September 16th, 2019
By today the group of six from the slow boat had pretty much dispersed, but we will all end up in Pai together. I am sure it is not the last time we will see our new friends. Brendan and I had a late morning and just chilled at the hostel until it was time to check out. I worked on getting flights for the remainder of our trip. It is always a big task to figure out the logistical details of traveling.
We were picked up from the hostel and taken to the “mini bus” or shuttle that was going to take us to Pai. This is a hippie, mountain town about three and a half hours west of Chiang Mai, close to the Myanmar border. All the backpackers seem to LOVE Pai. We have heard about Pai since we started in Asia and how we absolutely MUST go. It’s known as the “Pai Hole” pronounced ‘pie hole’ as it apparently sucks you in and causes people to stay longer than planned, or never leave. So, we were excited to check it out and see what all the hype was about.
The shuttle ride there made us a little woozy because we were shoved in the very back where all the luggage was piled around us. We had no air flow, and the road to Pai consisted of 776 turns! We survived and made it to Pai where we checked into our hotel right on the edge of town. We had a nice room with a good bathroom and a little patio with table and chairs for $13 a night.
Once we got settled we went out to explore the town. At night it has “walking street” which is a foodies dream. It is full of street food and cute cafes, restaurants and bars. The street food is amazing, and it is filled with vendors who are vegetarian and vegan friendly. They have numerous western options as well as really good local cuisine. You can get vegan pita wraps, falafel, salads, green drinks etc. I have mentioned several times while in Asia I have really missed fresh food and salads. Pai has all of that. They also have a lasagna food cart with veggie lasagna! I cannot begin to describe how exciting a piece of lasagna sounded after all the Asian food we have eaten the last three months.
They also have tons of gyozas, and I found my new favorite food-stand here. There is a lady with a gyoza set-up who makes huge fresh veggie gyozas, five pieces for 20 baht (66 cents)! Let’s just say during my time in Pai, I had a lot of those fivers… Brendan and I walked around sampling all the amazing food until we could not eat anymore and had to go lie down. Our meal that night consisted of two chicken skewers, a cheese ball, five gyozas, a mini pad Thai and a mini yellow noodles. All that came out to be a total of $2!
We then passed a nacho stand and it had been so long since I had nachos, I couldn’t resist and broke the bank with a $4 nacho.
That was really not a good deal comparatively speaking but it was delicious. I ran out of space in my stomach before I got to any of the healthy stuff or the lasagna. That will have to be on tomorrow’s menu which is very exciting.