Word: pai
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...this day, getting to Pai demands initiative. The Thai government widened and paved the endless series of hairpin bends in 1980, but the stomach-churning journey from Chiang Mai still takes two to three hours by private van. Adventurous budget travelers were the first foreigners attracted to Pai's idyllic isolation, burbling streams, cylindrical haystacks and manicured fields of garlic and soybeans. If you overlook the thatched-roof bamboo huts, Muslim mosque?some of the KMT were Muslim Chinese?and Buddhist temples, the place looks almost like a Monet painting...
...There isn't a lot to do in Pai, which is part of its allure. You can rent bicycles, motorbikes or jeeps and explore the several temples, waterfalls and hot springs scattered throughout the valley. Or you can just hang out. "The distractions here are the ones you make for yourself," says Daniel Eiland, a twentysomething Thai-American musician at Latino Swimming Pool who moved to Pai from Chiang Mai several years ago. A wander through the daily afternoon market on Rungsiyanon Road offers a great window on Pai-style multiculturalism. Wizened Karen hill-tribe grandmas with dark turbans wrapped...
...Wearing Thai fisherman's pants, midriff-exposing tops, dreadlocks and piercings, international budget travelers fit right into Pai's colorful ethnic potpourri. But Pai is now also making its way into the itineraries of mid-range tourists. They'll be hard-pressed to spend much. Restaurants are universally cheap and even so-called expensive accommodation is amazingly affordable. A top-of-the-line riverside bungalow?a large tree house on stilts set amid lush gardens?at the long-running and slightly mildewed Rim Pai Cottages goes for about $27 a night...
...Pai is the flavor-of-the-moment in Thai travel and lifestyle magazines and is being hailed as the "Ubud of Thailand" in similar travel publications overseas. So far, Pai is retaining its charm. The 3,000 local inhabitants still display the unconditional warmth and friendliness toward strangers that were once the hallmark of Thai hospitality everywhere. Motorbikes have replaced elephants as the primary mode of transport, but the panniers hanging from the backs of those Honda Dreams are still made of woven bamboo. And as you stroll through the outskirts of town in the late afternoon, the only sounds...
UNCOMMON GROUNDS Foreigners aren't the only nonlocals to come under Pai's spell since the late 1980s. The hippest spots in town belong to the artsy young Thai bohemians who have fled Bangkok, Chiang Mai and other crowded urban centers in search of a slower-paced and less profit-oriented lifestyle. Opened in 1999 by two disaffected Bangkok advertising execs, All About Coffee must be one of the coolest caf?s in Thailand. None of the large Western coffeehouse chains can compete with its homespun, rustic-wood ambiance, mellow jazz sounds and delightfully personalized service. Not to mention a three...