Chaing Mai's Old City. My issue with the town is thats all there seemed to be. We walked around taking note of where the bookstore was and the motorbike rental shops. Coming into town we had seen a Mexican restaurant. Being a rarity in Thailand, we hunted it down.

It turned out to be a Tex-Mex restaurant run by a gregarious, if odd, expat from Texas. The food was great and the owner talked to us about the issues of importing guac to a far flung region. If anyone goes to Pai I would have to say that this place is one of the highlights and is at least different from the usual nondescript backpacker bar and resturant with overpriced thai and international food. (I dont actually have anything against said establishments, they have just lost the original charm and novelty).

Our day consisted of some chilling in our rooms (We all had books at the ready) exploring the town (rather quick given the size of it) and trying a couple of resturants. The club sandwiches...not good. As it got dark we werent really in the party mood, so we tried to find a veiwpoint that Geoff had seen a sign for. After walking across the river and down an unlighted road for quite awhile we decided that it was probably further away than we had thought.

The town surprised us with how chill it seemed at night. There were plenty of bars that were obviously built for partying but although a couple places had a crowd there was nothing really going wild into the night. Fine for us as we were hitting the road the next morning.