Chiang Mai and Pai

After a week of relaxing on Koh Kood, we left the island and headed for northern Thailand. Last year we spent some time in Chiang Mai, but this year we wanted to visit the small town Pai. To reach Pai, you first have to go to Chiang Mai, and the easiest way to get there is from Bangkok. So after disembarking from the ferry, we went straight to the Trat bus terminal and took the 11:30 bus back to Bangkok, then by Skytrain and metro to the Hua Lamphong train station, where we arrived at 8 pm. We were able to get tickets for the 10 pm night train to Chiang Mai that same evening, but only third class seats, no bed. We decided to do it, because we didn't want to stay overnight in Bangkok.

The train ride was definitely less comfortable than the one last year, but nevertheless enjoyable. This train takes 15 hours to reach Chiang Mai, making many stops, so the last part was in daylight through lush and mountainous landscape. We arrived in Chiang Mai at 13:15. We could have continued to Pai straight away, but tired of traveling for more than 24 hours, we settled down at Baan Jing Jung guesthouse, where I also stayed last year before going to Koh Kood. Chiang Mai was full of tourists as always, but still has a relaxed atmosphere. I bought a cool hat for Ling Ling, made by a Japanese designer who runs an arty shop selling clothes and accessories made of hemp, and crystal jewelry. The next day we took a minibus to Pai.
The road from Chiang Mai to Pai is a very scenic and winding mountain road, famous for its 762 turns before reaching Pai. We made one stop midway, at a roadside restaurant which served really excellent coffee. Pai is very small, almost like a village, with only 3000 or so residents. The atmosphere is very relaxed, like a hippie hangout, and the streets are lined with coffee shops, reggae bars, tattoo and massage parlours, and little shops selling hippie clothes and arty stuff.

Surprisingly, Pai also has a sizeable Muslim community, and a large mosque in the center of town, emitting 5 times daily prayer calls over the loudspeakers. I overheard a Muslim speaking Chinese, so I suspect many of them come from China, possibly to escape Chinese oppression. Thailand seems to be a bit more tolerant, but also has some troubles with Muslim integration, notably in the south near the Malaysian border, and on the western coast at the Myanmar border, where recently boatloads of Burmese Muslims have been seeking refuge, with mixed success. Some of the Pai Muslims are probably Burmese as well.
In Pai, the tourists don't seem bothered by ethnic differences, and people from all over the world blend in peacefully. I was surprised by the relatively large number of Chinese travelers here. Mostly couples or small self-guided groups, instead of the guided tour groups with matching caps and flag-carrying tour guide you usually see when Chinese travel abroad.

Most Western travelers are dressed in 'traditional' Thai fishermen's pants or Indian hippie gear, and many of them carry a bundle of blond dreads or a knot of thin long hair on top of their head. And lots of tattoos, of course. We are on the banana pancake trail!
Pai is well prepared to receive the relatively large number of visitors, with numerous guesthouses and cheap bamboo hut accommodation on the other side of the Pai river, reachable by two rickety bamboo bridges.
We stayed at the comfortable but inexpensive Abodaya guesthouse, in the center of town, close to the bus terminal and everything else. We quickly became regulars at the lovely Lonely Pai cafe and bookshop, which serves good coffee, Thai food, and delicious pecan nut brownies. Besides tubing on the Pai river and chilling out at one of the reggae bars, postcard writing seems to be a popular activity in Pai, facilitated by several postcard writing shops, some of them offering printing your own, taken off your digital camera or smartphone. I wrote only one, to my friends at 晴天见, a.k.a the absinthe bar in my home village Zeng Cuo An.