Updated on 12th September 2011 Monday 8:05AM

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PAI   TOWN


Pai Town
All About Coffee CafeArtist's Home
Ban Yai Nang
MAE HONG SON COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Morning in Pai
MOSQUE IN PAI
TEMPLE IN PAI
Tham Lod (Through Cave)
Chinese Yunnan Culture Center, Pai


All About Coffee Cafe

ALL ABOUT COFFEE - an artist's cafe by the road

Watcharee and her husband together with several friends are artists from Bangkok who run several of the shops. "All about Coffee Cafe" was an exceptional example of functional installation art.

This coffee shop was a detailed wood structure, refurbished with rustic sophistication. Every bit of furniture had been built by Wat and her husband with hand tools during the low season. The artwork was hung with quiet precision that reflected their grace and good taste. Across the street was the Tea shop and the Mit Thai boutique that had works by the proprietor.


PAI   TOWN
...new village home of artists around the world...

Pai town
The small Pai town is easy to walk around with majority of guesthouses, bars and restaurants clustered.

 thatched-roof bamboo huts, Buddhist temples and a Muslim mosque.

Pai is in Mae Hong Son Province. 50 miles/80 km north of Chiang Mai. A misty town on the Myanmar Border. At 600 meters above sea level, surrounded by high mountains. It lies along the Pai River with a population around 3,000.

Pai Town in Mae Hong Sorn Province, North Thailand
Pai district is situated about halfway between Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Sorn, Pai offers one of the most fertile and beautiful nature in the North of Thailand, clean air and no pollution. People from many different tribes live here peacefully together and still maintain their traditional way of living.



The serene Pai river runs from the northern border with Burma through Pai town and along virgin jungle to Mae Hong Sorn. Hardy adventurers use this route for exciting rafting.


How to get to Pai?
Start from the main tourist hub: From Chiang Mai on route 1095 towards Pai it is 132 kilometer. The bus from Chiang Mai Arcade bus station takes about 4 hours.

Buses from Chiang Mai to Pai:
7.00, 8.30, 10.30, 12.30, 16.00

Buses from Pai to Chiang Mai:
7.00, 8.30, 11.00, 12.30, 16.30

From Mae Hong Sorn town: Along this route pine trees and wild vegetation line both sides of the gently rising road passing nice scenery along the way. In Mae Hong Sorn are motorbikes and jeep available for rent.


Population of Pai
Mainly Thai Yai (from Burmas Shane state) and hill tribes (Lisu, Lahu, Karen). In town mainly Thai, Thai-Chinese, some Thai-Muslim and some foreign residents.

 


Occupation in Pai
Agriculture - mainly garlic, rice, fruits, lychee, cotton


Climate in Pai
Cool season: 12º C - 28º C from November - March

Hot season: 24º C - 35º C from April - June

Rainy season: 24º C - 32º C from July - September


Tourist Attractions in Pai and around
Old temples:


Wat Nam Hu

Wat Phra That Mae Yen (mountain temple)

Wat Klang and Wat Luang (temples where Thai Yai / Burmese architecture is preserved)
Wonders of nature:


Ta Pai hot spring

Pong Duad hot spring

Mo Paeng waterfall (near Lahu village)

Mae Yen waterfall

Lod caves (these are beautiful and ancient caves on a large area where graves of prehistoric civilization was found. The area is a national park with lots of different birds.



Activities in Pai
padelling rubber boat along Pai river
adventure rafting and canoe along Pai river
explore caves or go mountain trekking
elephant riding through jungle
mountain bike cycling or motorbike-trekking (Nop's bike shop offers 2 - 3 - 4 days motorbike trekking with 250 ccm trail bikes around northern part of Mae Hong Sorn province. Guide available or on your own. Also available Honda Dream, good maps and other information.)
jungle-treks: Pai is well known as a base camp for trekks to hill tribes. Walk through green jungle and spend the night in a hill tribe village to experience their traditional way of life. In Pai there are local or hill tribe guides and porters available.
Herbal Sauna and Thai Traditional Massage as well as herbal medicine or Burmese Massage
Reading (Nop's book shop)
Thai cooking course at Peter's and Wandee's Hut in Mae Yen



Culture in Pai
Both local Thais and hilltribes still keep their traditions alive by their traditional dressing, house style, food and entertainment.

Here are some of the highlight festivals:

Loy Kratong (full moon night in November)
fireworks competition at Wat Luang (beginning of November)
Kin Wo (hill tribes New Year, February)
Thai New Year (13 - 15 April)
bamboo throwing festival (to ask for rain, May)

Facilities in Pai
Pai is a small town but can offer enough facilities such as a post office, hospital, long distance call and fax service. Accommodations and food are good and cheap. Most of the guest houses are in town and the scenic most beautiful ones are along the river. Local restaurants and western style restaurants are available (e. g. Chez Swan Restaurant, Thai Yai Restaurant) with home made brown bread.

 


Good Morning Pai

Photo above : See the simple life in this town when you wake up a bit earlier than normal. Morning at the main road of Pai town. One can feel another kind of peace. Morning in Pai when a bare footed monk on his way for food offering from and a Muslim girl on her way to market on bicycle.

More about Morning in Pai


Mosque in Pai

 ... whose speakers fill the town with the call to prayer several times a day.
 


Artist in Pai Town

Pai - a small quiet town in Mae Hong Son province - always crowded with Thai and Foreign artists and backpackers. A number of artists stay here, enjoy themselves drawing, painting, writing and ...


Pai town

Adventurous foreigners on tight budgets were the first group to be lured by Pai's charming isolation. Its idyllic setting, tranquility, laid-back atmosphere and warm-hearted residents made it a sort of Utopia for those seeking to escape the pressures of city life.


Pai town

Pai, a tiny town halfway between Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son.

Halfway between Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son, the mountain road makes a winding descent into a large green valley carpeted with rice paddies and fruit groves.

Mountains rise on all sides and butterflies flit along the streets. Here you'll find a tiny town called Pai, named after the river that runs through the valley.

3 hours drive from Chiang Mai along scenic Highway 1095, with its endless bends, this popular tourist destination only a  decade ago was an insignificant rest-stop on the gruelling journey onwards to Mae Hong Son.

What was once a hamlet in a picturesque, lushly forested valley is now a burgeoning little town which seems more than ready to shed its backpacker-haven image and embrace mass tourism.


Chinese Yunnan  Culture Center, Pai

Yunnan Culture Center

Ban Santichon or Yunnan Chinese Cultural Centre village, formerly a drug trade centre of the Wa, the Burmese ethnic group.

Once upon a time a red zone but now a popular tourist attraction, which has more than 1,000 Chinese hill-tribe villagers.

Every one wears hill-tribe costumes and lives in mud houses. Khun Bunlor (08-1024-3982), the community leader, has introduced new jobs to the villagers such as agro-tourism and operating Chinese Yunnan restaurants. Do not miss one of the popular dishes – braised pork’s leg with Chinese bread. Support the community by buying local souvenirs. Take a horse ride for sightseeing.

Mud houses for two are for rent at Bt1,000 per house, two-bed houses for four at Bt1,500 and six-bed houses for 12 people is at Bt4,000.


It wasn't until 2006, when Pai was featured in a popular romantic-comedy film, that it began to attract large numbers of domestic holidaymakers who today comprise the vast majority of visitors.
Now seen as a gold mine for entrepreneurs and land speculators, the place has undergone a series of major infrastructure upgrades, wreaking a transformation which has precipitated something of a crisis of identity. Scores of hotels, guesthouses, restaurants, coffee shops and bars have sprung up along with Internet cafes, travel agencies and car-rental firms. There are 24-hour convenience stores on the main street, banks and currency-exchange booths all over. An increasing number of small and medium-sized luxury resorts plus live-music venues has brought colour but also sweeping change.



During the peak season one has to deal with noisy traffic, crowded streets and all the commercial hue and cry of a boomtown. It's time to admit, perhaps, that those seeking peace and quiet might be better off going elsewhere.

Despite all the unpleasant changes, however, the locals still display unconditional generosity and remain as friendly toward visitors as ever. Ironically, what little remains of Pai's former bucolic charm is to be found in venues opened by artistically minded entrepreneurs who have preserved some aspects of the local culture and architecture. Rows of traditional wooden homes now house stylish coffee shops, art galleries and boutiques selling creative souvenirs and quaint ornaments and decorative items.

Pai still offers a wealth of outdoor activities and travellers can choose to explore the countryside by bicycle, motorbike, car - on elephant back, even - or on board one of the bamboo rafts which ply the Pai River. Venture beyond the outskirts of town and a multitude of attractions await, from sites of historic interest and religious structures to waterfalls and hot springs.

Situated about three kilometres west of the town centre, Wat Nam Hoo is a must-see. The temple's ordination hall houses a 500-year-old, bronze Buddha image called Un Muang, revered by locals because of a supposedly miraculous feature: the statue's hollow topknot can be opened to reveal naturally occurring "holy water" within.


Another old temple that has stood the test of time is Wat Phra That Mae Yen, built on a hill east of town. From its tranquil compound one gets a panoramic view of the whole district, making this an ideal vantage point from which to watch the sun rise and set.


Pai's proximity to the Burmese border makes it a great place to gain insights into other cultures, too, since Lahu, Lisu and members of several other ethnic minorities have settled in nearby upland areas. Descendants of Haw migrants from Yunnan also live in the neighbourhood and their villages boast houses built in a traditional Chinese style, mouth-watering Yunnan delicacies, handicrafts, tea shops and a wooden, non-motorised ferris wheel.


Mass tourism has had both positive and negative effects on the lives of Pai's original residents. And while some observers see all this development as "progress", believing that it will inevitably lead to a new age of prosperity for all, many view it as the sad loss of a traditional way of life and point out that much of the profits are going to outside investors. But whatever one's point of view, it is hard to deny that Pai remains a rather special town, a place to which people are tempted to return again and again

Temple in Pai


School and College in Pai


See Wikipedia for more information about  Pai.


Tham Lod (Through Cave)  |  Ban Yai Nang  |


Pai townPai townPai townPai town

You can stay on the banks of the Pai river, of further a field in the Pai hinterland.

Pai townPai town


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All About Coffee CafeMorning in PaiMosque in PaiYunnan Culture Center


INDEX : Chiang Mai City  : Tuesday, September 13, 2011 07:57:30 AM

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