Pai, Thailand

Pai is a cute little town in the North West of Thailand, not far from Myanmar. The influence here is Burmese and hill tribe people.

 

 The crowd here is similar to Chiang Mai: mostly 20-something backpackers, almost nobody our age again! They are offered a ton of expeditions and treks, again. Pai is a great place to ride bikes.

 

Our first night here was not a success. We took two rooms at Mr. Jan's guesthouse, 4 dollars each. If you are allergic to mold, do not even attempt.

 So, the next morning we moved to another guesthouse nearby, the Tayai. For 7 dollars per room, we now have a nice place to stay.

Bedroom and bathroom are nice and clean. Now we are wondering how long to stay in Pai. Obviously it is too touristy for us.

This is what we like: a simple local market. Food is great and it is clean, unlike some of the main street restaurants...

 A Pad Thai like this is 1 dollar.

 Side streets do not have sidewalks and it feels unsafe with all the scooters and cars going by. It is safer to ride bicycles.

 This is the Pai high school.

 Rice fields in Pai.

 Internet cafe keyboard.

Not sure these elephants were that friendly.

One of the wats in Pai.

The court house in Pai.

The jail  is on the left.

Chiang Mai, Thailand

They have a decent food court at the train station in Bangkok

Monks have their own separate waiting area.

The night train set up was comfortable and clean. The air conditioning was too cold though.

Vilcabamba snake liquor toast. Salud a Shanta y Lola y gracias!

The train before us derailed. Tracks move during the rainy season. We were transferred to buses.

Made it to Chiang Mai as scheduled anyway.

Chiang Mai, the place to be? It is a beautiful city but it depends on what you are looking for. They are luring in young crowds with all kinds of expensive package adventure trek tours (bungy jump, zip lines, quads, rafting, climbing, mountain biking etc.) and bars/restaurants. We feel that this place is way tourist-oriented for us although this is the low season. We will be looking for a more authentic Thai experience.

Lady Boys are boys raised by their parents to look and act like girls.

Almost everything at the night bazaar is made in China and it's expensive.

 The North gate of the old ramparts. Old Chiang Mai inside the ramparts used to be the royal "playgrounds". Nowadays it is the touristy hub.

 A local market.

Behind these doors is the stangest terra-cotta depot.

Cute and quiet alleys 

Wat Jetlin. We found this wat very surprising.

 The kids played the gongs for half an hour.

 

 Doi Suthep is a temple at the top of a mountain.

 View over Chiang Mai.

 Natural leaf roof.

 Mushroom skewers.

 A pharmacy.

Bamboo scaffolding.

 Came across a burial on our way to the sunday market.

 Rotees are similar to crepes.

 Hand-made soap flowers.

Mango wood.

 Hand-woven silk scarves.

 Hadrien and Stephanie are leaving for Krabi, in the South of Thailand.

Gabriel is going to Laos. We may see him again in Thailand.